Today we’re talking about the end of the artistic process. That is, after nurturing our inner muse, sitting down to complete the hard work of creating, and revising the original to shreds, we must then release our artwork into the wide world. And that may be the hardest part.

The 4th episode of Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey is live, and you can listen in your podcast app of choice.

So far, in this series, we have talked about idea, craft, and revision, and today we're talking about release.

When the final draft enters the big wide world, how do you accept that your job as the artist is finished, and how do you receive the reception of a wider audience? How do you interact with that audience, and what happens when viewers and readers make the art their own, reading meanings into the work that you never put there? And what does the Bible have to do with any of this? (A lot, apparently.)

We also discuss the fine art collages that precede Chapters 10 and 11 in …

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Today we’re talking about the hard work of creative revision.

The 3rd episode of Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey is live, and you can listen in your podcast app of choice.

Jeremy and I are talking about molding the final form of your artistic project: cut, paste, curate, and kill your darlings. As Queen Annie says, “The path is not the work.” (The Writing Life, Dillard)

To create art, and not just catharsis, you must curate. And the creative process provides many opportunities to do this individually—the self-edit—and in collaboration—with editors, curators, creative collaborators, and peer colleagues. But how do you decide whose voice to trust and whose to discard? Whose voice matters most? And how do you discover the true heart of the work? And how do you stay sane when your WIFE becomes the curator of your work? (We’ll tell you how that went.)

We’re also finally talking one of Liz’s favorite topics: audience! How do you keep the readers and viewers of your…

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Today we’re talking about the hard work of sitting your butt in the chair and getting your creative work done.

The 2nd episode of Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey is live, and you can listen in your podcast app of choice.

Jeremy and I are talking about developing your craft…. by so much practice. And we discuss what it really means for each of us to really sit in the chair and put down a first draft and/or a first pass at a collage. Because making art requires sweat!

We also talk about how our artistic collaboration as a couple worked as we labored over the book, Knock at the Sky. (Spoiler: it did not always go smoothly, but required a lot of communication and boundaries to make things work.)

And we talk about why the practice of art-making is worth it... even if you have less than 1,000 instagram followers and even when you write the shittiest of shitty first drafts. (Like Liz.)

We also discuss the fine art collages that precede Chapters 4, 5, and 6 in the b…

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Today, the first episode of Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey is live, and you can listen in your podcast app of choice.

Jeremy and I are talking all about ideas and beginnings.

Where do artistic ideas come from? How do you begin a project? How do you decide when you have a good idea, good enough to spend more time on? And then, after you’ve settled on an idea, how do you find the form the work will take? In other words, how do you start making?

We also discuss a preoccupation of ours: the question of “voice” and “style”. How do you develop the writing voice and/or artistic style that makes a work unique to you amid this crowded landscape of makers?

We get specific about how the book project, Knock at the Sky, came into being, including the early discussions between Jeremy and I about collaboration.

We’re also discussing the fine art collages that precede chapters 1, 2, and 3—first, I tell you what I see and guess at the meaning behind the paper, and then, Jer…

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