Hello Saturday!
The first full week of the new year is here and I'm noticing something - it feels just as overfull as the holiday season did, but in a different way. All the normal rhythms returning plus the weight of January Nonsense: the shoulds, the do-betters, the fresh-start pressure that arrives uninvited every single year.
Permission to Not Do
I’ve been thinking about permission, again. Not permission to do more, but permission to NOT DO all the things. Especially the things that drain you, overwhelm you, or frankly just belong to someone else entirely.
If you’re even slightly online, you’re seeing all the lists - the institutions, the galleries, the algorithms - they all have their lists of what you should be doing. But, your creative source doesn't need their permission. It doesn't need to be validated or positioned behind any velvet rope.
It just needs you to pay attention to what interests you and make something from that.
Wild Creation from My Studio
Speaking of making things - I've been collecting the most interesting materials from my studio easel and table. You know those experimental papers that aren't quite paintings but are too beautiful to throw away? The paint-offs, the test prints, the accidental marks that surprise you?
I've curated them into Ephemera Collection Envelopes - packets of genuine studio ephemera ready for your own creative use. Collage them, journal with them, use them as starting points, or just hold onto them as little pieces of someone else's creative practice. The December Collection is the only one available right now, until I make the next one(s). They're $18 and I'd love to send you one.
More Studio Happenings
I posted a new video that's starting some good conversation: "I Don't Journal (and why that's fine)". It's about creative practice without rules, which seems to be resonating with people who are tired of being told there's a "right way" to do things. If that sounds like you, come watch and add your thoughts.
And if you're feeling drawn to find your own starting point for creating - the Take What Belongs to You workbook walks you through three simple exercises to locate your inspiration exactly where it's been waiting: inside you, not out there somewhere.
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What permission are you giving yourself this January? (Or maybe more importantly - what are you giving yourself permission NOT to do?) Reply and tell me - I read and reply to every message, and I'm genuinely curious what you're choosing for yourself right now.
You're the Light!
Monette
PS - The December Collection? Once it’s gone, the next ones will be completely different because they'll come from whatever I'm making next. That's the whole point of wild creation - it's never the same twice.