INterview With Renee Byrd

May 22, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography

I met Renee Bryd in our dear friend Kelsie McNair’s kitchen (owner of With Lavender and Lace) we were making guacamole and her husband was schooling me on astrology information. Renee is the sweetest of beings. One of those spirits you can’t help but melt all edges with. She is here today to tell us about her journey and love affair with life and food!

I’m Renee Byrd. I like avocado on/in everything and I never travel without a mini Hario V6 coffee drip filter. I collect handmade mugs like some people collect treasure trolls. I dabble in playing drums and writing poetry. My kitchen is always a mess. I’m a blogger, writer, photographer, and recipe developer and I’ve lived all over Virginia but I currently reside in the small mountain city of Charlottesville, VA with my husband. I blog over at Will Frolic for Food.

How do you start your day?

Cuddling with my husband. Putting the final touches on a blog post while he starts coffee. Making avocado toast and wolfing that down before hitting publish and walking over to catch my favorite ashtanga yoga vinyasa improv class (if I’m lucky).

Describe vibrant living? What does this look like for you?

Vibrant living, to me, starts with practicing love and gratitude: for myself, my blessings, my teachers, my friends, and all beings everywhere. Vibrance, technically, comes from the Sanskrit word vipra which in its most literal translation means “to vibrate.” It’s a word that in Sanskrit is used to describe aspirants (or “the vibrant/vibrating ones”) on their many different paths to self-knowledge, actualization, and realization of the true nature of all things. I bring this up because living a vibrant life, to me, is about experiencing a sense of vibrating with this palpable vitality and grace on our way to ultimate knowledge of the Self or God. Vibrance is about spirit energy supported by internal and external work. A healthy, pure, wholesome diet and balancing physical exertion combined with a centered spiritual practice is what makes living a vibrant life easeful. If you put the work in daily, you can experience vibrance all the time. And begin to share it with others!

You said: “I believe that art and the making of food don’t have to be separate.” 

How did you discover that this way your way in life?

After college I started to realize how vital the act of cooking and sharing a lovingly prepared meal or dessert was to my relationships and overall mental health. When my dead-end job was draining me I could touch something beautiful and hopeful and MORE in a pot of curry or a batch of donuts it became essential emotional support. At the time I was working at a grocery store and writing and studying yoga. And making food was the only artistic medium I had that I could share with other humans.

Art elevates our experience of life beyond the mundane. It gives us a sense of the beyond; something emotive and untouchable that exists in our reality but that isn’t often perceived; that we rarely connect with outside of existential or religious experiences.

To me a really fantastic meal can offer illumination and escape;

can act as a salve or a door into experience you otherwise could never touch.

Good food is emotional, nostalgic and yet requires total presence in order to experience it in fullness.

It’s so human.

What does nourishment look like to you? 

To me, nourishment is a balance of feeding your heart, soul, body, and mind. Nourishing your heart with loving, supportive relationships (and putting less or no energy towards emotional vampires); your soul with work that feeds you (for me that’s music, yoga, meditation, and cooking); your body with exercise and pure, wholesome foods (mostly plants); and your mind with meditation and the constant pursuit of knowledge.

 What would you like everyone to know?

You can do it! Don’t ever let anyone make you feel less than or stop you from pursuing your worthy obsessions. There’s a niche for everything.

 Tell me about what you crave?

Avocado toast. Hugs. Hang out times with my husband. Time hiking in the mountains. Coffee. Moving my body.

What are you saying a big Holy YES to these days?

 Responding to each and every worthy inquiry and comment with love. Every person deserves to be heard. Especially if they’re taking the time to offer love and support of the work I’m doing! That and reaching out to offer support and love to folks doing good work.

 What are your tools and teachers? What have you been learning from them personally?

My teachers are mostly other food bloggers, honestly! I spend a lot of time reading food blogs, and blogs in general. I feel like I’m constantly learning about how to be a better writer, photographer, and recipe developer from the incredible work other bloggers are putting out every day. I sort of feel like the internet is a free workshop for everyone to learn every thing they could possibly want to absorb. My husband calls me Hermione all the time because I’m constantly in study/research mode. I love it.

