The Shift

Happy Friday, friend,

Friday is typically a studio day for me, and I’ve been doing some printing today. I have also been - very excitedly - preparing for the first deliveries of the field note! I can’t believe this, but I surpassed my subscriber goal and am extremely excited to be sending some of you mail soon! There is so much energy here, and initial treats are already on press. Thank you for being in on this with me!

I ordered myself some new self-inking rubber stamps for the envelopes and some materials for the first send, and was bamboozled in the best of ways by the surprisingly generous amount of stamp ink colors to choose from. Never have I been utterly de-railed in a more positive way than to be faced with a color choice:

First of all, are you serious? How am I supposed to choose between Garden Patina, Cactus Flower, Tiger Lily, etc. Who in the world can handle this?

Anyway, comment and tell me your favorite and see if you can guess which one I selected for the field note…

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It is really fun to watch an idea that has been rolling around for a while to finally be in print form. This is what I ask today:

Of course you have…

Remember a time you had a vision, an idea, or a plan. Remember the feeling of the planning and the dreaming. The teasing out of the details. The feeling into what feels real.

Maybe it was a short lived, instant idea. Or maybe it was a slowww roast before what feels real really revealed itself. Perhaps it even took on new forms you didn’t see coming, as you patiently welcomed yourself to perceive the possibilities.

And then, inevitably, The Shift may occur.

The Shift is when the idea must come to an end because it must come to a beginning. This is when you actually do the thing.

It is interesting though, because not everyone cares about actually doing the thing. For some people, or in some instances, the thing entirely is the planning and designing. A whole creative process can take place in, and as, the idea phase, with the possibility of a final output never being reached.

My kiddo H and their friends have been ideating about creating an animated show. They have a huge spreadsheet full of characters, including names, details, visual elements, and who will voice the character. They have a huge pages-long script. This week, H wrote their own music jingle on the piano for the show, and gave me and my husband a teeny tiny concert. I saw the piece of paper with the hand written music notes on a hand drawn staff and treble clef this morning and thought about how I have no idea if these kids know how to animate characters or record voice acting or put it all together (who knows, 12 year olds in 2026 are advaaanced…) but right now their creative process is their only agenda. Looking ahead, or being discouraged by the reality of what it will take to create this thing, is out of the question.

I asked H if they were doing to do any practice rounds with any software, to see if this is possible, to get a feel for the animation and how to pair it with voices, and they looked at me like I was crazy. “We aren’t even done with the script! We need to recruit more voice actors! It’s not time to animate yet!”

This has been in progress all school year. I am in admiration of this way of working.

How does an idea make it’s way to the material form? At least for us, it is through the channel of the human body. Is this art? Electricity, muscle memory, hand-heart coordination, something else without a name? Now that I try to mention it, I don’t actually know.

Something I do think I know is that once an idea becomes material, it loses something and gains something else. It loses its identification as “mine” and gains its own identity. It loses its infinite capacity for change and possibility, and narrows into something more-or-less decided upon. If shared, it goes on even further to form relationships of its own, in a web where you are there somewhere in it too, but no longer all the way in control.

This is, I think, The Shift.

Some ideas stay ideas; some ideas become things. Who makes the decision? When an idea shifts into the making of it, lately for me it only makes sense when it feels real enough. And sometimes it takes time for it to feel real. For a while it is not quite right, not quite there, not quite real, until it is. And then it is unavoidable. Clear. But who makes the decision? It almost doesn’t feel like it’s me.

I think the shift from being in our process making art to sharing it outwardly is not a small thing. A little bit of surrender is required. Listen. Offer your creations from the heart, with more curiosity than expectation.

Have a wonderful weekend,

♡ Kristen