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.

INterview With Moyra Scott

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

I met this insanely funny one while on retreat at Call of the Wild Soul in England. I don’t know how or why but somehow it seemed we ended up almost everywhere together. Between classes and dinners I spent a great deal of time laughing as well as seeing her develop as an artist. She is a magician with a sketch. In a moment she could draw a realistic figure. Boggling to my mind.  Years later I saw her again this time in California and to my delight she is just as I remembered her. Talented and a real treat to be around! Im pretty jazzed for you to get to know her too.

Moyra Scott: I am a mixed media artist living in Brighton, UK. I also work in a studio in Suffolk on the East Coast. I work on canvas, board, paper and in my journal. I believe in creativity as a way of making life better and that every human has a need and desire to express themselves.

As well as creating my own work I run creative journaling sessions helping others to connect with their innate creative selves, expand their creative boundaries, become present and work with what is. I am not neat when i create, I am wild and messy. I am also a coach (helping people declutter their heads, get organised and get stuff done) and I am a qualified yoga teacher (500hr Yoga alliance certified)

 “I work intuitively, I become deeply immersed in the process of creating my colourful, many layered ‘visual stories’.

I am drawn to the use of symbols (birds, cups, stars, ladders etc) to create dreamlike visual narratives.”

What does Intuitive mean to you? What does it feel like? Look like?

Intuitive means letting go of a specific idea of outcome and allowing that which is deep inside to surface. Its not a conscious controlled process, more one of getting out of my own way and connecting with the present moment, and working with what arises in front of me. I like to throw a little chance or random in there to jolt myself out of running old stories into new territory. Its like it only really works when I have no idea what I am doing but am responding in the moment with authenticity.

 “When I work in my art journal, its transforms my day. It takes me away from myself and engages me in higher ways of thinking, richer, mythical, intellectually stimulating ideas, stories and worlds. It is deeply nourishing to my soul and is excites my heart and mind. It encourages me to build my desire and to express myself. This brings me into contact with my uniqueness, my insight, my truth. I love it.

What is your Truth saying? Where is it leading you?

My truth is saying that it is all about pure magical energy and connection between souls.

It is leading me to share my work both in terms of exhibiting, and teaching. Both are my work in the world.

A long time ago I read something about “the joy of the doing of the thing” its about joy, connection, being present and expressing who you are.

Tell me about your workshops? What is wild art journaling? What is it you want your students to take away?

I called it Wild Art Journaling because i wanted it to come from our “Wild Mind” – which is a phrase that I learned in a writing class. Its the notion that there is a part of our mind which is outside culture, its free and can free associate as it pleases. From this place, I believe comes our most truthful expression, and our most enjoyable creativity. I want my students to take away something they have created from somewhere they didn’t expect. I want them to let go of any idea of what they thought they might produce and realise it is all experimentation, all creative play, and none of it needs to be judged. I want them to leave having spent time in a part of their brain that is wildly free, wildly creative and full of inspiration, and return to their lives refreshed, inspired, seeing life anew, as if their soul has been nourished.

What are you bow down kiss the ground grateful for?

My son. Life itself. Music. Any time I get to spend being creative.

 Tell me about the tools you use and how they are teachers for healing? What have you been learning from them personally?

For me, working creatively, playing creatively (same thing) is a place where I am free. If I am down, spending time there, immersing myself in expression, takes me out of that down place and I forget any troubles I have. I don’t know of any specific healing that happens other than, it is my happy place, and going there makes my life better. I cant quantify this, but I do believe that in expressing my thoughts, feelings, emotions out of me and onto the page or canvas, that I am helping myself to see it clearly and to understand myself better. Its not quite the same as writing as its a more visual dreamlike narrative. But it helps me feel better. I think also its like meditation. Its a place where the brain waves are different. Its deeply calming and very present. Worries and anxiety are not there, afterwards new creative connections can be made.

As Picasso once said (I may be paraphrasing here) it ‘washes away the dust of our every day lives’.

