one of the studio spaces here at Art House Oaxaca in Mexico where I FEEL so much LOVE. Photo by M.E. Ster-Molnar, ME & BLUE.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, what I’m wrestling with creatively has a lot to do with the subject of LOVE.

Whenever I feel stuck, I get out pen and paper and ask myself questions to try and get some answers and action steps.

So if you’re grappling with low creative energy or lack of focus, or just in a big blah state regarding love in general, then get your journal and do these questions with me.

Some Journaling Prompts to Figure Out What’s Up with Wanting to Create and Not Actually Creating

• What gets in the way of me creating more?
• What do my creative distractions actually look like? (Tip: be brutally honest and make a list. It will be too embarrassing to share out loud, so keep it private.)
• What are the old habits that that tempt me into a swirl of emotional drama, rather than doing my creative work?
• What is no longer loving to me?
• What would it look like if I were to fall in love with my life, exactly as it is, right now?
• How would that feel?
• When have I done my best creative work?
• When has my creative work flowed easiest?
• What art and artists are inspiring me right now?
• Who are my artist role models now, for what I want to create next?
• As a lover of my artistic life, this is how I feel, behave, think:
• What would be most loving to me and the artist within me, moving forward?
• What do I really, really, really want to create next?
• Who will I need to be in order to do my best creative work?
• How will I practice being that person?
• What will I do to begin now, with what I have?
• What if I loved myself enough to do the creative work I really long to do?
• What creative endeavor will I devote myself to?

These are the potent questions I am asking and answering in my journal, in conversations with close friends, and in silence, facing the blank canvas in my light-filled studio.

The air is still, the sun warm, the sounds of city life outside the walls of my artist space compound waft in and out.

I am drinking water with lime juice squeezed from the tree outside my studio, feeling blessed and in love with life in this moment.

It’s all I ever wanted…and it’s all right here.

LOVE, in the traditional sense, in the romantic, coupled sense, eludes me, confounds me, challenges me and truthfully, has often saddened me.

But today, with these questions, and my creative practice, something new has burst through old habits and ways of thinking, being, feeling.

How about you?

I’d love to hear what’s resonating for you, and what you are grappling with regarding your creative love life.

In Celebration of V-Day: One Billion Rising

Since 2013, I have participated in ONE BILLION RISING, a revolutionary campaign to end violence against women and girls. The campaign, which launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.

See the piece I wrote about using art to heal from sexual assault. I still feel queasy sharing it even five years after writing it.

Asking the Difficult, Potent Questions

“We call on you this year to be braver, go deeper, reflect, study, listen, learn, awaken to what you don’t know, ask the difficult questions, engage, take actions, and push yourselves out of your comfort zones physically and intellectually.   We call on you to commit to resistance and solidarity.” — from the One Billion Rising 2019 Campaign

Heart-Shaped Maps: Courage. Daring. Love. Connection.

Procrastinating much? Well, then, please pop over here for a long and winding love story provoked by a Valentine Day art challenge.

Love letters and a love of letters (as in the letters of the alphabet) are the inspiration behind the theme for Magic Book in February. See a quick video of my Magic Book journal in Love Lessons from the Magic Book.

Get Your Artist To Mexico Already

Finally, Art House is hosting so many creative women (and two guys — Hi Ken!). They are brave and adventurous — all at various stages of art-making: from wanna-be-doing-more-art to full-time painters and writers. They are doing private stays and participating in my last two workshops this Spring before my traditional Summer Sabbatical begins.

Fall/Winter Workshops for 2019, and Winter 2020 are now open for registration. This will be the last season of Art House, so get on down here if it’s something you’ve been meaning to do!

Upcoming workshops and info about staying at Art House are HERE.

Tin Hearts Made here in Oaxaca, Mexico – cover a wall at Art House

sending love and good creative vibes your way today,

Lisa