Dear Artist,There is Undeniable Beauty in Being Your Own Creative Champion
April 28th, 2024 — Written by Casey Balon for The Artist’s Lens Collection
Whether you’re self-publishing, pivoting your creative business model, working with a traditional publisher, or experimenting with new artistic techniques… being the internally rich creative hype woman you’ve always desired is a surefire approach to deepening the fulfillment you experience throughout the process.
The beginnings of a love affair
I’ve recently started leaving little love notes from my day-15-of-my-cyle self for my luteal-phase self, and I’d venture to say it’s been life-altering.
The love affair began with discreet voice recordings (a few encouraging reminders of how brilliant and worthy and beautiful her heart is) and eventually transformed into a full-on shift in my self-concept. I have become my most trusted creative hype woman—the high caliber, internally rich champion I’ve always desired.
In today’s article, we’re going on an acoustic adventure. There are no rules; my one request is that you take a leap of trust, not with me… but with you.
“The same energy that is play for the young child matures into creativity and genius in adults. Attitude, in this sense, is always acoustic.” -Richard Rudd
Written by Casey Balon
(click here to read about Casey)
Article 03 of The Artist’s Lens collection.
What we are covering in this article:
*click below to navigate directly to the section you wish to read, or continue with the story as you were
1. Picture This (the entirely electrifying beauty of unknown territory )
2. An ode to a wise past version of you (the young elder within)
3. If you’re being honest, here’s how you feel about active growth (yet your heart has been courting you)
4. You deeply trust the woman you have become (your modus vivendi; the human in the mirror is one of your biggest advocates)
5. Substack Article Break: The Vital Creative (subscribe to our additional hub of personal essays & interviews)
6. The dynamic root system of this championship (relationships with The Creator; generative community; tissue, blood, & bone; and proper action)
7. Tending to the fear of abandonment with love (strengthening the internal union, revealing belonging, its true name)
8. Liberating our natural gifts (nutritious ecosystems for growth; distinct methods of dedication to our craft; ‘shipping’ our creative work)
9. A Thank You note to choice (your decisions are the unsung hero of your creative voyage)
10. That’s the Artist’s Date I want to sign up for (wholly human, what the creative walk asks of you)
11. Our Bookshop (shop our ever-growing selection of books for creatives)
12. The resources we deliver at Casey Jacque (essays on whole body health, creative career building, creative direction, intentional travel, sustainable living, love and relating, and more)
Picture This: You’re standing in front of a gorgeous, floor-to-ceiling antique French mirror, gazing directly into your own eyes. You feel invigorated, yet your breath is steady. It is a perfect spring morning. The smell of rain is making it’s way through the house while soft rumbles echo from a distance…and you’ve just taken a leap. It wasn’t so much a calculated move as it was a deeply considered one. It is time, now, to face the somewhat terrifying—albeit entirely electrifying—beauty of the unknown territory awaiting you.
An ode to a wise past version of you:
the young elder within.
You glance back at the mirror just in time to offer yourself a genuine smile, recalling how a wise past version of you would have described these types of sensations as “chaotic”; in this season, you notice your body instinctively breathes to make space for this next evolution. You’re no stranger to the path of chosen change, but still, in many ways, it feels brand new again.
A fresh articulation is on her way, and you’re seasoned enough to heed her call. The one that simultaneously seems to offer endless possibilities yet very few available options—all at once.
If you’re being honest, here’s how you feel about active growth:
yet your heart has been courting you.
If you’re being honest, a large part of you prefers chapters of restful integration (you know, those eras that offer a reliable form of gentle peace, a cozy sense of warmth) in place of active growth.
But your heart knows better. She has been whispering for a while, bit by bit, courting you. You’ve listened, you’ve softened, and you’ve met her at that ineffable place of change. First unconsciously, then deliberately, you began to build the runway (and internal architecture) necessary to navigate transition…and now you’re here. One step on the other side of the open gate. Staring generously, lovingly into the mirror.
You deeply trust the woman you have become:
The human in the mirror has become your biggest advocate, your personal bestie, your biggest creative hype woman.
There is no person you would wager could have your back more than the woman staring back at you. You trust her—in that same undefinable way you trust your bones will still be there when you wake up in the morning. She is your biggest creative hype woman. Championship has become your modus operandi (your way of operating) and, most recently, it’s even approaching modus vivendi territory—your way of living.
Article Break:
Now feels like the perfect time to reveal a more personal side to my voice as I curate an additional intimate hub (for sharing personal essays, asking pertinent questions, and conducting interviews with brilliant writers & creative folk) over on my Substack newsletter.
