Finding the “What”

What kind of creative work should I be making?

Helping, inspiring and encouraging you in your creative life (by sharing my missteps mine) is at the heart of this newsletter. Cheesy, but true. I am so thankful for everyone who has supported Drawing a Blank this year (subscribers, paid subscribers, commenters, folks who’ve reached out privately or on social media to say how much they love hearing from me every week). This week’s newsletter is for paid subscribers! I’d love for you to join.

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There are times that I feel like I’m being followed.

It’s always a murky sinister thing just out of eyesight, watching me. It smells of rutabaga ice cream and puppy dander. In the times I’ve double backed and slyly tapped it on the shoulder, I’ve been confronted with an old nemesis, the question a maker of things hates to ponder for too long:

How do you draw a horse riding a bike?

How do I teach these kids a lesson in a cool adult way with my story?

What kind of work should I be making?

Different than some of the other questions bounding and bouncing around the studio, this one is kind of profound, deep and direct. Style and artistic technique questions can be troublesome, as can the simple task of writing, well simply — but there is a well worn path to figuring them out. The bigger, broader question, if I’m being honest, is not how to make the thing but what am I suited to making?