Jess C.

Joined June 2024

0 stories

Bio

40-something creative -- artist, writer, maker -- parent, and educator. Queer neurodivergent feminist geek. Over-worked, under-slept, over-caffeinated, and over-thinking.

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allyourcrookedheart.com

Stories (7/0)

The Contagion of Creativity
The Stigma of Self-Indulgent Creation I don’t remember exactly when, but at some point in my early adulthood, being creative began to feel taboo.
By Jess C.about 6 hours ago in Art
I’m Not Here to Look Pretty
I’m forty-one, I’m fat, and I’m aware that Society would really rather I not wear a bikini out in public. That’s fine. Society has a right to its opinion.
By Jess C.about 23 hours ago in Viva
How Becoming an Artist Changed My Relationship to My Body
Unknowingly Embarking on a Journey I’ve been focusing on visual art casually since 2018, and more seriously since the start of the pandemic in 2020. While I sporadically sketched and played around with digital painting and some student-grade acrylic those first two years, I think the greatest contribution to my artistic growth in 2018 and 2019 came in the guise of unlearning some really toxic beliefs and assumptions about art.
By Jess C.about 23 hours ago in Art
The Benefits of Structured Creative Challenges
For years, prior to the Covid pandemic forever changing my attitude towards creativity, I had a complex relationship to my own creative nature. Some of this was innate — I’m neurodivergent and have a hard time with executive functioning, particularly initiation and self-monitoring — and some of it was societal — I was bombarded with work and familial obligations, and found it hard to manage to clear, regular, recurring time to do something self-indulgently creative (and even if I did, I was too burned out to generate any ideas as to what to create).
By Jess C.about 23 hours ago in Writers
Reaping the Rewards of Rebellion: The Benefits of Being a NaNoWriMo Rebel
With another iteration of Camp NaNo upon us, I feel obligated to say that while I respect those WriMos who personally hold the “novel” part of National Novel Writing Month as sacrosanct, I’ve had a full twenty years worth of NaNoWriMo experience to inform me that, hey, maybe writing a novel just isn’t for me.
By Jess C.a day ago in Writers
Fowl Love: How I Discovered Fanfic
So, full disclosure — I can’t name my first time for certain. In my early days in fandom, so much of what I was discovering was so new that it was only retroactively that I was able to assign names to a number of things I had experienced. How many times did someone come into a forum just to be a combative asshole before I realized we were “getting trolled?” How many lighthearted exchanges did I have in-character as part of a favorite fictional pairing before I found out I was “role playing?”
By Jess C.2 days ago in Geeks
How Reframing Our Idea of Failure Helps Us Succeed
Every once in a while, I hear some throw-away line that hits me unexpectedly. Lately, I’ve made it a point to take more creative risks, so I had the concepts of failure and success on my mind anyway, but there’s a scene in Season One of The Good Place where Ted Danson’s character, Michael, refers to Manny Jacinto’s Jason as “a failed DJ,” before Jason stops him.
By Jess C.2 days ago in Motivation

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Jess C.

Bio

Stories .css-1svwz57-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-default-mute);}(7/0)

The Contagion of Creativity

I’m Not Here to Look Pretty

How Becoming an Artist Changed My Relationship to My Body

The Benefits of Structured Creative Challenges

Reaping the Rewards of Rebellion: The Benefits of Being a NaNoWriMo Rebel

Fowl Love: How I Discovered Fanfic

How Reframing Our Idea of Failure Helps Us Succeed

Subscribe to my stories

Send me a tip

Stories (7/0)