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.
May 1, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography, Post
I love that I quite literally stumbled upon Robin E. Sandomirsky. I hadn’t a clue in the world whom she was until Facebook suggested her as a friend. We had a load of the same super cool artsy friends so I looked into her courses/website. Not long after I took her and Alisha Sommers course liberated lines which I highly recommend! I have been discovering her ever since…
I am Robin E. Sandomirsky. I am A writer. I am a healer. I am home. I live in small town New England with my children and my four leggeds. I have been a story teller, worshipping at the altars of the word for as long as I can remember. Scribbled truths and half poems tracking me and guiding me down my lifelines. I have been a healer and teacher since I came of age. I will hold your hand and burn you through the spaces from here to there. If you are ready to come home, to fill whole, to rise up to your next elevation, then you are my people. We use the gentle pathways of deepest love and inherent velocity to achieve the simple impossible. We change your life. In this lifetime I have danced the darkness many times, but I am a holder and bringer of light. I don’t seek to present any perfection only what I know to be true. If you want to come home to your own sacred body, if you want to gift yourself the freedom of your being, if you want to touch that stuff you can feel under your skin and at the core of your core then you are ready to do this work.
I am a regular green smoothie drinking, lunch packing suburban mom. I am also a luminary explorer, a freedom igniter and a warrior blooded game changer. I live Truth. Velocity. Embodiment. I want to guide you home.
I offer luminary healing sessions – in person and long distance, small group in.body intensives – using physical practice, writing/creative exploration, and meditations to cultivate embodiment, and I am the co-creator of liberated lines – an Instagram based, quick & dirty, poetry and prose course. I also teach early childhood programs and yoga/movement classes.
I read you say: “Worshipping at the altars of the word for as long as I can remember.”
Oh how language is so so much more than words, tell me what language is to you? What it feels like? How it moves? How do you live in/through language?
Words and language have always, always been like the pathway from the edges to the centers and back again. Like ever moving ink stains ingrained on the underside of my skin. Like the particular structure of the fluids that course through my body. Like the map of my energy field and my emotional body. Words have led me astray and brought me back home, have cultivated and added to my depths and my evolution. Words swirl in my brain and bring me, like breath, into the full embodiment of this life right here in this exact moment. For me words are like magic. Even in the incarnations of imperfection and unable to get it quite right. Still they string together like a raft. Partly because they are all mine and partly because they spiral outwards from me like connection. Language is this thing that is never able to tell you the exact beating of my heart but still is the way I holler out across the vast expanse from here to there, “Hello, I love you.” Language becoming like a dance and dancing becoming like a song and each song being just exactly who we are in that one instant – before we glide into our next self in the next instant. You want to peek inside my soul – language will float you there and I will open my eyes and gaze through your heart riding on the wave of the language you gift back to me. Spoken, written, imagined, felt.
As a healer language is a part of what flows out of me like an offering. My work is multifaceted but there is always language involved – talking and sharing and expressing and learning through spoken word – through story and telling the truth of the lifted veils. For me this works like incantation and what is spoken in the name of healing weaves into the arrangements of the energetic, physical, and spiritual bodies as well. In this way, language becomes like the laying on of hands. A portal through which energy flows in mystical ways.
Language like the translator of the hollow bone, language like the dance of the shaman.
You said::“The deepest truest you that hums in the marrow of your bones, the cellular contractions of your heart, the flow of your cerebrospinal fluid. This is the body that can contain stillness within movement and silence within sound.”
How do you most like to honor your body?
I honor my body by being here with a beating heart and lungs that fill and empty with breath. Most days it is that simple. I live, here, in this body, so I honor her. We are the most intimate of lovers. I honor my body by wanting to know her. By coming to terms with the ways I have abandoned and disgraced her at times (she is never mad at me about this but always welcomes exactly what is). I honor my body by walking a path that strives towards embodiment. I honor my body by believing in her power, in her strength, in her functionality. I honor my body by coming home to her.
I honor my body through my physical practice when I am rocking it, through the food I lovingly prepare when I am lovingly preparing food, through dancing wildly in the kitchen with my littles when I am dancing wildly in the kitchen with my littles. I honor my body with massage, and touch, and love, and adornment. I honor my body by making egregious mistakes. Eating total crap. Drinking too much. Not getting enough sleep. Losing track of my meditation practice. Pushing myself too hard. Not being disciplined enough.
I honor my body through the art of practicing self-forgiveness – which she has taught me a thousand fold. She has never left my side even when my honoring her looks like a trail of bad decisions laced with whiskey and cookies.
