What prevents you from creating art, whether that be poetry, prose, painting or playing the piano (or something else that doesn’t start with the letter p)? In her book, We Need Your Art, Amie McNee identifies procrastination, perfectionism, jealousy, comparison and burnout as some blocks to creating art (and she discusses each of these in detail […]
Many of you will have heard of Julia Cameron and her book The Artist’s Way, which is essentially a twelve-week course to help recover your creativity. Although there is much more to the book, two of the key practices Cameron encourages is the idea of morning pages and artist dates. Morning pages are three hand-written pages […]
“Making art is the ultimate human act. The impulse to create is instinctual, untaught, innate to us as a species,” says Amie McNee in the introduction to her book We need Your Art. Maybe you already have a project you’re working on (or struggling to work on), or you want to create something new but […]
April is one of my favourite months of the year. In Australia, April represents a cooler change in the weather (hopefully!), as well as moments of pause and reflection for Anzac Day and Easter. I look forward to spending more time in my garden instead of hiding inside trying to escape the heat, as well […]
For many people, February is the month of love. For me, it has a significance of a different kind, albeit still heart-related – because February is also International CHD Awareness Month, with 14 February being Sweetheart Day. I’ve put together a set of prompts that riff off all of this. While Valentine’s Day brings with […]
Contemplating beginnings and endings can help provoke memories and create fascinating stories when writing about our own lives or the lives of those who came before us. Here’s a few prompts to get you started … 1. Leaving Write about a time you or an ancestor left one place and moved to another, whether that […]