Jennifer Lee is the founder of Artizen Coaching and the author of Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way and the bestseller The Right-Brain Business Plan, which has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs around the world launch their creative businesses.
After spending 10 years climbing the corporate ladder and getting tired of living her dream “on-the-side,” she took the leap to pursue her passions full-time. Jennifer has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report, Whole Living, Family Circle, Cloth Paper Scissors Studios, and Choice.
She received her coaching certification and leadership training through the prestigious Coaches Training Institute. She is also a certified yoga instructor, a certified Expressive Arts Facilitator, and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from UCLA and an M.A. in Communication Management from USC. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and sweet husky-lab mix.
How has your experience as an artist changed you? How has your personal vision for your life reflected through your business?
Being an artist helps me tap into my intuition and gives me an outlet for self-expression. Both of these things are key to how I live my life and run my business. My personal vision and values include creativity, authenticity, fun and play, connection, and self-care and all of these things and more show up in my work and my brand. My business is definitely a reflection of what’s important to me and what I’m passionate about.
When have you been unexpectedly vulnerable?
There have been times during my Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit when I’ve been deeply moved in the moment and trust that people will benefit from an authentic and raw sharing from the heart. For example, one year my dog went missing during the summit. Through teary eyes and a shaky voice I explained how I was willing to look stupid and go way outside of my comfort zone to make sure we got her back safely (thankfully we did) because I really wanted people to know how crucial it is for them to do what it takes to go after what they really want.
How do you start your day?
I’m not a morning person so it definitely takes me awhile to get my day started. I usually like to wake up to my own internal clock rather than to a blaring alarm. Sometimes I’ll listen to a guided meditation to help me get grounded and/or I’ll do some journaling. A couple days a week I go to a morning Pilates class. If I’m feeling really healthy, I’ll whip up a green smoothie!
The lesson in my life that keeps repeating?
The lesson that keeps repeating in my life is to create more space and embrace ease. I tend to have an ambitious and competitive streak that can compel me to take on too much or set ridiculously high expectations for myself. I can only keep that pace for so long before I get burnt out, exhausted, or start to have health issues. So I constantly am finding the balance between going after my big visions and finding the ease, simplicity, and spaciousness to make the forward movement sustainable.
How do you make space for play? What is your favorite form of play?
Play is one of my top core values and I like to infuse it into my work whenever I can whether that be through using a colorful visual or creative metaphor to explain a business concept or just to make things more fun. Also, my dog is a fantastic teacher of play and I love how she encourages me to frolic around with her. I also love to play with paints at my studio. I create these huge intuitive paintings that give me permission to make a mess, make ugly art, and just enjoy the process.
What does being brave look and feel like?
To me being brave is when you feel the fear but choose to move forward anyway because something bigger is calling to you. As for how it feels for me, it’s the mix of excitement, anxiousness (the butterflies in the stomach and sweaty palms) that comes from taking a risk and a feeling of groundedness when I know that I am on the right track and am taking inspired action in alignment with my big vision. Some examples of when I have to conjure up bravery are when I am taking the stage, when I’m trying something totally new, or when I need to say no and hold firm to my boundaries.
What is pulling you forward? Your motivation for what you do? What do you wish everyone to know?
What pulls me forward and motivates me to do what I do is my passion for creative self-expression. I want people to know that you get to “Be Uniquely You!” in your life and your business.
Describe a time when you walked through the doors of passage? What helped with the mending? Or how did you navigate this passage?
Leaving my day job after 10 years of climbing the corporate ladder was definitely a major passage for me. I had a cushy salary and a prestigious role that I worked hard for but the work was sucking the life out of me. I had known for a few years that I would eventually take the leap, but it took me awhile to gain the confidence to step out on my own. A few of the things that helped me navigate through the transition included developing a support network of other creative entrepreneurs, working with coaches, and trying out new things to help me find my own voice.
What lights you up? Turns you on? Makes your heart quicken? What are you saying a big YES to these days?
Creativity, beauty, and spaciousness are my big yeses right now. More time to play in my studio and connect with my inner muse.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
Live life in full color as authentically and creatively as I can.
