Write with me
If you need company and accountability, also you don't need to pay me
Hola, my dear reader,
I hope you liked my previous take on the writing group experience.
Today I am writing to you from another writing group meeting, this time it is online and on my own discord server where I host sketchclubs. I loved writing with people so much, that I decided that I need to emulate it immediately but online. As I dearly love both online and offline ways of doing stuff.
There is a bit of a prequel. I went to Moscow in February to bring my dog from Russia to Spain. And as a good tradition requires, I had a meeting with my fellow book art director Yana, who is a creative director now (you go, girl!). We became friends when we worked together in the publishing house some time ago. I had to make a complicated decision to quit to take care of my son when we moved from Russia to Turkiye. Every time I visit Moscow, we manage to squeeze in a meeting with Yana. Of course, we have a lot to discuss as we both love everything books. But this time, Yana brought up this theme - of writing. How writing together is actually awesome and what an amazing memory she has of writing retreats she did. But we always have so many obligations, tasks, client meetings, that it is so hard to squeeze in an actual chunk of time to write if writing is not one’s job. I agree with that so much.
I started hosting online sketchclub for thid particular reason - to give people (and myself) an opportunity and space and come to make art. Our sketchclub is very talkative though. And writing needs quiet.
So of course as you may imagine me and Yana decided that we need that. It was my Moscow time, then I got back and needed time to readjust, Yana was also busy. And idea of a writing group might just be dead by now. But then magic happened - I saw announcement of a writing group session in Barcelona and decided I just have to go and to see how it happens so maybe I can adopt some things. And a week later, I am writing this dispatch from discord where I know Yana and Lada are writing at the same time.
We are far from perfect, but this is MVP, minimum viable product (a smart ass word combo from the Tech world of my husband). We will adjust, we will experiment, but already I feel that we write together.
I don’t know about you but I like to get out of my body to soar high into the sky and imagine how I look at my house at the seaside and there is an invisible connecting thread that goes to Moscow and then divides in two towards another two persons who share this time with me right now. Am I weird? I love to imagine that.
You may read me and get absolutely confused with everything I do. I would. I think I owe you another introductory dispatch with the update. I also need to bring my NOW page to the actual situation.
NOW page is this amazing tool I stole from Austin Kleon and he stole it from a guy you invented it - Derek Sivers. It is a page on a website which has a date and short (or not) explanation what a person is up to now. Here is my now page from today, and here is the link.
The idea is very smart. Website bio is very slowly updated and not all the stuff goes in. Usually it is short and polished and it gives a visitor a bird eye view of your career and accolades. Now page is an informal way to give visitor understanding where you are at the moment - physically and career wise. Maybe you work on a project but it is far from being marketed and shouted about in the social media. Maybe you are on sabbatical, or pregnant, or in the retreat. Maybe you are actively looking for and working on commissions. Maybe you are studying. Or preparing the move or maybe exhibition. Now page is a perfect way to communicate your current state of affairs before actually updating your ABOUT ME page.
Also it is a way to omit social media as much as possible. I did not update my ME NOW page for almost a year. It is a nice time to do so. And tell you about my current moment.
For now I will give you my online schedule
Pigeon Nest art club - Thursdays, 12pm to 2pm CET.
Weekly Writing Wednesday Pond - Wednesdays, 9am to 10 am CET.
(There might be changes with the Pond, we are just starting, but conceptually it wont change much).
Here is a LINK to join my discord server, if it doesn’t work, drop me a comment. Discord links go out of use somehow. Both events are free to join. In case you would love to support what I do with money - I gladly accept donations at buy me a coffee.
What caught my curiosity lately?
I got this via Substack recomendation list and I absolutely loved that I can explore Catalan artists. Recently I also learnt that Joan Miro was behind the star logo of Caixa bank. I hope he got paid handsomely for that commission. That letter was about Lola Anglada, Catalan artist of 20th century.
This video from Danny Gregory is so precious and it reminds me gently why I do what I do and what I try to spread via my own art and with the help of a sketchclub.
DUNE 2. I just hope you go and watch it, I am very slow with consumption movies and series, so I guess I am generally a person who gets hooked like a lot with something that I watch and like
I am over the moon that Louise Stigell got back to Substack recently with her calm and deep thoughts on how we may try to approach work and life differently.
