Beginning The Analog Life Project, a Few Ideas
A new year is here. How are you feeling, my friend?
My year is off to a gallop mostly because I’m joining Lori Roberts of Little Truths Studio in The Analog Life Project. It’s a free, year-long exploration of living more mindfully in the real world. She and I will be sharing essays and activities and encouraging community (including pen pals!) on our blogs and Substack. Learn all the details and catch up on all of the posts here.
After Lori invited me to work with her on this, I literally sat down on the floor of my studio with pen and paper and brainstormed in the best way I know how: letting words flow from my pen to the page.
What do I want to bring to this project? What do I want to take away?
If you haven’t already pondered these questions, I’d highly recommend spending a little bit of time doing so. (If you do it on paper by hand, even better!).
I’ll get back to my answer in a minute.
Writing to express myself — or more accurately, to understand myself, to make sense of life — has been a lifelong practice for me. I have shelves full of journals filled with scribbles.
Day after day, year after year, I’ve tried to anchor my thoughts and feelings, to record my experiences and ideas. I don’t call my journals scribbles to be derogatory, but to acknowledge the messy nature of this practice.
Life is messy, isn’t it?
There’s value in the messy. To the figuring out. When I publish a blog post or send a newsletter, all of that figuring out is lost. You can’t see my notes in the margins, the underlining and crossing out. I’m not saying what I share online or in print is always perfectly polished, but it’s only part of the full picture. I think that’s one of the reasons — although wonderful — these online spaces can leave us feeling less than fulfilled. But I also think that’s the beauty of this project. These words on a screen are only the starting point, an invitation to you. You can take this small part of the picture and fill it in with your own messiness. You can add your story. Write between the lines, cross things out, edit.
It’s what makes me most excited about this project. The thought of you living your analog life in beautiful, messy fullness.
The tagline of my website is: “instigating creativity and joy.” It’s why I show up online. Why I write and teach. And I think it sums up my intention for participating in The Analog Life Project, too. I want to nudge you into being more creative and finding more joy in your days. I think we all need more of both.
I already live a fairly analog life. I’m a book nerd (and former librarian) with bookshelves all over the house and stacks checked out from the public library scattered about, too. I handwrite my journals. I have a passion for making messes in sketchbooks. I create art by hand with watercolor and brush on paper.
And then there’s the garden. Gardening is part of who I am as a person and as an artist. Much of my inspiration comes from what I grow, often starting with a seed.
A dahlia plant I grew from seed as part of the container garden on our deck last summer. I later painted it.
There’s nothing more thrilling to me than planting a seed, watching it grow and then capturing a unique moment in time with paint on paper.
This will be my first full year living at our rural property. I’ll be beginning to build the first gardens here at our woodland homestead, truly a dream come true. The sheer physical labor involved will be exhausting, but I’ll be cherishing and savoring the process. It’s going to be slow, taking many years to evolve into what we imagine and it’s 100% analog.
But I do run most of my business online. Although I’m a member of a cooperative gallery in my little town and this will be the 5th year of participating in the Winding Roads Art Tour — both beautiful, analog ways to share my art and connect with people — a majority of my income comes from what I do on the internet. Being self-employed means the lines between life and work are often blurred. The danger for me is spending too much time at my computer desk and not enough time at my painting table. And yes, I do still struggle with the distraction of my phone (even without social media, which I quit years ago). The easy access to information. The need to check in with my email, the news, the weather…
Annie Dillard wrote, “how we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” I want to spend my hours, my days, my life being creative and witnessing beauty. I want to tip the balance from distraction to focus. From worry to mindfulness.
The internet is so FAST. It’s relentless. It can make you feel as if you’re not keeping up. Not accomplishing enough. And I’m tired of it.
What I’m yearning for most of all is to slow down and be present. I want time to think and to be.
Perhaps that’s a lot to expect from The Analog Life Project. Maybe it’s better just to answer What do I want to take away? with the intention of awareness. Awareness of how I spend my time and where I direct my focus. The rest will follow. And if it’s messy and imperfect, all the better. After all, an analog life is about the messy figuring out. It’s about what happens as we scribble our ideas, write in the margins and cross things out.
Before I go I want to leave you with a few ideas as you begin the Analog Life Project for yourself. I’ve created a workbook supplement you can download and print out. Add to your binder (or notebook or sketchbook) with Lori’s January workbook. Here’s to a beautiful, messy year!