We are all looking for that spark, that one idea, that one decision, that will revolutionize our world. Our spirit. Our relationships. Our career. When we find that spark, we start making choices. New choices. Different choices than before. We grow immensely or heal rapidly. That spark is the one that lights the inner fire. The thing about a spark is in the presence of void it has no power. Substance and Being must be Present. The spark must have something to light….Which means that this spark changes your world only when you have a world to change. A culmination of everything you have learned up until this moment is set in motion. Set ablaze. Each shift, each opening has prepared the ground for harvest, Each log and leaf prepares for the roaring fire. Leaving an unhealthy relationship. Quitting that job you hate. Going to therapy. Moving on. Or up. Or too. Starting your dream project. Having this baby. Saying yes to whatever you said no to before when you were too scared. All are big shifts. But really they are a culmination of little shifts, little shifts that have been opening ones soul for the leap. Which is to say: all of life matters.The small connections. The little sentences of inspiration. That act of kindness. That act of grace. That act of selflessness. The choice to remain present. The choice to love yourself anyway. To keep getting up and trying. Each moment matters if you want the spark that will change your world. Because it’s all tinder. You won’t know which day brings the big change to your door. But it will come. It always does to those who collect stick by stick, moment by moment, placing them together as an altar. Prepare and gather enough to withstand the hours and seasons of waiting. So when the spark comes… the fire will roar. The fire won’t die out. The fire will burn all that does not belong.
Tina Welling is one of those transformative writers for me. Reading her words peeled back layers of reality and aloud the path I had wandered many times before to take on new shimmering meaning. I am truly honored to share with you her interview today!
Tina Welling is the author of WRITING WILD, Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature, published by New World Library. Her three novels are published by the Penguin Group: Crybaby Ranch, Fairy Tale Blues, and Cowboys Never Cry. Welling’s essays have been published in Shambhala Sun, The Writer, Body & Soul, and other national magazines, as well as four anthologies. She conducts creative writing and journal keeping workshops around the country, is a public speaker, and a long time faculty member of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference. Welling resides in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She can be contacted through her website: WWW.TinaWelling.com
In your latest book you write about writing in a really magnificent fresh way. Tell me what language is to you? What it feels like? How it moves? How do you live in/through language?
Language labels experiences and perceptions for me, which helps to make them conscious. What we bring into the light of consciousness we can use; what remains in the dark uses us. For example, often young children do not have the language to express their emotions – to bring them into the light of awareness for communication or more especially for processing.So language to me is the art of bringing awareness to our lives.If we notice how attention moves from the inner to the outer and back again – like breathing – then we can align ourselves with a kind of organic pulse at work in the natural world. When I put language to that pulse, my experience of aliveness is enhanced, along with my realization of it. I feel more alive, more conscious, and more awake. From there, wonderful connections are made that educate and delight me.
What is your relationship to intuition? How has it led you here, where you stand today? Where is it leading you? What is it whispering?
Intuition led me to begin and complete the process of creating my book, Writing Wild, when my agent at the time, along with all my own rationale, urged me not to. I followed the quiet inner beckoning, chapter by chapter, through the manuscript to its end.
Today I still argue with my intuition, finding it more comfortable at times to work with intellectual reasoning due to its concrete exactness. I know, however, that what is intuitively true for me often offers no immediate proof, yet is eventually discovered to be everlasting in its alignment with my authentic self.
Describe a time when you walked through the doors of passage? What did it feel like? What did you learn?
Before I was published I felt as though I was living a double life. I loved writing, I spent a lot of time doing it, yet I kept it a secret. I knew most people’s first response to me stating I was a writer would be to ask about publications. And I couldn’t say that I had none. Until, one day I realized I needed to stand up for myself. I was showing up for myself and what I loved by writing hours every day, now I needed to stand up for myself and claim it. I did and, sure enough, people asked if I was published. I said, “No, but I really like writing and spend a lot of time doing it.” I let them know this way that I was serious about my work and I let myself know that I was not feeling shame for the lack of publications.
