A soul-nourishing, daily-ish creative art practice is not out of reach, even if/when there is already a lot on your life’s plate.

One of the biggest challenges my students often face (and me, too), is finding time in our full and busy days for our creative practice. Ironically, of course - the busiest or most stressful times are often when our creative spirits most need the gift of renewal our practice provides.

The key can be simplifying how we think about our art practice, how we go about actually doing it, and reclaiming intentional pockets of solitude for our own creative wellbeing.

There is a practice I’ve come back to again and again, through decades of making art, because it works at nourishing my artistic self, finding my energetic flow again, and helping me feel inspired and connected to something bigger.

It works its magic and keeps me tapped into my creativity even in the midst of life’s hard times, busy times, healing times, changing times, and well… all the times, really.

Even if what I make with this practice is not my favorite art, per se, it always plants seeds of ideas, hope and possibilities that I come back to in my process and makings later.

Once, I even unintentionally created a whole body of work with this practice that made it into a gallery show and took a drawing prize from the jurors. I was not expecting that from a practice that I came up with for myself intuitively, as an evening practice, when I had very little energy to make my art, and while going through some tough times.

That was decades ago now, but this practice is still one I come back to regularly like a reliable friend. It’s like a soul-grounding re-charge with my creative spirit, and anyone can make it their own (no art experience necessary).

I share some peeks and ideas about how to go about adopting a similar creative practice for yourself in a short video I made called, “A Pen and You.”

Right now, you can receive access to watch this video for free when you subscribe to my newsletter, A Slow Down Art Life.

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Have you kept a “perpetual journal” before?

The idea is simple, and kind of like those one-line-a-day 5 year journals you can get, where you re-visit each daily page for five years, noting down some memories, thoughts, gratitudes or such. Over the five years, you can see a big picture rhythm, patterns, or movement to your life, and what’s important to you - all easy to lose sight of in the day-to-day. I’ve kept several in written form and have really enjoyed having them in my journal collection to look back on as life changes.

Maybe, like me, you’ve had ideas similar to this in how you approach or review your own art journaling or sketchbook practice, but just hadn’t heard of this particular name for the practice?

Someone mentioned their perpetual nature journal online somewhere, and that led me to botanical artist Lara Call Gastinger’s beautiful illustrations in her perpetual journal, a process she started with her husband over twenty years ago. She shares generously on how to start your own with their approach.

With gardening and plants becoming a central focus of my creative energy these last few years, this felt like a perfect project to try in my creative practice. So last fall, I began my first intentional perpetual nature-art journal, and shared the set-up, how-to and some ideas on how to make it your own with subscribers to my newsletter, the Slow Down Art Life.

It takes a little planning ahead to set up your sketchbook or journal, but it’s easy enough, and once that’s done, you’re ready to go.

I’m nine months in with mine, and I’m feeling more connected to this art journal with each entry.

As is the nature of this particular slow-art process, there is still a lot of white space so far in my sketchbook.

I’m really looking forward to begin adding second entries on spreads once I hit that year mark, and watching this visual storyline of seasons, inspiration and my nature observations begin to overlap with the cycles of time.

I’m sharing a few peeks here of some of my pages so far.

I’ve been letting myself go with whatever medium feels right, and sometimes easiest, when I have the urge to connect - with a plant, the seasonal palette, or some nature element I’m observing - in the space of my creative practice.

I am the sort of artist that appreciates a loose structure… just enough of a guideline to get me into my art-making, but with plenty of options and freedom to make the expression and practice my own.

This perpetual art journal idea is a perfect fit for that… and is a lovely complement to learning about the plants, developing relationship with them as living beings, and connecting more deeply with the land, seasons, and natural environment I live on, in and with.

Would you like inspiration & updates for cultivating your creative practices, intuition and nature connection? I send out monthly-ish notes, with options for more…

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I feel like there are so many things I ought to share. It’s been awhile since I’ve written with a creative practice+life update, or been on social media with art peeks - and the longer I put off writing the weirder it feels to share. Have you ever felt that way?

So I’m just posting from the heart today, as we wrap up the year.