I also learn a lot through my camera, which — other than my kitchen utensils — is my main tool. I feel like a recently crossed a threshold where I now see terrain and people in terms of colors, light, patterns. I’ve never declared myself to be a visual artist before, and I’m still hesitant to do so. But I’m loving every moment of this journey and what it’s teaching me about how light paints our world and our perceptions.

I read this on your site: “Favorite textures: old cast iron, linen, well-cared-for oiled wood, tarnished silver, coarse sea salt.”

This was so simply soulful. I wonder, what is your favorite sounds? Smells? Sites?

Sounds: my husbands bursting laugh, the sound of coffee being poured into a ceramic mug, an egg being cracked and landing in a gently sizzling pan, the sound of the ocean from far away as you’re driving toward it.

Smells: melting ghee, fresh snow, clean bed linens that smell like my lavender dryer sheets, freshly roasted cacao, the smell tomato plants leave on your hands after you touch them to check on the fruit.

Sights: giant jars of our fresh roasted cacao and coffee, my husband sleeping peacefully, looking out over valleys at the top of a mountain path, early spring asparagus growing in our backyard, blackberry stains on my fingers.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?

Live. Live fully. Live with stubborn joy.

Wanna follow along with Renee and her chocolate journey? See what they are up to HERE on her website.

***You can also scoop up and try some of her really delightful recipes, she is always posting new ones.

Visit her on Instagram for all kinds of inspiration. (I swoon over her photo’s! Yum…) and on Twitter! 

INterview With Consu Tolosa

May 22, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography

This sweet and beautiful woman lights up a room with her joyful smile. She creates paintings that exemplify this playful joy, which she will tell you about. Im so glad she has graced us with her soulful presences!

Consu Tolosa: I am a curious & creative creature. Always wanting to learn and explore new ideas. I am a friendly introvert — a combination of traits which sometimes confuses people. I was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. I came to the US when I was 17 and I felt at home. I knew I had to stay. After moving around from the gorgeous high desert of northern NM to the gritty urban areas of the Mid-Atlantic region, I settled in Portland, Oregon in 1997.

I enjoy being in the role of the observer, and my favorite thing to observe in this world are People. I am fascinated by the way we think, act, look & interact with one another. And so I paint People, infusing the process with my quirky aesthetic & point of view. In doing so, I transform ‘People’ into ‘Personitas.’ Personitas are often humorous and are born at the junction of play and joy, providing me endless sessions of delight in my studio. The painting process is spontaneous and unstructured at first.

I start without a plan, simply responding to color and form. At some point a tiny window of clarity appears and offers me access to the magical world that will later emerge as the painting itself.

Adding JOY into the world through my artwork is a goal close to my heart, and witnessing a human connection with the audience is the unexpected reward of my work.

Will you please illustrate a children’s book, because I think every mom in the world would buy it. Seriously. Are you planning too?

I would love to illustrate a children’s book but I don’t have a concrete plan yet… I think for this the story and concept will come first, and then the characters will emerge from there… any ideas?

I read you say: “I recognized a desire to anchor the unleashed creativity to a deeper part of myself.”

This statement is part of my reflections in choosing my 2014 word for the year, which was ‘depth.’ In 2013 I emerged from my self-imposed shadows and decided to be brave and vulnerable by sharing my artwork with the world. Coming out was scary, but the response was wonderful and encouraging… so I kept going. It was exhilarating to have the approval of others, but I realized that this could create an unhealthy dependency if I did not tether this newly unleashed creativity to a deeper part of myself. I had to continue to be in touch with my personal ‘why.’ 

Will you explain a bit about this journey? 

Going deeper in 2014 was amazing. I began to play with the ideas of personal power and magic along with courage and accountability. I made it a game of saying yes to things that scared, but thrilled me, and no to things that felt like obligation or some form of a ‘should.’ 

I reconnected with my ‘why’ {I make the choices I do including delving wholeheartedly into a more creative life} and developed a level of trust in the process that I did not know in this context. As an experiential learner I need to feel and see the outcomes before I deeply ‘get’ that something is true… and for this I had to take some leaps of faith.

“We do not cease to play because we grow old. We grow old because we cease to play.”

-George Bernard Shaw

Ironically, I take play very seriously. 

