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!
Whenever I am painting or drawing I often don't start out with any particular idea. I just start moving the brush or the pencils and let the drawing or the painting lead me. It's relaxing and nerve wracking at the same time to create in this way. Relaxing because the...
Today I played around with watercolors in my sketchbook. What showed up is another one of those images that is puzzling to me on a lot of different levels. Although its certainly not the first time THAT has ever happened! I've been going through some serious dental...
I love Mexican and Southwestern folk art and Day Of The Dead stuff. My house is just filled with all kinds of art and figurines that depict those lively skeleton figures. In fact, here's one of the altars that I have in my house. I was so happy to find a Day Of The...
I am participating in something that Leah Piken Kolidas of Creative Every Day has developed which is called Art Every Day Month that she hosts during the month of November. The commitment is to do something creative and then post your latest creation on your blog....
YAY for the opportunity to get back into being visually creative on a regular basis. I've been focusing on my writing and my business recently and my painting life has been somewhat on the back burner. So I'm grateful to have the support and encouragement of this...
In my work as a creativity coach I talk with many, many people who want to be more creative, either as a way to deepen their spiritual practice of self nurturing or who have a specific dream that they long to manifest, like writing a book or spending more time in...
It took me 15 years to discover that I had no talent for writing but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous. -Robert C. Benchley Who says you have to be any good in order to be creative? The very first (and last) painting class I ever took (which...
About 11 years ago I attended a class at the Ghost Ranch Conference Center in Northern New Mexico for the first time and fell head over heels in love. With the landscape, the culture, the history, the big sky, the silent open spaces. It felt like a homecoming of major...
Somewhere along the line.... and maybe it's just because I've gotten old.... I got kind of burned out on trying to fix myself. I had spent most of my 20's, all of my 30's and half of my 40's trying to get better. To heal old wounds and improve myself so that I could...
I just returned from a fabulous week working with an amazing group of women who have decided to commit their time, money and energy to becoming expressive arts intuitive painting teachers. The teacher training program is a year long and happens in four weekly...
I recently had a pretty amazing synchronistic and serendipitous experience that I wanted to share with you all, partly because I am just excited, but partly because it's such a great example of the ins and outs of the creative process. I've always wanted to see my...
"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...
Like most creative types I have an ongoing love affair with art supplies. It still thrills me no end to go into an art store and walk up and down the aisles looking at the multitudinous tubes and colors of paint, fondling the different sizes and types of brushes,...
I have a friend who is a musician. And more than anything else he wants to write his own songs and eventually put them together on a CD. But it's not really happening. So he is in that particular type of artists hell where the creative longing is terribly insistent...
I don't really watch television, (well OK, except for LOST which I only watch on my laptop so somehow that doesn't seem to count), but I know that there is a show out there called Britain's Got Talent. I THINK it's one of those shows kind of like American Idol (which...
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...
I am somewhat addicted to personal growth. I can't even begin to tell you how many thousands of dollars and thousands of hours I have spent attending workshops, reading books and talking with my friends, husband and various paid professionals about the complicated...
In this next chapter of Gail McMeekins 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women she is talking about the issue of creative collaboration, and I realized as I was reading this that my professional creative life has been one long journey of collaboration. I really couldn't...
This post is in response to chapter 7 of 12 secrets Of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin and the topic this week has to do with guides. The question posed is " How are we guided, who guides us and where does guidance come from? What kind of creative guidance do...
I recently came across a fabulous group of women blogger artists who are being organized by Jamie Ridler and are working with the book the 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. Each week whoever wants to reads the assigned chapter and then crafts a...
One of the things that I love about the creative process, at least most days, is how it keeps me honest. The truth is where the juice lies and as long as I'm "keepin it real" I am continually blessed with an abundant sense of energy and aliveness. However, aliveness...
My husband is very anxious when we travel because he is always afraid that we are going to be robbed while we are out of town. Not too long after we first bought our home, we went away for a weekend and before we left we asked our new, friendly next door neighbor to...
In a recent article that I wrote I talked a lot about being willing to accept whatever shows up in your painting, even if it doesn't match up to your hopes and expectations about what you want it to be. One of my students got back to me and said "Yes, that...
When I'm writing my creative process looks like this... 1.) First, the inspiration. I get what seems like a genius idea to explore something or another. Then I hook up to wherever this stuff actually comes from and begin the process of downloading words and phrases...
The other night I was headed to my studio in my car to teach a painting class. My route to work is along the freeway and I am normally a speed demon behind the wheel, but for some reason on this particular evening I was driving at a reasonable, non breakneck pace in...
I have been doing something interesting in one of my weekly women's groups as part of our commitment to creativity. In my Thursday evening group we spend an hour each week engaging in some kind of creative process, and we have done many kinds of things over the...
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...