What are you saying YES to these days?

I am saying yes to what lights me up. Eating good food is always something I say yes to. But right now I am going through a big phases of decluttering and fixing stuff. I am clearing out the old, and unessential. I have this feeling of needing to find only the essential and focus on that. Its a shedding and a coming together. It feels very right and good. Definitely bringing me some lit up joy!

What do you want everyone to know?

That finding your creative expression is neccessary in life. Its not frivolous in the slightest.

It need not be visual art, it could be music, dance, writing, whatever it is for you. But, whatever it is for you – you need to find it.

That, and… Magic happens.

Art On Right By: Crim Bo Taken At The Journal Session WIP.

How are you nourishing your wellbeing today?

Today I had a coffee date with a good friend. Chap in to fix our broken oven, and I am having a really big clear out of my work room ( office / studio).

Food wise I am planning a large fritata with roasted butternut squash, mushroom and goats cheese, served with kale.

I am off sugar, and I have a daily dose of organic cider vinegar and raw honey every day.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
Ha! such a big question! SO MUCH!……. at the same time…. My quest is to be happy. To have what I think what I say and what I do be aligned. I am aiming to be happy, to rid myself of the unessential, live simply and well. To be as good a parent as I can be. To do what brings me joy. to share what brings me joy in the hope that I may help other people experience joy. To bring about pure magical energy and connection between souls. To do less, help people, and make friends. Eat delicious food in great company. I have a side project which is all about getting people to break bread together. Especially people who have not eaten together before.

Its part of building community which in turn is part of being happy, bringing people together and creating connection.

Connect with Moyra Scott on Facebook, Instagram or her head on over to her website for more details on what she is up to!

INterview With Katie Kendrick

May 8, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography

Photo bottom right by: Stacy De La Rosa

She is a wisdom walker.

A dear soul whom I can only imagine has the sweetest of spirit. One time I saw a photo Stacy De La Rosa took of Katie and I thought to myself I want to know her. Isn’t it funny how images can do that? Translate the soul for us! I shortly after saw some of Katie Kendrick’s beautiful journal pages and paintings, which I gasped over. I think she is wonderful and am delighted that I was able to speak with her and co-create this Interview today!

 Katie Kendrick: Who am I, now that’s the question I ponder every day. When I follow my passion I learn more about who I am, what makes my heart beat faster and my enthusiasm do somersaults. I love to create and make things. I am a mixed artist, I live for color and line; texture makes me giddy with joy. Nature is my muse. I feel grateful every day to live on 7 acres with my husband and our pets in valley surrounded by forests with a river running through. We raised our two daughters here and now our 6 grandchildren come to walk/run the same trails and swim in the river. I have a deep affinity for trees, plants, stones, and water. I am drawn to simple honest beauty. I love all aspects of gardening and growing plants from the worms and other soil creatures to the bees and butterflies. I enjoy cooking, especially with fresh homegrown produce. I teach workshops both nationally and internationally on painting, visual journaling, and connecting to our creativity.

Lets start with why do you create? What do you create?

I create because I’m alive and full of questions: “what would happen if I did this?”, or “I can imagine these things in relationship to one another, I want to see ..” It’s like a call and response, the universe calls out to me, and I respond by creating something. That “something” changes constantly, informed by the reality of my life in the present moment. When fresh tomatoes are hanging plump and juicy in the garden, I’ll get an urge to make salsa. When I walk through the woods and find mosses lying on the trail, special stones on the beach, a piece of driftwood with teeth marks of our local beaver on the edges, the urge could come as wanting to create a faery house or playground to honor the nature spirits and faeries that live in our woods. The drive to create is strong and curious and moving about like a spark, lighting on one thing then another.

What would you say are the major inspirations for what you create?

