Blog Archives

Pearls from artists* # 327

Great Falls, VA

Great Falls, VA

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?

surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you.  I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure.  I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and ours.  The universe buried strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

The hunt to uncover those jewels – that’s creative living.

The courage to go on that hunt in the first place – that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.

Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic:  Creative Living Beyond Fear

Comments are welcome!

Pearls from artists* # 285

"The Orator," 38" x 58," boxed to go to the framer

“The Orator,” 38″ x 58,” boxed to go to the framer

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

So much of the writing life is mundane.  Buying printer ink and paper, doing dishes, arranging the pens in the cup, smoke breaks on the phone, taking baths or going for walks or sitting blankly on the couch wondering if the day will end before one makes a discovery or a decision.  These habits of day-to-day tedium are what can’t be seen on the surface of a writer’s face when we meet her at a book signing – the time and effort spent living in her own head.  Writing is a lonesome art.     

Women at Work:  Interviews from the Paris Review, preface by Ottessa Moshfegh

Comments are welcome!

%d bloggers like this: