November 2024 Recap and What To Expect The Rest of This Year
Essay collections, a guest post, a visual/sound interview, and more ...
I woke up earlier this week and didn’t want coffee, which is always a sure sign that I am sick. I got a cold and it was nasty and I canceled all plans for the week and I’ve been sleeping and hydrating and sleeping and taking cold medicine and sleeping. And I’ve also been thinking here and there about all of the things I hope to do/see/create/be a part of in 2025. But first, we need to wrap up 2024. So, here’s the recap of what happened on Create Me Free in November 2024.
I offer these monthly recaps for people who want to limit the “noise” that comes through inbox. It allows you to choose to receive just a once-monthly email linking to everything I wrote throughout the month, opening those articles at your own pace and desire.
End Of The Year Discount Reminder
If you are a free subscriber to Create Me Free then yesterday you received an email from me titled One Year of Create Me Free Only $10! It’s a reminder that I offer a sliding scale rate on annual subscriptions, that if you believe in the work, this is a way to support the work.
End of The Year Snail Mail Reminder
If you are a paid subscriber here on Create Me Free … first of all, thank you. And second, you should have received an email from me letting you know that I’m planning to send out some handmade holiday cards and would love to send you one. Just email or DM me your mailing address. Yes, to any country in the world.
November has been a pretty slow month around here although a lot of work has gone into it. I’m trying to clean up all of my old essays and create collections of them so that I can have a concise Table of Contents here where you can go find the things you might want to read. So, I’ve shared a lot of those collections. To create them, I go through each essay in the collection and remove paywalls, update images, remove some of the outdated wording that doesn’t suit my goals today, consolidate certain things, etc etc etc.
It’s still a work in progress. I particularly need to go through all of the amazing interviews here, which I’ll be doing in December. But you can see the new Table of Contents work in progress beginning to shape up.
In December, you can expect:
A few more of these essay collections. A few visual art shares. And a lot of spaciousness. I have reworked a bunch of stuff for 2025 but for December it’s rest, spending time with family, being still.
What you saw here in November:
November Essay Collections
Essay Collection: First Person Musings and Thoughts
This is the personal stuff that’s all about my own lived experience as a full time writer-artist who lives with double depression.
Diving Deep Into The Crevices Where Art Meets Psychology
I explore the ways that mental health intersects with creative process, content, medium, productivity, identity and business. This is a collection of collections - one for each of those categories.
Georgia O'Keeffe: Where Art History Meets Mental Health
Here you’ll find all of my articles about Georgia O’Keeffe all about the ways in which her creative work and her mental health intersect. Each piece looks at a different part of O’Keeffe’s creative journey and how they were shaped by both her mental health and her relationships.
Art History Meets Psychology: A Collection of Essays
Here is where you'll find all of my writing about the psychology of specific artists (including Georgia O'Keeffe), outdated mental health diagnoses among artists (such as hysteria and neurasthenia), and topical roundups (such as art created in institutions).
Essay Collection: Crochet/Craft As Therapy
Organized into subcategories:
Excerpts from Crochet Saved My Life
Therapeutic Crochet Exercises from Hook to Heal
Interviews about Craft as Therapy
Craftivism
Other Essays on Craft as Therapy
Mandalas for Marinke awareness raising
And more … (podcasts, audio, other stuff)
Essay Collection: Books Where Art Meets Psychology
Here you will find links to the essays here on Create Me Free that are about books, mostly books I’m reading, occasionally broader thoughts about books, as they relate to the intersection of art + psychology.
Archive of Original THREADSTACK Posts
THREADSTACK is a community and directory for people who love yarn and thread, fiber and fabric. This is the collection of all of the original articles that appeared here on Create Me Free before THREADSTACK moved to become its own publication.
And Other Things
Gratitude this month to
for her guest post and for her visual/sound interview.November: Revealing A Return to the Self
An intro to the month, which is something I’ll be doing generally on the 1st of each month - where I’m at, personal things, creative things, where we may journey together.
Joanna Answers in Images and Sound
Neurodiversity, trauma, and other factors can cause language to be too difficult or too limiting. So I invite people to respond in images … or in sound. We have only had one sound interview prior to this (from LizzyCo), and I was so moved to receive Joanna’s musial / sound art responses.
Guest Post: The 4-Hour Workweek for Artists and Dancers
A helpful guest post for you from April Lorenzi of Beyond the Dance Floor: Mental Hacks for Dancers whose website bio reads in part:
“Dance gives me an appreciation for life and for the human body like nothing else does. I believe life should be full of doing what you love and striving to achieve your full potential. I believe that where your thoughts are constantly taking you is where you are meant to be. Dance has been that for me since I first began.”
A found poetry piece of mine was featured in this collection of art and writing from neurodiverse creatives. So many inspiring pieces in here.
Meanwhile, Over in Notes
From my life and mind and things I’m reading, I shared:
I was moved to share with others these things from
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , andGratitude to others for conversing and sharing!
Thanks
, , , , andThank you for being here. I treasure you.
Thanks for the mention, Kathryn. I'm thrilled to see SurvivorStack find a dedicated readership, and really appreciate your help in spreading the word.
Great roundup and thanks for the mention. 😊