So I place my hands on my heart again and feel the way it beat beats. Oh yes, and I breathe. I am alive still. I honor my body with this life and with the ways I release self loathing and dive back into what feels good. Movement feels good. Water feels good. Pleasure feels good. Seeking feels good. Breathing in and out and relaxing my face feels good. I honor my body with headstands and flying pigeons and walking the dog in the woods and steaming bowls of bone broth and gently wilted greens.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a clear answer to this? If I could prescribe a track of body honoring that each person could follow and thus have the altar to body all sorted out? But I honor my body through relationship, through learning, through loving her as best I possibly can in any given moment. It is a constant state of wonder how she loves me back. Body blessing. I honor my body through my life.
We are together in the light and the darkness. All the way.
Tell me how you rise up in fullness?
I rise up in fullness through my work and my love. I find fullness as a mother. This has been true for me from the first moment and I accept it as a gift. That my children have healed my heart and soul in ways I could never ever have imagined just by the fact that they came here. That they have eyes I can gaze into and smiles that are filled with light. That I get to spend time with them and have the pleasure of being known by them and knowing them back. I accept this gift.
I rise up in fullness when I part the curtains and let myself soak in the rays of sunlight. Accepting warmth and being fed by the heat of the sun.
I rise up in fullness when I step out of the way and allow my body to explore being in space. In deliciousness. In being no shape anyone told me to be but instead listening in to what the cells know and trusting their guidance.
The kitchen has always been a place of magical realignment for me. I complete my own circles when I alchemize in my kitchen. When I let ingredients come together as they want to and as my mouth waters for them. When dough rises, when vinegar splashes and oil drizzles and herbs are diced or torn. When something is just beginning to soften in my favorite pot. When an egg is just right with crisp edges. When almost anything is roasting in bacon drippings.
And I rise up in fullness when I offer myself. As a teacher, healer and guide. This is when my cells burst with light. When I stop trying to hide what is and I trust in my own path, my voice, my heart, my getting out of the way to be something more than what my ego has offer. My fullness comes out boldly in these roles. In unexpected and cleansing and settling ways. Each time I am of service in some form of healing I am vastly healed. My work is my pathway to evolution and expansion. What is more full than that?
What supports the true expression of your authentic self?
My people. My friends, my family, my four leggeds – the people who listen to, hold, touch and love me. My connection to the divine universe. Ever present even when completely forgotten. The universe supports me. The great mother in all her glory. Birds in flight, a soft breeze, deer cutting across the trail right in front of me, thunder and rain, crocuses…the great mother reminds me of my own resonance and being.
What is your mantra, your words to live by?
“I am free to…”
I had this life changing realization some time ago that I was boxing myself in even in moments when I was trying to help myself. “I need to…” being a mantra of “I am not already doing enough.” So even the revelations I had about things that might have felt really good were already being twisted energetically into failure. “I need to be kinder to myself,” felt to me like it carried, “I am not kind enough to myself.” See, failure.
But, “I am free to be kind to myself.” Ahh, this felt like something I could relax into. Like a release of tension not an accumulation of tension. “I am free to experience daily practice.” Now my daily practice is a gift I am free to receive not something I have to check off my list. So, whenever possible I try to remember to language my hopes, dreams, and desires in combination with freedom.
Freedom is my mantra in life.
Currently I am working a 43 day practice that includes chanting mantra and there I am working with Aham Amritam. As I was taught, this mantra translates to, “I am the essence of the heart nectar.”
What does mystery taste like to you?
I have always had a rebel side lurking beneath my polished exterior. Mystery tastes like that. The late night wanderings. Conversations no one else knows about. Damp skin in the dark of night.
And mystery feels like the expanse of the void. The ways I have come to know the edge of it and how someday I will also know the centers. Mystery is the way the wind howls there and sometimes it is dark and starry and other times its like the sun soaked desert.
Sometimes mystery is this scent I can’t quite name on a soft wind in the middle of an ordinary day. Sometimes it is a spider web, a hawk in flight, the way my children’s eyelids flutter as they dream.
Mystery tastes like sage and dirt and blood and wine.
Like swallowing the air.
Like falling on my knees when I feel beaten and crying hard and standing back up again to carry on.
Mystery is the swirling grain on my hardwood floors and my dining room table. Lingering whispers from my ancestors. The future calling out to me and daring me to arrive.
What are your tools and teachers? What have you been learning from them personally?
My tools are breath, movement, direct communication, daily practice, shaking, yoga, inversions, exploration, balancing, writing, sleep and nourishment. My teachers are my kindreds – soul sisters who are willing to dive into the creases and the wide expanses with me. My children who are clearly here to set me straight on just about anything if I will take the time to listen in. My teachers are the obvious, people I study from and books I read. My teachers are also a surprise – a stranger who reminds me of my truth on exactly the day I was ready to take it in.
Recently I have been learning about using what I have. I have been learning about quiet and how I hold the quiet in the noise. I have been learning about stillness and the kind of stillness that is achieved through movement. I have been learning about the walls I build and the ways I am ready to allow them to dissipate.