How has being female affected your journey?
I needed to move through our culture’s suggestion that as a woman I should set aside my own life in order to help others live theirs. It was quite a struggle for me as a mother and as the wife of a talented artist.
Tell me how you rise up in fullness?
I pay attention, I make choices that lead to the greatest sense of aliveness and I learn from all the wise teachers that come my way.
What is pulling you forward?
A desire to become more and more awake, thereby enjoying greater aliveness, the very thing we are designed to experience.
What lights you up? Turns you on? Makes your heart quicken? What are you saying a big YES to these days?
Rain, the moon, wind storms, aspen leaves, ideas, smiles, challenges, my porch swing, the song of the Evening Grosbeak on the very top of my Engelmann Spruce, catkins, red willow wands, waves, light reflected anywhere.
“Honoring the body wisdom that I believed was pushed down below the neck and not given voice.” -Writing Wild pg. 55
How are you honoring the wisdom within your own body in this season of your life?
I listen to my body and act on its advice. I no longer feel interested in rushing or pushing past comfort levels (unless in small increments to increase strength and flexibility) or sleeping less than I want or eating more than I need. I take big breaths and offer gratitude for this human experience.
“Questions open new space.” -Writing Wild pg. 29
What are some of your favorite questions to ask when you are bringing a story from the dark to the light?
I go for the opposites: what is the attraction or abrasion between characters – in life as well as in fiction? How does the light of the storyline work with the dark factors? What can I do to add humor to the situation? And what might I offer in the way of insight?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
That’s a line from a Mary Oliver poem that I love, so I’ll answer from another of her poem’s I admire:
“Pay attention
Be astonished
Tell about it.”
Pick up your copy of Writing Wild, it’s sooooo good!
Come join Tina Welling and Janet Hubbard at Willow Creek Ranch for a weekend of Writing Workshops September 13th through the 19th, 2015!
*Two 2-hour writing workshops daily.
*Journaling walks with Tina Welling.
*Advice on publishing and much, much more!! Private message Tina Welling for more details!
This is a sister -whom my soul must have known many times. I read her words and am emerged into raw-loving truth space. I know this space. I know her. Somehow. She is magic and medicine. She is spirit and ground. She is a wise wild woman who claimed her Sacred Regal Presence on this earth and just by showing up invites us to do the same. This is a woman I want to know.
Hillary Rain is the creator of Body Stories: The Embodied Alchemy of Breath + Bone (coming later in 2015), and the Soul Doula Sessions: intuitive holistic + spiritual mentorship for women guided by the wisdom of the body, heart, and spirit through sacred, creative arts. She is one-half of The Wild Mystics where she co-creates guided courses about spirituality and sensuality. Visit her at HillaryRain.com for gentle sermons on holistic living, sacred healing & spiritual awakening for writers, artists, & mystics.
Because I have to ask: What does regal presence really mean to you? Feel like? Taste like? Look like?
Ah, one of my core desired feelings! I combined these two words to encompass worlds upon worlds, these rich layers of an intricate life. Regal presence means empowerment, abundance, and holding my head high with deep, quiet faith. It means that I am here, I am home, that I am, I am, I am. Regal presence means living a sacred life grounded in truth and trust, rooted and rising, knowing that I am blessed with divine authority and wisdom; that I am loved, that I am love.
It feels like sultry vibrations of tibetan singing bowls in my root chakra, deep-toned and resonant. It feels like anointing oil on my skin, fragrant and warm. It feels like a pure no and a sacred, joyful yes. In fact, it tastes like yes in my mouth, like laughter, like honey on my lips, like salted caramel kisses and rich black coffee with lush swirls of cream. It tastes like joy even when I pant with want. It looks like strength and smiles and watchfulness, like queenly radiance, like compassion, like hands reaching out.
Body, embodied, sanctuary- all glory- all holy hallelujah! You are my Sacred Temple. How do you worship? Dear one tell me what your breath would say in prayer?
