My mantra recently has been "execute, iterate, repeat". It's been helpful in getting ideas out of my head. You can't make something better that has not been made in the first place.

I've spent years trying to think myself 100 steps down a path instead of taking the first one.

In this 1991 lecture, John Cleese argues that creativity is a way of being as opposed to something one does. To me, this implies qualities of mindfulness, openness, and a de-centreing of self.

Let’s all imagine a tiled floor. The tiles represent the actions, either through obligation or choice, that make up your life.

The grout between the tiles is creativity: not an action or a behaviour so much as a way of being, a container.

If you'll permit me one more extension of this metaphor, we can add water. Water is the non-physical, non-behavioural bits of life. Feelings, thoughts, internalized hopes and fears.

If there is no grout, water seeps between the tiles. It might stagnate in the cracks. Over time, it might threaten the foundation of your floor, or provide the conditions of life for harmful bacteria that makes you sick.

Before I continue, I’d be remiss not to let you know that you can now upgrade to being a paid supporter of this newsletter. Think of this as a handy way to put some cash directly in the hands of an artist! It’s only $5/month, so if all of you subscribed it would only take me 83 million years to be almost as rich as Elon Musk.

If you’ve gotten something valuable out of these emails over the past year-and-change, please consider signing up. Thank you!

I stand firm on the belief that every person is creative. Not that every person has dormant artistic talents, but that humans are innately creative. Talent and ability =/= creativity.

I was listening to a podcast called Creative Pep Talk yesterday, and the host described creativity as an opportunity to recycle waste into fuel. I have come to understand this as making use of emotional by-products.

Life happens, you do stuff, and it makes you feel things, to put it simply. These things that you feel and think either dissipate or fester (see: belaboured grout metaphor).

The practice of creativity offers a third option: emotional byproducts are transmuted. Frustration, grief, anxiety, jealousy- these things are inevitable, so why not use them as fuel? And if we do just that, how could we ever run out of creative motivation?

The more sustainable a system is, the less waste it produces. I like the idea of creativity as a way of closing the loop and keeping energy flowing through the system instead of burning off.

Another day, another opportunity to put process over product. Every day forgetting and remembering that the act of creating something is always more important than the result.

Today is the Cancer new moon. It’s a great time for planning, tending to, and intention setting.

xoxo

UPCOMING THINGS!

• On September 2, I am playing a show with Chris Garneau at the Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth. This will be Chris’ first time playing in Canada in 10 years, and his first time playing in Nova Scotia at all! Tickets here.

• I’m releasing a single called Hot Nights this Friday, July 17. WOOHOO! I’ll write more on that soon.