The definition of play in the dictionary will tell you that it is a pleasure-seeking activity rather than one with a ‘serious or practical’ purpose. I beg to differ. Engaging in play allows us to improve our mood, which in turn supports our overall health. When we are more relaxed we are better problem-solvers and have access to deeper insight. Play connects humans to joy. Joyfully connected humans seek peace… you see where I am going with this?

I absolutely and unequivocally trust the need to dedicate ample time to engage in joyful activities. I do recognize the level of privilege that my stance implies and have tried (and will continue to try) to offer others in my community opportunities to experience moments of play and joy.

How do you make time for play? What does play look like?

Making time to play has to do with assessing your priorities and being good at setting boundaries. It means saying ‘no’ more often to things and relationships that are draining, and YES to what your heart whispers and longs for. You practice noticing moments of joy and being grounded in the moment when you allow yourself to be playful.

In practical terms, I made more time to play in the last year by recognizing where my time, and most importantly my energy were going. Changing my work schedule radically and cultivating the habit of showing up to my studio. Every one of the days that I freed-up allowed me to deeply trust that I could honor my needs AND that play does have some amazing fringe benefits. As I got ready to change my routine & schedule, I was wondering if I would be able to relax and play or if I would start doing house work instead… I am happy to report that my vacuum is still in pristine condition… 

Play for me looks like this:

picture a little art house nestled in the back corner of your garden (the photo is in my website, but I can send you another if you can’t find it!). There is good lighting, sometimes you can hear music for dancing during breaks, and sometimes you can hear amazing inspiring books on tape. The walls are lined with neatly organized art supplies of every sort and stripe! There are three, four, five pieces going all at once. I let go of expectations & facilitate a dialogue between my ideas and my supplies.

What supports the true expression of your authentic self?

My commitment to show up to those whispers in my heart with a curious and compassionate stance.

What is your mantra, your words to live by?

Hmmm, two of my dad’s sayings come to mind:

“Querer es poder” and “Lo mejor es el enemigo de lo bueno” … which would be equivalent to “Where there’s a will there is a way” and the second one I am still searching for a saying in English… I have heard “Done is best” which comes close in spirit since it’s meant to encourage movement and combat any perfectionistic tendencies. (it literally means ‘the best’ is the enemy of ‘the good’ – i.e. there is no such thing as ‘best’ and its pursuit can keep you from getting things done at all!!).

You said: “I have a blast tuning into my creative impulses each day!”

Tell me dear one, what does your creative impulses look like most days?

Every day that I show up to the studio to start a new piece or indulge on exploration I know I am likely to create a ‘Personita’ (which is what I call my many 2-d children!)… and I am always dying to meet them. It is so much fun to play with color and slowly watch a character emerge. By the time I get to their little faces I am literally smiling with them (or making whatever facial expression they are making). Sometimes I have a flash of awareness at that particular point and I wish I would have a hidden camera to see how often I crack myself up during a painting session.

What are you saying YES to these days?

I am saying YES to acknowledging dreams.

Anything that scares and excites me at the same time gets a YES!

I am saying ‘yes’ to walking out of my comfort zone.

I am saying yes to believing in {my own} magic and power to realize dreams.

What lights you up? What turns you on? What makes your heart quicken?

Laughter, color, thinking of obstacles, solvable puzzles & intelligence. Oh, and cats!

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?

This question will make my interview be late!! It is so big and so awesome … and I want to get it right!

So I will have to keep my answer as broad as the question. As it deserves to be. And let the details emerge unique for each season of that one precious life.

I think my plan is to always try to walk my talk. I plan to be brave and follow my gut to keep me grounded in my spirit, and be present so that I am able to contribute something relevant to the world at each stage. In this present stage I want to live the idea of turning inward for direction and trusting whatever comes up. My word for 2015 is ‘focus.’

You can purchase an original piece by Consu HERE.

As well as stop in and say hello on her website HERE and on Facebook HERE! 

Keep an eye out for more to come from this creatrix over on her blog HERE…

INterview With Michelle Madden Smith

May 15, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography

 Once upon a time I wanted a tribe and I wanted to paint with this tribe. Flora Bowley was leading an incredible workshop just an hour from my home and so I looked it up. Alas I found Serendipity, I found Michelle. I love how one like soul leads to another. Although I didn’t end up going to that particular retreat (because they fill up so darn fast,) however I have since then appreciated the magic Michelle and her counterpart Jen create at Serendipity! There is magic brewing between them and I feel we can expect to see marvelous things coming our way. Today let’s chat with the ever lovely Michelle!

