Early Morning Routines

I am writing to you from a foggy and cold sunset, you wouldn’t know that it was sunny and warm this time yesterday to the point where I was wearing shorts and gardening. That’s the sunset though, and as soon as you get the idea that the weather will be one way, it up and changes to the exact opposite. The weather keeps us on our toes out here, and its a nice reminder to be flexible and ready for change before change happens.

A little over two weeks ago was spring break for the college, and it marked a shift in my schedule. I was no longer teaching Wednesdays- as I only did that for 6 weeks to cover for a colleague. Its crazy what one 6 hour period can do for how I feel about time- I went from feeling like I had no personal time and like I was hustling from structuring one class to the other to now I feel like a full day of no scheduled work for others is straight up luxury. You mean I have Wednesday and Thursday to actually get projects done uninterrupted?! What is this life! And in 4 weeks, the semester will be over and I will be reframing how I think about time and my schedule again.

Part of me wonders if I am attracted to this life because of the constant change, the need to reconsider my routines, the way I am structuring my day. I was reading some substack articles before bed last weekend and I came accross this one where the author was sharing a shift in how she approached writing that changed her whole ability to finish her projects- you can read more about it HERE.

I have struggled to prioritize my writing, and part of that is that I have felt stuck on the structure for so long. I shared this with my paying subscribers, but reading this helped me to rethink my routine and show up for my writing in a more intentional way. While I am not incorporating even half of what she details, I am writing first thing in the morning- which is different for me! I almost always prioritize physical activity first, so waking to walk, lift weights or swim- but last week I woke up at 530am each morning and wrote for at least an hour to start the day. THEN I go workout. I even did my emails and admin after writing a few mornings and then left to do whatever physical activity I wanted to do for the day.

This was super revelatory for me- I don’t like leaving working out til later- BUT it’s almost like the container of one hour or an hour and a half for writing felt like it had a clean ending for me to then go move my body as a way to transition into the rest of my day. I really loved it and I am going to continue trying to work in this way. It also feels really doable- I am not asking myself to write 1000 words each day, or hit some mark, I am literally asking myself to show up. I have a table in my notion where I just mark “showed up”, and then I note for how many minutes and what I did or what felt good or what felt hard.

Some things that I have noticed from working this way are:

1. I can focus on the things that are uncomfortable or that I normally avoid. Yesterday I sat down and rewrote the plot summary/structure for what I am writing and it didn’t feel as painful and I thought it would, part of that is that I knew I just had to try for the 25 minutes I had left in my timer.

2. When I feel stuck I am using the worksheets/class by Nina LaCour to help me refocus or examine parts of my writing that I don’t have clarity on yet. Having a class, especially this one, has helped a lot.

3. I really look forward to swimming or lifting weights after I write. It’s a really nice break after feeling so productive.

So in this season, I am planning to continue working this way. If I can do it through the end of the semester I would consider it a huge success. It’s been nice to have a container to put my writing into, to show up for and to help me problem solve in bite sized ways.

So much of how I perceive creative practice can be overwhelmingly unattainable- full days of writing, full days of painting- and if it’s anything less than that, it isn’t successful. EVEN when I know that that is a flawed way to view practice, I think the need for production or work to be painful or hard or grueling (thank you capitalism) always seeps in.

Anyway I thought I would share that, because I know a lot of you are also creatives and this is something we all work through.

A selfie of a woman who swore after looking at photos of herself in middle school wearing nude lipstick that she would never nude lip again, only to realize even those things change with time.

Last week I also started doing more live painting through substack! It has been nice to utilize that as another container for working on things. I will continue to do those, my goal is atleast once a week. It’s really invigorating for me and I think you all seem to enjoy them. I, of course, am battling with video format with the app, but whatever. WHO CARES! Vive la Lunch Club!

Fern loved a day lounging in the sun while I weeded

I spent all of yesterday weeding our backyard- I got a bunch of hollyhock seeds from the Social Studies Residency and want to plant those in front of our sunroom, and I am going to plant a bunch of hearty greens like kale and mustard greens. We do have a lot of snails- might be due to me not wanting to kill them- so veggie gardening can be tough- but greens seem to do ok!

Also we are in serious talks about getting some chickens! I think I found a coop for us to get locally, and my sister who has 25 chickens up on her property in the santa cruz mountains is going to give us a few of her younger ones since they will be acclimated to eachother and no longer chicks, it will be easier for us chicken newbs. I just have to figure out what section of our backyard they will live in, I want to make them a little run for when I can’t be back there with them while they roam free. In SF you can have up to 4 chickens, but I think we will just get three. Egg life here I come.

and for those of you who followed along with our senior foster Zephyr, Kathy sends us updates, Zephyr is putting on weight and he went for a hike yesterday with all the dogs and Kathy’s friend and had the best time. Fell asleep in her arms on the walk back to the car- SO CUTE.

Thanks, as always, for being here. I love getting to reflect on these things and hearing from you is a real bonus.

Stay warm!

Lindsay

Some ways to find me in the meantime:

• Check out my work HERE- maybe you need some illustrated elements for your business or for a project, a mural, some painted signs, illustrations for your website or company- I would love to work with you!

• Online Classes! You can find recorded workshops by me HERE,

• Virtual LIVE workshops! I have a new workshop coming up on COLOR! Its a four week class where we talk about how color feels, focus on what colors bring up for us, how they show up in our lives.

• In person Workshops! I have some in person workshops coming up with Case for Making starting in a few weeks- so if you live in SF, sign up! I am teaching a workshop on Night Painting with gouache in April and a Drawing Adventure Class in May.

• Sign up for Creative Mentoring sessions with me- I love working with artists and I would love to work with you! I have helped artists organize their ideas for all sorts of projects, children’s books, new shows, applying for residencies and just getting clear on what they want and coming up with a clear plan for how to get there.

• You can find work of mine for sale HERE (I have a lot of large oil paintings available and am happy to talk about payment plans if you want one!)