Elizabeth Gilbert

I had the amazing opportunity last month to photograph an amazing creative artist – Elizabeth Gilbert. You might not recognize her name right away if you’re not in a writing or creative circle. But you’ll probably know the book and movie about her post-divorce life crisis: Eat, Pray, Love.

Her latest book, about encouraging creatives to look inside themselves and unleash the creative magic within them, is called Big Magic. And she recently came to Spokane to discuss creativity, writing, and unleashing our ideas. She discussed the real things holding us back.

Artistic Permission

One of my favorite things she discussed was the idea that creatives hold ourselves to a crazy standard. We think that if we’re going to do something, it has to be big. It has to be life- and world-changing. She said screw that. Just do something, anything. It does NOT have to be earth shattering. Do something because you want to do it and that in itself is reason enough.

I feel like sometimes we need that kind of permission as artists, writers, photographers, speakers. Sometimes the things we want to do need permission in order for us to just do them, which is a shame. We need to embrace that inner voice and let that creativity out into the world.

Anyways, I was honored Spark asked me to photograph the event for them. I loved being able to help out Spark while also getting to see an amazing creative talk about such powerful ideas that really give others permission to explore their interests freely.

Thanks for checking in with me this month! Follow along to Erin Berry in Pennsylvania and check out how her October was!