Women, Art, Life

How to Find Your Elephant

You’d think finding an elephant would be easy. In the early 2000s, I went to Zambia for 2 weeks. I was sent by my local chapter of the League of Women Voters to act as ambassador and trainer to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) focused on women’s empowerment and voting rights. My host, Mary, told me wonderful stories. One [...]

Your Life is Your Shoes

There they are: the perfect shoes. They look stylish, they match perfectly. And the store doesn’t have your size. What to do? Do you buy the size they have? Smaller: squish foot in and suffer? Larger: rubs a nasty blister, trips you as you go down the stairs. Or do you chalk it up to knowing that, although [...]

You Can’t Afford This!

How many times have you thought about leaving your day job, your “safety” job as an artist friend of mine calls her job, to follow your heart. How quickly and how many times have you then thought: “Oh, but I can’t afford to do that. How would I (make your own list – we all have [...]

How Do You Know When Joy Arrives?

What brings you joy? How do you know when joy arrives? What does joy look, feel, taste like? Sometimes you just have to stop and think about these things. Here’s my take on joy: Joy comes when I am doing things without judging myself. In art it means I am playing and not looking to how much this particular piece [...]

Where Were You This Time Last Year?

Every now and then I like to go back and see what I’ve written. Now seemed like the perfect time since I’m going to be away from my office a bit and so am preposting blogs so that I don’t forget since my schedule will not be running on its normally abnormal rhythm. Planned chaos. [...]

Fault Lines

This afternoon I received an email from my AmpUP: Create Your Art Business Out Loud client. She is having a hard time with overwhelm and (even though she knows better at some level) not being able to believe that she can make a career of being an artist. Let me say this woman’s art is wonderful – it [...]

You Haven’t Had a Bath Since When?

No – I’m not saying you smell. I’m asking when did you last take a bath – you know: hot water, steamy bathroom, bubbles, good book or just lay back and relax, large towel, aromatic oil afterwards. Can you remember the last time? I just realized I can’t. (Well, except the champagne jacuzzi in the Poconos, but that doesn’t [...]

Airy-Fairy Meets Science in The Dark Wood

Dancing with my Shadow $195 Here’s the thing: there is much writing out there that is supposed to be helpful in figuring out where one is and why one is here. And very much of it leaves me with the question: WHAT does that MEAN? Jung’s concept of shadow is like that (what you dislike in another [...]

Are You Possessed?

Possessed: controlled or strongley influenced, especially by a supposed evila supernatural force or a strong emotion; having something as a quality, characteristic, or belief; having or owning something. So, are you possessed? And if you are, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Because you create your life by the things you choose to allow [...]

Transformation

Like most of the creatures of creation, we humans go through a periodic molt, except that our molt is an invisible one and because of the lonely invisibility of the transformation, it necessitates a particular form of courage, a courage we are never sure we have in our possession. Shedding the carapace we have been building [...]