• You’re more than what you make.
• Your productivity does not determine your value.
• It’s okay to do nothing sometimes.
• Not everything you do has to result in a product.
• Not everything you make has to be important, significant, or even good.
• You can make things just for yourself.
• You can keep secrets for yourself, whether it’s not posting some of your projects or not sharing your techniques.
• You’re allowed to say no.
• You’re allowed to rest.

• Inspiration doesn’t cure burnout. Rest cures burnout.
• People will wait for you; take your time and come back when you are ready.
• It’s okay to scrap projects that no longer excite you, even if other people like them.
• It’s delightful and excellent to be openly proud of your work.
• Afford yourself the same gentleness that you would afford another creative - negative self-talk is counterproductive and frankly cruel.
• Self-indulgent creations are satisfying to others as well; don’t apologize for your own pleasure.
• Actually, don’t apologize for your work at all.

october 20, 1994. chicago, illinois. wearing kurt’s wedding ring. “Mark [Seliger] is my favourite photographer because he knows exactly how to make me feel. This was pretty soon after the death of my husband. I became obsessed with angels and ballerinas, things of grace and beauty, otherworldly. I used all my ninth grade ballet classes to do (bad) en pointe photos. I kept crying about every fifteen minutes so I was a makeup nightmare. I wanted to be the swan in Swan Lake and flutter, crumple and disappear. Mark got that on film.”