Last year for International Soul Art Day, I created a body map that guided me in the realization of my intention: expanding my bowl. I wanted to grow what I was capable of, to deepen my capacity for creating, for sending and for receiving. It was powerful work.

Set An Intention

This year, I wanted to direct my energy not towards myself, but towards my Mom, who is facing health challenges. I enlisted the help of my sisters.

Create the Body Map

First we headed over to Mom’s with a long roll of newsprint in hand. It was hilarious because the paper was so wide that there was nowhere we could work with it in her apartment. So we taped it to the wall in her hallway and asked her to strike a pose. Suzie drew her outline and the body mapping began.

Fill It With Love and Intention

We set aside an afternoon, a time when our mom would be going to the doctor, and instead of worrying (okay, in addition to worrying) we created.

Out of a diverse array of magazines we pulled out images to support Mom’s healing and surround her with love. Slowly, Mom’s body filled with flowers and smudge sticks, a deer and a manatee, electricity, warriors and sages. Deepak Chopra even ended up on her shoulder, a lucky star above her head.

Let the Healing Power Fill Your Heart

We took the body map over to Mom’s and she loved it. It’s taped to her wall, where she can see it and know that she is loved and cared for, that we are with her and a part of her healing posse. She even added her own image to it, an amazing energetic array of colour right where it needs to be.

Art Can Hold It All

One of the things I’ve learned over my years as a creative practitioner is that art can hold it all – our moods, our hopes, our pain, our wonderings, our vision and our dreams.

We made art as an act of healing, for our mom and also for ourselves.

What will you make in May?

Sometimes, everything goes on pause. Like now.

Right now, my mom is on a healing journey, an important one.

My siblings are gathered and we are surrounding her with as much love and care as possible. I’ve been doing my best to keep up with everything, including the studio. This week, I’ve decided to hit the pause button. It’s so rare that we are all together and so important that we immerse ourselves in family, love and healing.

I am still here and I know that you are still here too. I so appreciate all the love, hope and positivity that gathers in this space. I’ll be back soon, gently, as I can, with all that I am.

But this week, I have to be with my mom.

It’s official! I love Creativity Coffee! And this past month was very exciting because I was able to host two very special guests: Suzie and Shannon! It was just so fun to have both of my sisters here in the studio – along with the amazing Coffee Crew! So many ideas and inspirations.

I always want you to have the best creative resources, so I’m sharing as much as I can of what people so generously offered up during our time together. And, of course, if you want an invitation to coffee, all you have to do is join the studio! It’s absolutely free.

Our Creative Chat…

This time round we talked about April’s theme of lightening up, as well as lots of discussion about creative spaces – big and small – perfectionism and also great book recommendations. I think Lisa DeYoung, The Mountain Mermaid, pulled it together brilliantly in her sketch! Thanks for sharing, Lisa!

Our Creative Spaces

• One of my favourite things was hearing about the variety of creative spaces the crew has, including many very personal and meaningful tables. Our dining table has certainly seen the creation of many, many explorations and projects! Ludid’s dad made her an art table a few years ago. Victoria works at a desk handmade by her grandfather. And her sister got rid of her dining room set to use that room as a studio! Lisa creates at her built-in countertops that overlook the mountains – and they’re made out of recycled hospital doors! (The countertops, not the mountains!) Suzie’s creative space is her kitchen. Michele loves to work in bed; it reminds her of when she was young. Shannon uses 2 clear storage containers as her portable workspace. Sara’s taking over her dining room table. Rita’s taken over her whole home! Kristina has a little table, covered with beads and scraps. MudpieKT is using her ironing board as a creative space. Lindsay works in her attic and even with three tables, she finds herself sometimes working on the floor. Laurie has three tables too, in her garage and set up in a U-shape. BJ has a giant table on wheels in her studio. Clearly tables are a great addition to our creative lives! Oregon Beach Girl said a big table was one of the essentials that she and her friends needed for their creative retreat! I love working around the table so much that I created a Pinterest board called Around the Table.
• Some people considered their whole home their studio and some were looking to find a corner to call their own. Whatever the size, wherever the space, it was clear that finding a special space for your creative expression is on everyone’s creative wish list!

