Have a Cow

The agency of creativity in sh*tty times

Yesterday on the looooong flight back from Ireland, I painted this cow ^.

Actually, it began as a cow and then wandered off, like many of my intentions, into a realm of mirth and wabi-sabi*. One ear is confident about its place in the world but the other, not so much. The eyes agree on a shared reality, but the nostrils mock it. The nose isn’t larger than a breadbox… it is a breadbox. (Follow me for more “metaphors that age me”). It is not a classically drawn cow by traditional standards and you probably wouldn’t see it on a farm unless you were on drugs or had a bit too much Guinness.

But it made me laugh.

It has personality: a little offbeat, defiant, and rendered as a result of a short attention span which I’m happy to say for me has morphed into an art style I enjoy. It knows something about surviving unwanted circumstances, clumsiness, and in its own crooked and colorful way, is energetic.

It’s not accurate. Art gives us license to wander off script, to favor aliveness over correctness, and to make something that feels true to our own preferences when the world doesn’t seem to care about them. Despite my once reluctance to share my art due to an overly active inner critic, I do now because when I catch thoughts of fear or inferiority I just say, “So what.” There’s an enjoyable rebelliousness in posting the imperfect.

“Art takes courage.” ~Henri Matisse

If we meet the blank page with the courage that Matisse talks about, we are able not only to leave a trace of being here that may make a difference in at least one person’s life, we claim our agency to create our own renditions of reality which is a lifesaver right now.

Life comes with imitations, inconveniences, gravity in places we didn’t authorize but which don’t respond to negotiation. We make plans that fly off like untamed birds. We are asked, often with the subtlety of a falling piano, to make peace with loss, aging, the fact that “the way we thought it would be” is a good joke.

Art is the loophole. It’s where we slip out the window of restriction and expectation wearing a defiant grin, wielding a paint brush dripping with turquoise, with a parachute made of fascination. It loosens the grip of reality.

In the realm of creating, whether with words, paint, movement, or metaphor, we a get to improvise, misbehave, reframe, turn“this is not what I wanted” into the vast landscape of alternatives – some we won’t discover until we take the first small, imperfect step.

Art liberates us from the myth that we are only what has happened to us. It whispers, “Add a new, original version,” “create a plot twist,” “give yourself what you needed but didn’t get,” “find refuge from the storm,” and my favorite, “make yourself laugh.” We can shape the unedited material of our lives into something that bears our unmistakable signature: flawed, vivid, human, and alive.

It gives us the ability to create instead of collapse in these troubled times.

Best wishes,

Jill

*Wabi-sabi: . Acts as an antidote to modern perfectionism, encouraging us to accept the natural, flawed, and fleeting nature of life.

Ireland Inspired Creativity June 17, 2026 11 am pacific/ 2pm eastern

In our next Zoom Creativity workshop we will practice exactly this: loosening the grip of perfection, following what shows up, and working to discovering a voice that has been lurking under layers of resistance, fear, and comparison. We’ll write, draw, play, and confuse the inner critic. No experience, skill or coordination required, just a willingness to be a little curious, imperfect, and maybe even amused. And a desire to remain sane.

The workshop will be inspired by my trip to Ireland so you will discover a version of sheep, MORE chickens, and cows but with your stamp of iridescent originality on it.

For anyone who’s not a paid subscriber: $27: Recording will be made available

Pay here

Included in Paid Subscriber subscription: Your link will be emailed and posted in the paid subscriber chat.