27 Comments
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Myq Kaplan's avatar

Dear Kelcey,

Excellent piece! Thank you for sharing the secret origin of The Habit of Art!

Love

Myq

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Kelcey Ervick's avatar

Thanks for your wonderful comments, everyone! Will reply to them soon! ❤️🇮🇪

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Emily Geleske's avatar

I loved reading about how you look back fondly at your space in the old attic - I feel the same way about my kitchen counter, where I started creating and thinking like an artist before I settled into a more permanent spot in another room. There is something so nostalgic about those early days!

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Eric Gingerich's avatar

Hi Kelcey! When I read, "I didn't really know what it would look like to become a writer, I just knew how urgently I wanted it," you were speaking so directly to my artist soul that it shattered the chattering anxiety in my head at that moment and had tears forming in the corner of my eyes. Just wanted to share the power of words, even across this digital landscape we find ourselves so often in.

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Emily Pittman's avatar

I love the idea of experiencing the world through our senses and making meaning that way.. now I want to read that book!!

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Chris Stanton's avatar

Hope you have a great time in Ireland, Kelcey

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Steve Bauman's avatar

Lovely piece. Very encouraging 😊

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Nico Sakaki's avatar

I love this perspective and the focus on the "unconscious, mysterious process of perception and making of meaning" in addition to the actual art-making. It's easy for me to get caught up in the productivity aspect of my creative practice--how showing up consistently inevitably leads to me creating more (most of the time). But the more I shift my focus from my creative output to how I'm paying attention to the outside world, the more expansive my practice becomes. Your newsletters always serve as helpful reminders of this.

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Wendy Chaiken's avatar

Thank you for these enlightening words. Enjoy your trip and I hope you packed that cute bag of travel art supplies.

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Rachael's avatar

Enjoy Ireland!!

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Jay Bremyer's avatar

Wow, Kelcey, this post is beautiful. Thanks for going further into your explanation of The Habit and roots in O'Conner and her beautiful occasional prose and cartooning and cultivating the deep senses and the excellent creations you bespeckle our lives with just as she did yours. Have a great time in Ireland!

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Molly Booker's avatar

This feels so timely. I am starting the MFA in Creative Writing program at Chatham in the fall and am thrilled!! These are some great reading recommendations to get me in the habit! Thank you.

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Joshua Robinson's avatar

Thanks for this lovely and inspiring post! Hope you have a great trip!

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Wendy McWaffle's avatar

This was GORGEOUS in every way!

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David P. Smith's avatar

Love Flannery O'Conner, excited to seek out this book.

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Weston Parker's avatar

I remember reading "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", very powerful stuff.

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