To Alison Lee of Craftcast.com and all the WONDERFUL FEISTY participants in this evening's online class... A BIG THANK YOU!!!

I am so thrilled to have taken this adventure with you and will be holding all your affirmations and intentions in my heart with DREAM SPIRIT!!

Feel free to take a bold step and write your affirmation for the world to see!

Congratulations to Jennifer who won a copy of Creative Awakenings!

The book I mentioned is the first book in the left hand column of this page, under Books to Inspire, May I have your attention please by Chris Hilicki. I will check and see if I have them on hand too if you're interested. 

Register here!

I want to show you some photos from our first Soul Sessions Sunday in our new space. This is why I believe what I have told you in that first paragraph. It's been three long years since I closed my studio due to the sale of the building. What I didn't know is that a book was going to manifest during those three years and at the end of it, I would be ready to open another studio! Along the way the path was shown to me, as I listened in to "what was calling me." I wasn't always ready to take the step, but I listened and used my Book of Dreams (my guidebook of intention) to allow the feelings of possibility a place to live. 

Each step of this journey has been a true journey of intention setting and knowing when the timing would be right. As I stood in the room of 14 magnificent women on Sunday morning, but heart was literally bursting with gratitude and joy. As tears brimmed my eyes, I felt this HUGE need to paint. I painted a BIG heart and at the end of the class, shared it with the women. 

Come dream with me tomorrow night as I talk about the process and the Book of Dreams journal on Craftcast.com with host Alison Lee. It promises to be a fun and feisty evening. In the meantime...dream on!

The Spiral appears

 
It's an all body experience!

Smiling faces!

Toni with her drum!

It's DreamTime Monday. As I look back on last month's Art of Intention, which was about finding a home for my business as well as collaboration and it's kind of hard to believe how far things have come in one month's time!! I am now working from my new community based studio, The Mandala Studio: A center for expressive arts and transformation, I have 3 spiritual partners in this venture and we've held our first class! 

As we move into the month of November, we enter that time of year where self-care becomes a bit more challenging, so I hope you will join me in creating your November Art of Intention this month and EnVisioning where your heart really wants to go this month. Post your Art of Intention in the Salon along with your stated affirmation.

It was a wonderful juicy and playful weekend at our new studio. We hosted our first event, Painting Your Heart Out! for Mom's and Kids. It started as a small party, but the main participant got sidetracked by the Denver blizzard, so we put out the word and opened the doors. I'm so glad we did, as we had a fantastic time shaking our booties to Toni's drum beats, creating a community mural and allowing our inner artist's to blossom. One of the mom's said, "I could stay here and do this all day!", and I knew exactly what she meant. It's not often we give ourselves that time to just be. To be in the moment of the experience with no rules, to-do's or negative self-talk. 

A good time was had by all!

It was a coming home of sorts for me, as it's been 3 years since I have had my own studio. In this process, I have realized how shackled I have felt not having a consistent place to host my workshops and classes and how much I have missed teaching while writing the book.  I realized how limiting things had become as I struggled to find "appropriate," places to host my wild and messy classes. It's still a little confining, as we have to be careful not to get the carpet ruined and there isn't a sink in the space, but I am used to winging it and I love the feeling of opening the door and knowing I have a place for my heart to rest for awhile. 

 
Kawak share's his painting

Toni after her first class! "Now we have to clean up??"

It has manifested to this....The Mandala Studio: A Center for Expressive Arts and Transformation! 

EDUCATION.....COLLABORATION....COMMUNITY! 

Opening with a special Soul Sessions: Painting Your Heart Out, Harvest Blessing, Sunday Nov 8th! Join us and Rock Your SUNDAY!  

Enjoy...stay tuned for Part Two of "Learning to See." 

During our last Soul Sessions class, one of my students who has worked with me for awhile said, "I finally get it, I get what you do, it's CREATIVE RECOVERY." I stood there dumbfounded, as I had never thought of it that way, yet when she said it to the class, and I saw all the nodding heads, I felt like I was finally able to "name," what previously had been intangible. 

As a result, I have been thinking about these last couple of weeks about what it takes to find our own creative voice. Learning styles and techniques from mentors and teachers is a very important step in our creative recovery. It's a safe and playful way to open the door to rediscovery and remembering that art and the creative process belongs to everyone. 

This is Emalie, my friend creative Goddess Linda's grandaughter. The voice narrating is Stephanie, Emalie's mom. This video, will make you weep, if you've forgotten..

At some point it's time to begin to trust the source within. Your source, your innate creative wisdom, the golden gem you were born with. At first this can be VERY scary! No magazines? No photo transfers? A blank sheet? Yep! That's exactly what I'm inviting you to do and I want you to know I experienced those same cold sweats when beginning my own creative recovery so many years ago. Oh the voices...they were VERY VERY LOUD! Remember...I became a photographer, because I was told I could not "draw," and had a deep need to express what was inside me. 

So what's the first step to beginning this journey? All it takes is the willingness to take a risk, to make a mess and the willingness to accept what comes WITHOUT JUDGEMENT! The intention is NOT to make a pretty picture. If you begin there, it's a set up, because you are beginning AT THE END...not at the beginning with the Zen concept of "Beginners Mind."

Soul Session-#1, 1999

This is my very first Soul Session, created in 1999 on newsprint with acrylic paint on a tarp on the floor of my bedroom. What's your first impression? Go on, be honest, you won't hurt my feelings, I promise! I show this painting to all my introductory students in Soul Sessions. It's the first painting I did when I decided to find my own voice. I made an agreement with myself that I would not show the paintings to anyone. I would date and title each piece and when I was done, I would thank whatever showed up, talk to the Venomous Toads and then put them away. It wasn't easy to tame the Toads at first, but eventually I was able to learn to accept what showed up, knowing that the image had something to share with me. 

Art is accessible to EVERYONE, not a select and elite few. Would you like to take a risk today to learn to see? Take some time today and finger paint. Be willing to PLAY...that's all that's required. 

Continue reading as our series continues and leave a comment and let me know how it's going.