exploring the work of writing & creating
Being really busy is my jam, don’t get me wrong, but the last few months really pushed me to reflect on how important self-care is when you’re in the throes of bonkersdom. I tend to think of self-care as something a future me will do when I have the time for it. But self-care has to be part of everything we do as creators, especially when the journey starts going full-speed ahead.
Read MoreMadhushree Ghosh is a Pushcart-nominated essayist whose work was the 2020 Notable Mention in Best American Essays in Food Writing, and her words have been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, The Rumpus and more. Her braided essay collection Khabaar (“food” in Bengali) is about food’s role in connecting to identity, culture and social justice.
Read MoreI made a rejections collage. Yes, a real-life collage—the kind of collage you buy a poster board and glue sticks for—of my rejections. Not all of my rejections, but the ones that were easiest for me to find through my Submittable account and old emails. I wanted to write about rejection, and it felt important that I spend quality time with my rejections in order to do so.
Read MoreIt’s Mother’s Day weekend, so let me introduce you to my mother! My mom, Patty Voje, is an incredible artist and go-getter. Alongside her daily role modeling of what it is to be a creative entrepreneur, she’s also an accomplished fine artist and oil painter. She raised my sister Jane and me to be artistically independent and to embrace the highs and lows of the creative life.
Read MoreI’ve always had a physical journal to write in, and most of my non-journal writing projects still begin on a sheet of paper. This process feels sacred to me. Writing by hand feels more like I’m connecting with the “earth” of creating—making something in messy, slow, real life. It feels special.
Read MoreNadja Lubiw-Hazard recently won the 2021 Siskiyou Prize for Environmental Literature for her short story collection The Life of a Creature. A Toronto-based writer and veterinarian, she talked with me about her dual love of art and science, a writing career that started in the early years of motherhood, and why fiction is her chosen creative space.
Read More“Writing is rewriting” gives off a lot of that “practice makes perfect” energy, doesn’t it? It implies that you have to actually, you know, work and struggle. I like writing because in writing I don’t “have to rebuild all the time” in the way I have to do as a musician. But most expert writers seem to agree this is the real work of it all.
Read MoreChicano artist Jimmy Longoria is known for his colorful, layered style created with thousands of brushstrokes. A recipient of the prestigious Bush Foundation Fine Artist Fellowship, his work is on permanent display in Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art. Jimmy’s work also hangs in the homes or offices of United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Julián Castro, Keith Ellison, and other prominent politicians and community leaders.
Read MoreWhether or not you “believe” in resolutions or the blank slate of the New Year, the idea of stepping back and taking stock of ourselves allows for a useful reflection we might otherwise skip. The dictionary says “to resolve” is “to decide firmly on a course of action.” It’s really just about a little active planning: Who do you want to be? How will you do it?
Read MoreSugar Vendil is a New York City-based composer, pianist, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist who performs her own solo music for piano and electronics and has a keyboard/synth duo with composer Trevor Gureckis. We chatted about Sugar’s processes of trial and error, self-critique, and the ongoing learning that is necessary to art-making.
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