A Peek at What I’ve Been Making : : A New Book!

I’ve been pretty quiet here on my blog lately, and that’s been largely because I’ve been pouring most of my creativity into a new big project. I’m really starting to see this project come together and am at the point of no return, so I thought I could now give you a peek without jinxing myself (I am a little superstitious about these things—sometimes when I share a project too soon, it can make it that much harder to keep going).

So, here it goes: I’m so excited to report that I have been working on a book! If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve seen me make many happy little books over the past couple of years, and this book is in the same creative-thinking, poetic, inspiration-making, life-appreciating tradition, but much bigger. It’s a combination of writing and visual art about many things I’ve been meditating on for some time, mainly: the experience of being alive and appreciating and understanding that experience.

For the visuals in the book, I’ve been making a series of collagraphs (see picture above), and yesterday I started to print them for the first time. I had been doubting what I was doing while making them, but once I started printing I was elated to find out that they were exactly what I wanted to create. This is perhaps one of the most gratifying experiences as an artist—to keep going in the process of making, pass through the doubt, and come out at the other side having brought the vision in your head into reality. I have been basking in the glow of this since yesterday afternoon, and I’m so excited to incorporate these prints into my book.

Another very excellent thing about being an artist has also been ever-present through the process of making this book: the experience of making something that is so directly a reflection of my life, my heart, and what I’m trying to understand and learn these days. I have had many flying realization moments while writing the words for this book, and nearly every day I have an experience where I’m out living my life and struggling with something or other, and I think about what I learned from writing.

This is a gift. An enormous, tremendous, gift: to do work that teaches you (through the process of doing the work) exactly what you want to learn deep in your core. In moments of doubt about the project (and there have been and will continue to be many) I try to remember that no matter what happens, I have already gotten so much from the process that the worth has already been given to me over and over.

I’m still banging away on the book, helping it find its best shape. I’m not sure when it will be finished or exactly how I will produce the final form, but I’m hoping to get it out in the world soon—perhaps by the end of the year or soon after.

I am wishing with all my heart that you too are finding things to create that make your heart sing! I’d love to hear about them! Leave a comment if you’d like to share!

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