Creative Tips

• Enjoy the space you can take up when enrolled in a creative class!
• Consider a studio outside your home. Check prices, classes and community spaces. It may be more accessible than you think.
• Get creative with your space. Just about anything can be turned into a part of your studio.
• Get clear on what are your necessary creative tools.
• Let go of perfectionism. Maintain integrity.
• Put together a travel pack of supplies so you can create wherever you go.
• Be sure to carry your camera with you at all times.

Ideas for Lightening Up

• Get Your Play On!
• Lighten up your eating! Maybe this season is the time to start juicing.
• Write positive messages on the sidewalk with chalk.
• Ask yourself, “How could I have the most fun doing what I am doing right now?”
• Get outside.
• Go for a day trip.
• Play in your journal.
• Take a bike ride.
• Go on a photo safari.
• Wear a zombie shirt.
• Make bubbles and turn doing the dishes into play!
• Get out in the garden.
• Step away from the computer (and the iPad too.)
• Make nonsense poems or songs.
• Wiggle.
• Write like a pirate.
• Play without goals.
• Dance outside.
• Play with a puppy!

Book Recommendations from the Creativity Crew

• Drawing Your Life: Learn to See, Record, and Appreciate Life’s Small Joys
  (Check out my interview with Michael here)
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruis
• Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
• A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
• What It Is by Lynda Barry
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World by Christine Mason Miller (Psst… I’m in that one!)
• Any poetry by Mary Oliver
• Cultivating Your Creative Life by Alena Hennessy
• The Sketchnote Handbook: the illustrated guide to visual note taking by Rohde, Mike
• Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally by Patti Digh
• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
• Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown
• Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy by Sara Ban Breathnach
• 12 Lessons on Life I learned from My Garden by Vivian Elisabeth Glyck
• And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road by Margaret Roach (Listen to my interview with Margaret here)
• PS Our very own Paula will be in Quinn McDonald‘s new book!

Some of April’s Creativity Coffee Crew…

• Shannon
• Suzie
• Sara
• BJ
• Jackie
• Lisa
• Michele
• Ludid
• Stephanie
• Lindsay:
• Paula
• Victoria
• Rita
• MudpieKT
• And Marie’s puppy too!

You can be a maker of magic and a tender of wishes. It’s easy.

There is great power in wishing together.

Behind the scenes at the studio, the Ridler family is turning all of our love and energy towards my mom, who is not well. I’ll be dialing it down here and there, so I can be more present with my family, but I will be showing up here with love and a full heart, as I can.

This means the schedule for the podcast may be a bit erratic, as it is today. I do have a preview though for you of our next episode and I want to announce our two winners of Drawing Your Life: Learn to See, Record, and Appreciate Life’s Small Joys

Giveaway Winners

The winners of last week’s giveaway of Michael Nobbs’ Drawing Your Life are…

• Joy Holland
• Johanne Benoit-Gallagher

Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who showed up to the page, drew their life and shared it. I’m celebrating you!

A Preview: Eric Maisel, author of Making Your Creative Mark: Nine Keys to Achieving Your Artistic Goals

On our next show, I’ll be talking to the esteemed Eric Maisel. He is widely known as a creativity expert who coaches individuals and trains creativity coaches through workshops and keynotes nationally and internationally. He has blogs on the Huffington Post and Psychology Today and writes a column for Professional Artist Magazine. I was honoured to have this great conversation with Eric about creative living. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

In the meantime, I have this excerpt to share with you from Eric’s latest book on a topic that I know you can appreciate: Confident Creating! I loved seeing that Stage 1  is wishing because you know that we do regular wishing around here!

