My New Book & 1st Year Anniversary!
In this collection of poetry, images, and prompts, Schalk guides you toward making quiet time and space for your creative work, shares thoughts on how to begin if your ideas have run dry, and assists you with seeing the beauty and possibilities inherent in the world around you. In (quiet, space)., you will move through a series of themes designed for close looking and listening such as stillness, movement, fragmented self, innovation, and preserving hope.
Summer Reading
Adulthood packs a wallop. For many of us, summers are no longer synonymous with vacation. Suddenly, there’s no “free reading” time structured into our work days (at best, we sandwich some in during lunch). We become trained to be hard-working, high-achievers with a laserlike focus on practicality and production. In fact, when I mentor adult artists and creatives and suggest book titles, many immediately approach this as homework.
Pandemic Journaling Part I: Reasons to Start Writing Today
I first entered into an on-again, off-again journaling practice at the beginning of 2009. Consistent writing became one of a handful of ways I coped with living across the country from my family, managing chronic (and at the time unnamed and undiagnosed) illness, juggling an intense college workload, and saying good-bye to my husband for long stretches of time as he was sent overseas…
Creating in the Time of COVID
In autumn 2020, a young journalist interviewed me about my work as an artist -- how had my art responded to the realities of the pandemic? But as the interview progressed, I began to sense a disconnect between what I had to share and what this journalist was seeking…