Hello friend,
Happy autumn! I love this time of year. I find that I feel very connected to the natural world in this time. Everything is preparing for a time of rest and reflection.
There is a busyness around buttoning up the final projects, storing food, and gaining strength/fat/body condition before the winter comes. And there is a general joy and celebration about the busyness coming to an end, and acknowledgement of the hard work and preparation that’s been done. Things begin to slow down.
It’s also a time when the “veil is thin” between the living world and spirit world – or if you prefer – life and death. Many living things end their lives in the fall and rely on their progeny to carry on in the spring. Leaves fall and begin to decay – making rich compost in which the next generation of life will thrive.
Something about all of this makes me feel so ALIVE and CONNECTED with the natural world. It’s visceral. The colors of fall are like chocolate for my eyes – burnt orange, mustard, rust, muted coral, squash, marmalade, clay! The landscape is a pallet of creative inspiration. I feel it in my bones with the joy of a wool sweater’s warmth fending off the bite of the cool morning air. I smell it in the earthy soil as I bed down my garden for winter. I hear it in the crunch and rustle of dried leaves as I walk through the woods. And I taste it in the juicy bite of a fresh apple after frosty mornings coaxed it into sweetening to perfection.
Nothing really inspires my creativity more than the natural world. So it makes sense that my art feels especially alive at this time of year. I’m dreaming up new children’s books, artwork, and classes to help you connect to your creative muse too! I’m participating in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Artober illustration event this month on Instagram. Every day I post an illustration in response to a daily prompt from SCBWI. It’s been really fun to see how others respond to the same prompt and channel my creative juices in this way. You can follow along right over here.
Thanks for reading my monthly musings! If you or your kiddos would like to join me in creative play, please check out the Classes I have coming up! I’d love to see you there and share in this magical time of year.
With love and gratitude!