My teachers have always been the invisible. My spirit guides and allies. My team. What I learn from them is simple. I am everything. I am nothing.
What are you saying YES to these days?
I am saying to sunshine, coffee, ginger, essential oils, homemade muffins, and broth. I am saying yes to a stronger physical practice and more time in meditation. I am saying yes to reading more books and allowing the idea of studying all the time. I am saying yes to short notes and writing even when I have nothing perfect to say. I am saying yes to noticing love around me and laughing more and failing at things.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
I plan to do my own work all the time knowing that my own ferocious evolution will ripple outwards. I plan to step ever more fully into holding the hands of others and guiding them to the next level. I plan to seek truth, knowing that it is always everything and nothing. I plan to live, and rest, and live some more. I want to cultivate happiness and allow for pain. I want to drink up what is offered and make space for even more. I want to embrace freedom and let it be contagious. I want to trust my lineage and my heart to guide me towards my highest evolution of resonance with self. I want to rest assured that I have no idea how beautiful it could all be but that if I show up on the dance floor the universe will see me trying and she will say, yes my love, here you go. I want to relax into resonant potential. I want to bridge the gap so we all rise to the next evolution. I want to be a rock star and the quiet grounding we all need as a base to rise up. I want it all. And I want to take you with me.
Robin E. Sandomirsky has co-created with Alisha Sommer this beauty of a course called Liberated Lines.
Liberated Lines is a daily practice because we know that this is where the magic lies. The truth is you can change your life, your breath, your very being with a daily practice. It doesn’t matter how brief, rough, or seemingly small that practice is. To tap into releasing the shades of your truth a few times is lovely but to cultivate a freedom that resounds through your very cells takes a commitment to repetition. That is all. A mini dance with creative truth that happens every day will touch you. And you deserve to be touched.
BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS THEIR VOICE LIBERATED.
*A liberated lines FLASH :: evolve ($20) (This is a steal my dearest friends. GO:::: check out this lovely offering!)
Luminary Healing Session: One on one Luminary Healing sessions. A chance to explore ways to radically shift your life. To listen and speak, touch permissions and reclaim freedoms. Meet and give voice to layers of your creation and lesser known parts. Extend invitations to rejoin the active living of this life. I will offer and make known all kinds of support systems, animal medicine, personal teams, stone allies, plant medicine and ways to dive deeper into your intuitive living. This includes working with all the bodies – spiritual, energetic, breath, bliss, and of course the sacred temple of your own physical body.
We travel to our rightful place at the edge of the void. Where we come to know everything and nothing all at once. This is the space. Luminary exploration. Igniting freedoms. Working with warrior bloodlines to change the game. This is the space. Truth. Velocity. Embodiment.
Healing. You deserve.
May 1, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography
I saw Fonda’s work first in Orly Avineri Facebook group a stand for art journaling, it was the above photo of a winged creature with skeletons following close behind. I don’t know the story, although, I have made a pretty good one in my head of shadow and light chasing, but I began to look out for when she posted because her work has a very Marc Chagall feel if Marc Chagall was an art journaling feminist! Fonda’s work has a lot of archetypal energy as well as layered free form play. I enjoy seeing her evolve and allow new things to emerge.
Fonda Clark Haight is a mixed media artist living in Western NC. She and her husband Evan, an author, live in a converted apple barn on a 100 year old apple orchard. They share their home with six children, three boys and three girls, along with assorted rescues. She has a deep passion for upcycling in her art. Upcycling keeps a materials’ original composition, texture and quality intact by reshaping it for new use, extending its life cycle without the needs for additional raw materials or energy. She upcycles cardboard, newspapers, barn wood, tin, old art, and plywood into new pieces of art. Her goal as an artist is to take simple things and subjects we might see or imagine every day and present them in a different manner so we “re-see” them.
Tell me about your stunning Archetype series?
I’ve always loved oracle cards. They’re such precious pieces of tiny art with meaning. I wanted to create something like that for myself with my own artwork, using symbols that mean something to me specifically. I didn’t realize when I started how expensive it would be to turn them into cards. I love the archetypes. It’s like a whole world fit into ten or twelve prototypes. It’s a framework for understanding the people around me.
Your art for me has a very wonderful Primal/Totem feel is there a reason for this?
I went thru a stage where I did a whole series about fairytales. And then I was done. I had created the art that interested me. I think it was the story behind the fairy tales….the resonance of the person who sort of got lost in the telling, that make me light up. I’m incredibly drawn to celtic and Native American stories as well. And again, I always think…what’s happening with the people around the main characters in the story? What was going on in their lives?
I think the myths of history are such a deep well to draw from creatively.
And because they still resonate so strongly, I know that there is something there for everyone.
How does spirituality and art intertwine for you?