My prayers go through seasons like I do: verdant and decadent, with poetry and rapture and ritual … followed by cracked-lipped whispers in the desert, one salty syllable at a time, or mostly silent. But I am most alive during what I call whole body prayer—reverent invocation through dance, through compassion, through breath, through passionate confessions and tearful nights when I clutch my own face because I am desperate to reach God. I say please and please and please and thank you, like all well-taught girls do, and I scream WHY a lot, enraged and entitled, and I grasp (and gasp!) for wisdom like I’m starved and alone. We are passionate ones, the Divine and me. And I worship through questions, dwelling in the liminal space between breaths, worshiping through this earthen body for I, too, am word made flesh. These bones of mine are secret passageways for deep calling deep at the sound of river-falls. My worship looks like my life, made of mystery, communion, and holy longing intermingled with raw, sweet grace. I call it bohemian spirituality; it is made of an unconventional faith—making peace with mystery.
What does Sacred mean to you? Where is your Sacred place and why? Tell me how you rise up in fullness?
I consider Sacred anything indwelt with Spirit. The Sacred reflects eternal love. Whatever becomes sanctuary for all the tender things—birth and death and love, trembling, anything liminal—is holy. We (be)(hold) it and it is thus alchemized. This means that anywhere I am becomes sacred.
I also find that sacred spaces are story-keepers. Ancient landmarks witnessing the wild history of our lives on earth—a ley-line, a wise grandmother tree, or a vast hill. The quiet, nourishing witness of a soul doula. A glimmering blank page or one blessed with ink and tears. My own flesh, which holds every story I’ve ever lived and all the seeds for new ones. This is my embodiment, my fullness rising, my sacred space. Ironically, only empty things can fill, and so I become a space for rhythm and years, flowing in and emptying myself to fill once more.
How do spirituality and sexuality relate for you?
They are both deeply sacred to me. I am spiritual. I am sexual. I express both fully, with great passion and joy. I hold their presence within me, without duality. Imagine two vast oceans meeting, crashing into each other with arms open, entangling, embracing, creating a rich and luminous depth. I am ravished in that space between. I make love. I make art. I make tenderness.
What supports the true expression of your authentic self?
I give myself permission to wander (and wonder) freely. I write. I taste life. Tears fall; I fall, sometimes hard. I soften. I gather feathers and moonstone. I allow the both-and of my mystical approach to spirituality to be the field I dwell in, pressing bare feet to wild earth as I delight in this land of enchantment. I plant gardens here. I hang windchimes in the trees and sing loud and messy. I meet sojourners making their own wild way and we witness one another’s bravery. I gather stories on my skin. I drink deep from wells of mercy. Here I am naked and unashamed, returned to Eden, held. Always held.
What are you bow down kiss the ground grateful for?
My soul circle—the mad artists, the healers, the lovers who make their lives a work of art, who understand my gentle-stormy-self and provide sweet and spacious sanctuary. The ones who invite me to their rustic table, who don’t flinch at my mascara-stained cheeks but look at me and see art, see beauty. My husband, who grounds me when I’m off happily encircling the stars, who doesn’t always understand my bohemian ways, but keeps his arms warm and open—my home, my heart, my harbor. Beauty. Healing. Mercy.
What are you saying YES to these days?
These days find me saying yes to the unknown, for staying present in the tension of it when I’d rather numb myself to this existential ache. I’m saying “yes, okay!” to reinvention, to ever-expanding circles, to curiosity and delight. I am saying yes to soft spaces and looking at things from a freshly-washed inner gaze. I say yes to all the ways I can’t say yes. It’s harder than you’d think.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
This answer is pouring out quite unexpectedly. I am surprised to say this, but I am all planned out. I am dream-weary. I have dream fatigue. Don’t misunderstand; I have an insatiable, wanton hunger to drink every sweet juicy drop life has to offer. I ache to soak up so much living that my skin smells like cardamom from Marrakesh and my hips serpentine-sway along the corridors of India and my lips kiss the bourbon off her moonlit mouth. I want to love wild and gather sacred experiences like mystical treasures in my gypsy bag. I am a wanderess. Magic is my middle name. I want to move others with beauty and fire and be a healing river of love wherever I go. I want to transform, transcend, and burn with feverish purpose.
