The Practice

What happens when two artists pull out the work they usually keep hidden?

Mariel and I recently went Live on Substack to share the art we might never show anyone. The pieces that felt ugly. The ones that did not turn out the way we imagined. The experiments we abandoned and the paintings we simply never finished.

And we laughed. A lot.

Because once we brought those pieces into the light, they did not feel quite so terrible anymore.

They became evidence of curiosity, courage, learning, and being willing to make...

What if confidence isn’t something you need before you begin?

So many of us wait until we feel confident enough to make the painting, send the email, have the conversation, apply for the job, share our work, or try something new.

But confidence may have the whole thing backwards.

In this episode of The Art Coach, I’m talking about something I learned from watching my grandson learn to walk. He didn’t need to believe he was a good walker before he took the next step. He fell. He got back up. He...

Make Art Be Happy | 22 minutes 37 seconds |

Episode description

A piece can be skillful. The proportions can work, the color can work, other people can admire it, and you can still look at it and feel strangely absent from it. Nothing is obviously wrong. Something is missing. This week Lynn makes the case that what is missing is not more skill. It is more of you.

She tells the story of the drawing she made the day after Belle died. She was not drawing Belle and she was not making a picture about grief...

Your voice isn't a finished destination, it's the ongoing conversation between you and the work.

In this episode I tell the story of one honest mark on a napkin and what it revealed about an artist who, beneath sixty years of beautiful work, was still waiting for permission.

It's about the difference between making something beautiful and making something honest, and the mark you almost make but talk yourself out of.

The newest round of The Practice is now open if you want to build an art practice that actually feels like you.<...

You keep your word to everyone. Your kids, your husband, your friends, the people at church who somehow got your number. But that painting you stopped doing, the walk you keep meaning to take, the book with the bookmark stuck on page 12 since spring?

This episode is about the promises you only ever make to yourself, and why those became the ones it feels safe to drop.

This isn’t about guilt, and it isn’t about discipline. If you follow through for everyone else, you have plenty of discipline.

You’ve just spent...

There is a kind of stuck that does not look like stuck.

It looks like competence.

You are making, you are finishing things, the proportions are right and the color is handled, and anyone looking would say it is pretty good.

And then you stand in front of it and feel almost nothing, because you know something they do not.

It is correct and empty.

It looks like art, and it does not feel like yours.

This episode is about that flatness, why it is not a...

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 make something that belongs to them.

Then she shares a simple practice she calls The Five Minute Bridge, a gentle way to return to your creativity without pr...

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 time ago you learned that your turn came last, that st...

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 one more time. You’re waiting for a sign, a green light, someone to tell you it’s okay.

The flight was long.

I slept in fits.

And when I finally walked out into the Paris morning air, I did not reach for a plan.

I reached for my sketchbook.

I’ve been here before.

I know this city a little.

But this trip I made a decision before I ever left home.

I was bringing almost nothing.

A small pack.

A few things I trust.

No trying to be prepared for every possible creative moment that might ar...

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.

Like someone life had simply happened to.

And I remember pausing and thinking, th...

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 anything else.

This time last year...

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 husband was a hospital administrator in Los Angeles. One afternoon he called and told me he’d had a deep needle stick...

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 relief.

We’re buying a feeling.

We’re...

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 learned to hesitate.To hold back.To apologize for your work before...

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 feelings with you.

DOWNLOAD PRACTICE PAGE

Your art table is a safe place for all of...

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 likeI am behindI am lazyI 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 lifeI want to rebuild trust with myselfI want to pay attention to what lights me up

One shuts...

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 come home.

And when I painted, it didn’t feel like pr...

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 really an artist, this would feel easier.

But art is not saying that.Shame is borrowing its...

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 isn’t trying to get anywhere else. Th...

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 next live video in the app.

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 just because you pause.

And the same is true with art.

This year my art practice ha...

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.

If you want a tiny homework practiceWrite down your main creative problemRewrite it in a kinder, more interesting wayTake one...

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 excused. Even online. But here’s the truth: violence is never justified. Not in politics, not on the playground, not anywhere.

This momen...

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 just about paint or paper. It’s about us.

It touches all the soft spots—our emotions, our se...