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Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: My Creative Muse
As we’re immersed in the beginning of another snow storm here in Lake Tahoe, Astrid and I have been deeply immersed in finalizing everything for tomorrow’s grand launch of a new and fun creative venture – The Magick Rabbit Etsy shop packed full of whimsical expressions from our hearts.
I thought that while I took a break right now between readying everything, I’d share briefly about what my muse for all the new I’m creating is and how I believe that finding what your muse in life is – that stimulus, creative influence, or source of inspiration – can make a huge difference in fueling your passion, motivating, inspiring, and stimulating you to greet each day with wonder and curiosity.
It’s no huge surprise you’ll learn that rabbits are my muse. I make no attempt at hiding that and pretty much wear it on my sleeve, however, I didn’t always connect them in this role, nor have I even regarded myself as having a muse until the last few years.
A few years ago, through a series of life-changing events, I uncovered the deep truth in my heart that I wasn’t me without a rabbit.
I know I am whole on my own without anything or anyone, but I realized rabbits have the perfect alchemy that kindles the magick within me like nothing else can and help me to hear my song.
So at a time when I had come full circle with this lifetime and not only had the choice to leave, but nearly did, I found that the only thing that made me want to stay was the love I shared with rabbits. It became clear that they are the way to the heart of life here for me and to everything I hold dear. They are my bridge between Earth and Cosmos.
Rabbits are my key and when I acknowledged and embraced that everything valuable I’d learned and opened up to was because of my connection with them and that the love I feel for them literally explodes my heart, I suddenly received a downpour of clarity in how I could find joy again and recreate my life anew.
These complex and mystical beings stir something within that opens my heart wider, tears me inside out, lights the deepest recesses of inspiration and imagination, and makes sense of what can’t be explained.
Rabbits have played the biggest role in 16 years of my life with 5 souls in rabbit bodies helping me to know myself even more. They have helped me to create a life that reflects the dreams and visions of the child within. We share a bond of watching over one another and encouraging the best in each of us to step forward courageously.
Their connection with creativity, abundance, and that fertile Spring energy of joyous blossoming reflects the importance of cultivating this renewing energy and innocence.
And so the love and joy that they have fostered so deeply for me, has become the muse to all of the creativity I’ve had flowing recently and all of the ideas that have flooded my imagination through the channel of visions we share between us.
My creativity and motivation had gone gray about 3 1/2 years back and without something to kindle the dying flame, I would not be where I am now.
To look around me and to see the lush creative realm full of rabbits around every corner that I work in, an enchanted forest with rabbits who live outside my office, and my dear magick rabbit Faery queen, Astrid, who showed up when I recognized my truth, is such a difference from where I was, having released everything physical and nonphysical.
I was a blank slate and rabbits helped me begin a new spiral of creation.
And now here I am, on the afternoon before my new Etsy shop launch, reflecting on how quickly all of this has come to be literally out of no where.
My creative ideas have been multiplying like bunnies and it’s all I can do to just manifest what I’m feeling and seeing.
There is no other reason for all of this than pure joy and love.
I feel that the rabbits were my missing link and without them I would not have been able to reach further than I’ve ever gone before.
Well, break time is over and I’ll have to get back to things, as the bunnies and I are celebrating that pure joy and love tomorrow with our shop launch on Valentine’s Day 2/14 at 11 am PST.
If you’re interested in seeing all that we’ve been up to so far, I would love for you to check out our creations at this link, which will go live tomorrow at that time:
Items featured will include a combination of original storybook rabbit art, prints, items featuring my artwork to first include greeting cards and blank journals, as well as some really fun and magickal DIY mini rabbit Faery garden kits.
This first update will include a small collection of five paintings and their images on the items described above, along with 33 mini rabbit Faery garden kits.
Originally there was going to be 36, but interestingly, items have been delayed on the last three making for a magickally potent number in this first shop launch – 33!
I’ll add the last 3 rabbit Faery garden kits in the next shop update.
There’s already a lot in the works for that next update including a new collection of rabbit artwork on unique medias, rabbit pendants on crystal necklaces, rabbit keepsake boxes and later may also include potentials like coloring books, tote bags, and mugs as more item options featuring my artwork.
Astrid is just as excited as I am and has been working hard alongside me. She’s such an incredible co-creator. And she’ll be back on Friday with her message, after our shop launch tomorrow, where we’ll share in more detail about what unfolded last Friday.
