How Being Creative Helps Me

be mindful, self-caring and compassionate.

Welcome to Denyse Whelan Writes Here.

I’m Denyse Whelan and I’ve been sharing words and pics on the internet since 2011….blogging and using social media until late 2023 when I decided I needed a fresh start and began writing on Substack.

I like to change the look from time to time..part of my creativity…and I’d like to welcome a very special (to me, and many too) new subscriber today:

Clover Stroud. A link to her Substack is here.

I’ve written about my connection with and to Clover via social media and I am very grateful for this. I have the actual books now, and listened to all 4 of her books but it was this one…about H O M E which connected me so much with her words and what I could not articulate.

Clover and her family are living, for now, in Washington D.C. and she is sharing ‘live’ what’s been happening. I won’t go there…but I will go here:

I LOVE that when Clover and her kids are at home, and there are no distracting screens, art and craft of all kinds become the focus….for her too.

It reminded me of this:

“I could only deal with life’s stressors, over the last decade, which have included social isolation, missing friends and family, a very nasty cancer diagnosis and treatments, as well as moving back home’, helping care for my 100 yo Dad, then his hospitalisation, and death in late Feb 2024 …and more events in 2024 which are nameless…by having a creative art outlet always available.

After seeing my lovely G.P. yesterday and showing her some of my little patterns in a book, she agreed about how mindful this must be …it IS dear reader.

And I am sharing here a small selection from my current work and play called

A

R

T

Today’s art mindfulness as I continue self-care done right for me!

My designs using karin brushmarkers and more.

Tiny patterns in small book awating colours!

Repetition rocks….using Winsor and Newton markers.

And this is my messy, creative and lovely space, right next to my IMac as I type the words!!

And sometimes I will listen to an audiobook as I make art…lately this has ranged from re-listens to Elizabeth Strout’s 7 books I have via Audible, and Miranda Hart’s latest about her health and self-care…and sometimes I also listen to music. I am re-listening to Clover’s Giant on The Skyline too.

This is a small house we live in now, but we make it work for us both..us oldies, using air pods and headphones.

54 years wed this Thursday so we are doing something right!!

Photo from our Golden Wedding Anniversary Family Celebration…January 2021 in the midst of covid restrictions! We had the family visit over 2 days as numbers of people to a house was 5.

How do you find time for creativity in whatever form you like?

Denyse x