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Brian Farnham's avatar

This one had particular resonance for me for sure. I also wonder if the Gen Z propensity to "crash out" (see the NYT article yesterday) is a good thing or a bad thing in this light. Either they're getting comfortable normalizing the kind of "falling apart" that precedes new inspiration and creativity or they're cheapening the idea and losing the true meaning.

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Elise Loehnen's avatar

That's a great question!

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Hailey Lowe Fennell's avatar

This is the exact thing I needed today, thank you.

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Chef Carla Contreras's avatar

Thank you for sharing Elise 🙏🏼 Thinking of Phil's Tools, "Forward Motion" and "Reversal of Desire" when I get stuck in the creative process. Also saving this quote, “But fear…is the basis of creativity. Anybody who cannot stand the impact of the unknown naturally is not capable of creating anything new, or of letting something new come up, something creative."

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Samantha Hahn's avatar

this is beautiful

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Tina Sado's avatar

This all resonates deeply. Thank you for expressing it so well.

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Eleni Achilleos's avatar

thank you. its always a great comfort to know others go through this process and push through back into creativity.

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Christina Loftus's avatar

Thank you Elise for "creating" this beautiful synthesis of how we can continue moving forward with our gifts of creativity. The overwhelm is real; yet your words fill me with a new-found wellspring of energy and hope.

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Elizabeth Dahlie's avatar

Thank you. I’m so grateful to have found your work.

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Camille Robins's avatar

Thank you so much for this, Elise. As a creative person, I'm often frustrated — frustrated that the results of my efforts never mirror my intentions, that I can't find the right words, that everything comes out in a jumble before it gets clearer. But the only thing more frustrating than creating in chaos is not creating at all. That, to me, is where the real pain lives. So I'll keep creating — despite the inevitable disappointments.

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Elise Loehnen's avatar

100%

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Angelique's avatar

love this. great reminder that the upside to chaos is creativity...we know it but it's a great way to navigate this time. xx

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

I find something compelling and resonant in every single one of your posts. Thank you.

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Shelby Baldridge's avatar

Such wonderful reminders, and so timely. This really spoke to me as I am working on a series of new paintings with an upcoming deadline. Play is absolutely necessary for the process of creating, as is the ebb and flow of energy. Balancing this in the current moment is pretty exhausting some days, and maybe medicine on others. Thank you Elise, enjoy your vacation!

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Shannon Fritz's avatar

Thank you so much for this, I love the fear melters, so simple.

Maybe someone could comment on the “need for constant work” as an unavoidable domain of life?

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Elise Loehnen's avatar

It's really just that we're never done and there's no finish line, that you're never exonerated from continuing to move forward...a lot of people think, "this next thing will be the thing and then I'll be above all of this efforting," and it just doesn't work like that.

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Shannon Fritz's avatar

Oh yes, that tracks 🙏

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