Confident Creating by Eric Maisel

If you want to live a creative life and make your mark in some competitive art field like writing, film-making, the visual arts, or music, and if at the same time you want to live an emotionally healthy life full of love and satisfaction, you need an intimate understanding of certain key ideas and how they relate to the creative process.

One key idea is that you must act confidently whether or not you feel confident. You need to manifest confidence in every stage of the creative process if you want to get your creative work accomplished. Here’s what confidence looks like throughout the creative process.

Stage 1. Wishing

‘Wishing’ is a pre-contemplation stage where you haven’t really decided that you intend to create. You dabble at making art, you don’t find your efforts very satisfying, and you don’t feel that you go deep all that often. The confidence that you need to manifest during this stage of the process is the confidence that you are equal to the rigors of creating. If you don’t confidently accept the reality of process and the reality of difficulty you may never really get started.

Stage 2. Incubation/Contemplation

During this second stage of the process you need to be able to remain open to what wants to come rather than defensively settling on a first idea or an easy idea. The task is remaining open and not settling for something that relieves your anxiety and your discomfort. The confidence needed here is the confidence to stay open.

Stage 3. Choosing Your Next Subject

Choosing is a crucial part of the creative process. At some point you need the confidence to say, “I am ready to work on this.”  You need the confidence to name a project clearly (even if that naming is “Now I go to the blank canvas without a pre-conceived idea and just start”), to commit to it, and to make sure that you aren’t leaking confidence even as you choose this project.

Stage 4. Starting Your Work

When you start a new creative work you start with certain ideas for the work, certain hopes and enthusiasms, certain doubts and fears – that is, you start with an array of thoughts and feelings, some positive and some negative. The confidence you need at that moment is the confidence that you can weather all those thoughts and feelings and the confidence to go into the unknown.

Stage 5. Working

Once you are actually working on your creative project, you enter into the long process of fits and starts, ups and downs, excellent moments and terrible moments – the gamut of human experiences that attach to real work. For this stage you need the confidence that you can deal with your own doubts and resistances and the confidence that you can handle whatever the work throws at you.

Stage 6. Completing

At some point you will be near completing the work. It is often hard to complete what we start because then we are obliged to appraise it, learn if it is good or bad, deal with the rigors of showing and selling, and so on. The confidence required during this stage is the confidence to weather the very ideas of appraisal, criticism, rejection, disappointment and everything else that we fear may be coming once we announce that the work is done.

Stage 7. Showing

A time comes when we are obliged to show our work. The confidence needed here is not only the confidence to weather the ideas of appraisal, criticism, and rejection but the confidence to weather the reality of appraisal, criticism, and rejection. Like so many other manifestations of confidence, the basic confidence here sounds like “Bring it on!” You are agreeing to let the world do its thing and announcing that you can survive any blows that the world delivers.

Stage 8. Selling

A confident seller can negotiate, think on her feet, make pitches and presentations, advocate for her work, explain why her work is wanted, and so on. You don’t have to be over-confident, exuberant, over the top – you simply need to get yourself to the place of being a calmly confident seller, someone who first makes a thing and then sells it in a business-like manner.

Stage 9: New Incubation and Contemplation

While you are showing and selling your completed works you are also incubating and contemplating new projects and starting the process all over again. The confidence required here is the confident belief that you have more good ideas in you. You want to confidently assert that you have plenty more to say and plenty more to do – even if you don’t know what that “something” is quite yet.

Stage 10: Simultaneous and Shifting States and Stages
I’ve made the creative process sound rather neat and linear and usually it is anything but. Often we are stalled on one thing, contemplating another thing, trying to sell a third thing, and so on. The confidence needed throughout the process is the quiet, confident belief that you can stay organized, successfully handle all of the thoughts and feelings going on inside of you, get your work done, and manage everything. This is a juggler’s confidence—it is you announcing, “You bet that I can keep all of these balls in the air!”
Manifest confidence throughout the creative process. Failing to manifest confidence at any stage will stall the process. It isn’t easy living the artist’s life: the work is taxing, the shadows of your personality interfere, and the art marketplace if fiercely competitive. If you learn some key ideas, for instance that you must act confidently whether or not you feel confident, you give yourself the best chance possible for a productive and rewarding life in the arts.