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The dynamic root system of this championship:
acknowledging what exists within.
The relationship with your internal creative hype woman is developed over time. One cannot speak to this form of championship without recognizing what creates the infrastructure of it—what builds the home of it.
Relationship with Self, in this way, roots from:
relationship with God, and with higher power
relationship with generative creative community and energetically supportive environments
relationship with tissues, fluids, & bone; relationship with body, mind, & soul
relationship with proper creative movement (action), restoration, and rejuvenation
Tending to the fear of abandonment with love—strengthening the internal union:
revealing innate belonging creates the opportunity for championship.
We often call to the simplicity of Dr. Brené Brown’s work inside Braving the Wilderness, as she speaks to our search for belonging:
Belonging so fully to yourself that you’re willing to stand alone is a wilderness—an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. The wilderness can often feel unholy because we can’t control it, or what people think about our choice of whether to venture into that vastness or not. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.
revealing it’s true name: love.
As we strengthen and develop internal union (not solely within self, but within our relational field of expression, learning, and opportunity), we are shepherded into a clearer union with our Maker.
The fear of abandonment then, whether from one’s self or another, does not show itself as something we must eclipse, but rather something we are able to witness with the utmost love, care, and belonging.
This often means that the core ideologies perpetuated by parts of self (at times stimulated by genetic inheritance and/or personal experiences articulated by younger versions of self) are not meant to remain as wayward unconscious drivers… but as active teammates in the creative process.
What many speak to as a process of integration is, in its truest form—love.
Liberating our natural gifts:
nutritious soil and ecosystems for artists.
Love and integration are not prerequisites for potent artistic expression; yet, it is challenging to deny that an artist—a human living a rich life—profoundly benefits from nutritious ecosystems (both internally and outwardly).
These environments have needs. Needs which, once filled, multiply their growth potential, signify creative fertility, and grant an increased capacity for brave (and intuitive and intelligent) risk taking. Such a foundation allows for proper creative movement, reminiscent of the popularized term “aligned action.”
Proper creative movement involves multiple layers of expression and skill development, including:
the maturation of attentive listening; knowing when to soften, wait, restore, & transition; knowing when to employ vigor; understanding what to build
the willingness to inhabit the playful curiosity of one’s inner explorer, experiment with the art of devout performance, and allow for one’s natural creative expression and gifts to flourish in apt timing
embracing our distinct methods of discipline and dedication to our craft, as well as the way we approach ‘shipping our creative work’ (a quiet wave to the steadfast Seth Godin)
Ultimately, love and creative expression do more than intersect. They are decidedly one.
“If you do what you truly love you will unleash your creative dynamism, and the more creative you are the more energy becomes available to you.” —Richard Rudd
A Thank You note to choice:
you are the unsung hero of your creative voyage.
In choosing to frame yourself as your most trusted Creative Champion…your biggest advocate…the bestie you can forever count on, you’re signing up for the ride of a lifetime. You’re CHOOSING intimacy with life. You’re opting in for refinement and enchantment and deconstruction and mystery, and you’re choosing to tend to the ache.
In choosing to be fully here, you are daring to create a more beautiful life. We must thank the choice itself—for she is our unspoken companion.
You would place your bets on the woman in the mirror, and time after time the decision to let yourself be moved is what has walked you here.
That’s the Artist’s Date I want to sign up for:
what it would ask of you.
Life truly is one gigantic *Artist’s Date strung together by a succession of leaps and bounds and unplanned pauses and moments of profound clarity and depth and silliness and transformation. Alchemical roads you may have never opted to travel if you preemptively knew what it would ask of you, what it would take of you, what it would do for you…and yet, here we are. More profoundly alive, often more tired, and more bright-eyed and centered and lost and holy and human, and wholly and human. And when the dust settles and the smoke clears, right smack dab in the middle, you will find the beat of that which whispers, “I am here, and I am alive.”
*The lengendary Julia Cameron prescribes an (at least once weekly) adventure where artist’s head out into the world to explore something that interests them as a method of allowing the mischief of life to fill them.
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Article Written by Casey Balon, Editorial Director of Casey Jacque
Casey is a writer & creative director based outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. With a heart for literary journalism, an appetite for adventure, and a spark for creating dynamic — and deeply collaborative — environments, her aim is to bring genuine voices back to the creative table. When she’s not carrying out an interview, or writing about creative vitality through the lens of the body, you can find her hiking with her dogs, regenerating with her fiancé, diving deep with dear friends, or exploring a new place.
Let’s Connect: Instagram @iamcaseybalon, e-mail casey@caseyjacque.com
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