A Second Spring: The Unfolding of Creative Bewitchment

Spring in Montreal is a strange affair. It makes sweet promises in the form of birdsong, melting snow, and the feeling of salt beneath your sneakers.

Then it shifts again: another plummet in temperature, the snow ploughs ringing their sirens at 10PM. Whose Honda is that, on the side of the road? Didn’t they see the “No Parking” signs, neon orange and littering the street like trash amidst all that white? 

Three days later, the blizzard is now just puddles pooling by the sidewalk, and things are filthy but good again. 

For artists, spring can occur at any time. Still, it’s temperamental. 

When I first released this podcast in September of 2025, it was a joyful but false spring. I had convinced myself that I was ready. Publishing regular episodes while hurtling toward a solo show would be challenging, but doable. 

Another shift in the weather and—there I was—pinned down by responsibility, unable to hear my own thoughts over competing winds.

So I surrendered to the least resistance. This project went on pause, and, come January, my paintings went up on the gallery walls. 

Even in those depths of winter, spring was on my mind. With the exhibition on display until the end of March, I could take a break from the studio and begin writing again. I was expecting the process to feel alien, for the thought of sharing my voice after such a long pause to frighten me. 

It didn’t. 

Writing wasn’t like pulling teeth, but the germinating of a seed planted the season before. I credit this to practice: experience making good work in my mediums of choice, then throwing the result out there—without expectation.

While writing the essays of this first official season of Creative Bewitchment, I thought of the hard-won skills necessary for  re-emergence. 

What magic can we stoke within ourselves, so that spring can give way to the early fruits of summer, then autumn’s great harvest? 

The answer is many-fold. I look forward to wandering side by side, and over the course of the seasons, immersing ourselves in solutions together.