Category Archives: Creative Coaching

We all need someone to help us take a look at our goals and inspire us to take the needed actions to get there. I like to get the right people talking and find opportunities for creatives to expand their audiences and push themselves out of their comfort zones.

looking back at 2022…

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In 2013 I titled this blog Spark & Muse. Today I looked back at 2022 to see what provided my spark and muse.

Creatively I’m all over the place right now. I tend to create, photograph, and forget. I really want to land on a project and see it through in 2023. I think I need a deadline. That always helps me. #stickwithanyprojectin2023lisa

A few things are clearer to me now after researching me.

  1. I like to shoot flowers as they fade, they are far more compelling to me than perfection.
  2. I see that I shoot images of things that are somehow out of place.
  3. I collect and catalog my beach finds.
  4. I prefer images with negative space.
  5. Our cat Karen gets photographed a lot.
  6. I like taking photographs of fog and rainy windows.
  7. I shoot a lot of pictures when I’m eating raw oysters.
  8. I like to photograph men I meet on the beach.
  9. Color and motion are a spark to me.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. —Leonardo Da Vinci.

In May we gathered to celebrate with lots of treats the life of Renay Mandel Corren—RIP Renay. We listened to the live-streamed memorial service from a bowling alley in Fayetteville, NC. None of us knew her, but her obituary was one of my true delights of 2022. Reading it will make your day. https://www.fayobserver.com/obituaries/m0028451

Everyone has a creative impulse, and has the right to create, and should. —Patti Smith

More sparks…

I barely have words for what Jeff and I witnessed at the Newport Folk Festival in July. Surprise guests, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell—one of the absolute privileges of my lifetime. Crying with 10,000 music lovers still gives me goosebumps.

Donna Rhea/Vermont Comedy Club

Cheers to whatever provides spark and muse to you!

PS I mean it, read Renay’s obituary, here’s the link again.

https://www.fayobserver.com/obituaries/m0028451

Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren at the impossible old age of 84 is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash-reading, talking and watching woman in NC, FL or TX was not to be found.

I was going to write about looking back at 2022…

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and post some of what I’ve created and done in the last 12 months. However, when I woke up on this last day of 2022 and read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American daily email, I shifted gears.

“In their fight for their right to self-determination, the Ukrainians and their defenders reminded the United States what cherishing democracy actually looks like.”

—Letters from an American/Heather Cox Richardson

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—Ukrainian President Zelensky when the U.S. offered to evacuate him.

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.” 

What this quote meant to me:  I will grow in maturity and understanding when I stay close to conflict(s), even when confusing, painful, and messy.  Fleeing is easier...and lacking courage.

________________________

“The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please. Be kind, especially when we don’t know what’s going on.”

—Waymond Wang from the film, Everything Everywhere All At Once

It's far too easy for me to get defensive and act unkind when I am uncertain or pushed.  This quote is a good reminder to lead with kindness...the universe clearly needs this from all of us now.

Evelyn Wang, the heroine in my favorite movie of the year is a badass middle-aged female superhero. She gets to see and experience her many lives out in the multi-verse. The film is all about hanging in there with people we love even when the relationship is messy, painful, and complicated. I guess I gleaned almost the same message as the quote from President Zelensky.

There are so many versions of me that have already existed and will exist in the future. I believe I can summon the creativity, wisdom, skills, or total dumbassery of all of them when needed.

Evelyn Wang : There is no way I am the Evelyn you are looking for.

Waymond Wang : [as Alpha Waymond]  Every rejection, every disappointment has led you to this moment. Don’t let anything distract you from it.

When a version of me is doing something not particularly interesting, I sometimes wonder what the other Lisas are doing. In 2023 I plan to explore my desire for more theatrics out in the multiverse. I’m not quite sure what that will look like yet, but if I lead with kindness to myself during this time of uncertainty I think I’ll be in good shape.

Thank you, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for creating Evelyn Wang and this story.

LETTERS from an AMERICAN: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-30-2022?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=20533&post_id=93881839&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email

Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians.