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!
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. ...
In the Wild Heart Expressive Arts approach to intuitive painting and art-making we are in a continual dance of trying to navigate our relationship to the judging mind also known as the inner critic. I’m defining the inner critic as the part of our psyche that is...
I’m pretty sure it will come as a surprise to NO one to hear that I spend a lot of my time thinking about creativity. I’m endlessly curious about what it is, how it works, what gets in the way of its full expression and what helps to keep us in creative flow. So today...
When people come to work with me one of the first things I tell them is that this intuitive painting process is an exercise in Radical Self Acceptance. And everyone who hears that invitation nods their heads in agreement. I mean, who WOULDN’T give a huge...
Our rational, logical and linear mind is more limited than we are led to believe. There are many times in our lives when we need to make choices or decisions and just don’t have enough information from the visible world to take confident action. And when that...
Greetings to my beloved Wild Heart Creative Community, I have another round of my online intuitive painting class, Painting With Fire, coming up in a little more than a week and as much as that class is about claiming the freedom to make art in your own way, it’s just...
Greetings to my beloved Wild Heart Creative Community, I have another round of my online intuitive painting class, Painting With Fire, coming up in a little more than a week and as much as that class is about claiming the freedom to make art in your own way,...
I was recently in the middle of one of my teacher training retreats and something I so enjoy about working with students at this deeper level are the powerful and energizing conversations we have as a community about art, life, creativity and the intuitive painting...
A few thoughts about some things to expect ANY time you engage with the work of true healing and transformation: Resistance tends to get activated whenever our soul begins nudging us to take a risk, make a change or step into the unknown. The possibility of...
Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive painting is a practice of surrendering TO your intuition and allowing it to lead the way. But this approach often gets confused with painting from an agenda which means you are USING your intuition to get a desired result. And your...
I recently got an email from a lovely woman on my mailing list asking me about how to use creativity to work through negative emotions. Which is a completely fabulous question and one that I have thought about a great deal. My first response to that question is...
When I was a kid I absolutely adored Christmas. I loved the twinkly lights and the schmaltzy music but most of all I loved that sense of anticipation and wonder and surprise. My family and I lived in a rowhouse that had three stories and two flights of stairs. On...
"We're lost but we're making good time." Yogi Berra As I walk through my painting studio on any given day I am sure to hear at least one plaintive cry of " I hate this painting because it doesn't make any sense!" or " I can't believe that I've spent so much...
In my intuitive painting classes the first thing that I tell people is that there are no mistakes when you are painting. Everything that shows up on the paper is something that needs to be there. This idea that you really can't do anything wrong is a concept that most...
When I am needing some cheap and easy stress reduction I take a couple of minutes to visit a website/blog called www.cuteoverload.com. This site is filled with absolutely adorable photos and videos of all types of critters from doggies to donkeys doing whatever...
One of the places where my students will often find themselves getting stuck or stopped in the intuitive painting process is when they encounter the common fear of ruining a painting. One moment they will be happily painting away and then they get an...
Over and over again, I hear a common complaint from students in my intuitive painting classes that goes something like this... “My painting doesn't look the way I want it to because I don't have enough artistic training . I can see this perfectly formed image in my...
I'm standing in my studio, watching twelve women painting in silence with exquisite focus and concentration. And the energy is just humming. All of a sudden I hear a groan from one of the women and the words "Oh no, I hate it. It's so...