Adapted from the new book Making Your Creative Mark ©2013 by Eric Maisel.  Published with permission of New World Library 

I look forward to sharing my interview with Eric Maisel on the next episode of Creative Living with Jamie.

Inspired by Thrive and our call to be dancers, I wanted to re-share this article and share these badges for claiming your place as an artist.

This is an Open Invitation to Start Calling Yourself an Artist Right Now!

How many of us know in our hearts that we are a writer, a photographer, a dancer but we don’t dare to say it out loud? How many of us are waiting for someone else to give us that title, whether it’s a school, a boss, our parents or a profession itself?

Today is the day to claim the name of your creative spirit!

This is not about a degree or getting paid or getting published. This is about what’s in your heart and soul. You may not even be expressing it yet, but you know it’s in there, like the way a daffodil knows it’s a daffodil even when it’s still a bulb.

Be Brave!

I know this takes courage. It takes courage for me to write this post. I know there will be people who will be thinking, “But I worked hard to be published. What’s the point if everyone can call themselves a writer?” And I say to them, thank you for lighting the way. Thank you for showing those of us with seeds in our hearts what’s possible. Remember that once upon a time, your art lived only in your heart and that is what I’m inviting everyone to acknowledge here and now.

Be Generous!

And beautiful dreamers, grab these titles and give them away like confetti. Shower people you admire and love by acknowledging what you see in them. Sprinkle these words on tender spirits just starting to step into their creative self. If you know someone in their heart is a singer, send them a badge! Let them know you hear their song, even before they let a note fly.

Be Exuberant! There is More Than Enough to Go Around!

There is no limit to these badges. If every one feels like you, take every one! If seven feel like you, take seven. Give away 105. There’s more than enough. We won’t run out. If you don’t see your art here, email me and I’ll make another badge!

There is room for you!

Be It! Do It!

Let this name you’ve claimed inspire you to move in the world as you know you’re meant to. If you’re a dancer, dance. If you’re a writer, write. If you’re a musician, play, play, play. Let this be the beginning of fuller, deeper, wider, wilder, braver expression of the artist you are meant to be.

This week I’m letting this be my Happy Book post of gratitude plus my Saturday Find Inspiration post. There was a call in my heart to create this and now was the time to answer.

What are you dreaming under this Full Pink Moon? The name represents the pink flowers that so lavishly bloom in the spring. What an invitation to let yourself luxuriate in your dreams, embracing them passionately, sharing them magnificently and enjoying each precious bloom. Let’s share our dreams and make beautiful magic together under the Full Pink Moon!

Full Moon Details

In the Northern Hemisphere the Full Pink Moon asks: “What dreams is it time to tend?”
In the Southern Hemisphere the Full Harvest Moon asks: “What would you love an abundance of?”
Next New Moon: May 10
Next Full Moon: May 24, The Full Flower Moon in the Northern Hemisphere and The Full Frost Moon in the Southern Hemisphere
New to Full Moon Dreamboards? Find out more here.

My Full Moon Gifts to You

Join the studio (it’s free!) and you’ll get immediate access to my How to Make a Dreamboard workshop, which teaches you how to make your dreamboards with both intention and intuition. You’ll also get a 2013 Full Moon Schedule, complete with all the moon names and transpositions for the Southern Hemisphere. You’ll get lots of other goodies too. See all the details above.

Share Your Dreamboard

Create your dreamboard and share it on your blog or Flickr and then add a direct link in Mr. Linky below so that all of us dreamers can visit one another and share our dreams.