Well, I’m a feminist. I guess that’s pretty clear from my art. I recently heard Sister Chittister relate that she thought the world is operating from half it’s knowledge, the male half. That’s not bad in itself, but it needs the other half. She told a sufi story that sums it up for me. The students were all asking their master…”what will happen to us when you die? What will become of us? The master looked at the students and said, all these years I’ve been with you I’ve been pointing at the moon. I hope that when I die, you will finally look at the moon”.
For me, art is my way of pointing at the moon. My way of pointing to the mystery and magic of the spiritual part of my life.
Sometimes it’s just in the little details that I notice as I go about creating….and sometimes it’s something bigger. At least I hope it is.
What does Intuitive mean to you? How do you live Intuitively?
For me, intuitiveness is getting out of my brain. And into my heart. It’s my way of getting in touch with how I feel so I can convey that as an artist. I live intuitively in my art every day. I don’t plan a piece of art. I just start and let it speak to me. Sometimes I don’t get anything. Sometimes I get more than I bargained for…..and sometimes I hit a sweet spot and I know I am on purpose in my life in that moment.
What are your tools and teachers? What have you been learning from them personally?
I know most artists will be able to relate to this statement. In the beginning I wanted every new tool, gadget and gizmo. I was 34 before I ever created a piece of art. So I practiced and practiced and grabbed all the new stuff and I do believe that better tools give you a better result. These days though, I’ve realized that sometimes, for me, all that stuff is a way not to begin my art. So I use old books repurposed as a journal or canvas or cardboard. I cannot live without gesso, gel matte medium and neocolors. If were going to be stranded I would want those three things. My teacher…I guess I would have to say that life is my teacher and the internet. Wow! The internet is a happy teacher for sure. All the ideas, and art, and creativity are a happy thing.
What are you saying YES to these days?
Myself and my vision. No one else’s. I’m saying yes to all the parts of myself. The grungy whiny parts and the glorious beautiful ones too. The complaints and the gratitude. The light and the dark. Every artist knows…a piece of art is no good without both.
What lights you up? Turns you on? Makes your heart quicken?
Color. Lots and lots of color. I have to say too…I teach at a local nonprofit as a volunteer. I’ve got thousands of hours invested in those kids. They light me up in the same way that my art does. I have a passion about creating a space for them to be safe enough to feel what they feel. And helping them to convey that artistically is one of the great joys in life.
What do you want everyone to know?
That everyone is an artist. Everyone has that ability. They just have to let themselves believe that. That the more you are in touch with who you are….the better the world is.
Tell me when the light went off and you wanted to show your art/be an artist?
When I was 34, my twin sister gave me a set of watercolors for Christmas. I was horrible with watercolors. But there was something about the way it made me feel, something about creating that I knew was for me. It was a clarity of expression that I had not really known until then. I haven’t looked back once since that day.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
I plan to keep doing what I’m doing. Distilling who I am and what I feel into my art. Teaching and passing that on to the high risk children who may not have an opportunity like that in their daily lives.
Pointing at the moon.
You can find Fonda on Facebook or over on her website. You can also find Fonda’s original mixed media paintings HERE!
Apr 24, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography
This is a woman whom you are going to want to know by the end of reading this. I mean really look at those paintings?
I saw Flora’s work once on Pinterest and that once was enough for me to know and fall in love with it’s spirited, vibrant and down to earth movement of paint. She leads these sensational workshops which I was privileged to take part in a few years ago at Call of the Wild Soul where she infuses movement of body and paint, intentions and letting go in the most beautiful way. Flora is an incredible teacher and woman and I have been so looking forward to releasing this INterview so you can fall in love too! Check out her offerings at the end oh can’t wait!
Flora Bowley is an internationally celebrated painter, workshop facilitator, top-selling author, visionary and inspirationalist. Her soulful and transformational approach to painting (and living) has inspired thousands of people across the globe to “let go, be bold and unfold” as they move through fear and welcome joyful spontaneous expression back into the creative process. Combining twenty years of professional painting experience with her background as a yoga instructor, massage therapist and lifelong truth seeker, Flora infuses her teaching and painting style with a deep connection to body, mind, and spirit. This unique fusion offers up a truly transformational experience—one that honors intuition, self-discovery and the perfectly ever-changing present moment..
Lets think about yoga for a moment and allow it to guide us through the first three questions:
What does your inner wisdom want you to take in/absorb/feel with your inhale?
I believe that our souls possess a divine wisdom that is always present, but it is our constant work to remember, honor and act on this wisdom. Inhaling seems like an ideal time to tap into this kind of remembering — remembering that I belong, that I am forever connected to all things, that I am right where I am supposed to be.
What does your inner wisdom desire you to embrace/know/honor in the pause?
