The Witch Who Refused To Burn

When we think of burning we think of bonfires, flames, of all consuming heat and destruction but the world we live in has a new type of destructive fire, one that consumes as a slow ember burning away inside until there’s nothing left. It doesn’t raze us to the ground to be born anew, to help us bring new life from the ashes, instead it continues to smoulder, ensuring there is no new seed to grow, no season of renewal, no new life inside us at all.

The thing about this flame is that it is hard to notice, it feels warm, even comfortable, we glow with it, we feel its energy. We are taught to love this flame, to climb onto it’s pyre and happily, proudly even, let it burn us out.

I’m talking about the over productive, transactional culture we’ve built, the one that drives us to consume, the one that drives us to do more, be more, have more all the time. If you’ve ever felt yourself burning on that same pyre - endlessly productive but strangely hollow - you’ll know what I mean.

I’ve fallen for its charm myself and I’ve only just realised I’ve been volunteering myself to be burnt at the stake. Now I plan on being the witch who refuses to burn.

Producing all the time is not creating. Providing artistic content is not making art. Making people happy is not making. I have felt this constant hustle in my art over the last few months. I’ve experienced it in fighting the algorithm to be heard and seen, in putting in hours of time, heart and money to art fairs to be just another ‘nice day out’, in promoting collaborations to be turned into someone else’s marketing machine.

Are you feeling this too? Where do you notice this constant smoulder in your own life? What’s smothering you and keeping you all-consumed?

I fought and fought the system, trying to make it mine, trying to succeed and be unique. Then I realised I am unique, I am succeeding when I’m truly creating. I realised too, that this system can’t be changed, I have to step outside it and forge my own path. That’s what my inner witch would do.

Instead of being an offering to the flames of our ‘bigger, better, faster’ culture I can create my own spark, tend my own fire, build my own hearth. And so can you.

My decision is not to make any paintings for a year. Instead I’m going to play, explore, create, sketch, doodle and adventure. I’m going to do it from a place of creation not consumption. I’d like to bring you along with me and have actual, real conversations about it.

It’s a new moon as I write, the perfect time to light a spark. What will yours be? Maybe it will be reading poems before emails, letting your hands make something useless but delightful, or learning something new just for the joy of it. Whatever it is, I’d love to hear it.