Time for a little astrology. As many of you may have already heard, we are going through a major astrological shift right now. And that shift is the planet Pluto changing signs, going from Capricorn ( where it’s been for the last 15 years), into the sign...
Creative Juices Arts Blog
Welcome to my blog page! I love writing about the healing power of the creative process. Here you will find a collection of all of my writing from all the way back to 2005! Enjoy!
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Old Fire
I recently celebrated my 72nd birthday so the process of aging is very much on my mind. And in honor of that birthday I took the past few weeks off from teaching the online classes ( I’m back to my regular teaching schedule in October) to deal with some nagging...
The Healing Power Of Meaningless Experience
The wild heart intuitive painting approach to art is at core a liberation process which means that there are NO rules. Just practices. And, in fact, one thing we encourage our students to do on a regular basis is to BREAK any rules they might have picked...
How To Welcome A True Spiritual ( and Creative) Breakthrough
Our soul will sometimes let us know that it is time to heal something within us through an experience of suffering. We will find ourselves in a place of distress that sometimes has no discernible source. We just know that we’re miserable, hurting and unhappy....
Why Completing Your Paintings Really Matters
In my role as an intuitive painting facilitator and guide I am deeply dedicated to the principals and practices of the Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive Painting process. And one of those practices is the invitation to complete any painting that you start...
Wild Heart Medicine
When I turned 50 ( almost 22 years ago) I had just started holding my week long painting retreats at the Ghost ranch Conference Center in Abiquiu New Mexico a couple of years prior. During that retreat I had a number of my long time students in attendance. These were...
When Butterflies And Rainbows Just Aren’t Enough
There’s an interesting form of resistance that regularly shows up in my intuitive painting classes that people don’t actually recognize as resistance. And it looks like this. What we encourage our students to practice as they are painting is their full range of...
Listening To Your Heart. Finding A Way.
Before the pandemic turned all of our lives completely upside down, I had a thriving, in-person retreat business. I held weekend and four day non-residential retreats at my Oakland studio and took people on week long residential retreats in fabulously beautiful places...
My Personal Journey With Person Centered Expressive Arts and How It Influences My Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
As we are coming down to the wire for this next round of our Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program I’ve been thinking a lot about my own expressive arts journey My early days in terms of my own personal healing and also in my professional practice...
Smashing The Patriarchy With Intuitive Painting and the The Expressive Arts
One of the conversations I’ve been having a LOT with my students recently has to do with the struggle people feel around how much easier it is for them to be free and creative and fully alive when they are in painting class or on retreat with us, and how difficult it...
The Wild Rumpus Ride Of Change
The past four years have been a sometimes grueling, often disturbing, seemingly unending process of slip-sliding transition, rocky instability, startling change and revolutionary upheaval. This process has been happening in both in the inner world of the psyche and...
Pouting, Whining and Getting Aligned With My Artists Soul
Whenever I launch a new round of my Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program it takes me back through my journey of being an intuitive painting facilitator that began almost 30 years ago. And one thing that stands out for me was the challenge of filling my...
Registration Is Now Open For The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Online!!!
Seventeen years ago in 2007 I was facilitating a week long painting retreat in Hawaii. One of my long time students who was there with me started talking about how much she wanted to learn how to facilitate people around the creative process like I did. And proceeded...
Painting Ourselves Whole
My husband, life and business partner in all things creative, Tim Lajoie, has been writing more and more these days and this post is written by him. I’m so enjoying how his wise perspective is contributing to the conversation about this powerful expressive arts...
How A Deep Understanding Of Creative Freedom Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
We’re coming down to the wire and The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in one short week on April 29th. And as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and...
How A Deep Understanding Of The Patriarchy and Women’s Issues Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in a little more than two weeks on April 29th and as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and philosophical roots and...
How A Deep Understanding Of The Body Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in a little less than a month and as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and philosophical roots and influences...
Trusting The Process As A Core Principle Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
One of the first things you will hear me talk about when you come to one of my classes, workshops or retreats is that here in these circles we are focusing on and placing greater value on the process of creation instead of primarily valuing the finished product. ...
Free Webinar: Love As A Core Principle At The Heart Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
This is Tim and I wanted share some thoughts about our upcoming Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program and one of our core philosophies: love! “I’m going back in!” She said defiantly as she took a deep breath, pursed her lip, and wiped away the tear...
Wholeness: Exploring A Core Principle Of The Heart Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
Whenever Tim and I take another group of students through our Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training process we inevitably hear from folks how they’ve never experienced anything quite like the sense of healing and love and liberation that happens for them in our...
How Do I Know If This Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program Is Right For Me?
As Tim and I go through the process of interviewing folks for our upcoming teacher training program, we often get the question of how do I know if this Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training is right for me? This is a HUGE question on a certain level because it...
The Promise of a New Box of Paints!
It finally arrived! I had been waiting all morning, checking my phone, tracking the number of stops until it got here and then, “cuh-thunk”, the satisfying thud of a heavy box unceremoniously dropped on our front porch. I pulled the box inside and grabbed a knife to...
I Wanted To Be A Nun As A Kid. But Became An Intuitive Painting Facilitator Instead.
When I was 8 years old and in the third grade we were given the assignment to write our autobiography. I don’t remember much about what I wrote. In my memory, I don't see words, only the thin, lined composition notebook with the black and white speckled cover and my...
Painting With Fire and The Power Of A Committed Creative Practice
Greetings to my beloved wild heart community, I just returned from spending a magical week in the desert with an amazing group of wild hearted painters at my most recent Painting From The Wild Heart retreat. And I must say, that as grateful as I am that I...
Some Wishes And Prayers For You During This Season Of Darkness And Light
Some Wishes And Prayers For You During This Season Of Darkness And Light Holidays are always such a mixed bag for folks. Especially this one where we’re supposed to be all merry and cheery. And if you ARE genuinely feeling merry and cheery I party with you...
How Long Does It Take To Truly Heal?
In my early days as a psychotherapist whenever I would begin with a new client I would often get the question, “How long is this going to take?” Meaning, how much time will it take before I am healed and this problem I am bringing to you is permanently solved. ...
Astro Wisdom: Gemini as Holy Messenger of Sacred Curiosity
When Gemini appears on the scene you can be guaranteed an endlessly entertaining torrent of scintillating conversation about anything and everything under the sun. Gemini’s primary superpower is an unquenchable curiosity that searches far and wide for the most...