Until then, I’d love to hear from any of you.
I’m curious if any of you have a muse?
Have you discovered that alchemical key that lights your heart and inspires you creatively?
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: You Are A Canvas To Paint From The Palette Of Your Heart
As I’m up to my Faery ears in creative fun here at the Forest Portal, Whimsical Wednesdays inspired me to share about a recent transformation I physically went through to keep in alignment with my own inner artist and soul signature expression. I’ve mentioned many times before how we can live “life as art” and that my own personal motto has been “creating life as a work of art.” This extends to all aspects of you and your experience, and I know that one of the ways that always feels to boost creative energies and inspiration for me, is when I change my way of adorning myself with different clothing choices, accessories, hairstyles, or even hair colors. The latter is what recently took place just last Thursday.
Aqua has always been my favorite color and I’ve often admired women who had aqua/teal colored hair. I just never wanted to go through the process of how you needed to get that at the time.
I actually didn’t have a plan to do this, it just happened spur of the moment. I briefly mentioned that it might be fun to do sometime and perhaps would do for my birthday. Then while I was at my hairstylist, we both got excited at my mentioning and a momentum kicked in high gear.
I walked out looking as you see in the above photo.
It was easy to do at this stage because I already have natural silver hair at top, and silver ribbons we’d been weaving in below to accentuate my wanting to go bolder and even more dramatic with embracing my silvering hair while my natural ones grow out.
I’m known to do things either big or not at all.
This provides the base to just add a color toner of my choice over these areas. It’s only semi permanent, as it fades out over continuous washings.
It was obvious to me, I was ready for this even bolder expression of my soul’s essence and having the light to darker shades of teal weaving through my brown hair makes it feel so natural to me.
For me, the aqua or teal has always represented the higher heart energy between the heart and throat – a place I feel has been more of the journey for me to expand and deepen into. Yet, it also is a color exuding a lot of creativity energy and expresses transparent, vulnerable, open communication between the heart and spoken word.
I feel much flow, joy, peace, balance, and wholeness in it.
Not to mention, it really exudes watery energy, which speaks to my Native Pisces nature and my inner mermaid or merfaery. 😉
It feels like another way I’ve embraced putting myself out there more, not being afraid to be seen, and not shying away from the parts of myself that at one time made me feel lonely, misunderstood, and different.
I’ve always felt “not of this world” and yet I’ve learned to be in it with much greater joy and peace while I’ve worked hard to merge the Earth and Cosmic parts of myself.
This new hair feels to be a visual reflection of that merging I’ve worked so hard on and the synergy I’ve been finally able to create in finding more harmony in being. It whispers of an ancient me and speaks of a future me, intertwined in the now.
And so, this new creative energy I have cascading throughout my hair, speaks to deeper embodiment for me, self love, and honoring of my creative soul.
It’s really cool to see how something so simple or perhaps silly to some, can truly speak volumes of someone’s journey and can make an energetic difference in the way you live each day in or out of alignment.
While I may do things more dramatically, even just simple changes make a world of difference.
I’ve definitely felt a shift with this new, but perhaps more “now me” and even reflections of this alignment I feel.
The first time I went out with it to an event, an older woman in her 70’s came over to me to tell me that between my hair and how I was dressed, I really looked to be very creative and artistic.
I thanked her and replied that I was in fact an artist, to which she smiled and said she could see that.
Perhaps it’s my way, as my tattoos have been, to display my heart on my sleeve and share who I really am even more transparently and unapologetically. Not to mention, is a way I share the process of my journey very openly.
Something that was very hard for me growing up and even made me cringe in the beginning stages of my adult life when I started to reveal more of myself and my artistic and spiritual work to the world.
I’ve noticed a huge creative spurt the last couple of days, too, as I’ve been in “mad” creation with the inspiration that has come for items I’ll be sharing soon in my new Etsy shop – new launch date TBA. In fact, just yesterday, I created 22 imaginative themed worlds of mini bunny Faery gardens. I have another 10 to go today, but alongside the new painting art and items, I’ve really outdone myself in output of creativity so quickly.
And I have so much more inside me to come, including great excitement (and even a bit of healthy nervousness) over returning to my book full time, which all feels interwoven like braids of hair.
I believe it has to do with my following the joy in my heart AND embracing who I really am – not being afraid to share with the world what moves through me.