Michelle Madden Smith is a wayfinder and mama living on a barrier island that arcs gracefully out to sea in North Carolina. She is co-founder of Animyst where along with her business partner Jen Gray, she co-creates inspiring online workshops and soulful retreats with artists and makers. She is also the creator behind the premiere yoga studio and teacher training program at Outer Banks Yoga. She lives and loves with her filmmaker sweetheart Bryan and their toddling daughter Lyla Maryanna.

Why yoga, why art retreats? How are they connected for you? How has spirituality affected you and your work?

I seek evidence of the invisible.

That’s what it all boils down to for me. All of my passions and offerings to the world were born first from my own inner journey of seeking what it means to live, of how to have a meaningful life.

I don’t say that lightly. My dark night of the soul lasted for nearly a decade through my late teens and 20’s. I awoke from that period feeling as though I only had one choice. I had to learn how to be in this world and to give myself fully to the search for meaning.

This journey began with learning how to breathe, you know the kind of breath where time stops and it brings you fully into the moment. When things were good, I’d breathe. And when they weren’t, I’d breathe then too.

A few years later my yoga practice, and ultimately the studio, were born from a physical injury that occurred because I didn’t yet know how to hear my intuition and I was actively pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I was still learning how to be here, so I didn’t know how or who to “be” much of the time. Time on my mat helped me heal the lingering deeper psychological wounds that led me to this breaking point, as well as helped me begin to trust my body again.

As I grew stronger, it became clear that I needed to find my own creative voice and save myself from a lifelong feeling of isolation. I’m an only child, mostly introverted, my Mom and I moved all the time while I was growing up… and now I live on an island. First blogs, then art retreats and gatherings helped me discover my gifts, my tribe and my current life’s work of helping other women reconnect with their creative voices. This lead to the creation of Animyst and our retreats and online art workshops.

So first I found my breath, then my body, and then my creative voice….a serpentine path through the invisible realms. I’ve moved away from teaching yoga as my creative life grew, but spirituality is at the core of everything I do. It’s hard for me to separate my personal life from my work in the world. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to continually evolve over these years, listening to the subtle cues and tugs of my heart and following the paths blazed by beautiful guides, teachers and mentors. I am just so grateful to be here.

I read  “Michelle encourage you to come home to the familiar environment of your body, yet expand your understanding of your own personal edges.”

There is a dichotomy in our culture of being mind-focused and disconnected from our bodies and yet completely focused on the body as an object rather than sacred space. My teachings lead students on an inquiry that ultimately brings them back to their first homes. Our bodies pick up more information than our conscious minds can process, by bringing people home they can begin to have a deeper dialogue with their physical selves and the world around them. By noticing the sensations they experience, or by noticing the energy of a space they can begin to open up to how powerful we really are, and begin to make change.

As for edges, we all have obstacles we come up against – insecurity, fear, a perceived lack – and these play out on the yoga mat just as in life. By nudging up against an edge on the mat – a physical or mental edge – and approaching both the experience of the body and the mind with curiosity and playfulness you can begin to learn how to move through those edges off the mat as well.

It’s all a practice, and it’s all connected.

How do you most like to celebrate your body?

Every way I can, but mostly it’s the simple pleasures like a slow Saturday morning yoga class or spontaneous dance parties in the living room with my baby or a long walk in the forest or along the sea. Delicious, nourishing food is important to me. I love the sweetness of allowing myself an extra five minutes in bed in the morning to stretch out fully. I love a good long drink of water. I love submerging completely in the ocean. I love placing my hands over my heart. I love deep eye contact with those I love. I love cuddling my baby skin on skin.

Do you have a sacred space? What does sacred mean to you?

I do have a physical sacred space in my home, but I believe sacred is what you create with your energy and intention. I create sacred space when I’m having a video chat meeting with my business partner, or meditating as I take my nightly shower before bed. But I’ve also carved out a space in my home that’s mine…my altars, my art, my work. It’s colorful and bright and messy and sacred.

