Not Everything Needs to Be Liked—Only Lived

Notes on Art, Approval, and Creating in a Time of Cultural Unraveling

I have to admit it has been hard to write to you as I watch things I really care about being attacked from the inside. The National Parks Service, libraries, the Library of Congress, the Department of the Interior, preservation programs—the list just kept getting longer, and I couldn’t find words to share. 

But by slowly coming back to writing to you after taking a book proposal workshop from

Beth Kempton

, I can find some areas of common ground, mutual support, and a cultural remembrance of all we have.

I quietly launched a series of paintings called We Choose Bears. Included in that series is a limited run of postcards that will be printed and sent at the end of the month. If you are interested, you can order now.

Then, I started working on a completely different painting series. It is abstract geographic boundaries mixed with animals. The first two feature birds, and the next set is about oceanic boundaries. The series is called No Boundaries/No Fences, and it has been lovely to paint. Below is my latest video about the series.

I also discuss the idea of seeking outward approval for my artwork. This is a theme I frequently twirl around, not just in my artwork but in all aspects of my life. After years of therapy, I know that I’m just seeking parental approval, but as they are no longer with us, I will never get it, and I didn’t get it when they were alive. So it’s a fruitless game.

And yet, it also seems everyone else is doing it. The constant need to show every finished project online feels like some deep need to be seen and liked. But what if we stopped that and just learned to appreciate ourselves and our work? That’s the question I’m toying with now. It’s also why I do the Sunday Studio sessions on YouTube. It isn’t about the finished work, but instead about the process of doing the work.

I have to say that it feels countercultural to embrace my own work with joy and appreciation rather than seeking outside approval, but it also feels right.

I do believe in the concept of showing your work, which

Austin Kleon

writes about. There’s also the idea, to me, that if we show the work and what it takes to get from A to Z, we are demystifying it for others and showing just how challenging some of our work is.

Yes & Yes

writes about this concept. I was of the age that we didn’t show our work. We just popped it out when it was done and pretended there was no toil in the process. The problem with this is that people begin to believe that we should just be popping out new things all the time without seeing the work it takes to make something happen. Work that we should be proud of and show. 

I hope you are making messes and enjoying the process in whatever you are doing. And if you are concerned about where we are culturally, I’m there, too. I don’t currently have a lot of answers, but I’m with you in those feelings.

With care - Jackie