Hello my loves.
The gist of this long story is that we get this one, wild, extraordinary life, and it is way too short not to follow the things that light us up. Plus, I am running to free sketch-along sessions! I hope you can come!!
Maybe for you - like me - that thing that lights you up is art. If you need a hand to (re)claim that title of artist, that is what I am here for baby. It is truly my life’s calling, helping others (as I help myself) connect to their creativity (and to the wild world we are all a part of) with curiosity, compassion and courage. My passion for this creative connection grows every single day, so I am also hosting two free sketch-along live sessions with me while the doors to Hedgerow are open. We can make art, I can show you behind the brambles of Hedgerow, and you can ask me any questions you would like.
Read on below, or you can listen to me read this email (while you get creative!) by clicking above.
At a party I attended the other day (a 7th birthday party! I hang out with all the posh peeps, haha) I had a conversation with someone about creativity and how important it is. He brought up the usual tropes that we have all heard, and probably believe to some extent, including the starving artist thing. This is not the first time I have had this conversation (and will certainly not be the last), but it was the first time I felt really, completely embodied and assured of my response. It didn’t feel defensive at all, but an opportunity to express not just my truth, but creativity’s truth with so much passion and compassion and deep groundedness.
We are surrounded by creativity - from the construction of our homes to the meaningful ornaments we hang throughout it. From the tv and movies we watch to the dinnerware we use. Humans are inherently creative. Where the disconnect happens is in a society that only values output and machine-like productivity.
Creativity and KPI’s don’t mix well.
And I am so thankful for that.
But we devalue creativity to the extent that someone who wants “to be” a creative - artist, musician, actor, all the ‘creative’ identities - is told from the get-go that they will not be successful, and will need to have an alternate career, at the very least something respectable like teaching their craft.
Ok. Let’s just pause for a minute.
I don’t know if it is Hollywood that has contributed to the romanticising of creativity, I know it is not just social media because, ahem, I come from a time before that, but when and why did we decide that success at creativity is only Metallica and Taylor, Clooney and Roberts, Hirst or Hockney? Isn’t it more reasonable to think that they are the outliers, and that it would be ridiculous for all creatives to have that sort of extreme “success”?
In my misspent youth I loved going to local pubs and watching very Australian rock bands. Most of these bands were not on MTV or the radio. They had day jobs outside of their music - some creative jobs, sure, but most boring old mundane jobs. Did that make them any less musicians? Artists? Nope.
It is time to drop the starving artist trope, it serves no one and in fact prevents us from being creative out of misplaced fear. We get to reimagine what success as a creative means (if success is a metric to pursue, and I am not convinced it is). Art does not need to be monetised to be meaningful. Let me say that again: art does not need to be monetised to be meaningful.
Creativity is so much more profound than that. Creativity fuels compassion and courage, and oh, we need more of that, compassion particularly. I mean look where expecting humans to work like machines and worshiping capitalism has gotten us? We are globally a bit of a mess, right? We have taken the wild for granted, we are in extinction crisis, our weather is falling apart, and there are more wars currently going on than we can poke a stick at. The difference between the have and have nots is widening to the sort of ratio of Feudalism, and still we praise the billionaires and aspire to what they have. Nope.
You and I, my love, we are worthy of more than that limited thinking, the scarcity and fear that binary visions of success create.
We have access to abundance at every moment of our day and night. Creative abundance does not run out - it renews exponentially the more you use it.
Life is fleeting. Some days it does not feel that way, but it is. For me personally it took the passing of my nearly 101 grandmother and 45 year old dearest and oldest friend within a fortnight of each other in 2019 to really question where I wanted to put my energy, what I wanted most from my life. What would make my life feel like one that was well lived. For me, that was, and is, art.
We humans are inherently creative, and I think that devaluing creativity and deciding we either don’t have the time, or that it is a waste of time (that one breaks my heart) to explore the creative acts that we yearn for, that make us happy, is, well, a travesty. It is giving into the machine-productivity expectation of humans in this current world order. And that, my friend, is what is not sustainable.
You don’t have to be only making art all day every day to be an artist.