For me the pause is about presence. I believe cultivating full presence is one of the biggest gifts we can offer ourselves in terms of being fully connected, aware, and rooted in gratitude. So often our busy story-making minds are writing their own versions of what is actually happening at any given time. I think for me the pause is becoming present and letting go of the ‘story’ and just being in the beingness, if you will.
What does your inner wisdom say you need to release/make room for with the exhale?
I am constantly working to let go of rushing, over-doing, and my tendency to get ahead of myself which can all be boiled down to a feeling of not enough-ness. In the exhale, I am letting go of not enoughness and accepting that whatever is happening is actually just right, and accepting that I don’t need to be a super woman every day!
What are you saying YES too?
A friend recently asked me: “What feels like low hanging fruit to you right now — like what feels reeeeealy easy and doable without a lot of efforting? I LOVE these questions and have been thinking about them a lot. I’m happy to realize that what is lighting me right up right now are also the things that feel easy. For example, I am taking the year off from traveling to teach in my Portland studio. Being on my home turf feels extremely nourishing and easy, and as a result, I feel super lit up about it. So that’s a full bodies YES for me — rooting down, letting people come to me, not feeling like I have to run myself ragged traveling all over the world. I am also loving the collaboration work I am doing with various people right now. I am a natural collaborator, and I love the magic that happens when people come together to share ideas and cross-pollinate their inspiration to birth something new. That is really lighting me up these days.
What are you bow down, kiss the ground grateful for?
Gratitude is a practice I have incorporated into my life in many ways. I just recently made a list of 100 things I am grateful for, but I could have kept going way past 100! I truly feel that my life is blessed, and
staying connected to gratitude allows for even more goodness to flow in.
One thing I am really grateful for is having parents who loved and accepted me in all my quirkiness. They encouraged me to explore what I really loved, and instilled in me this idea that I can do anything. I’m also forever grateful that I am able to do work in this world that I am truly passionate about and that makes such a positive impact in the world. To me, this is the dream.
Tell me how you rise up in fullness?
A huge piece of rising up in fullness is about trusting myself — trusting my instincts, my intuition, my inner wisdom, my curiosity.
When I can come from a place of trust, it becomes easier and easier to make bold choices and fully own my voice and style. The second piece to rising up is about staying honest about what feels truly inspiring and interesting to me in any given moment. This means not allowing myself to get caught up in what other people want or expect, but honoring the fire of inspiration instead. When I do find myself trying to people-please, there tends to be a real staleness in my work — it’s like you can feel the inauthenticity.
What projects have come out of when you have rose up in your fullness?
My workshops are a really good example of rising up and staying true to myself because I bring in a lot of aspects of my life that are not just about the painting process. I incorporate ceremony, intention setting, movement, music and community — all things I am passionate about. In these ways, it is a really holistic body-mind-spirit approach to the creative process that comes directly from my own life experience. Its been really affirming to see so many of my interests swirling together to create a really unique offering, and I think it’s what has set me apart in a lot of ways. Its such a natural offering for me because it is simply who I am.
What supports the true expression of your authentic self?
Health. Vitality. Getting my heart beat up everyday!
If I can connect with my physical body, breath and movement, the leap to connect to intuition
and something greater than myself is much easier.
If I am not moving my body and feeling kinda sluggish, it’s much harder for me to access my creative process and find my flow. I exercise a lot, I do yoga, and I often dance while I paint. It all feels really connected to me.
What kind of lover do you want to be to yourself? What love are you giving to yourself?
My word for this year is nourish and it really sums up where I am at and why I am choosing to stay home this year. I got pretty burnt out from over-doing and over-traveling, so I had to recalibrate and reevaluate my priorities. I am loving myself these days by being really gentle, nourishing my spirit and doing a lot self care. I no longer see self care as indulgent. I am learning to accept it as the foundation I need for everything else in my life to “work.” Getting massages, eating healthy food, going to yoga and connecting to nature are all important parts of of this foundation.
What are your tools and teachers? What have you been learning from them personally?
This might sound ridiculous, but I got a dog in June and she has become one of my great teachers in this lifetime — teachers do come in many forms! She has added so much love, snuggles and more time outside every single day. Time with her is just such a gift. In addition to my dog guru, I have always considered the women in my life to be some of my greatest teachers. The depth and wisdom I find with my peers and friends is immeasurable — so much mirroring and reflecting, woah! Finally, I would say my personal painting practice is one of my greatest teachers. Even after twenty plus years, I learn something new every single time I step up to a blank canvas — never a dull moment.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
This circles back to the very first question about remembering, because for me, this is what life is all about. Remembering why I am here, recognizing my gifts and figuring out how to share them with others.
I also believe we are all here on a healing journey in one way or another. For me, it’s about learning to love myself and others in a much deeper and bigger way.
I’d say that’s my mission in life.
Want some monthly inspiration to nourish your creative soul? Check out Flora’s up coming series: Studio Diaries!
