10 Comments

I enjoy your writing so much. I'm not even sure how I came to follow your work, but I have been doing it for several years now. I am not an artist, but I always get something out of your letters anyway. They are like pausing and taking a deep breath somehow. Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts.

Expand full comment

Thank you Kate, that means a lot thank you for sharing <3

Expand full comment

Hi Anna,

I am a new subscriber here and am really enjoying your newsletters. I read O'dell's first book How to Do Nothing and found it revelatory. So this is a good reminder to read her second. I've just finished Oliver Burkman's Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, which was like a gigantic exhale, a reminder that we are here for we do not know how long, and that as O'dell says, perhaps a "longer or more productive life" is not the point "but rather" one that is more alive in the present, "a movement outward and across." How long does art take, a lifetime indeed. I've finally given myself to art (writing) in the last year, at 51.

Your retreat in Norway sounds wonderful!

Expand full comment

Hi Emily! Thanks for being here :) I LOVE Oliver's book and recommend it all the time. In fact it came up in a conversation yesterday. A giant exhale for sure.

Expand full comment

Thank you Anna!

Expand full comment

yessss! all of this. its so true .

Expand full comment

you came to mind as I was writing this... the time it takes for a seed to germinate, a dye plant to grow big enough that you can pick it, making the dye, etc. etc. :)

Expand full comment

its so lovely to be thought of. I do really think the time/ money thing is hard for artists. The deep irony is that many of the people who are making wild amounts of money per hour are actually not working at all but profiting off someone else's labour so the yucky feeling we get when questioned about how long something took while earning money is a red flag I think.

Expand full comment

Yes!!

Expand full comment

Brilliant homogenization of so many conversations I’ve/we’ve had over the years. It’s so refreshing to call out this capitalistic way of seeing!!

Expand full comment