Micro Essays and Blog Posts
Are you a “you” or an “I”? What difference does it make anyway?
These are the Lascaux cave paintings. Nobody knows exactly why they were made. That's where this project starts. Last night…
The river beneath the mood
Underneath every mood, every flash of irritability, every inexplicable flatness, something is always flowing. Not emotion exactly, but something quieter,…
Why Florence Hasn’t Done Any Drawing Today
I have long been fascinated by Lisa Feldman Barrett’s work and the Theory of Constructed Emotion, which tells us that…
You’re Not Resisting. You’re Predicting.
The resistance you feel at the prospect of picking up the pencil and sitting down to sketch a tree (or…
You were going to do some sketching today
You were going to do some sketching today. Nothing big, just a few lines and a couple of experiments. But…
“Neoliberal claptrap”
"Neoliberal claptrap." That was American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt's verdict on the kind of content that promises "Seven steps…
The Pathologizing Gaze: When Therapy Repeats the Original Wound
I go to therapy. Partly because I think it's good practice for someone who works on the deeper levels of…
Decision Paralysis, Another Tentacle of Being Run by Scarcity
Few tasks are more fraught with anxiety than the art of decision-making. For many, the act of choosing between two…
But you can’t just let go, can you?
A therapist who works with sexual abuse survivors looked at my work and said, “This is wrong. You can't just…