Creativity pie

on finding creativity in every corner of my life

Dear Musers

Welcome to the second free newsletter for 2024. Late last year, I made the decision to alternate between free and paid newsletters as a way to honour those who support my writing via a paid subscription. I’m still working out what will go in the paid v free newsletters, but either way I love that you’re here.

I love beginnings and haven’t always loved middles. Middles are where the hard work is found. It’s where there needs to be a bunch of commitment to keep rocking up to the thing when it’s not shiny and new. Over the years, I have been known to start a heap of things and then get a little bored with them (yeah, hi M, I hear you nodding at all my unfinished projects in baskets and boxes through the house…). The exception to this has been my writing where I have always loved all the parts of it. This year, I am honouring my creativity by diving a little deeper into the creative things that I love, and letting go of things that no longer serve me.

I am looking on creativity in forms other than writing, knitting and gardening to see what happens when I give creativity space to grow. Some things added into my creativity pie so far include drawing, cartooning and watercolouring.

Image: My watercolour from Day 1 of Jennifer Orkin Lewis’s 100 Days of Drawing

It’s been great to play with it, allow it to be messy, to just go with the process.

Images: simple drawings where I have been playing with line and shade and tried to move quickly through the drawing

Other things

Other things that have kept me busy in the last month include swimming in the outdoor pool at North Melbourne, gym time in Ascot Vale and morning walks. I’m surprising myself that I’m really getting into this exercise thing (who am I?!). I’ve been inspired by Adele Walsh’s regular exercise and decided it was time. I even made a reel from a walk, then did it again and again, and now it’s become a thing (well, not a ‘viral’ kind of thing, but a couple of people said they love it).

One of the best things about recording little snippets of my walks has been noticing things I don’t normally see. It reminds me of the importance to look around, listen, smell, touch, that filling up our senses with beauty is essential for the soul.

There is a route I often take that is through wetlands. It is easy when I am in the middle of the wetlands to forget that I am so close to the city, in the thick of an urban environment. But I let my eyes rest on the dusky moorhens, the coots, swans and ducks. I watch them dive into the water, drift over the surface. This morning, I was greeted with a flurry of superb fairywrens with their chattery song as they danced in and out of the scrubs. Joy. They are honestly the sweetest things.

Five things

1. This video is beautiful - maybe I love it because I’m a knitter, but I’m sure it will appeal to many.

2. My mates have a new band Sunshine Tip and have recently released an album that I love.

3. Mek (of The Raptorial) taught me about Yonkoma manga at a Laneway Learning workshop last year and has started the Brunetti University (a uni with no fees or qualification - hahah). We are using Ivan Brunetti’s Cartooning Philosophy and Practice book to learn more about cartooning. We’re a little Instagram group and it’s our first week. It’s a great exercise in learning to loosen up the hand and stop overthinking. (If you haven’t yet found me and my drawings, I’m on Instagram at Meg Dunley Illustration).

The start of Brunetti University with Exercise 1.1 done in which I realise I can't draw much in 5 seconds

4. Cottony Cushion Scale is a real thing that doesn’t sound like it should be. Thanks to a Facebook group Australian Plant Identification Group, I discovered what I had thought were sweet little white sack-like things were actually the cottony cushion scale. The treatment: squashing. I’ll save you the imagery.

5. Our fairy lights from Christmas are still up and I don’t want to take them down but also don’t want to be that sad house that has Christmas up all year around. How long is it okay to leave them up?

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My writing retreats are filling very fast. February and April are full. There is one place left for the June and August ones. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about it, don’t wait too long. Find out more

Hit the like button or drop a comment if you’ve got something to say. It makes me feel awesome.

Til next time

x Meg