This has been a very long and at times super hard journey, so I don’t want anyone thinking it came overnight and not without challenge. We have the tendency to only see what is before us now (which is great, as in focusing on the now), but tends to provide a false idea about people and that we each go through a process leading up to that now.
I mention this because, while I still work on things now, I want others to know that it is possible to move out of the place you find yourself in currently, if in fact you aren’t happy or are experiencing challenges. With commitment to you and your individual journey and process, you can create a different and more aligned experience to what you desire. Absolutely!
Growth of the spirit is a beautiful, although colored journey, and the only goal to achieve is the one you deem important to experience.
And speaking of spirit growth, many Native Americans believe hair to be a physical manifestation of the growth of the spirit and that it supports extrasensory perception, as well as connection to all things. They also believe hair to be like tentacles reaching out to take in energy and information much like whiskers on animals – makes me think of my bunny loves and their sensitivities to energies through their whiskers, ears, feet, nose, and inner vision despite being far-sighted and having a blind spot at the center.
I never thought of hair in the past as such until the last half dozen years or so, and every change I’ve made, including chopping it all and growing it out, has always reflected a turning point and shift in my life in big ways.
It really is something how the way we express our creative energy can affect things energetically.
And of course, not expressing it, has it’s own experiences as well.
Whether you feel creatively blocked or gushing with creative energy that wants a new outlet, you can do little or big things to help move it.
This could be in the form of things like playing more, as Monday’s blog shared, doodling on scratch paper, planting a garden, buying a new outfit, rearranging or redecorating your space or home, journaling and free-writing, singing, dancing, throwing paint on a blank canvas, molding some clay, spending time imagining and day-dreaming, walking in nature and seeing all of her beauty great and small, or even wearing your hair differently.
You, your life, is a blank canvas awaiting your creation. The palette of your heart is a vast and limitless space from which to choose how you want to express yourself and live your life. The only limit is choosing not to let those colors shine.
Monday Musings ~ The Writer’s Corner: Soulful Sunday 107 – Play by Brad
To celebrate the first blog back from The Writer’s Corner since my time away in Sedona, I’d like Monday’s Musings to kick off with the musings around the theme of “Play” because it truly is the cornerstone to well-being, balance, optimal living, and cultivating more creativity – IMHO. This is a great post by my sweet friend, Brad, that includes a wonderful article for both your inner child and children in your life to understand the importance of play in your and their lives.
I’ve heard recently from several friends that they struggle with wanting to experience more creativity, have blocks in terms of their writing and other projects, aren’t sure where to start in terms of their ideas and dreams, or feel challenged with experiencing joy and optimism in their lives.
I truly believe that play is so important to life and if it weren’t for my Peter-Pan syndrome refusing to “grow” up in the way others have accepted this to mean, I likely would feel all the same things too. Yet, I embrace singing, laughing, dancing, make-believing, making up stories, seeing through childlike eyes of wonder, believing in the magickal, seeing the glass half full, talking to myself and all the creatures of Mother Earth and the Otherworlds, recreating myself and my environment to match my heart’s joy, and embracing being silly despite others around me acting all “grown up”.
If you struggle with writing or feeling a block with your creativity, check out number eight of the ten benefits of play in the article within Brad’s blog post.
If you allow yourself to spread your wings beyond the boundaries conditioning has created and embrace having more fun, playing, and being silly now and then, you will definitely feel a difference in your life and experience it through different eyes as well.
Your projects, dreams, and writing will get a boost of freshness, as you reset a new way of being that embraces all those wonderful core parts of who you really are, rather than making them feel like they need to behave and have a life-long time out in the corner – remember, nobody puts Baby in the corner!
I hope this article helps inspire you to play more and make 2019 more joyous for you. I really do believe you’ll find your projects and life flowing and thriving more.
Here’s an accompanying short blog inspiration I shared before, with some quotes to inspire more play – Play More.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: The Magick Rabbit Shop Launch & Giveaway Announcements
Due to limited time today, as I am immersed in preparations to leave Friday morning for vacation, I thought today’s Whimsical Wednesdays from The Artist’s Corner would be a good time to announce the upcoming official launch of my new Etsy shop and a fun Giveaway that will be taking place in conjunction with it.
As you might recall, I shared a first reveal on 12/12/18 of the new artwork and fun creations Astrid and I have been working on.
We call this collection “The Magick Rabbit ~ Storybook Tales of Wonder and Whimsy Come to Life.”