This May she will be releasing a beautiful monthly subscription offering videos including painting exercises, interviews, live studio painting sessions, yoga and holistic nutrition videos.
We can’t wait!
Also try her ground breaking workshop Bloom True!
‘Bloom true: the E-course’ presents a groundbreaking and transformational approach to painting (and living) that celebrates intuition, connects body, mind and spirit and allows unique and expressive paintings to emerge naturally and authentically.
The next Bloom True E-course will begin on June 1st, 2015. Registration for the course is now open.
Apr 17, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography
Catherine Just creates visceral photographs. For me they are infused with the soul wether it is her soul or the soul of the client she is capturing. There is often a simplistic nature in the composition and yet a very complex story being told. I had seen her portraits of Danielle LePorte as well as Carrie-Anne Moss over the years and then more recently saw her work showing up as friends profile photographs. She seemed to pop up all over the place these last few months. She is a very dear and light filled soul and I am blessed to have her view on Process, Sacred, Intuition and Visual Poetry!
Hi there! Thanks so much for having me be a part of this interview series!
I’m Catherine Just and I’m the proud mama to my 6 year old son Max who happens to have Down syndrome. I’m a photographer, artist, mentor and entrepreneur. I consider myself a conceptual photographer. I teach classes online and lead workshops in my home. I also do creative portraiture for high profile clients who need to elevate their brand or product.
Lets start with the most fundamental question: What do you create? Why do you create?
It depends on the project. Right now I’m working on a series of self portraits that are all taken with either my iPhone or my sx-70 Polaroid camera that have to do with what’s going on underneath the surface of my personal life. My work has always been conceptual in nature. Meaning, I use this form of creativity as a way to dig down deep into the internal / emotional / sensory / intuitive realms and create something visual out of something that you can’t put words to. I try to give voice to something that’s there but not necessarily visible to the eye. I use metaphor, objects, symbolism, with images of myself with long exposures and blur in alternative environments to express these spaces that live in between words. (( or in-between worlds ))
If the project involves a speaker, author, high profile celebrity, we collaborate on ideas and I use the camera as a tool to connect with their soul. It’s not just a headshot or a pretty photo of someone. I want to really get at who they are from the inside out.
I read you say: “I’ll be creating some sort of visual poetry related to this extraordinary role of mine in his life.” Visual poetry. This art isn’t just a career it seems you are also a adventurer and a healer using this medium. Is this true? Can you elaborate on the personal growth and spiritual side of your art making?
Yes, I see my work as visual poetry. Getting inside of a situation and creating something with deeper meaning than just a description of it. I’ve been working in this way for the last 27 years. In the beginning, I was very insecure and had a difficult time socially. Photography was a way for me to express visually what was hard for me to express verbally. It was healing for me to process my relationships, my spirituality, the world around me through this medium of photography. I find that this work is a miracle for me. It saved me from my own dis-ease and as I continue with this work I love sharing this process with others as another tool for transformation in their own lives. I work both intuitively and with written out plans and find that once the art process starts, there are 3 of us involved. myself, my camera and something else that cannot be named really. Spirit maybe?
Whatever it is there is magic in the actual process of making the art. It’s an extraordinary process.
What would you say are the major inspirations for what you create?
My own personal life situations. Personal relationships. Connections. Loss. Deep emotional Pain or Joy. I got sober from a crystal meth addiction when I was 18 years old and the photography process started right after that. So living in the world without “leaving” is what inspires me to dive into the photography process. It’s where I go to figure things out, heal, grow, express, process, understand, take apart, dive in and not harm myself or anyone else in the process.
What does Sacred mean to you? What does it feel like, look like, Where is your sacred place?
Sacred is being present for the moments that matter. Being Sober is Sacred. Being fully IN my life without doing anything to check out or “take the edge off”. My life is sacred. Being with my son is sacred when I’m really present. Slowing down to notice how the light is wrapping itself around your life.
The camera can help me shift from my mind back to the present moment and into my heart.
Photography and any other creative process is sacred. Connection with the spiritual realms. Certain energy, Home, Family, Friends, Nature, Seasons, Process, Being awake, Waking up, Every moment of choice is sacred.
Intuition the mother of our hearts! How has your intuition led you here, Where you stand today? Where is it leading you? What is it whispering?
Intuition is everything.
I haven’t been the type to have a master plan for my life. When I was using drugs I thought that being 30 years old equaled death. I’m heading towards 47 this year and I feel more alive and full of possibility than I did when I was younger. So I really don’t take my thoughts too seriously. Or at least I try not to. I go with my “gut” in any moment. I do have friends that I reach out to when I’m confused or suffering trying to make up my mind about something. And then in the end I just go with what feels right to me. Even if it ends up being the “wrong path” I definitely learn something from it and it informs my next steps in life so “wrong” is relative. My intuition is whispering to keep going with the personal project I’m working on, to apply for the grant that’s in my inbox, to learn as much as I can about photography and the fine art world. It’s whispering that all is well, keep going.
