We are artists and our only work is to do the work.

Changing our outsides from the inside out.

I am a thrifter. A treasure-hunter. I just love the thrill that comes from discovering a piece of gold buried within piles of ‘junk’. Almost nothing beats the feeling of finding a good score- it makes me feel like I’m winning at life.

I used to love shopping at Value Village, before it kinda went to crap. In fact, I would often use my local VV as a practice for manifestation. It was my ‘wish depot’.

Me: “I need a new cast iron pan.”

VV: “POOF!! We have one here waiting for you, Jacqueline. And it’s only $6. Come and get it!”

My favourite part of the store by far was the book section because they had a “Buy 4, get 1 free” offer, and I would often score 5 great books for around 20 bucks. Best deal in town.

One such score was a book I bought about 15 years ago called Art and Fear.

Being an artist who, at that time, suffered from frustrating cyclical bouts of fear and self-sabotage, this book easily caught my attention. It practically leapt off the shelf into my hands. I do believe it was there for me to find it that day. It was kismet. Now that I think of it, many of my books have come to me like this~ they seem to feel me calling for them even if I’m not aware of the longing for them myself.

It’s a thin book of around 100 pages so it only took me about an hour to read. As I did, I felt myself tingling all over with that familiar bliss that comes from being face to face with infinite Intelligence and Compassion. I felt seen and understood. It felt like I was being offered the key to my self-made prison, and being lovingly dosed with the cure for what ailed me. Many goosebumps were induced upon ingesting the guidance it contained, but one single mighty sentence has yet remained with me in its entirety:

“An artist’s work is to learn to work on their work.”

Bam!!!

The moment I read this was the moment the burdensome weight and complexity of my struggles with perfectionism, esteem and consistency (or lack, thereof) blew away and transformed into a deep exhale of relief at the thought.

I only have to show up and allow, be open and vulnerable to what happens.

I don’t have to be brilliant or perfect or create a masterpiece every time.

I just need to awaken in the morning….and get to work. On my work, be it myself or my art. Anything else is distraction. How simple is that?

For I learned not long after, it is only in doing the work that the monkey of the mind packs up and leaves for more exploitable pastures, and that the world becomes more of a playground than a danger zone. By putting your hands into the clay, by molding and shaping it deliberately into what you want it to be, you are doing your part to heal all wounds, internal and external. Yours and everyone’s.

It is an inside game.

Despite the many temptations and distractions and the voice of resistance squawking in your ear, true fulfillment can only be found from tending to our work, whether or not it is making art or making YOU.

We are all artists.

The creators of our lives.

And making our Selves into masterpieces is all we can control.

---

The Work

I define ‘the work’ as the process by which we transform ourselves from reactors into creators. This can be done through a variety of ways, like making peace with our past as well as deleting the scarcity/limiting belief programming through an expansion of self-awareness.

It really helps to perceive and understand the mirroring nature of our external world.

It will always and only reflect what you embody. Who you BE.

And no matter what is happening outside of you, the work remains the same.

There is no doubt that there are more distractions than ever, more scary things ‘out there’ digging into our unhealed wounds and triggering residual fears, hooking us from the inside and convincing us they need our attention before we can tend to ourselves. But here’s the thing~ those hooks don’t work when you are rooted deeply within. When you understand that the outside is a reflection of your inside.

We must become our own islands of safety instead of searching for it externally.

Like the stars above, we are remembering how to reflect from within.

This is how the outer world transforms from shadow into light.

---

word up

Last summer, I was invited onto Dani Katz’s podcast Word Up to discuss my story of how I transmuted the pain of an ideological breakup into a piece of cathartic, and dare I say, beautiful piece of art. I write more about that here:

We are all in need of honing our alchemical powers that guide us to turn lead into gold, shit into roses. Or mushrooms.

As you can tell from the clip below, I am incredibly passionate about “the work” and that it’s “always been the same”. It was my first time as a podcast guest and I clearly spoke like a horse runs when it’s first let out of the gate! Passion aside, I hope the content of my message resonates and infuses you with inspiration.

---

Have a beautiful day, my fellow artists.

Thank you for reading my ideas, and please feel free to share with me yours in the comments below.

be great,

love Jacqueline

xo

If you want to support my art-making, you can donate to buy me some time!

You could also consider becoming a paid subscriber and I promise it’ll be worth it.