When I am painting or create any kind of visual artwork, I am continually inspired by the nature all around me. Taking a walk in the woods, gathering stones along the river, sitting next to our huge grandmother cedar, all of these activities empty and fill me – empty me of the small “me” and put me into the vibrant stream of universal flow where all ideas and inspiration come from. My paintings don’t look like the woods and river where I spend so much of my time, but the time there allows me to go deep within myself and co-create with those higher influences – those influences that make every activity juicy and satisfying. My imagery doesn’t feel of this world, even to me, and yet it feels familiar and like “home” at the same time.

That is the reason I paint, it is a light as I make my way home – to the place that resonates deep within me, the one that is total and complete mystery yet feels deeply familiar.

Surrounding myself with other creatives is another magical way of keeping myself inspired and passionate about painting and the creative process. That is one of the reasons love teaching workshop is the group field we create together, the energy and inspiration exceeds the sum total of what we all bring because it’s easier to tap into the creative field when you have the momentum of others with the same intention.

Holding life’s questions keeps me inspired. The big ones that are always changing, I don’t know the answer to them but hold them close to my heart as I move through the day…
what does it look like to create with my whole heart?
What do I have to say today?
How do I express being in a body with a soul? What is my soul’s purpose?

You asked: Are you ready to take an artful journey?

This got me thinking, although I am sure you meant it literally for an art retreat, are you ready to take an artful journey?

Which is to ask what is your artful journey? What does it look like,  feel like? Is it just in painting that you are artful or is it in the way you eat a mango? Describe your artful journey as you move through life!
Whatever I encounter on my journey, my goal and intention is to be present whole-heartedly. When I paint I want to be with the process – a question that I might hold would be “how does it feel to be one with the painting process”? I can put my attention on my fingers holding the brush, the roughness of the paper, the intensity of the color – there are so many paths to take, it’s up to me where to put my focus. From that place everything is unfolding and new, I am constantly surprised and delighted by the twists and turns of the process and the mystery of where it will end up. I feel that same way when I grow seedlings and nurture them, I don’t know exactly what each needs specificially but I show up whole-heartedly and ask, observe and learn.

Everything is a co-creation, a question and response.

Tell me how you rise up in fullness?

By saying YES every morning when I wake up, to all that the day will bring me, to decide yes before I know anything about the day. I say yes and trust I will have exactly what I need to meet every situation, to learn. Sometimes the yes is so loud that it shakes the roof. Other times, it is a quieter version. The important thing for me is that I say yes with my whole heart. As I learn and grow, my heart grows bigger and my capacity for fullness grows in proportion to my YES.

Photo top left by: Stacy De La Rosa

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

Following my passion is the truest support I can give my authentic self, for it is the only way I can know what it is that gives me joy. When I follow those urges, the ones that feel juicy and remarkable and exciting and scary, that is where I learn about who I am. When I can offer who I am to you, to the world, I am offering the truest gift I can offer, the only gift that the world needs. I practice living from that place, old habits die hard so it is a daily practice.

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

I would answer this question in much the same way. The greatest love I can give the world, or myself is to be aware of the desire and passion that weaves through my body and my life, moment to moment, the movement that is my intuition. I’m learning to say yes only to what is in alignment with my intuitive knowing, and being brave enough to say no to the people and things that aren’t part of that vision.

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

I want to adventure, see the far-off corners of the world and the most intimate corners of my compost pile – to experience everthing to the fullest for as long as I have a body. I want to paint big, teach more abroad, paint a mural and do more collaborations with other artists. I want to be a bee priestess and love deeper than I can even imagine.

Katie has some amazing workshops coming up a 5 day workshop at Pacific NW Art School May 11 – 15, 2015, then a Workshop in San Miguel de Allende Mexico October 9 – 17, 2015

and lastly a 2 Day Painting workshop at Jenny Doh’s studio, Southern CA November 7-8, 2015

Have you seen Katie Kendrick’s book? Layered Impressions: A poetic approach to mixed media painting. You can buy it HERE.

You can sign up for her mailing list here (right side bar) to recieve notifications of upcoming workshops.