2022 has marked a time of change for me. Or, put another way, a time of changing more into the me I am {becoming}, with more trust and acceptance.

My art practice played a big role in this.

It also, ironically, led me to a bit less art-making and more life-as-art making.

So did health issues - including a drawn-out breast cancer scare, that concluded with something that felt like a miracle. Along with other hard and beautiful things, these led me into a time of healing, and creative energy found in new and old ways… hands in soil, eyes off screens, kitchen rituals, medicine making, greening, asking, learning, being amazed, gently.

More nature, more home, more pause, more Love… less noise, productivity, performance and hustle. 

I don’t know how it is for you, but I’m a bit infatuated with how our intentions in life are lovely, powerful, and even helpful to get things moving into action with focus.

And yet what often comes from the energy we put toward realizing those intentions is something different than what we first imagined.

And, as it turns out, it’s often more needed, more true to our whole story than what we thought we wanted to begin with.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.*” 

So as one year rolls into the next, I am feeling this wisdom from 2022…

As good as it is to live intentionally, it’s equally good to cease all the planning and setting intentions, and simply gift our attention and creative presence to the precious, quickly passing moments sometimes.

I certainly had a fair share of intentions and desires for this past year. For art, life, relationships, business, projects, home, etc. My mind thought it had a good idea where those intentions would land me if I just stayed committed and on-path, active and attentive along the way.

And yet, it was in that process of paying attention, slowing down and listening closely to the movements of my embodied experiences, that the layers of ideas and intentions peeled away, to reveal my truer hungers, and the nourishment I need to feel more truly alive.

I find that, as we re-member who we are by being present to the holistic nature of our days, we often hear our soul's song beckoning us to change with the times, within.

Who knows for sure, but perhaps, it is as we were always meant to, by an intention planted by our Maker, long before our minds could try to take control and make sense of things for ourselves.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I actually met a lot of my “goals” for 2022. And that felt good, sure. But it was knee-deep in the process that showed me more about who I am and what I want than the original intention ever could have.

And it was actually in letting go of some goals and intentions that I felt most free to be me.

We keep discovering more about who we are, even as we change and grow, don’t we? Or, at least, we get to keep participating in that blessed mystery of change if we choose to… and in how we’ll frame change and the unexpected happenings of life when they come upon us.

It’s always, somehow, about finding real presence to what’s in front of us and trusting that living creative process, loving what we love - no apologies. Staying open to possibilities beyond what we already see, and yet also, willing to come home to the life we're actually living.

Life - and art - just seem to come back to that ol’ cliche again and again: trust the process. Trust the living. Trust the making.

Start with an intention or idea, but let each movement along the way have a say in what stays and what changes, too. 

Let yourself be amazed - and let yourself slow down enough to appreciate that, too.

It’s a beautiful thing, if you ask me.

I wish you a peaceful transition and creative perspective as you welcome in 2023. May you feel in touch with the beautiful side of change.

I look forward to sharing more with you, from my creative practice+life and the changes I’m making, next year. My newsletter is the best way to keep in touch (sign up below).

Thank you for being here,

Hali

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“Courage is amazing because it can tap in to the heart of fear, taking that frightened energy and turning it towards initiative, creativity, action and hope. When courage comes alive , imprisoning walls become frontiers of new possibility, difficulty becomes invitation and the heart comes into a new rhythm of trust and sureness. There are secret sources of courage inside every human heart; yet courage needs to be awakened in us. The encounter with the Beautiful can bring such an awakening. Courage is a spark that can become the flame of hope, lighting new and exciting pathways in what seemed to be dead, dark landscapes.”

- John O’Donohue

What are your secret - or not-so-secret - “sources of courage?”

For me, courage is activated in my art-making process, for sure.

And also in the midst of rights, choice, bodily autonomy, voice and freedom being purposefully taken from others. (I’m in the states, where Roe v. Wade was just overturned, and the implications are huge… - it’s on my mind).

Indeed, it may at times be fear itself, or righteous rage and the nuances of grief and empathy that trigger a surge of courage within me… a pull toward action, presence, movements of wit{h}ness. That seems right, when I reflect on it.