What supports your authentic self? Your true expression of yourself?
I don’t know of anything right now that doesn’t support my authentic self. I set myself up for success that way. I have very little tolerance for drama and in authentic people or situations so I steer clear. I value self preservation and set myself up for situations and relationships that nurture that. I honestly don’t stick around long if I sense something isn’t quite feeling right to me. Even if I can’t put my finger on it. It just doesn’t serve me or the other person if it’s not authentic.
My true expression of myself is always changing in every moment. My true expression of myself is always being revealed to me as I connect with my spiritual practice, kundalini yoga and meditation. The Toltec path helped me get much more clear on the areas where I was suffering and why I was suffering ( my thoughts and beliefs cause all of my suffering ) so doing that important work and detaching from those things that cause me to suffer provides me with ways to be more true. Creativity, Dancing with my son, snuggling with him, laughing, treating myself really well with healthy food. I don’t eat wheat, dairy or processed sugar and I notice a huge difference in how I can show up in the world. I don’t drink caffeine and that made a big difference as well to stop artificially activating energy reserves. Now I get high on natural things like green juice, great friendship, the process of creativity, loving my son, eating healthy, treating myself really well, being curious about life, exploring spiritual connection.
Lastly, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Right in this moment I plan to notice it, breathe deeply, celebrate my life and my son’s life. I plan to explore my creativity and share it with others. I plan to learn how to love myself even more deeply and love others as well. How to be a true friend. First to myself and then to everyone around me. My dream is to continue to raise my vibration and to help others expand as well. Love how the light hits your soul.
Right now Catherine Just is living on Instagram and would love people to follow her there and partake in the 30 day photo challenge she is doing for the Month of April for free see HERE.
She is also offering an online eCourse called “The Daily Miracle” which is a 30 day photo project that helps us return to seeing the sacred in our every day.
That’s the miracle. The shift that occurs when we look through the lens and wake up to this moment. It’s not always what we think it is. Find out more HERE!
Apr 17, 2015 | Art, Global, Interview, Love, Photography
As I have found many wonderful artists through Orly Avineri so too I found this gem Galia Alena! This little lady has a plethora of talents and she reels you in with her words, wisdom and images wether it be paint or photos. I have immensely enjoyed exploring her and her work and I am pretty confident you will too! She has so much to offer so let’s dive in together.
Galia Alena:I’m a visual poet working in just about any medium I can lay my hands on although I am a professionally trained photographer and a so called “self-taught” artist (of course there have been many teachers on that path). I’m in love with the creative process. I’m a beauty unveiler, light huntress, moment caresser and visionary poetess.
Ultimately, all of my work is about helping people peel back the layers to experience the intense beauty of each moment allowing access to both their intuitive wisdom and a deeper connection to spirit and self. (Because the beauty of this life cracks our hearts open and it is through the cracks that light can flow both in and out and connect us back to our divine selves)
That is what I do and I do it through photography, art, journaling and teaching.
I live in the insanely beautiful Blue Mountains, just shy of Sydney, with my family, our cat and all the winged ones who frequent our garden. Each day here is a wondrous delight of tiny miracles through either the glorious light or magical mists.
I would love to work with you, have a look around and see where you are called…
Lets start with the most fundamental question why do you create?
Hmmmmmm, I just have to, to make things, things of beauty, to be connected to those things of beauty, to manifest my soul, my heart, my desires, my being, to express, to swirl and dance with the universe, to take something and magically, alchemically, turn it into something else, to be part of it all. I have the magician as my birth card, some would say its my soul path to create and manifest things, I just know I have to. It’s a deep desire that drives the hand, heart and soul to work in unison and create.
The feminine figures that often show up in your work, do they have their own story?
Yes, we all have stories, especially women, we are all just stardust fallen into stories, so of course my feminine figures are made of stardust and stories. Sometimes real stories and sometimes mythical, always archetypical. Many of the stories come to me as seeds or images in my dreams and then reveal more and more of their stories as I spend time with them unveiling, exploring and getting to know them on the canvas. Their stories are my story and probably yours too, all of ours, of being human, of being feminine and of being divine.
I feel a certain spiritual aspect to what you create, does spirituality play a part in your art?
Mary Oliver said that “to notice is the first step to devotion” and for me my practice is very much about paying attention (to pay attention, this is how I pray), paying attention to the way the light moves through my day, how the shadows fall, the birdsong, the way the steam rises from my coffee, or the clouds hang low in my garden, a new thing growing, the way words are formed into magical beings and the whispers between the petals, all of it, I pay attention, I drink it in, it feeds me, it is sacred, all of it, so yes, everything is spiritual.
Do you have a sacred space?
