Comics Church
A creative service
Good morning and welcome. On behalf of the Preservation of Human Spirit I’d like to thank you for being here. Please take a moment to subscribe if you haven’t already and to share with others.
Special thanks to
and who mentioned DoPHS this past week in their respective works. As a result there are some new folks joining us today. Welcome.A quick note on the format of today’s edition:
DoPHS has long eschewed any standard structure. In large part this has been intentional to allow the content to go wherever the spirit may lead. This rejection of structure has resulted in what I might consider an unevenness of quality that in many ways mirrors the creative experience itself. This lack of structure has also resulted in undue pressures stemming from the inherent requirement that each edition be created from whole cloth. It is my hope that by introducing some as yet to be codified structure the overall quality may increase while the effort required to produce each edition may be reduced.
In a nod to Comics Church - the now defunct gathering of Richmond cartoonists from the mid 2010s - this edition is very loosely based on the structure of the traditional worship services I grew up on.
Let us continue.
“Use what’s helpful. Let go of the rest.”
Our first reading comes to us today from
, in his Tales from a Rolltop Desk, December 30th, 2024.
Our second reading is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.14
Our third reading and focal point was written by Rick Rubin, in The Creative Act: A Way of Being, from the chapter The Abundant Mindset.
For the past 3 years I’ve taken to using enough vacation over winter break to forget that I have a job. This annual faux-retirement has turned into a sort of creative retreat. The first of these provided room to finally rekindle my creative spirit. The second lead to a shift from working with a backlog to one of working from an abundant mindset at the edge of my creative output. I am currently on the third such retreat.
I don’t know where this latest break will lead. Perhaps its foolish to expect some new version of myself to emerge. That it happens across the years has more to do with idleness than resolution. And yet still I look back as well as forward.
Robert Henri said, “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Last year’s creative retreat lead to a spot along the river where every line cast caught something special. Eventually I found myself exhausted by the output and left that fertile shore. I have yet to find it again.
I was living in that wonderful state which made art inevitable.
And then I wasn’t.
So here I am. Waking up once again before the sun. Journaling bleary eyed with a cup of coffee at my side while a record slowly spins.
There is time in the day for everything that matters. There is rhythm in routine. There is a spot along the river waiting for each of us.
Sit down, stay awhile.
Source be with you. And also with you.
How do you celebrate the new year? Do you make resolutions? Or do you have some other means of personal and creative regeneration completely separate from the calendar?
Let me know in the comments, or in an email reply, or perhaps with a postcard snail mailed to my home. I’ll do my best to reply in kind no matter how you reach out.
Also, if you’re interested in purchasing the readings from today I will mail the original anywhere in the US for $25. Roughly 8x10 Strathmore 500 mixed media paper, Holbein Watercolor, fountain pen. Happy to sign or stamp the date on it if you’d like.
And finally, in case you missed it, there are still a few paintings available here. Same deal, $25 anywhere in the US. Just let me know.
✂️ 👻 ✂️ 👻 ✂️ 👻 ✂️
I find that annoying myself is part of the whole project of keeping a diary, but different strokes for different folks.
Austin Kleon, Inside My Commonplace Diary
Don’t be afraid to turn the page on this chapter while penning the next.
I can live instead of languish.
Is this resolution?
I can read books instead of polls. I can write instead of react.
There was a confidence at the start of the year that was lost.
I spent the next several months plugged directly into the shrieking news cycle and social media bombast. It wasn’t after the ten thousandth refresh of my impending doom scroll that I accepted something needed to change. It was when I got wind of one of the larger news events of 2024 despite being days outside of cell coverage deep in the mountains of Wyoming. If it’s important enough I’ll hear about it. Things bubble up.
When I quit smoking 10 years ago I filled that hole with running. This time I filled it with football. There is only one more game in the regular season and my team isn’t guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. That hole is about to get hungry again.
I read more this past year than I ever have before in my life.
2024 was a year of push and pull.
There were times where I knew I was preventing myself from being in that wonderful state. Bingeing on
2024 was a year of push and pull. Periods where I was dialed in on the river, one with the source. And others where I felt like a shriveled husk lost in a vast desert miles and miles from the nearest source of water. And there were also periods where like a horse I was lead to water but refused to drink.
2024 seemed to be a year of
I’ve taken to using most of my vacation time over the winter holidays. I try to match the school break. This serves a practical purpose of not requiring child care for 2 weeks but also gives me a real chance to reset.
DoPHS has existed long enough to begin to notice some underlying seasonal rhythms.
In doing so I can finally recover enough creative energy to properly assess
ver the winter break where I take enough vacation time to forget that I have a job
that span years
if not in explicitly in its published form,
It is my hope that by introducing structure we may raise the overall quality
However, this rejection of structure has also resulted in what I might consider an unevenness of quality that in many ways mirrors the creative experience itself.
The meta-nature of
This rejection of structure has also resulted in undue pressure stemming from the inherent
If you’re a frequent reader you may have noticed that this newsletter doesn’t really follow much
Welcome to DoPHS - a newsletter aimed at preserving the human spirit.
Things that went well in 2024
Things that didn’t go so well in 2024
Thoughts on 2025
DoPHS has long eschewed any standard structure. In large part this has been intentional to allow the content to go wherever the spirit may lead. However this rejection of structure has also resulted in what I might consider an unevenness of quality. While in many ways that unevenness mirrors the creative experience itself, this lack of structure has also lead to undue pressures stemming from the inherent requirement that each edition be created from whole cloth. It is my hope that by introducing some as yet to be codified standard the overall quality may increase while the effort required to produce each edition may be reduced.
Good morning and welcome. I’m conservator Mark Luetke (LIT-key) and on behalf of the preservation of human spirit I’d like to thank you for joining me today. Please take a moment to subscribe if you haven’t already and to share with others.
Love this. Love what it could be. Love if this format doesn't continue. Email or DM me your address? The watercolor portraits are great.
Thanks so much for the mention! I'm always glad to support what you do!