But it’s almost too much. When is there ever enough? There will always be a new adventure, a fresh desire, an unrequited love. There will always be a new, life-changing social media status, a riveting new movie, a sensational new dish to savor. A fascinating artist to adore. A beautiful photo on Instagram where the light falls just so and I find myself weeping for the beauty of it. Sometimes life feels like an endless scrolling channel of everything ever and it’s all so amazing and wonderfully exotic, and think of all the stories waiting to be told and the luminous souls waiting to be loved! And each day brings a new ache, a new delight, a new discovery, a new must-see-before-I-die. (Did you know there is such a thing as singing rocks? On this magical mountain? You hit them with a hammer and they ring out, each with a different bell-like tone, and mysteriously, if you remove them from this place they no longer sing. Must. Visit. Singing. Rocks. With. Hammer.)
There will always be more. And in this always-moreness I become keenly aware of a lingering, haunting never-enoughness.
In the meantime, life quietly flows on, steady, present, here. My heart thrums her faithful, steady song. Inhale, exhale goes the breath. My husband just looked over at me and smiled. Lightning shivers outside my window and rain makes the glass sparkle like a cascade of polished diamonds. Tomorrow I will have a conversation with one of the people I love most in this world. I spooned up a creamy, organic vanilla yogurt this evening and it felt so smooth and delicious in my mouth. Candlelight dances on the stove. My favorite essential oils soak my skin. I got a surprise, happy text today that made me cry. I looked at my body naked in the mirror and I didn’t hate myself. In fact, I kind of liked what I saw. There are things that make my heart feel heavy and things that make me want to burst with joy and living and light. I have stories brewing inside of me. I have work to do.
This is my life. It is sacred. It is mundane. It is ravishing.
I want to love it—fully.
I want to honor life by bringing my whole-holy self to it.
I want to be true. Humble. Here. I want to bless with it. Make art with it. Make beauty with it that is so otherworldly and transcendent that the only proper response is the river language of worship, of silence, of deep-calling-deep, of whole-body prayer.
Beginning July 26th, this six week eCourse takes the natural pulse and rhythm that speaks to the wild rise and fall of sexuality for the blushing wild enchantress. Each week the lacy strap that sits upon her shoulder will slip a little further down her arm. Daily artful prompts and erotica fortunes will bring some enticement and synchronicity to the sultry exploration, and guest enchantresses will daringly expose their own blushing wild with us. Peeks into different mediums of erotica will stimulate the creative juices as we explore our psyches and ourSelves through soul work and chakras, erotic poetry and succulent rituals, meaningful movement and provocative stories. Weekly practices will invite you into your own hot skin and fan the flame of your own fiery life. Vulnerability never looked so good on you. Welcome to the blush! Read more and register at TheWildMystics.com
Elisa Goodkind: During the 80s and 90s, Elisa was a Fashion Stylist and Editor for numerous top fashion magazines, including Vanity Fair, Interview, In Style, Glamour, and Self. After taking a break from her passion for the art of fashion to raise her children and to teach yoga, Elisa returned to the industry. She discovered that the nucleus of accepting and extraordinary people had been flattened by corporations, favoritism, and a formulaic belief system that revolved around big-brand profit.
What is StyleLikeU?
Founded in 2009 by a mother, Elisa, and her daughter, Lily, StyleLikeU is a multimedia platform that honors individuals with authentic personal style. Disheartened by the increasingly soulless fashion world of unattainable imagery and big brand homogeneity, Elisa and Lily decided to combat fashion’s top-down ideology that you need to be “on trend” in order to be “in fashion” and that you need to change yourself physically in order to be beautiful. Elisa and Lily are reconstructing fashion by binding it to supreme and genuine individuals who, as a collective, embody a culture where people are honored for their differences and connected through personal, universal truths. With each post, Elisa and Lily want to be inspirational and inclusive, proving that fashion isn’t a product of money or indiscriminate consumption, but rather a symbol of consciousness and confidence. Elisa and Lily want to change people’s perception of fashion by showing the world that true fashion can’t be reduced to a trend, price tag, or air-brushed photograph. True fashion is the foundation for one’s identity.