Does “the Beautiful” activate my courage, though? I am beginning to suspect it might, as I consider O’Donohue’s take in the quote above.

I have wondered about unexpected shifts in my painting practice and process - or rather, in my artistic inclinations and curiosity as I paint.

There’s been a more conscious movement within me toward seeking and experimenting with beauty more (as I see and feel it). An interest in the aesthetic, raw romance and playful, organic mystery of nature’s chaos, particular parts and flowing layers mingling with its simultaneous spaciousness, simplicity and color-light kaleidoscopes.

This has caused me to naturally devote much of my practice time to two things, it seems:

1) more deliberate “studies” of landscapes and plant life - something I would have hated at a different chapter in my art practice, but absolutely adore now for the realms of contemplation, tender care, and presence it activates.

And…

2) an expanded, intentional exploration of my intuitive painting approach - from a purely free-form associative + spontaneous creative expression, to welcoming more of my idiosyncrasies into the process as it moves along - including my conscious discernment, dance with controlled movements, curious preferences, personal mark-making lexicon and lived experience as a visual artist.

It’s hard to put to words, what we are doing when we make visual art, isn’t it?… Embracing PARADOX may be the best way I can say it today… and I certainly find intuitive beauty, insight and courage in embracing paradox in my creative process.

So, I find myself making studies of places and particular natural elements, AND also making intuitive paintings pretty regularly these days… and somewhere in that freedom to explore both, the approaches are marrying and coming into something new.

This desire for “beauty” in my art wasn’t necessarily in my process before, at least not in such a conscious way, or for a long time.

I was fine-art trained after all, and beauty alone is rarely enough of an edgy concept or motivation for the contemporary fine art academia gatekeepers.

Funny, since the beautiful is so vast and subjective anyway, that it has its own battles with repression.

The arts, whose task once was considered to be that of manifesting the beautiful, will discuss the idea only to dismiss it, regarding beauty only as pretty, the simple, the pleasing, the mindless and the easy. Because beauty is conceived so naively, it appears as merely naive, and can be tolerated only if complicated by discord, shock, violence, and harsh terrestrial realities. I therefore feel justified in speaking of the repression of beauty.

- James Hillman

The repression of beauty… of nature… of women. Yes, there is a thread of connection for me in this… and a rising of courage within.

It is courage that compels us to create or co-create at all, isn’t it? I’ve made nothing of any substance, impact or beauty without courage to try.

I look back again, and I do see I’ve explored forms of beauty in my art many times, though - from a different angle. Much of my art explorations used to be about messages around beauty standards, expectations and distorted ideas + prejudices placed on women.

Other times, my makings were driven purely by what is visually beautiful to me - what evokes feeling, sensation, a lingering pause.

We circle again and again with our driving forces of interest and perspective, our very sources of courage, if we make art, don’t we?

I suppose it’s just showing up again, with a new layer of conviction for me to explore, a different facet of beauty’s power, and a different iteration of my own voice and presence to life and seeing and making space for what evokes movement within.

Honestly, it could also be this simple:

I could just need to hold onto a little more felt beauty in the world, in the moments of my days - imaginal beauty or grounded in-the-real - reminders of what+where the joy, life and hope lie beyond the complexity of human-induced atrocities and illusions.

Or maybe, as I’m wondering today, it’s not beauty-for-beauty’s-sake that I seek so much in my art, as it is the way that finding beauty in my practice, in how I see and make, awakens my courage for all the rest of life, as I spend time in relationship to its transformative iterations and possibilities in nature and in my creative energy and process.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

-Rachel Carson

The way I see it, we ought to source our courage and creativity wherever we can these days.

So, I ask again -

What are YOUR sources of courage these days?

How can you make more time to encounter them?

What is the Beautiful to you?

Keep finding the beautiful and true to you, and keep making your art, creative friends.

~ h

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It’s so easy - and I love the results!

I’ve been using gouache more and more in my mixed-media painting practice, but of course, it’s a water-based, water-soluble paint, so a protective finish comes into question. With a wax finish, you don’t have to necessarily put your paintings behind glass (which I personally prefer not to for aesthetic reasons). So it not only does it protect your gouache artwork, but it opens up more doorways for finished presentation.

