Creative Path

"This is where the door is opening, will you peek through?  

"The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call of creative work, who felt their own creative power restive & uprising, & gave it neither power nor time." 

- Mary Oliver -

My friend Brenda posted this quote several years ago, & went on to write "Sums up my feelings after lots of soul searching earlier this year & the realization that my one regret is that I never went to art school. I looked at schools & prices, and none of it really resonated in my soul. Then I started looking at teachers I admire, classes that inspire, souls I love. ... 

"I realized the classes I love the most are the ones that are intuitive, access the soul, invite inner listening, etc." 

My friend Jeanette wrote "We are all Creative Beings. This is our birthright, regardless of our circumstances, talents or beliefs. The invitation is to discover how your creative gifts will be used to create a reality that is worthy of your Soul's incarnation."  

In 2015, I enrolled in Shiloh Sophia's Color of Woman teacher training, a potent 9 month course that empowered my creativity, and converged with my own healing arts and teaching pathway.

I was the kid who drew in the borders of programs, and drooled over paint by number kits, and got blank canvases to use the leftover paint. In grade school, I was asked to draw a camel for some Christmas art project. Later, I was frustrated in my HS art class during our pottery unit - in 50 minutes, my clay was usually too dry, or too wet! I took a few classes art both in college, and later at our local Community College, and doodle sketched in meetings ....

Since graduating from Color of Woman, as a Teacher and Coach, I've opened the door to creativity for many others, shine wounded by college art trainings; encourage others as they complete the IC training, and as they begin sharing their own offerings. 

I love collaborations with SiStars from our local community, including our bimonthly Red Thread Circles with Linda, and with our international SiStars. 

Wherever you are, there's likely an Intentional Creativity® or other intuitive art teacher near you, or available online.

Sedna - stone Cairn

As we head into 2021, many of us are committing to daily practices, whether on paper or canvas. Most days I with in my journal or on cards. Last spring, I began exploring the NW Inuit Legend of Sedna, in a painting journey with my Austrian SiStar Tania McGinnis, and am stepping through that portal again.

While some in our broader community are moving into a degree program, others of us are on an independent Soul Curriculum path, focusing on both our own offerings, and as Brenda said, exploring classes which pique our curiosity, and are "intuitive, access the soul, and invite inner listening;" and like Jeanette, "discovering how our creative gifts will be used to create a reality that is worthy of your Soul's incarnation."

  
Have you opened the door to your own creative path; will you step through the portal?   

Happy Paint Party Friday!    

Visual Planning

Last spring, Shiloh and her biz coach Amy Ahlers offered Dancing Entrepreneur for both Color of Woman students and the general community. We created the folded Vision Plan books (one of the CoW assignments) plus a set of 16 cards to support moving forward with our plans. 

We connected with others in the class (a weekend workshop or 5 week class) and used the momentum of the class to bring ideas into action or products. I developed my virtual Red Thread Circles, and collaborations with other students and IC teachers.

Some of the posts that caught my eye were of Karen Dawn's Visual Planning system, and I joined her Beta Test group on crafting similar systems of our own! I love Karen's creative approach to planning! (Her blog includes some of these teachings!) 

Vision Plan Board

Mine is on a foam board from a vision board class I offered, and has two of the Dancing Entrepreneur action cards, a little vision board we created with Karen, and - pockets. My clothesline is a ribbon, and I just taped the ends to the back of the board using painter's tape! You can use nails to tack the lines directly on a wall - so many options!

Karen uses this 'clothesline' system for organizing ideas visually. She found that when her notes were tucked away in journals and files, they weren't as accessible, and often dropped off her radar. (So me!) You can clip cards directly to the line, or Viola! - make pockets to hold sets of cards with those ideas! (Who doesn't want to make pockets, lol!) 

Larger file folder size pockets can be tacked up, with in depth writings/images. You can clip labels to the front of the pockets, to keep organize. I also like making little vision plans in Zines - these could easily tuck into small pockets! 