While my previous Etsy shop – that has been dormant and sold out since 2013 – was focused on crystals and my Crystal Illuminations paintings, the new shop will feature a combination of storybook rabbit art, prints, items featuring my artwork to first include greeting cards and blank journals, as well as some really fun and magickal mini rabbit Faery garden kits – oh I can’t wait to share those with you soon!
The latter are magickal little themed worlds that you’ll be able to put together yourself!
I do all of the procuring and will feature a photo of the end result I’ve imagined, then once you receive the kit, you’ll be able to enjoy the journey of creating it yourself and adding your own magick touches!
Fun, fun, FUN!
It’s been a process and I’m still working hard at getting everything I have so far together for the launch that will be on Friday, February 1st! This so happens to be my beloved rabbit twin soul’s birthday (Nestor) and the magickal Imbolc of new beginnings, purification, and the light within blossoming.
There will be anywhere from 22-28 mini rabbit Faery garden kits to choose from, alongside the original five paintings I’ve already shared in the link above, and then the items I described with these images on them.
I’m currently working on a new collection of original, whimsical rabbit artwork that Astrid is assisting with ideas for. I plan to have fun exploring these more while I’m away in Sedona’s inspiring energy. I’m in the sketching mode right now, but will bring my art book and tools with me to play and keep the channels between Astrid and me open to receive her guidance.
These will be different than the first collection and may or may not make it in time for the 2/1 launch, but will be available shortly after, if not.
Some of the other potential items I’m looking into creating down the road may include coloring books, tote bags, and mugs. I can’t promise these, but they are in the Faery-works in terms of exploring and discussing the details.
Everything is a step-by-step process and I only want to do as much as is fun and flowing, as truly this is purely a joyous project for me to bring these to life and share them with you. They are meant to help rekindle the wondrous heart of your inner child and act as portals to harness sweet magick into your everyday life.
I just love expressing and spreading beauty, wonder, and playfulness.
I hope they will act as reminders to nurture and cultivate more of the same for you and help whisper a little more enchantment into your life, overall.
All created and shared from the heart of one Magick Rabbit and one Rabbit Faery. 🙂
That leads to the Giveaway.
Due to the excited response I received via Instagram when I asked if people would be interested in this, I will be starting a Giveaway on Monday, January 21st on the Full Supermoon Lunar Eclipse.
This will be available to anyone who is on Instagram. I know not everyone is on social media, but for those of you who are, you can look for details about this on 1/21.
Unfortunately, I can’t run a Giveaway on all three platforms I’m on because it’s far too much to manage, so I chose Instagram.
You can find me there at this handle: taniamarieartist
The Giveaway will run between 1/21 and 1/31. I will announce the recipient on 2/1 – the day of my shop launch. I’m still deciding on the gift to give away, but I’m feeling it will likely be one of the mini rabbit Faery garden kits.
Again, all details will be on my Instagram page, upcoming.
A fun way to share the magick with everyone and my love for rabbits, as way-showers to the wondrous world within.
Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of this new creative venture for me and for the loving encouragement about something that brings joy to my heart to share.
Again, this is my last Whimsical Wednesday post until I return the week of the 21st. I’ll see you back here on 1/23 and wish you all a wonderful continuation to your new 2019 creative journey.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: Being You More Creatively Will Help Create the World You Want to See
Welcome 2019. It is already the 2nd of the New Year, as I sit down to share this new blog post. Do you feel a shift in energy? I could sense something in the days leading up, and although each day is just that – another day – there does indeed feel to be a different air about things. At first I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but perhaps I don’t need to either.
Being that this #3 New Year collectively rings in greater creativity and innovative vision to bring forth through your personal vehicle of expression and embodiment, it may be that you are feeling a deep calling from within to make changes and live more from your heart than ever before.
I found it sweet that the day before New Year’s Eve, when we were hiking to the lake, I found a snowflake ornament hidden in the brush below this tree you see in the photo above. The tree is decorated year-round and I felt the discovery of this hidden sparkle of delight inviting me to hang a bit of magick this tree guardian would watch over that would reflect my unique creative expression in the divine collective – just as each snowflake is unique, but part of Source. It reminds me of a painting I did long ago titled, “Uniquely You, Divinely One.”
To me, this was also the message I was being shown in discovering the snowflake…that is what’s so important this year to truly shine our creative uniqueness in the world, as a way to empower the collective.