Enjoy the demo - I hope it’s helpful!

Leave any questions, tips or comments with your experience over on the youtube video for others to benefit from, too

Creative Practice KEEPERS members and patrons - you will get the longer version with me sharing some insider thoughts and musings about my process.

Thank you all for being here and believing in the power of art and creative practice - Keep Creating!

So I do it, and I help others cultivate their creative practice, too.

I also get to host an online art-making community where we are all cultivating our creative art practices, too.

It is a JOY in my life to do this work, and I want to share the gifts of creative practice and perspective with you. Maybe more importantly, I want to connect you with other creative souls exploring their creative callings and practices, too.

The honest, tired-but-still-inspired truth is this: I’m not a big fan of the online sales-hustle+hype games these days, but I DO want you to know DOORS ARE OPEN for a few days to join us in Creative Practice KEEPERS.

In case you’re wondering - the reason registration is open just for a limited time a couple times a year, is NOT to create false urgency (uck - we are all dealing with enough already), but to conserve energy, welcome new members in intentional ways, and foster our group connection and rhythm within the community.

Your time+energy is precious, and you know what you like, want and need - so hop right over and check out the full details if your creative heart is feeling curious and looking for your next right creative practice thing. It’s a whole different kind of experience than just another art course.

We’d love to welcome you and your creative exploring ways+wisdom to the group!

Or - just rest a few minutes here and enjoy this little timelapse video peek of a paint-sketch page I made.

What I don’t say in the video is this: In KEEPERS, some of us created our own 10 day challenge… mine was to do ten pages/paintings inspired by one nature photograph I took+loved back in 2014… and this page was one of those explorations. I loved using one source of inspiration and exploring it lots of different ways - it really centered me in my current visual language interests.

I do hope to get to create and connect with you in KEEPERS, or my Creative Practice Way network, but no matter what, Keep Creating and returning to what you love, again and again.

Sometimes that's a feeling, sometimes it's about the 'art.' I'm clinging to expectations (often without even realizing it), rather than just releasing myself to the rhythm of the practice and process and Presence.

I was reminded of that with the expressive painting session in the video above. 

Because the authenticity of the moment to drag that in-process painting out of the studio and into the backyard debris snuck up on me. 

I didn't have time to question or alter my instinct and intuition into a 'better' idea somehow that would make my time more 'useful' or ‘well spent.’

The nudge to Just Paint, as-is raw-and-true, rose up from feelings of grief and upheaval around my home. My personal experience was compounded grief from many parts of life these days, and I'm still processing that, if I'm honest. But painting helped so so much that day.

The internal prompt to take creative action was quiet, gentle and small - that voice within. It wasn't to do anything awesomely original... just to "paint outside with her today while she's still standing."

I could've ignored the nudge, but I know well by now that all the other parts of my day will just feel better if I stop and do the creative thing for just a little bit.

AND I knew it was a legit nudge - one that could shift things somehow - because it also asked a risk of me in my process, a letting go, a surrender to expression that came from what was happening within and around me, in spite of what I might have preferred or pictured for our home or my painting practice that day. 

For instance, I wasn't planning to paint right over what I started on the canvas I was already working on.

Now, if I’m honest, there was not much life for me in that in-process painting as it was, but I could have given in to the tendency to Work-Really-Hard-to-Make-it-Look-Good-anyway... and loathed most of the process. 

But it just doesn't always have to be so hard. 

Sometimes we DO need to see something through, that’s true... but it’salso just as true that often we really just need to let it shift, go, grow or change as it will in the tides of multitudes. Even if we love(d) it.

We can trust where our creative energy truly is and isn't. Regardless of how things might look. There is a wisdom in that.

We can recognize when something we're creating has a life of its own, an intention or purpose we did not set... and that maybe, even though we aren't in full control of that, or our feelings, or the stuff of life that seems to 'get in the way' of our creative practice or intentions, maybe there's still something beautiful happening, something to feed our creative soul and practice if we just relinquish the need for it to go how we think it's supposed to, and say "yes" to creating with how it IS going - one risk, one nudge at a time.