Describe a time when you walked through the doors of passage?
I have been trying to figure out which passage I should pick. There have been so many. I think I shall choose starting StyleLikeU…
Beyond motherhood, starting Style Like U has been the ultimate passage or life defining move for me.
The reason I didn’t choose motherhood is I feel in many ways motherhood led me to StyleLikeU. StyleLikeU encompasses all of the rights of passages I have been through including motherhood, marriage, yoga, career, spirituality. I needed to go through all these passages before I could do something like this. I now see looking back that StyleLikeU is the reason why I pushed through falling on my face so many times. Those falls were what motivated me to do this important work. I had to feel the frustration of not being able to share the beauty that I wanted too. Not being able to express myself the way I desired. It seemed I couldn’t do many of the things which I most loved and lived for. The fashion industry wasn’t soulful, spiritual or artistic like it once was when I first entered it and found my tribe. This was a rejection of sorts.
I had to then become a mother, find my spiritual side through yoga and enter into lots of therapy to gain self awareness.
It was a culminating time for me. It was an adversity for me to drop all of my contacts and what I thought would be my trajectory,
to dive into something that was completely unknown and yet something I had a very strong visceral feeling was my future. No one else my age or in the industry that I knew of was doing something like this. Everyone looked at me like I was a crazy person. It took a lot of faith as well as facing every fear in me. Ultimately my instinct was that fashion should be about the individual.
It is about telling your story. Style was becoming something new, no longer about the outside but about bringing the interior out.
It is becoming about seeing the beauty IN people. The old mode was over. It was time from a new one. Gigantic passage through my fears, into my power and calling. StyleLikeU has been a full circle passage.
How has being female affected your journey through life?
Being female has affected me in every way. Giving birth. Motherhood… 1,000 percent Motherhood!
My two children are my greatest teachers. Without them I would not be close to the woman I am. Through raising them I have learned about strength, insight, reflection, support, love. Everything I value most in life, I have learned through raising my children and being their mother.
Who are you becoming?
I am becoming someone who is learning to surrender.
Understanding that choices in life are about listening within to what we as individuals are supposed to be doing.
It’s not about ego. It’s not about a label. It’s not about something external. It’s about going within for the answers.
I am becoming someone connected to her deepest purpose. A connection to the totality from which we are all born from.
What is pulling you forward? What is your motivation?
Whats motivating me most right now is my body. I have been struggling this past year with my health. I am extremely sensitive emotionally and physically and this can lead to imbalance. I feel A LOT… I am extremely passionate which can lean towards manic passionate! It was this way for the first five years of StyleLikeU. My body was screaming at me to stop. Asking me to slow down and listen to what will bring me balance. Balance is pulling me forward in terms of how I am being.
What does being BRAVE look like these days? What does it feel like?
Being brave is moving forward everyday…
Being brave is not being afraid of how I feel. It is all a lesson… everything.
My body is teaching me to believe in its desires to heal. It wants to be well. It will tell me what I need to do.
I have to be brave and believe in the inherent wisdom of my body. Through it; I am learning that nothing outside of myself can tell me what I need to know any better than my own body can.
What are you saying a big Holy YES to these days?
Saying yes to being at peace with whether I am taking a step forward or a step backward.
When have you felt whole?
I feel whole in the presence of water, beach and sun.
I feel whole after having left the Russians Baths.
I feel like I am absolutely exploding in a really good way.
How will you honor the ordinary moments today?
I meditate twice a day. As well as exercise everyday. They are sort of, rituals. They are extremely important especially to my productivity.
I respect them. I Honor them. Everyday.
This intertwines with the earlier answer about listening to my bodies teachings about balance. I meditate and exercise because I need to.
What would you like everyone to know?
“That people need to take their power back.
Reclaim the media… Reclaim their brains and their minds…
Understand that they don’t need to be anyone else.