Rituals can be a multitude of things what are a few of your tried and true rituals?

There are so many. I was recently told that I was a monk in a past life and that I loved that life because of it’s simple rituals – rise, prayer, meal, vespers.

I think my rituals serve to remind my body of its lightness and my soul of the earth.

They are simple things like tea in the morning with my love and my daughter, tidying up my space and lighting a candle as I sit down to do my daily work. Prayers of gratitude sprinkled throughout the hours, an altar to bring sacredness to a project or to help a friend.

For a long time I’ve had this crazy idea I call the “Good for You Project.” What if we could create a list of all the things we should do for ourselves to find bliss based on the many health, happiness and longevity studies that have been done. The good for your body things like eat an apple a day, eat 12 almonds a day, drink your weight in water, exercise for 20 minutes 3x a week or the social things like spend time with friends, stay off social media, have dinner together. But since that list would be insanely long, I imagine you’d spend your whole day just trying to do all these things!

So for now, I created a sheet called my “DAILY”. On it are those things that I’ve learned help me to be healthy and feel whole and fulfilled. I try to do as many as I can each day, without grasping…allowing them to happen naturally to become habits.

In some ways, these are my tiny offerings to a life well lived.

How do you nourish your wellbeing on a typical day?

My daughter turned one in January and it felt as though my body finally fully exhaled. Everything about the first years with a little one is about learning a new way of being, and well-being can take on a survival-like quality.

So lately it’s making sure I’m eating well enough and drinking enough water and taking my supplements so that I can nourish her. It’s getting outside in the sunshine, getting bodywork done, making time with my love and my friends, staying offline as much as possible. And sometimes nourishing my well-being means focusing entirely on a project in front of me and busting my ass to meet a deadline. I think balance is a dangerous myth, quite frankly. Rather I prefer to focus on what is beautifully, mindfully in front of me.

You also said:”Tuning-in, noticing and listening to the inherent wisdom of your own body.”What is your wisdom whispering to you today? What is it asking of you?

My word for the year is bhaktim – which is Sanskrit for “to devote.” I chose a verb because I needed a word that inspired action.

My wisdom is asking me to deepen my commitment, to devote myself, to the myriad ways I feed my soul, as that feeds my daughter’s soul, my love’s soul and the soul of the world.

And, it’s asking me to not put my life on hold because I have a baby, as that only provokes the martyr archetype to come up for me. Instead, it’s asking me to discover all the ways my life can expand to include her. And always, behind all of that, my wisdom whispers…lighten up.

Tell me how you rise up in fullness?

Walking in the forest. I feel as though I’m in a cathedral directly in communion with the sprit world.

What supports your authentic self? Your true expression of yourself?

Nature. Paint. Light.

Tell me about the love you give to yourself, to the world?

This sums it up for me: She walks in beauty. I imagine myself embodying this idea so fully I am completely saturated with it and it radiates out of me showering everything with feather-light glitter.

Lastly, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

I want to become a living prayer.

I intend to keep chipping away at the ideas that prevent me from knowing I’m beloved and one with the earth, the sky, water, fire, intuition, humanity, the cosmos, and the spirit world. These are things like skepticism, palpable anxiety, self-doubt and fear. I want to be bold. I want to continue to learn and seek. I want to surprise myself.

I intend to be a model of health, wholeness and unconditional love for my daughter. I want her to feel confident, know she’s loved and have the courage to walk her own path.

And later, I intend to be a spirited old crone serving up easy laughter and cookies to Lyla, Bryan, our grandbabies and the tribe of beautiful spirits that we have gathered over the decades.

Want more of Michelle Madden Smith? I thought so!

You can visit her here at Animyst or here over on Facebook!

Take a class at Outer Banks Yoga or head over and take one of the online E-courses like Visual Quest with Pixie Lighthorse.

Join us again in 2015 for this 5-week Online Journey into the depths of Shamanic Painting with Pixie Lighthorse.
Creative living and spiritual practice represents all that is mysterious, alive and juicy in every one of us. This freeing process is release, it’s color and spirit in motion, it’s a deep embrace of What Is, and an intentional honoring of life itself. This class is a convergence of everything Pixie knows about spirit and art all rolled into one.