Everywhere is sacred space.
My own sacred space is my home, with my babies, where I create and dream: sanctuary of trees; & the forests I walk through: cathedrals of trees.
What does sacred mean to you?
Sacred is that which connects us to our highest selves, to each other and to universal energy (by whatever name you wish to label it). It is what steps us into our Brightest, our potential beyond ego, beyond personality, beyond the individual, our connectedness, our oneness. It is a portal to our soul and beyond, it is what brings us into the fulness of the moment.
Anything, and possibly everything, is sacred if it allows us to remember.
Do you have any rituals?
Many rituals from morning coffee- letting the dreams slowly lift as I clasp my hands around a warm cup looking out the window at the day breaking through; to taking out the compost- recycling what we don’t need, nurturing the worms and earth, turning over the dirt, keeping it all flowing. I think anything can be a ritual if it is done with mindfulness, attention and intention. As I’m thinking about this question, I’m feeling that “practice” might be a more interesting idea to look at. All the things I do as ritual can be done fully present or not, I could walk through the motions of rituals without mindfulness, without intention, without presence and on one level they would still be ritual but not a deep and meaningful ritual. What is more important to me is “practice” and this is anything that I do to deepen my connection to presence, to source, to myself. My practice takes many forms but to name a few, hitting the mat, walking in nature, meeting myself on the page or the blank canvas. When I hit the mat I often have to gently remind myself “there is nowhere else I need to be, nothing else I need to be doing- just breathe” as the busyness of all I want to do calls to me I have to release it to the moment. By a walk in nature, I don’t mean that walk you do to burn off calories or tick the exercise box on your to do list, nor the walk to catch up on some podcast or audiobook (although I do love to take some soul-thinkers and poets with me on occasion), I’m talking about that walk that is just me and my breath, and the pulse and breath of nature.
Practice is that which pushes the edges and boundaries of my presence, that takes them deeper and allows my rituals to be more imbued with meaning and connection.
What do you collect? Why?
The why is easy- I love things of beauty especially when they are layered in meaning and significance to me. The what, well… The main things I love to collect are “trinkets” from our travels and adventures, these are touchstones to memories and experience; art work from the hands and heart of people I know, these are touchstones to the people and the creative collective; stones, feathers, sticks, pods, seeds- these are touchstones to mama nature, to beauty and fragility, to the fact we are all just tiny stars.
What does your inner rhythm look like? Feel like?
It’s cyclic, its always been cyclic, between quiet reflection, observation, listening, seeking, germination and then a flurry of creativity, production, movement and then back to quiet. A continual spiralling, with always many cycles at any one time.For me balance is not a static point nor an ideal to try to achieve but an intersection as I oscillate trying to juggle a multifaceted life and being. The inner rhythm is always in movement, even when dormant and incubating it is moving slowly back to a time of creation. Always cycling it is these opposing points which keep each other balanced. I think this idea of balance holds so much freedom and permission. It allows life to be messy and fluid. It allows me to be unproductive and floss about with the fairies, when I need to because I know I’m going to circle back and have a bout of creative explosion and then that will naturally burn out and a time of introspection will begin. Knowing this allows me to relax into it more readily and not to try to force the rhythm. Even knowing this I still struggle with time but when I am doing my practice and practicing presence I am more likely to be able to keep the overall scales balanced and be sure not to linger too long in anyone phase.
What lights you up? What turns you on? What makes your heart quicken?
Snow- silent white magic,
Light- the dance of the day,
Shadows- where I can see clearly,
Creativity- the soul at play,
My babies- they are magical beings and infinite teachers.
How do you nourish your wellbeing on a typical day?
Notice, create, move/flow, love.
Lastly, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
To stay open. No plan, just on path, noticing, course correcting, flowing, growing, unfolding my story and gifts:
becoming myself- we are not wounded, we are just unfinished…
THIS! Of the heart: Making an heirloom. >>>———————->(Watch this video.)
My daughter will soon get her moon time and I want to celebrate this auspicious occasion and welcome her into the beginning of her womanhood journey. As part of this I am putting together a Red Box with gifts and wisdom from her female tribe and I’ve decided to make her a very special and unique book, an heirloom, a keepsake, a treasure and a treasury of love from me. And so this course and this project was birthed.
If I received a book like this I would surely fall into a mess of magical tears! Don’t you want to gift your daughter one of these? Perhaps she is about to pass the threshold into womanhood or about to get married? This would be a stunning heirloom! Inquire and sign up HERE!
Oh and there is this: Journal Circle is a sacred and dedicated time just for YOU. A date with your creativity, allowing you to slow down, go deeper and listen to your own wisdom. To Meet Yourself on the Page. You can join a journal circle HERE, as well as discover much more about it and see Galia’s personal journal pages!
You can also come say hello on her website HERE or on Facebook HERE!