Planning pockets

As I dream into new offerings, and projects on my plate, I'm using this system to keep organize my ideas and action steps.

heART cards

The heART cards arrived this week - & they are all so beautiful!! They arrived wrapped in pink tissue paper - perfect for making some more beeswax collage :)

My grand daughters quickly began 'claiming' cards - "I want THIS one!" . . . I explained that while we could make some similar ones, these are mine for now :)

THank all of you for making this exchange so fun! Some of my favorites are the itty bitty ones - who would have thought??

Of course, i love doll's houses & minatures - just received some dolls from England, & am thinking of making 'herbal healer's' cottage, based on Monica Furlong's 'Wise Child' series, set in Middle ages. Several homes are described in great detail.

I've checked a few doll house books out from the Library, & have been jotting down ideas. When Mary & Josh were young, I drew paper dolls, & we loved doll house stuff. For several years she played with one from her grandparent's attic, then gave it back to the aunt for whom it was originally constructed.

Our dear friend Kate also loved doll houses, & refurbished one from her own childhood - which entertained my kids for hours. The grandkids have passed a sturdy wood 'kid style' home back & forth - i'ts currently at Emily & Gregory's home.

I gave some of the earlier beeswax heart cards to my office buddies & a group of gal friends - stamped a word on each (my original idea for the heART cards) & everyone smiled at getting a home made valentine!

Thanks again to all the heARTists for participating in theValentine's exchange!

heART Card - the creation

Here's a brief tutorial on beeswax collage - feel free to ask questions!

I found a 'butter warmer' at Bi-Mart, it's perfect for warming a small amount of wax. The tea light lasted for all twenty valentines. For a larger project, I'd use a double boiler or crock pot, but for a small job, this worked well.

I propped the brush against my knife rack, to keep it upright. I used a piece of cardboard as my surface for placing the elements & ironing them.











The base is a watercolour paper circle, covered with a 'donut' cut from a pretty red & gold print napkin. Next comes a doily.










Each step includes painting the surface with melted beeswax, then heating that with the blow dryer (which seems to work fine) & Ironing that layer down.






This is repeated for each layer.







I covered the center of the doilies with a layer of pink tissue paper.






Next is a heart cut from a napkin scrap. I covered this with a layer of plain red tissue.







I printed hearts on red tissue, using gold acrylic paint on a stamp I'd cut into a heart shaped eraser. & last - a shimmer of gold powdered pigment, to outline each heart! Viola - heART Art :)







The valentines remind me of the ones my mom would help me make, using construction paper & doilys. Before deciding on the stamp, I'd thought of running a banner with a word (like a candy hart) across each heART, but I like the gold stamp!

Last Friday, I picked up a two pound block of beeswax from a local beekeeper - so I'm well set for salve & collage :)

Harp Dance

I finished the Beeswax collage valentines, ready to ship off to Mother Henna!! My 'trial run' cards I'll be giving to 'friends n family.'
I'll outline the process later :) As a kid, my mom would help me make construction paper valentines with doiles; when I saw these, I finally had the inspiration for the cards. Each has a heart or Harp stamp (hand carved on a white heart shaped eraser) for the heART in the center.

Inspired by a lovely SoulCollage card 'she dances the world into being' created by Ilah; (& here's a card by Rainepresence - both posted on KaleidoSoul) I did this little Harp Dance piece with the rest of the wax using a small pressed board 'picture' I'd picked up at St. Vincent's a few days ago for 25 c :)
"We dance on the gold strings of the universe, singing the llano, soaring & spinning amongst the stars!"

The gold on red in the corners is from large paper party napkins I'd picked up at Goodwill; I've had the lino cutters since High School, & used them occasionally over the years.
My 8 year old grand daughter carved the other side of a heart shaped eraser I used to make the valentine stamps.

I got a call this AM that the beekeeper had dropped off 2 # of wax at his mom's sewing shop for me, at ~ price of one pound if I'd gotten some at Michael's craft shop! I picked up a small 'butter warmer' (over a candle) at Bi-mart last week, & it works well to heat the wax! Just have to prop the brush against something, as it's not deep.