On Painting and Taxes: Making Creativity a Priority

Well, Hello! It feels nice to be writing here again after a long hiatus (during which, we rearranged our life a bit—new job, new state.) But more about that in a future post, because what I really want to write about now is creativity.


There is an irony in most of our “To-Do” Lists, and it is this: there are things that we really, really don’t want to do, but because of the negative consequences of not doing them (think filing your income taxes), somehow we find the time, the energy, and the will to get them done. And then there are the things that we really, really want to be doing, and somehow we never (or rarely, or insufficiently) find the time, the energy, the will to do them.

What if there were fines or penalties for not doing our creative work, like there are in other areas of our lives? Imagine the government sending you a bill for the first three chapters of the novel that you didn’t write! Would we make these passion projects more of a priority? The truth is, there is a price that is being paid when we let our creativity languish. In her audiobook, The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting: Raising Children with Courage, Compassion, and Connection, Dr. Brené Brown sums it up darkly:

“Unused creativity is not benign. It doesn’t just dissipate.
It metastasizes. It turns into grief and rage and judgment.”

That line hits me hard each time I read it, because I know it’s true in my own life. And the first month of the New Year hasn’t helped! Between the crazy “Polar Vortex” weather, school closings, kid viruses, and endless snow shoveling, it’s been a struggle to set aside time to be creative. So I’ve decided to give myself a little challenge that I’ve dubbed “One Month/Two Things,” and I’m hoping that some of you will want to join me. During the month of February, let’s pick two things: first, something creative that we’ve wanted to do for a while, and second, something from our “To-Do” list that we have to do, but tend to procrastinate. And then, let’s GET THEM DONE!

My Two Things are a large-scale painting (of a purple coneflower no less) that I’ve been wanting to do for months, but which intimidates me, … and the income taxes which I loathe doing, and tend to put off until the final hour.

Now that I’m “throwing it down” I’m hoping that there will be some brave souls who will join me. What would your Two Things be? Imagine if we did this each month until the end of the year? That would be amazing, we could have a party!!


Special thanks to my sister, Sue Stauffacher, for insisting that I check out the work of Brené Brown!