If you pick up a pencil and draw with love and curiosity in your heart, and those little butterflies of excitement in your belly, congratulations my friend, you get to claim the title artist. Real artists don’t just spend all day in the studio whipping up gallery ready paintings. I would go so far to say that those artists are the outliers. Real artists teach (hello that’s me!), or have other full or part time non-creative work that helps them pay their bills so that they can do what they love, what makes them happy, what brings light and love to their hearts and to the world. That is what Real Artists do. That looks like success to me, and there is little to no starvation involved.
We are at a critical juncture, globally. I am sure you can feel it too. Things need to shift - thoughts need to shift. Change is required at a government level, absolutely, but real change usually starts from the ground up. From our own determination to advocate for what is important.
You know what is important? Art. Making art, thinking about art, rolling around in all the good thoughts about art like a happy-freshly-washed-dog-and-grass.
Creativity fuels compassion and courage.
It takes self-compassion to decide you are worthy of your creativity - we talk about that so much in Hedgerow. It takes courage to keep showing up for your creativity because it is a beautifully vulnerable act. We also talk about that a lot in Hedgerow. Creativity requires curiosity - we have to get curious about how we can see deeply, move our bodies to lay pigment down, play with different media, have the courage and compassion to keep going. That is another hot topic in Hedgerow.
But perhaps the most profound thing creativity fuels is connection. Connection to your most authentic self. To your supplies, to your internal creative drive, to the wild beings (or your chosen subject) you are inspired by, to the wild world/nature/the divine creative current, and to others who share that same curiosity, compassion, and courage.
By the end of our conversation (at the 7 year old’s birthday party) I could see a little glint of hope in his eye, and wondered what creative wish he was thinking about. Yep, creativity is also hope. We get this one, wild, extraordinary life, and it is way too short not to follow the things that light us up. We don’t have to give everything else up - art is not a zero sum game. But truly, small amounts of time following your creative passion (COMpassion) is transformative. Transformative. That is another word that gets used a lot inside Hedgerow, not by me, but by the community members.
I think women in particular struggle to give ourselves permission and self compassion to follow those things that light us up.
Sometimes we wait until retirement - which is perfect, if that is where you find yourself with the space to breathe and think about your own wild heart a bit. But we can also pursue our creativity at any age and buck the system that says otherwise. We absolutely CAN do everything - but we absolutely cannot do it all at once. Maybe you can’t spend hours at a time on an art project right now. But maybe you can find 15 minutes a few times a week. That, my love, is transformational. It gives you access to so much self compassion, courage and curiosity that you were craving. And that is also what I encourage inside Hedgerow, and why we work in sketchbooks too (so much less pressure, despite it still being paper!).
All that to say I see you, you incredibly creative human. And I want to help you unfurl, if wildlife art is something that makes you feel all excited to think about. Hedgerow opens again soon, and this is your permission to give yourself the loving kindness you give everyone else, and come join this community of women. Lets shapeshift into wild beings with pencil and paper and so much curiosity, compassion, courage, and connection.
I am running two live sketch-along sessions to celebrate Hedgerow being open, and also because I just love to sketch along with people live.
Seriously, I still get stupidly excited about the technology that lets me be in a virtual room with so many of you around the world and SKETCH TOGETHER! Mind blowing. So grateful. I will show you inside Hedgerow, and you can ask me any and all questions, I am an open book to you. And if you RSVP I will send you the recording from both sessions, and a lovely little pdf to download that includes a how-to guide for seeing shapes in reference images and a seed sowing (mindset) session.
Session 1
Forester Kangaroo (better for UK/Eu)
Sydney, Australia Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 6:00 pm AEST
New Zealand Standard Time, NZST Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 8:00 pm NZST
Central European Summer Time, CEST Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 10:00 am CEST
British Summer Time, BST Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 9:00 am BST
Session 2
Australian Brown Falcon (better for Nth America)
Sydney, Australia Wed, 11 Jun 2025 at 7:00 am AEST
New Zealand Standard Time, NZST Wed, 11 Jun 2025 at 9:00 am NZST
Eastern Time, ET Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 5:00 pm EDT
Pacific Time, PT Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 2:00 pm PDT
You can RSVP here - your confirmation email will contain all the details!
Ok my loves, I am sure I have chewed your ear off enough, as the saying goes. Don’t wait to pursue creativity - you are so deserving to start now, in the margins, where ever you can. And if you would like me to inspire and cheer you on too, then I would be honoured.
With my whole wild heart,
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