Whether that means to stay-with and see something through, let it go and start anew, or a little of both: stay with AND hold space for the letting-go that is leading to a transformation we can't quite see yet.

It is so easy to over-think how to go about an intuitive or "expressive" creative practice... but it's all about allowing ourselves and our marks to be whole and free to feel. Even as that changes. Even as we change.

So FEEL, my friends ... and set those marks and movements free to take up space in whatever wild or awkward ways your wise, quiet voice within nudges you to try. 

It truly is healing and relieving to let your creative practice be just that, at least sometimes. And, if you're like me, you might just find it deeply energizing, too. 💚

The video was made impromptu that day, with just my phone... it is raw+true like that. 

I share a short musing toward the end, as well, plus a few more pics.

Thanks for witnessing - and keep creating true to you.

In this short video, I share a fun+easy creative practice for exploring color harmony with a limited palette, with a timelapse of a small series of four acrylic paintings on canvas board from my painting practice earlier this year.

Give this color mixing approach a try in your creative practice some time - it’s fun and surprising.

And keep an eye out for my upcoming Elements of Art for Intuitive Creatives course (subscribe to my main list for updates)… and you can also add your name to the CPK waitlist for the next time we open doors to Creative Practice KEEPERS or check out other courses in my Creative Practice Way network for your creative practice explorations.

I had the pleasure of being invited for an interview chat with Larissa Russell of Creative U Healing earlier this year for her Creative Soul Healing podcast.

We discussed nature as a muse, and creativity as a healer. We also spoke of the monetization and perceived value of the arts.

She had me share a bit of the winding creative path that led me to where I am, and we touched on the power of choice, trust, and relationship on a healing path, especially in these times, and what navigating the imposter syndrome has been like for me.

So if you’d like to learn a little bit more about me and listen in on a chat between two creatives passionate about healing, CHECK OUT THE PODCAST! There are lots of player options to listen.

Enjoy!

I want to invite you to check out my 2021 Hali Karla Arts creative practice love project, where I’ve been pouring most of my creative love+energy this year so far - because doors are open to new members right now and you just might love it there.

It’s Creative Practice Keepers - which is my new online membership community for artists and creatives.

The community that’s forming is… wise, warm, funny and wonderful. They are soulful, creative and a joy to be with. The kind of group that makes me pinch myself that I get to do this work in the world.

The kind of group that I want to share with other artists and creatives - like You - who just might want or need what our little nook of inspiration has to offer - and the kind of warm, real and encouraging creative energy we are generating together.

We are exploring some really juicy - and always-pertinent - themes around creative practice and process… like RHYTHM, INTUITION, RESISTANCE and DOUBTS, PLAY, and many more.

The core intention is always to actually be in the practice of making our art and exploring our creative interests, truths and gifts within that practice.

Make Art 🎨
Trust Your Intuition 🌀
Feel more joy, calm & free 🕊
Connect with others who get it 💕

Some of the members keep a practice for the joy, excitement and challenge of it. Some find rest, stress-relief, a spiritual connection, and restoration in their practice. And others are doing healing work and nurturing parts of their creative soul that may have been long buried or previously denied outlet.

We have a variety of life adventures and responsibilities, ages, and art experience levels and interests among us - and we’d love to welcome you and your creative heart, vision and intentions.

Doors are only open for a short time, so that we can focus on our practices, getting to know one another at an organic pace, and diving in to our explorations together without a revolving door of visitors.

So, check out all the juicy details about Creative Practice Keepers RIGHT HERE and join us before doors close.

I’d love to see + connect with you there this Spring!

~Hali

This is super easy to forget in our lightning-speed, share-it-now, social-media infused world.

How you Keep your sketches, sketchbooks, art journals - whatever you call this creative art practice “diary” of yours - does not need to make sense to anyone else, be seen by the world, or look like finished “Art.” 

Let go of that kind of pressure in your sketchbook and daily-ish creative practice… and watch your creative heart, vision and art process Come Alive with your true creative ways, rhythms, perspectives and liberated expression. 

