Why I Art: When times get tough for journalists, it’s time to get creative
By Jane Elizabeth
“When I paint, there’s no room for stress or anxiety.”
That’s science journalist Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato explaining her devotion to her very creative side gig — painting wedding dresses. To be clear: She’s not painting pictures of wedding dresses. She’s painting on wedding dresses.
Mollie’s also famous for making newsroom-goodbye cakes and cakes that look like anything from pizza to popcorn to grilled cheese. “It’s creative and fun and a wonderful outlet,” she says.
Being a journalist is one of the most amazing careers you can have. It’s also one of the most incredibly stressful. While much of the world can turn away from horrific events — the shooting of schoolchildren, the painful and preventable deaths of pandemic victims, the outrageous killings of Black men and women at the hands of police, the genocide of innocents in unfathomable wars around the world and so much more — journalists must immerse themselves in the horrible details. For days, weeks, years, even decades.
And always hovering overhead for many journalists: the justified fear that your paycheck won’t cover the bills. That your job may be gone tomorrow. That your family is suffering because, too often, you’re not there for them.
But while mental health resources and PTO may be inadequate in newsrooms, journalists are smart and resourceful. They find tiny increments of time in their lives to do something that makes them feel more connected to a sane and peaceful life.
For Mental Health Awareness Month, I worked with colleagues Ari Kilgore and Sabrina Herrera, with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation, to showcase creations by journalists and their thoughts on “Why I Art.”
Browse the Instagram campaign #ArtByJournalists and you’ll find:
* Watercolor artist and Reuters journalist Sandra Maler’s moving blog post about how her art carried her through cancer treatment. “…art was like a shining light in my life. I never got depressed. I just focused on art.”
* Educator and longtime journalist Michelle Ferrier’s artwork and her essay: “…my paints mixed with my tears as I mourned the Black lives lost.”
* Epicenter NYC co-founder Nitin Mukul’s paintings that can make people “slow down, reflect, and take joy in the fleeting details of our moment.”
* Food journalist Nandita Godbole’s many forms of creativity: “Pottery offers lessons in mindfulness, optimism, humility, and patience.”
Journalists+artists are everywhere. Ask your local journalist what they do to create balance in their lives, and you might find embroidery by Hannah Wise, an audience editor at McClatchy; fiber art by The Arizona Republic’s Kim Bui; Bay Area News Group reporter Natalie Hanson’s knitwear; Newsweek investigative reporter Valerie Bauman’s jewelry; woodworking by Andy Carvin, a journalist and disinformation expert; McClatchy’s Annemarie Dooling, an artist and burlesque performer; journalist and consultant Emma Carew Grovum’s creations including tie-dying and knitting; veteran Virginia journalist Pauline Clay’s colored pencil art.
I’ve written about stress and newsrooms, I’ve advocated for change, I’ve definitely lived it myself in my many years as a journalist. The journalism profession’s stress is historic, embedded and endemic. It is not a problem that can be solved by watercolor or pottery, no matter how beautiful. It is, however, a problem that could benefit from vision and creativity.
But as we struggle to sort the issues that have created an often stressful and sometimes detrimental existence for those in the profession, journalists individually are trying hard to maintain balance in their own lives through their art and imagination. And we’re all richer for it.