Or live anyone else’s lives. Buy anything else. Or do anything else. To be beautiful.”
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
Change the world for the better.
Make it a more loving, accepting, expressive, joyful, soulful, artful and connected place.
To me Kate is an incredible woman, an example of how there really is no such thing as too late. It’s all connected. She is inspirational and I loved listening to her story unfolded of how she became an artist only a few years ago.
Kate Thompson works as a fiber artist. Working with fabric and fiber to create abstract 3-dimensional forms was her focus for many years. She started painting full time in 2009 focusing on portrait/figure work painting in acrylics, watercolors and mixed media. Fractured Angels is the continuous thread throughout her work. Kate Thompson’s art parallels her spiritual journey as she identifies with the flawed, cracked and fractured human yearning for peace and fulfillment.
“The older I get the stronger the pull to explore and express this theme in my work. Along the way I discovered I loved teaching. I find the creative process so incredibly interesting. My energy lies in that process and to share that with others has been the most fulfilling role of my life. The spiritual nature of the creative process is something that I think about a lot. The idea of constant practicing of my craft along with allowing myself to let go in moments of creating is the key to authentic art.”
Tell me about spirituality being integrated with your work? Tell me the story of the Fractured Angelics:
My creative process is a direct reflection of my spiritual life. I can have a day of incredible flowing creativity. It is almost effortless and so joyful and I think to myself….”I figured it out, it is all going to come flowing out of me now”. I go to bed and wake up to another day in the studio and nothing goes right. I forget how to paint a face. The more I try and struggle, the worse it gets. What happened to that amazing flow?
What I realized is that my creativity, like my spiritual condition, is a day at a time. The discipline is to go to the studio everyday no matter how the work comes out.
The days I struggle, usually create a crack, that will eventually open me up to another level in my work….so I call myself a Fractured Angel and my work Fractured Angelics. There is a song by Leonard Cohen called Anthem and one of the lines in the song is “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” I found that so profound and so very true in my life. I never can rest on my laurels. I continue to be a student and will never stop growing and learning.
How has your experience as an artist changed you? How can or does this experience help others?
My experience as an artist has changed me by giving me hope. No matter what is going on in my life, I always have my creative practice to look forward to. It is such a gift to have this. I can look out the window of my studio and watch the light hit the trees in such a magical way that I can run outside and capture that in a photograph which can lead to creating art. Being an artist makes my senses open to incredible visual experiences. If I didn’t create in my life I would be deeply depressed. I know that about myself. It is a gift to me to keep me content and each day I am so humbled and grateful to have this in my life. This experience has helped others through my teaching. I love the part of art that is the practice as well as allowing the spirit and the muse to take over. It is quite a dance to concentrate on the practice, then get out of the way and allow the spirit to take over. It goes back and forth, back and forth and I watch my students go through the same thing. I love to help them navigate through the process and to appreciate the struggle. Also important is to know when to let go and just let it rip…such surprising images show up! It is pure magic!
What is pulling you forward? What is your motivation?
Learning is my motivation. I never stop learning how to create. My challenge is to come up with a body of work that has my signature and at the same time is new and fresh. So often I find work I love and then I look at the body of work and it all starts to look the same to me. I know many artists fall into the situation of producing what is selling and therefore not spending that time to experiment to make the work into something fresh each time. It is a hard thing to do, especially when your income comes from your art. I have to maintain that enthusiasm involved in creating and at the same time, not always ‘reinvent the wheel’. To take all my experience and practice while creating but allow myself to be open to inspiration . I have always been a cautious person and never thought big about my life. That changed for me a couple of years ago and through hard work and incredible focus I have created the most amazing life.
I started painting 5 years ago and was not very good at first. I just kept practicing and taking online classes and became better. I was not born an artist, I had to work very hard at the craft of art and eventually all my hard work paid off. Anyone can learn to paint and draw if you just put in the time.
How do you start you day? What is nourishing in your day?
