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
Erin Faith Allen is the spirited, rich, raw creator of Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreats. These art retreats are as filled to the brim with heart and soul as she is.
Erin Faith Allen; I am an artist, filmmaker, and event creator who moves in many directions at one time.
Describe a time when you walked through the doors of passage? How has it transformed you?
Last summer when I decided to research my lineage, I had no idea the power that my ancestors were just waiting to pass through the ethers to me. What I have discovered has been nothing short of mindblowing – it’s like suddenly I am a complete picture, made up of fragments of so many people I’d never even heard of. To feel a belonging like I suddenly feel cannot be put into words … but I paint it every single day.
How has being female affected your spiritual journey?
This is a big question. I get stuck on the word ‘spiritual’ because it’s become a bit of a buzz word, or a label, or a way of separating self from other. I suppose the same could be said about the word ‘female’ in some ways. :) For me, being human – whether spiritual, male, atheist, female, etc – is the real journey. Every day I deepen into a more profound relationship with human nature, only because I dig into myself and explore my own motivations and how I navigate interactions with others. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about femaleness and woman-ness, and while there is massive value in that, these daysI’m all about settling into human connectivity and recognizing that underneath the skin we wear we are all just trying to experience love and acceptance; it’s an innate craving that is gender-less.
That said, there is definitely a massive power blast that moves through my art about the spectrum of experiences a woman has. For example, these days I am doing a lot of work about the concept of mothering – which is a female experience. I guess we are made up of slices: I am a human who is a woman who is a mother who is an artist who is hard-working who loves nutrition and CrossFit who loves sunshine and Los Angeles and also loves thunderstorms who loves the color red who is obsessed with genealogy who is an introvert who was born under a Scorpio full moon. After so many years of endeavoring to integrate aspects of myself it’s hard to separate the slices and isolate just one of them.
How do you show up? Who are you becoming? How do you rise up in your fullness?
I show up by showing up. I am becoming who I’ve always been. I rise up to my fullness by constantly falling down.
What is pulling you forward? What is your motivation?
Happiness and beauty. Happiness pulls me forward, and every day I am happier than I was the day before. Beauty, the enigmatic muse, is the road I walk to happiness.
What does being BRAVE look like these days? What does it feel like?
Being brave is something I do well … even though conversely, a lot of fear has passed down through my lineage and I spent many years being subconsciously governed by it. After being around the block a few times now, I like to think I eviscerate it every day. At least most days :)
Tell me about what you crave? What are you saying a big Holy YES to these days? Tell us the juicy details of what makes life GOOOOOOOOOD these days?
I crave solitude, hours of creating without interruption, and soaking in other people’s creations. I say a Holy YES to surrendering to the ‘tricky’ moments in life … sometimes after a little kicking and screaming. And the juicy details? I have a rare version of synaesthetic response to sound, color, texture, and line. I always knew I was acutely sensitive because the world has generally overwhelmed me. The more at peace I am within myself, the more pronounced the synaesthetic engagement with my surrounding becomes.It’s a blessing and a curse, it is beyond description, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Who are your heroes? What are their stories, myths? What did they teach you?
My heroines: Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath, Sally Mann, and myself. I’ve walked through, and subconciously masterminded, a lot of sh!* in my life, but I never fall down hard enough that I can’t get back up. My heroes: Cy Twombly, Walker Evans, Mozart, Klimt, Christian Dior. I am enlivened by people who are geniuses, who ‘see’ and ‘hear’ things nobody else does, who change history with their tenacity. Equally, any person who has ever crashed down into hell and kept on walking with their head high and heart open are my hero. I have a really big soft spot for the veterans of WW2. My grandfathers both served in that war, and I think all those men and women are absolute heroes. I went to the DDay celebrations in Normandy a couple years ago and I was cracked open. All the ‘old boys’ walking around in their medals, heads high, hearts open. They are an embodiment of the strength and fragility of humans. How we suffer, how we survive, and how our bodies carry our memories. It can sound so trite to say ‘they sacrificed so much’ … but they DID.
Tell me of myth? Of Magic? What they mean to you, how they show up in your work?
Oh goodness. They are so much a part of me and my process that I am not even sure how to articulate or express it. Symbols and subconscious urgings ARE my work. At the end of the day I’m just a person with chewed fingernails, food allergies, skin, bones, and blond hair who sits in front of an easel. The rest is magic.
What would you like everyone to know deep into their bones?
