Creatrix

Be your own kind of artist, Shuron.”

Know that you always have a choice – you can listen to the Critic, swallow their poison, hand them your power, stop sharing your work and stay safe from potential future criticism. Or you can put on your big girl pants, go out and make more of your stuff. Make it bigger and bolder and brighter and wilder and messier. Make the art you’ve been longing to see.

You are a magic-maker…so go make magic

You Making Cool Shit also makes the Worst People mad. Good. Fuck ‘em. Make stuff that makes those monsters mad.

Chuck Wendig

We must remember that in art, perhaps more than anything else, there are no right answers, there is no ultimate world authority. Art is, by its very nature, subjective. And therefore criticism – or praise – can only ever be representative of one person’s opinion

The truth is that no critic, however much they might feel the authority on me and my work, even if they have read every one of my books and blogposts and listened to every interview, truly knows me. They know the parts of me I make public, but they do not know the whole human that is me. And more importantly, they don’t get a say in that

This is why it takes such courage to show up to the spotlight as our human selves and set the stage for the magic to come through us and surrender ourselves to it. At that moment we become witnesses, with the audience, of the process of magic too. It makes us all more fully alive.

This is the blessing and majesty of accepting the role of creatrix: being both magic-maker and front row seat to the magic

Some part of them knows that the magic is not of them, but comes through them.

We must learn how much of ourselves we can safely gift to the world, without giving ourselves away. We need to discover how much of ourselves we are willing to share before our lives become a performance in themselves.

Each time you need to.

But keep stepping up. Shaking.

And do The Work.

There is no greater threat to the critics, cynics, and fearmongers than a woman who is willing to fall because she has learned how to rise.

Brené Brown

So I encourage you to step up when you feel small. Building your courage every time you do. Step up. Again and again. Some days you may be able to push through the fear and shame, other days you may not. But step up. Show up. And speak truth. And bear witness to your creativity.

Keep walking.

Keep feeling.

Keep breathing.

One step at a time.

Stopping and resting.