Start with One Small Change
When we first started moving into our new home, we had so much work to do with the move, getting our other house ready for sale and beginning to clean up our neglected property, that I set up my studio as quickly as possible. The space I chose is on the second floor and consists of a landing at the top of the stairs from the kitchen (a narrow twisting staircase dubbed the butler stairs) and a bedroom the previous owners turned into a closet by building a wall down the center of the room and hanging wire shelving.
the previous owners’ closet and my work space before I rearranged it
In my last studio I put my computer in a closet so it would be less of a distraction from my art and I loved the idea of tucking my computer into the back corner of my new space. The only problem was that there weren’t any outlets on that side of the room and so my painting table ended up there instead. I have so many plans for my studio space (tearing out carpet, painting, knocking a whole in the wall… etc.) and I figured we’d eventually re-wire the room and I could move my computer.
But each time I entered the space, the prominence of my computer bothered me and with The Analog Life Project on my mind, I yearned to switch things around. So last week I spent two days moving everything from one side of the room to the other, using a heavy-duty extension cord until we get around to re-wiring the space.
My rearranged studio. My computer is to the right on the other side of the wall.
I absolutely love it (and wonder why I didn’t think of an extension cord in the first place!).
What small change can you make in your space or your home or your schedule to make your analog goals easier?
Analog First
Another small change you can make is shifting the order of your day. I’m not sure where I first heard the phrase “create before you consume,” but I remember Jen Hewett writing in her newsletter a few years ago about how the practice was transformative for her. I’ve seen it myself. As an artist I’m so much more productive if I work on art first. Although I love working in my sketchbook, I’d been pushing it aside for more “important stuff.” I miss it, so I’ve been making a point of starting days in my studio with my sketchbook.
creating a patchwork collage (the floral painted bits were wrapping paper from Dana Barbieri!)
So far so good. (I’ll be sharing more about keeping a sketchbook throughout the year. Look for a page of sketchbook prompts in the workbook).
Try it with any analog pursuit you’re wanting to focus on and let us know how it goes.
Make it Easy (or hard)
Moving my art table makes it easy for me to sit right down and get to work. Leaving the bag with my crochet project beside the sofa makes it easy for me to pick it up while we’re watching something on Britbox. Leaving my phone in the other room while I’m painting makes it hard for me to casually pick it up for distraction.
You get the idea.
Make it Special
In Lori’s post about reading she talks about reading as ritual. As I craft my new life here at our rural property, I’ve been thinking a lot about rituals. About habits and routines. About making each part of my day special. Writing in my journal as I drink my morning coffee and watch the birds at the feeders. Listening to an audiobook while I slowly cook dinner. Starting my days with my sketchbook in the quiet studio.
In an anti-diet piece, Anne Lamott wrote about helping other women get healthy by recommending they elevate the way in which they eat. I keep thinking about her metaphor of the difference between chowing down on Pringles standing at the counter and laying out a lovingly prepared meal on beautiful plates. I imagine the many ways it can be applied in our lives to areas other than food.
What a gift each of our days is. Let’s make each one special, even if it’s only in one small way.
Connect with Nature and the Season
A couple of the rituals I’ve been creating here are about connecting with nature and the season. I try to watch the sunrise. I sit in the sunroom with my coffee, waiting for it to get light enough to write in my journal. This takes time and focuses my attention. I get to notice how the sun moves across the horizon as the season changes. Each day I spend a little bit of time watching the birds at our feeders and keep my field guide nearby. I don’t usually see a bird I don’t know, but I enjoy learning a bit more about the ones I do. It won’t be too long before the goldfinches start changing colors. I’ll be glad to see it. In the evening I watch for color in the sky and try to walk up to the highest point of our property to see the sunset. Every day’s is different.
I try to pay attention to the cycle of the moon and spot it in the sky. And I’ve been taking walks not just with my dogs, but by myself. To explore. To notice. It feels so good.
Write a Joy List
One of the pages in my workbook is a set of printable Joy and Gratitude Lists. Writing Joy Lists is about slowing down and paying attention… to what you notice, what brings you joy, what you’re grateful for. This is a practice I started many years ago during a rough period in my life. On dark days it helped me see a glimmer of light. The more you look for beauty and joy, the more you find it.
What will you put on your list today?
Now go, live your messy analog life!
The Analog Life Project is free, but if you’d like to help support it you have options! Visit my shop and Little Truths Studio. Or you take one of my classes. Another way to support what we do is by becoming a paid subscriber or buying Lori a coffee. Thanks for being here!