That our bones are literally made up of everyone who came before us. Our story, both present and past tense, isn’t just our personal story woven of tragedies and victories and all the spaces between. It belongs to every ancestor we’ve ever had. Their decisions pulsate through every thought, decision, action, and desire we’ve ever had. It’s breathtaking when you recognize this, life takes on a certain meaning that changes perspectives, patterns, and opens possibilities.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life? Experience true, unabashed peace that permeates every cell of my body, every wisp of my soul, every root that takes hold in my mind.For more information about her art, upcoming retreats and classes visit: www.erinfaithallen.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!
Hey sweet loves, we had this brilliant mind today. Have you heard of her, the Ninja Poet? She is pretty lovely take a gander at what she is up too.
Maya Rachel Stein: I am a Ninja poet, writing guide, and creative adventuress. I wrote my first poem, “Papa Tree and the Seasons,” when I was 9 years old. It told the story of the life cycle of leaves, honing specifically on the fate of one little leaf that is the last one clinging before winter comes. I bound this poem into a little book, filled it with color pencil drawings, and proudly offered it up to my parents one evening. I see now that this quite accurately represents the instincts behind most of my work to date – the desire to capture that which is most fleeting, to locate the heart of its beauty and power, sustain its life through language, and share that language with others. I have self-published four collections of writing, most recently “How We Are Not Alone,” a compilation of work from my poetry blog. Since 2005, I have also kept a weekly writing practice, “10-line Tuesday,” and my poems now reach more than 1,200 people each week. I lead “Feral Writing” workshops, both live and online, providing mentor-ship and guiding students through simple, often playful exercises and activities that help strengthen their creative instincts in order to develop a writing practice that sticks. Among my latest escapades are a 30-day tandem bicycle journey through the Midwest, a French crepe stand at a Massachusetts farmers market, a relocation from San Francisco to suburban New Jersey, a business collaboration— Food for the Soul Train — turning a vintage trailer into a mobile creative workshop space with my partner, and most recently, marriage and step-motherhood. My favorite body part is my left hand, as it has gifted me the ability to sink a nearly invincible hook shot and peel a whole apple without a break.
Today, right now what does your next breath wish to say?
Don’t rush what isn’t ready to become.
Ya I am asking it, what turns you on? Makes your heart quicken? Lights you up?
Laughter.
A genuine embrace.
The truth.
Intelligence.
Homemade bread swiped with butter.
Fresh-squeezed anything.
Afternoon cocktails on a porch,
watching dusk advancing.
What supports the true expression of your authentic self?
A blank page.
A quiet afternoon.
An open road.
A bicycle.
Summer rainstorms.
A mountain lake.
My hands.
My legs.
My nose,
both literal and figurative.
The words “What do you feel like doing today?”
What is your mantra, your words to live by?
How so much of the time, all it takes for a fantasy to become reality are two words: “Yes, please.”
What does mystery taste like to you?
Tangerine sorbet. The sweetness punctuated by a hint of tart that wakes up the mouth and makes it pay attention.
What are your tools and teachers? What have you been learning from them personally?
Silence is powerful. When I allow myself to get quiet – and to still the other voices in the room – the landscape is a lot more navigable. And silence is hard to get to because it is a rare moment when there is nothing and no one clamoring for your time and attention, when your brain lies low for a little while. We are constantly anticipating and responding and reacting to the forces that present themselves to us. So part of the work of getting quiet is clearing that path. Parting the sea of cacophony so we can actually distinguish what we’re listening to.
Love is always an incredible teacher. The tests it takes of us. The test we take of it. Ultimately, if I can get to the place where I am doing things from a place of love and feeling loved, I am so much more flexible with what success looks like.
What are you saying YES to these days?
Frivolous projects. I love getting off the train of over-focused productivity. Play is an extremely important element in my work.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
Write good poems (though I’ll even take the bad ones). Love. Play. Do this as many times as I can, and with people who are open to joining me.
I list my current classes at mayastein.com. At the moment, this includes Quick ‘n Dirty Poetry, a 20-day daily online writing class. I send out a choice of 3 prompts per day, and participants write for a maximum of 20 minutes, then send their work back to me. I read and respond to everything I receive, and once a week I provide extensive feedback on a piece that each participant chooses. The purpose of this class is to practice the level of accountability necessary to experience a sense of commitment to a writing practice, and to enjoy a sense of company and camaraderie along the way, since everyone has a chance to share their work in our online classroom.
Another exciting offering coming up in June, when my partner and I are hosting “Spoke & Word,” a 4-day, 5-night creativity and biking retreat in Vermont. We’ll be leading gentle daily rides, as well as art and writing activities inspired by our surroundings. It’ll be a wonderful chance for people to restore and reinvigorate themselves. More info and registration for that lives here: www.food4thesoultrain.com/retreats
Pick up your copy of Writing Wild, it’s sooooo good!