Want to find your style, your visual language, your voice? Try integrating this tip into your practice. You need a place to be uninhibited… to see what happens when your creative play and idea-collecting can be as kooky, weird, raw, silly, imperfect or whatever as possible.

Now, 2020 was one helluva year… and I kept a few art journals and sketchbooks that became as unpredictable and strange as anything else around me, it seems. 

I made this Flip-Through Video to show you one… and hopefully to offer a little encouragement to find your unique sketchbook/journal process in this new year… which means letting it be a safe+brave place for your raw curiosity, expression, exploration, rest, play, and making connections in your unique perspective and living experience.

I hope you enjoy the Flip-Through video! <— click that link to leave a comment over on YT, if you like.

In this video, I share three “technical” tips from my art studio upkeep and care:

1. a small-space, money-saving idea if you ever wanted one of those thick glass paint-mixing palettes in fancy art studios

2. two art "table" ideas for space-saving, flexibility and making more art, and

3. bringing old, stiff, dried acrylic paint brushes back to new.

Have you tried any of these? Or do you have another related tip to offer?
Share over in the youtube comments!

{banner image: unsplash, Courtney Greene}

If you found your way here, you probably know it’s true, even if you don’t know why - and even if keeping a creative practice habit or rhythm that works for you has been hard to find, form or stick-with in the realities of your days and changes.

You likely know that, for some reason, keeping your creative practice alive and active helps you feel better - and then you show up and are more true, open, curious and aware in other areas of life, too.

If this resonates, you’re an Artist - or a Creative, if you prefer.

Whatever you prefer to call yourself doesn’t matter as much as actually coming to your heART and doing the things that fill you with inspiration, healthy challenge, a sense of connection, and good, honest energy.

You were given that seed of desire, interest or calling for a reason.

Keeping an active Creative Practice just helps some of us feel more like ourselves, and better equipped to come to Life in the life we are living - it’s true.

And if we have any sense of being called to see or do something with our creative vitality and vision, then keeping our creative practice nourished and exploratory is essential to bringing that to Life in our lived experience.

It’s how we process, make connections, feel inspired and get clear.

Or maybe it’s how we de-stress, collect ideas for our work or callings, process mind-blowing perspective shifts without over-thinking, keep an active oracle/reflective process, bring a little beauty and transformation to our hands and sight, or balance the craziness of the external world + information-overload with holistic-centering self-care, time and tending. All really good whole soul care reasons, if you ask me.

Does any of this resonate?

And yet, here’s the real kicker, especially for us introvert, rebellious or loner types - trying to do it all, all by our selves - without some sort of creative network of other folks who “get” this pull, this truth, and who can help us resist all the status quo messages that try to minimize the joyful, renewing and essentially healing nature of art-making (yes, even for adults)…

…well, this lack of connection with other creatives is often exactly why we let everything else come first, or can’t find our own rhythm and way with keeping our art practices and creative hearts nourished and nourishing, in the midst of living life.

If you’ve ever let your art go for a season… or years… and felt the slow ache or not-good-emptiness within because of that, I bet you know what I mean.

Or maybe you keep a creative practice pretty well already - but you find you’re easily distracted or stuck in a resistance, fear or idea rut. That happens, too - even for the most dedicated artists.

You know, like when there’s a pandemic and general world shifting mayhem.

Yeah, it happens, and there’s no shame in realizing that what worked before might not be working now in your Creative Practice either.

All of this is a big part of why I created a new online community called Creative Practice Keepers - and you’re invited to CHECK IT OUT & join us.

We’re just beginning to come together and get started at my brand new network space… a place as easy and fun to interact with as social media, but not on social media.

Honestly, it’s what I’ve wanted since I started offering courses, circles and workshops online 9 years ago… something that can give us just enough inspiration and connection to get us into our actual art-making and creative practices - without all the distraction of facebook groups or the clunkiness of so many other learning platforms.

So I’m super excited to begin a new chapter at my Creative Practice Connection network, where Creative Practice Keepers Community is hosted, and where you’ll find my upcoming courses, events, collaborations and such.

