Saying Yes to Big Magic & Creative Friends

(All of my imagery in this post was digitally collaged from this journal page!)

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Thanks to my creative friends and brilliant comics creators,

Teresa Wong

and Alverne Ball, for the inspiring conversation. ❤️ And of course thanks to

Elizabeth Gilbert

for articulating the BIG MAGIC of the creative life so wonderfully.

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Speaking of saying yes to ideas, some newsy stuff:

When I was a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati, I often attended literary events at the George Elliston Poetry Room, which I naturally assumed was named for a dead dude. I was fascinated to learn that George Elliston (1893-1946) was actually a woman, that her name at birth was George (it wasn’t a pseudonym), that she was a crime reporter AND a poet. She secretly amassed a fortune and left it to the university for “the cause of poetry”!

I did a bunch of research on her back in grad school and, twenty years later, the idea magically floated back to me, ready to be turned into a graphic essay, which you can read at the Cincinnati Review.

(Women reporters were disparagingly called “paper dolls”!)

Which reminds me

A month ago, I shared a post about how I was floundering in my fourth month of daily artmaking. In January I chose to work with acrylic paints all month, and it wasn’t going well. One thing that helped turn things around was that I got some acrylic paint markers, which I’d never used before, and that’s what I used to create the portraits of George Elliston for the graphic essay.

At AWP in Kansas City this week

Finally, I’m headed to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP) this week in Kansas City. Here are my events if anyone is there and wants to meet IRL!

Thursday Feb 8 Offsite Reading

7:00 pm: Rose Metal Press, Blackbird, and Cupboard Pamphlet will be hosting an amazing line-up of readers at Nimble Brewing, 1735 Oak Street, Kansas City. Rose Metal’s readers will be Aaron Angello, Kelcey Ervick, and Jasmine Sawers.

Saturday Feb 10 Panel

12:10 to 1:25 pm: “Writers Making Comics and Collage: How Changing Mediums Changed Our Writing” with The RMP Field Guide to Graphic Literature writers Kelcey Ervick, Naoko Fujimoto, Nick Potter, Lauren Haldeman, and David Lee. Room 2101, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level

Saturday Feb 10 Book Signing

1:30 to 2:30 pm: After their panel, RMP Field Guide to Graphic Literature panelists will sign copies of the book at the Rose Metal Press table 1815. 

George Elliston SWAG at the Cincinnati Review

I also designed a George Elliston image for this amazing swag available at the Cincinnati Review’s AWP table:

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Thanks for reading The Habit of Art, a free illustrated newsletter by Kelcey Ervick about writing, drawing, and storytelling as radical acts (that look a lot like sitting at a desk). I love creating these posts and am grateful for all of you who read them. I’m the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir, The Keeper, which was featured in the NY Times Book Review’s Holiday Gift Guide. And I’m co-editor with Tom Hart of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature—a guide to making all kinds of comics, collage, and graphic poetry.

Website: www.kelceyervick.com/
Art on Instagram: @kelcey.parker.ervick
Twitter, X, whatever, nevermind: @kelceyervick