I start my day with a cup of coffee and daily spiritual reading. I follow up with a 20 minute meditation. I then get dressed and go to my studio, catch up on emails and other social media. I am a pretty disciplined self employed artist. I treat my job as an artist like any other job by making sure I work in my studio 6-8 hours a day during the week on my classes and painting. Week ends are strictly for me with no other goal but to better my practice. What nourishes me during the day is good healthy meals and plenty of water. My studio has full windows on 3 walls overlooking my backyard. Now that it is spring I look forward to watching the birds come back to build their nests in one of our hanging plants as well as the porch light. I talk to them sometimes and sometimes they talk back. I love being a part of new family.
What have you placed in your nest(home) that comforts?
Things that bring you beauty. I have two Bengal cats that I just adore. My male was always very skittish and shy and over the years I have just loved him to death and he now sleeps in my arms every night. I am so glad that he finally feels safe! My patio in the back of our house is my comfy place. My boyfriend, John, is really the nester. He loves to decorate and build things, I am more of the bachelor but I really appreciate how he built this cozy patio right off of my studio with a really nice awning he built from scratch. We have a huge backyard and I get to watch all the activity with birds, rabbits and even deer. One day a little family of deer decided to hang out in our backyard. I love hanging out in my studio and John hung some nice lacey curtains which adds to my little Shabby Chic studio with my white xmas lights hung year round.
What are you saying a full bodied YES to?
Healthy living and exercise. I am 60 years old and have always been obsessed with fitness. I remember when I was very young thinking when I am 60 I will not worry about how I look and I can let myself go. It is true at 60 looks aren’t a priority but feeling good is! I joined a running group and I am now up to 12 miles…very slow 12 miles but none the less, it is a big giant YES!
What does being BRAVE look like these days? What does it feel like?
Being BRAVE is allowing myself to be comfortable and to become familiar with not knowing how things are going to turn out. I am a control and security freak or so I thought. I always felt like I needed everything planned out. I worked full time as a print designer in the apparel business for 20 years and worked at three different companies . Security was a big priority and I stayed in those situations much longer than I should. Moving across the country and losing all my connections forced me to start over. Being self -employed is scary, especially for someone like me. I can’t believe that I am making a living creating art and teaching. For someone who is shy and introverted, I find myself flying to new cities, meeting and teaching new people, accepting room and board from strangers and loving it. Before each trip, I always get nervous because so much can go wrong. Airports and flying can go very very wrong but I am up for the challenge. That is brave for me. I show up and live with the uncertainty.
What way of being is calling you? Who are you becoming? or How do you rise up in your fullness?
I am drawn to people that have a sense of grace and gratitude about them. To be able to quietly sip a cup of tea and savor that moment. I have a very addictive nature and tend to rush past these powerful moments waiting for the next shiny object to come my way. I practice meditation to get me in touch with staying in the moment and to feel enough. I get glimpses of myself being this way but still have my addictive default mode I fall back on. I believe that will continue to be present in my life and maybe it is not so bad. It is my drive but I believe the balance between the two is probably my sweet spot.
What do you want everyone to know?
Well, I am planning my first overseas workshop in Orvieto, Italy in the Fall of 2016. I can’t tell you what a big deal this is. I have never been to Italy but I know my soul yearns to experience this beautiful country. When I first started this journey of teaching/painting in 2010, I dreamed of having this lifestyle of teaching all over the world and painting being my day job
The last three years I started teaching, learned how to film and edit myself painting to create online classes on my website, as well as teaching live. Don’t ever underestimate yourself. I did for many years and therefore didn’t grow. You can find out all about my online classes on my website as well as workshops I do on location at fracturedangelics.com. I am also a part of 21 Secrets Journaling Spring 2015 online class. You can read all about that on my blog fracturedangelics.blogspot.com
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
To continue to connect with women all over the world with my teaching. I never had children and often felt I had nothing to contribute to the world. My teaching has given me this incredible purpose in life. That I can help another person by giving them a nudge to jump off and just see what happens. I never was taught how to teach and yet it feels so comfortable for me. I want to continue to travel all over the world and I think I will want to revisit Italy again and again!