I hope you’ll join us and be part of warming up the space while cultivating a creative practice true to your unique+beautiful creative energy+process, and inspired with encouragement, invitations and our shared collective creative energy.

While I do guide the connection for us, with art demos and nature-inspired invitations, paint-with-me videos, reflections+prompts, and monthly topic lessons, it’s designed to be about every member’s unique creative ways coming together organically.

Who knows what beauty, truths and goodness we’ll discover, uplift and explore together?

DOORS ARE ONLY OPEN FOR A LIMITED TIME in January - So join us today!

Words Matter.

There should be no surprise that this 'leader' led his loyalists to what is happening today in the USA. He rallied for it - just listen to his words. For yourself. This is a culture infiltrated with normalized abusive tactics and an unhealthy sense of entitlement (we even see it all as "entertaining").

We all too often overlook the seeds of hateful violence if it threatens a comfort, cherished belief, or sense of belonging with others that we believe we can’t bear to lose.

May today remind us that every post, every counter-argument, every 'sarcastic' just-a-joke snark about the 'other,' every opinion or chosen belief we claim as truth and use to justify running-from or hushing another's different experience or perspective... it matters.

May we use our words more wisely, pausing and mindful to ask... are these words allowing dignity and truth (beyond what I think)... are these words (or silences) a medicine, a tool, or a weapon?

What am I trying to grow, heal or invoke with these words? And why? To what end?

Wise words (and actions) require someone who can LISTEN beyond themselves (or their idols and personal agendas) - as far as I can tell, anyway.

May this moment be a check-ourselves moment - that more of us wake up to what it might mean to be better human beings today than we were yesterday, and to take accountability for our words, silences and motivations behind them. To hold one another - especially our leaders - to the same standard.

Violent rhetoric - even implied - begets violence. Pretty simple.

May we be led, wide awake, to do justice, love kindness, and to walk more humbly on this earth together.

1-6-2021 | Epiphany

~h

{image: simple paint-sketch in gouache of a christmas cactus bloom. she blooms in the unexpected seasons, while most other flowers sleep. 😍}

I had a different post planned for today, but our nation’s capitol has been stormed by the current president’s loyalists during the certification of our election results… and that’s on my heart.

The other post was going to announce more publicly that Doors are Open for a Limited Time to my all-new Creative Practice Keepers Community - and we are having fun getting started in there… a safe haven for respite, moving through transformations of our own, and filling up on what brings us joy - so needed in these unpredictable times of change for us creatives and seekers. I’d love you to join us before doors close in a couple of weeks. Click to Learn More and Join Us

the other day, walking in the woods, sunshine making a short visit...

i wondered at the naked trees all around me - who in their own {miraculously created} self-knowing drop leaves to draw inward as daylight wanes...

and, as if for us, this instinctual being-of-themselves makes way for the Light that Is to share more of its warm kisses with those of us dwelling closer to the Earth, where shadows cast cold spells in cycles and seasons.

Call it ecology, or some kind of grace, or part of the ever-interconnection of Life and beyond... what a beautiful design, these dances between dark and light, day and night. 💚☀️🕊⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

{image: an evening page from my creative practice. acrylic, inks and oil pastel on a page in one of my altered book art journals}

A few quick practical tips for altered book art journals:

- Do I prep pages before painting on them? Usually not - like 95% of the time I just dive right in. Start thick-ish - meaning the page quality is already on the thick side, or with a layer of acrylics. With that in mind, you really don't need to worry about it. But there are reasons to consider prepping the page before painting on it (like thin or glossy pages) - and there are many artists who wouldn't dare do an altered book page without prepping first - and I do share a few tips in the video.

- Size (and feel) matters... and this is so subjective. Consider weight, how it feels in your hands, texture, and does it lay flat? While I like experimenting with a variety of sizes and orientations, laying flat is a non-negotiable for me.

- Sewn signatures are best for a sturdy book that can take handling and mixed-media

Do you ever use an altered book for your art journaling? What are your preferences, favorite tips and discoveries? Share in the comments, if you like...

And if you've never tried one, grab an old book laying around and have at it - they are a special twist to keeping a visual/art journal to play, paint, rest and practice in.