Waiter, There's a Bug in My Drink

I Guess I've Come Full Circle

Greetings from San Miguel de Allende, where every cocktail is garnished with the subject of some book I've written in the past. Here's a drink made with mezcal, a delicious spicy liqueur called Xila, pineapple juice, and soda water. 

Oh, and three toasted and salted crickets. 

When I wrote Wicked Bugs (which is not, to be clear, about crickets, but about a whole host of deadly, dangerous, and diabolical insects, spiders, etc, there was talk of serving bugs-as-food at my events.

I happen to be very pro-bug (except for the kinds that can kill you) but that doesn't mean I want to eat any--or enjoy them in a delicious cocktail. 

So I placed the bugs very gingerly on the table in front of me, where they could watch me drink my cocktail but not actually swim in it.

The bar, by the way, is called El Tres and I highly recommend it, even though I might order my next drink sin insectos.

The World Is Crazy, So I Got a Meditation App

Speaking of San Miguel, it is delightfully peaceful and pretty here. To spend a couple of weeks in January down here in Mexico, enjoying some sunshine and palm trees, drawing pictures...ah, it's pretty nice. It helps that I rarely have an Internet connection and have only the vaguest idea about what's going on in the world.

But that won't last, will it? I do have to get back to reality eventually. So I decided that maybe this would be the year I learn to meditate. Perhaps the inside of my head would look more like this if only I could learn to sit still and breathe.

Are you already skeptical? Well, so am I, but I'm giving Headspace a try anyway. If you're using it, let me know what you think.

This is Not the Work of a Talented Artist

Speaking of art...I just found a pad of drawing paper that only had one drawing in it. For some reason I'd written a date in the corner, so I am here to tell you that I drew this when I was thirty. 

I'm sharing this because I want to prove-and I'm sure you'll agree-that this is not the work of a person who can lay claim to that mysterious and presumably inborn quality that we call "talent."

A five year-old might get a pat on the head for this. A thirty year-old? Not so much. 

If I believed seriously in this idea of talent, I would've looked at that drawing and said, "See? I have no talent. Here's proof." That would've been reason enough to set aside art forever.

But now I draw like this.

What happened? Did I suddenly go out and get talented? Did the talent gene express itself after the age of thirty?

(I should add that you don't have to love this drawing. But you might agree that it's a more skillful depitction of a tower-like object than the first drawing is.)

Talent has nothing to do with it. What changed is that a year or two after I drew that first terrible drawing, I started taking art classes.

I've been taking art classes continuously since then--for almost twenty years. For a while I went to a weekly painting class. Sometimes I took weekend workshops. A few years ago I took several online classes here.

When you think about it that way, you might wonder why I haven't made more progress!

But the fact is that now I'm making drawings and paintings that please me. And talent has nothing to do with it.

In fact, I don't even think talent exists. 

I wrote more about this on my blog recently. I hope that if you're interested in questions of creativity, talent, learning, and what counts as "good enough," that you'll head over here and read it.  

It's actually a series of four posts. You'll see links to the others at the bottom.

Please do let me know your thoughts! Email me, or hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook and let's continue the conversation.

Will I See You in 2019?

I'm firming up a lot of dates for 2019, so stay tuned! And if you're part of a literary series, a library event, or some other bookish gathering, please feel free to reach out to publicity@amystewart.com to see about setting up an event.

Bainbridge Island, WA: Feb 28 Eagle Harbor Book Co
Portland, OR: Mar 28: Ristretto Roasters (Details TBA)

More tour dates can always be found on my website. Please confirm details with the venue before you head out.

Enter to Win!

Are you on Goodreads? Then please head over there and enter to win a copy of the third Kopp novel, Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions. 

What Are You Reading?

While I'm in Mexico I'm reading Ninth Street Women, a group biography of five major American women painters of the mid-twentieth century.

It's a fascinating book that has taught me a great deal about the era in which they lived and about the Abstract Expressionist art movement in general. 

If only their husbands (Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning among them) weren't so damned infuriating. Lee Krasner, you deserved better. Elaine de Kooning, you're the better painter and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

What are you reading? Find me on Goodreads or Litsy and let me know.