Make Art Be Happy

What if your exhaustion isn’t coming from doing too much, but from giving yourself away before your day even begins? In this episode, Lynn explores a different way of thinking about creative energy. She challenges the belief that we simply need more sleep, better routines, or more discipline. Instead, she reveals why so many creative women feel empty before they ever sit down to paint, write, or m...

MAKE ART BE HAPPY · SHOW NOTES The Chair You Won’t Sit In Self-Worth · why you can’t rest, and the belief underneath it. Episode description You sit down, and within a minute you’re up again. You finally have the time, and you still can’t take it. If that’s you, this episode is about why, and it isn’t what you think. Rest that won’t come is not a discipline problem. It’s a belief. Somewhere a long...

You can decide what everyone else needs in a heartbeat. The dinner, the gift, the hard conversation, the right thing for your kid, your friend, your mother. You’re good at it. People count on it. So why does it go quiet the moment the decision is for you? The studio time. The price. The no. The yes that isn’t useful to anyone but you. Suddenly you need more information. You want to talk it through...

I need to share with you what happened this year. Not because I have it all figured out. But because I’ve been walking around asking myself how does that happen and I think I finally know. Fourteen months ago I had a mastectomy. A small, dark time. Scary in ways I won’t minimize. And yet, lying there before surgery, I had this belief. Not a wish. A belief. That I was going to beat this. That I was...

This week I read a story about myself. Halfway through, I realized I didn’t recognize the woman in it. The article was written after an interview about my reconstruction journey at Hoag Hospital, after not getting the results I had hoped for at another prestigious health center. I felt grateful they wanted to tell the story. So I sat down with coffee and began reading. She sounded broken. Wounded....

I was out for a walk today. Same pond. Same path. Different body. Different life. Almost exactly one year ago, I was here too. But then, I was walking with a walker after a bilateral mastectomy. One breast removed. One rebuilt using a flap surgery where they take fat from your belly and rebuild the breast. I had no idea what I was getting into. I only knew one thing. My health mattered more than a...

I just got back from my grandson’s transitional kindergarten classroom. There was art. There was relationship. There was that soft, steady feeling that happens when people are making something together. And it stirred up a memory I haven’t shared in a long time. My art practice began in 1989. I was married with a newborn. Elizabeth was just a couple of months old. My oldest son was four. My husban...

Let’s talk about something almost every creative woman has done at least once. We buy the course. We feel hopeful. We feel excited. We feel like “THIS is the one.” And then… We don’t start. Or we start and disappear. Or we finish… and still don’t implement. And we quietly wonder what’s wrong with us. Why we buy courses in the first place Most of the time we’re not buying information. We’re buying...

Most women who are drawn to art carry a quiet belief. I am not an artist. Art belongs to other people. I missed my chance. It often feels like a fact. Something settled long ago. But that belief did not appear out of nowhere. It was shaped by childhood moments. A comment in school. A comparison that stung. A paper that did not look right. A teacher who moved on. A feeling of being behind. So you l...

Most creative women think they need to feel motivated, calm, confident, or inspired before they sit down to make something. So when they feel tired, anxious, sad, flat, or overwhelmed, they wait. They scroll. They clean. They overthink. And the art table stays empty. What I shared in today’s video is simple and important. You do not need the right mood to create. You need permission to bring your...

Most creative women think they are the problem. Not consistent enough. Too scattered. Too late. What if the problem is not you but the way it has been named? Low quality creative problems sound like I am behind I am lazy I never finish anything They create shame and very little art. High quality creative problems sound kinder and more useful. I want a gentle practice that fits my real life I want...

2025 was the hardest year of my life. Breast cancer. Surgery. Infection. Family layoffs. Illness. It felt like wave after wave after wave. There were days I was scared. Days I was exhausted down to my bones. And for a while, my art practice slipped away. But then something quiet happened. I found my brush again. Not from motivation. Not from discipline. Just from a gentle pull inside me that said...

I return shopping carts. Not because I am especially good. But because if I do not, a small voice wakes up. You are careless. You leave things for others. You are doing it wrong. That voice is shame. It does not shout. It whispers in ordinary places. Parking lots. Unfinished paintings. Messy tables. Art hears this voice too. You should be further along. This should look better by now. If you were...

Flow doesn’t arrive fully formed. It shows up after we begin. For me, it comes through writing. I start without knowing where I’m going. That’s when the words begin to move on their own.m and I clear out what blocks me from my creative rhythm. I see the same thing with someone I coach, though her doorway is different. She finds flow through meditation. The effort softens. The practice opens. She i...

Sometimes life just feels heavy. You’re frustrated. You’re tired. You want to cry. And you don’t feel good in your body or your heart. In this live, I talk about how to let those emotions move through you without getting stuck in them and how to stop pulling meaning from the past and instead let the future guide your next step. Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my nex...

This morning I was walking around our pond. Foggy. Christmas lights still up. The sun trying to break through. Yesterday my doctor said I could start moving again. After a year of breast cancer. Four surgeries. A body that needed rest more than discipline. When I was 58, I ran a marathon. I will never do that again. But I am still a runner. Once you run a marathon, that truth doesn’t disappear jus...

I just posted the first session of Start Where You Are, my five part series for creative women who want to return to their art with more ease and confidence. Today we talked about creative problems. Not the dramatic ones, but the quiet thoughts that keep us from starting or finishing. I show you how to turn a low quality problem that shrinks you into a high quality creative problem that grows you....

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

I was in second grade, walking home with a pickle, when the news broke: President Kennedy had been assassinated. Before that moment, the world felt safe. After that moment—it didn’t. Then came Bobby. Then Martin. A generation was shaken awake, and because of it, women like me could open a credit card without a husband’s signature. I believe we’re at that line again. Hate is loud. Violence is excus...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lynnhardin.substack.com/subscribe

Making art is not always easy. It looks like it should be. Children in kindergarten and certainly my grandsons make art with ease whether with a brush, marker, crayon or even a stick out in the yard. All we must do is grab a brush, press play on that course, make a little something while dinner is in the crockpot. But the moment we try being creative , something deeper starts stirring. It’s not ju...