Building Your Council of Inspiration
A creative and intimate endeavor
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This is a letter about creative inspiration.
When I use the word creative in these letters, I’m speaking to living creatively:
The way you greet the day
The way you move through resistance
The way you adorn your body
The way you practice boundaries
The way you experience time
The way you embrace the seasons
The way you regard yourself
The way you interact socially and professionally
When I use the word creative in these letters, I’m speaking to experiencing the world as full of creative limitations and possibilities.
It’s seeing every choice as a creative choice…
every interaction as a creative action…
And so creative inspiration, in this letter, is that which stimulates all of this ^^^, not just what we think of when we think of creative practices.
This Thursday, we’re gathering for a workshop called Building Your Council of Inspiration.
Will I see you there??!
Part of me wants to leave what this workshop will be like as a mystery, but I’m going to break it down a little because…. well, I’m inspired to.
Building your Council of Inspiration (or Council of Wonder; Council of Strength; Council of Wisdom…) is a deeply creative and intimate endeavor.
It involves research, dwelling with, maybe working with images—collaging, for example—and probably some reflective writing. The form this practice takes is a fluid creative process that’s ultimately up to you.
In the ways I use it, building and referencing a Council of Inspiration is part of a writing practice (or it can be).
And I’m going to show you ways to approach it this Thursday at 7pm EST:
This workshop is about dreaming of, connecting to, and building a better world. If you are participating in the global strike for Palestine and still want to join, please send me an email. You are welcome to join and pay later.
A clarification and (maybe) limitation of this phrasing: A Council of Inspiration doesn’t have to be comprised of only people.
It might be a color: Cobalt. Chartreuse. Barely lilac.
It might be a moment: from a film or book or from your own life.
It might be a quote:
It might be a garden:
Or a poem:
Pass this on to a friend who also loves living creatively…
Here are a couple more from mine…
Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group. Vanessa Bell is an example of someone who lived life as a creative practice. She handcrafted a world.
In the workshop, I’ll share ways of consciously engaging with your Council of Inspiration. Sometimes, it happens through osmosis. I had this photo set as my phone background for about a year (the photo itself is part of my council). It holds so much:
Last December, I got it in my head that a white armchair is a dream spot for my morning coffee. This was what I imagined: Every morning, I’d be more or less tempted to hit snooze but then I’d remember that my morning chair was waiting! Next to it, a candle, book, and a place to set my coffee…
I was looking online at options and resigned to waiting until I found a second-hand one, whenever that would happen. Instead of checking the time on my computer, I tapped my phone screen and saw the white chair. I had never put it together: I’ve been studying this dreamy scene every day for almost a year, without giving it much thought.
Turns out, getting a white slip cover is simple (and much more affordable). The wing-back chair in my studio is now covered in a white canvas slipcover. It greets me every morning and it’s where I greet the day back.
It’s also where I do most of my writing, including what you’re reading right now.
You might find it weird that my phone background was of a chair. Well, behind the chair are binders:
These binders of documents were collected by Quentin Bell—see the VW and VB? One of the reasons I love the image above is because of the binders. Are they not stunning??
I’ve always loved binders. Not the plastic ones, but binders in general: handmade ones, leather, fabric, etc… I’ve had collections of binders that hold knowledge and inspiration since I was very young. In a way, these binders were my first experience with building a Council of Inspiration. I’d spend hours upon hours collecting, organizing, writing, collaging, and developing these little worlds.
So I adore this photo and I adore the Charleston Farmhouse.
I’d love for this to be a conversation: if you read this, and if you feel inspired, let me know what stimulates your creativity.
What are your enduring inspirations?
What is the inspiration that feels exquisitely tender to you?
What inspiration is almost embarrassing? What delights your inner child?
If you love this topic, I invite you to join us at this Thursday’s workshop Building Your Council of Inspiration.
This is for you if you are feeling disconnected from who and what inspires you, just as much as this is for you if you know exactly who and what inspires you.
And if you’ve been wanting to dive into an area of inspiration (baking, a specific artist, film, how you want to re-do your living room, etc.), it is a fabulous idea to get yourself signed up and carve out this time for yourself.
We’ll use this time to explore exactly how you might go about building your council, what forms it can take, and how it can support you in crafting a life that feels true to you.
In this way, we aren’t exploring inspiration as something frivolous or nice-to-have whenever it might happen. This is about deeply engaging with everything that makes you go, ‘that’s what life is about’.
Thursday, January 25th
7pm-8:30pm EST*
~no introductions, no breakout rooms, cameras on so we can all feel each other’s presence!~
Bring a journal/paper because we’ll be doing some reflective writing together. If you want to use this time to doodle or collage images, bring whatever materials you’d like.
This is my second time teaching this workshop, and the last time was popping with synchronicities and delight. It was very special and I have no doubt that this Thursday will be equally so!
I hope to see you there…
XO
Maggy
*This was originally listed to run for an hour with 30 minutes extra flex time, we’ll be using it. If you need to leave early, that is ok!
This workshop was originally offered to the pilot cohort of Growing a Writing Practice. If you enjoy using writing as a way of thinking and living creatively, I highly encourage you to consider joining us for the next round…
February 24 - March 30
Weekly on Saturdays 11am-12:30pm EST
Pre-sale price ends February 1st.
The pre-sale price exists for if you know that you’re a ~yes~ and you’d like to save over $200. Learn more and save your spot here!