My New Book & 1st Year Anniversary!
In this collection of poetry, images, and prompts, Schalk guides you toward making quiet time and space for your creative work, shares thoughts on how to begin if your ideas have run dry, and assists you with seeing the beauty and possibilities inherent in the world around you. In (quiet, space)., you will move through a series of themes designed for close looking and listening such as stillness, movement, fragmented self, innovation, and preserving hope.
Summer Reading
Adulthood packs a wallop. For many of us, summers are no longer synonymous with vacation. Suddenly, there’s no “free reading” time structured into our work days (at best, we sandwich some in during lunch). We become trained to be hard-working, high-achievers with a laserlike focus on practicality and production. In fact, when I mentor adult artists and creatives and suggest book titles, many immediately approach this as homework.
When You Encounter Setbacks & Resistance
In one way, shape, or form, we will all encounter a major roadblock or setback in our creative lives, including those so massive that they have the power to derail us. For me, this first occurred on a grand scale in 2014.
Pandemic Journaling Part II: Getting Started
Beginning with a fresh page in a blank notebook can offer senses of excitement, promise, and even exhiliharation. Each time you work in a journal, you’re not only starting a new chapter in both literal and figurative senses, but in a way, you’re finding renewed agency as the author of your own story.
Pandemic Journaling Part I: Reasons to Start Writing Today
I first entered into an on-again, off-again journaling practice at the beginning of 2009. Consistent writing became one of a handful of ways I coped with living across the country from my family, managing chronic (and at the time unnamed and undiagnosed) illness, juggling an intense college workload, and saying good-bye to my husband for long stretches of time as he was sent overseas…
Creating in the Time of COVID
In autumn 2020, a young journalist interviewed me about my work as an artist -- how had my art responded to the realities of the pandemic? But as the interview progressed, I began to sense a disconnect between what I had to share and what this journalist was seeking…