I looked around for some way to fasten the snowflake on the tree and Dave pointed out a small silvery white ribbon on a branch. So I threaded it through the snowflake and tied it on.
Perhaps this is the shift I was sensing. That things are truly focusing more on the micro, inherent in the macro. That what each of us chooses to express – no matter what it is – is what is going to shape the world the most. This being both the world – reality – you experience AND the reality for the collective as potential.
I know for me it’s been an increase in creative energy via new channels and forms and creating a lush reality around me that nurtures my heart and soul. I find the more I do this, the more I bring that level of peace, joy, and love out into the world more consistently and through each experience I encounter. AND the more I enjoy this temporary Earth home because I am embracing the potential it was meant to be.
This increase in creative energy came from inspiration I wasn’t sure I had in me anymore back three years ago – a time when I felt life on Earth no longer offered enough to keep me past the closure I’d come to.
And yet, just as the heart is vast and limitless, so too is our creative capacity. Creative reinvention found its way into my life again and I said, “yes” to it.
Are you ready this year to say “yes” to something in your heart?
Perhaps you might find at least one way in which you could express yourself in a new and currently more heart-full way?
Even if it’s just a new outfit, hairstyle, reorganizing or redecorating a room, starting a project, finding creative ways to spend more time or more meaningful time nurturing yourself, with loved ones, doing something you love, and/or, but quite importantly, out in nature connecting and receiving her gifts.
Currently I’m immersed in family visiting right now and having our niece here who is 6 1/2 years old truly always reflects to me the part of myself I value and nurture likely the most – my inner child.
It tickles me that she wants to spend so much time with me and I gather it is because of that part within each of us that meets in the heart…the little girl that loves magickal things.
It is this same part that is fueling my current creative projects – the focus full throttle now, after a lot of anchoring. I’ll be jumping back in after our family time comes to closure and can’t tell you how much energy I feel ready to pop.
I received word recently from my rabbit family that February 1st will be the launch of my new Etsy shop. It just so happens to be my beloved and departed rabbit, Nestor’s, birthday, as well as the magickal Imbolc of new beginnings, purification, and the light within blossoming.
And the more I keep channeling creative energy, the more I’m seeing and hearing of people all around me doing so many wonderful new things! It excites me greatly.
Some other big changes and arrivals have come all at the end of 2018 that perhaps I’ll share in another post, but for now I’m wishing everyone a wonderfully creative new spark in your life and that you find yourself feeling ready to nurture and cultivate more of what you love and desire, as well as intend for the world through your own actions.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: The Struggle Isn’t You
As this is Astrid’s last message for 2018, I was curious what she would want to share. She’s been extra playful and cuddly these days, which has added another layer to our together-time, and it also speaks to some of what her message is that she wants to leave you with.
And what might that be?
Astrid says, “The end to struggle.”
We’ve been immersed in year-end closure here, went deep with watching all four parts of the new Watership Down rabbit movie, along with prepping for new whimsical ventures in 2019 together – this to include our new book, art, and rabbit Faery fun. Our little Wonderland Faery realm has become a true Otherworld for creative manifesting, as we threaded together a Rabbit Hole of delight we feel enriched in every day. We’ve also been examining the reality we want to live and leave behind.
There’s been a lot of creative work and anchoring this last year to set up and define our intentions, and although this New Year, for us, will continue to be one of vision, setting priorities, and determination, it will also be one of breakthroughs and embodied beliefs. This, Astrid shares, to be done with joy, ease, and peace – with the knowing that we can trust our essence to guide us in flow and fun through the next leg of the journey.
If we find ourselves struggling, where can we be curious about ways in which we might be holding on to old patterns and realities, lower ideals, or stringent and limited attachments?
Astrid says, “The struggle is a detour to who you really are. The struggle is a way to stay small. The struggle is a way to keep you away from what you believe you don’t deserve. The struggle keeps illusion as an interference to seeing the possibilities and beauty available. The struggle isn’t you.”
For most of the first part of my life I struggled on many levels. I was constantly inflicting inner torment upon myself with voices of knowing battling voices of fear, pain, confusion, and conflicting patterns that weren’t even mine in many cases.
And this kept me from being me and being able to expand further. It was like being tethered to a post and always hitting the end that snapped me back.
That is, until I realized the post didn’t truly exist except for believing it did.
Astrid has been through her own struggles and in seeing her come to this place of surrender and no longer feeling the need to fight, she is finding the love and joy her essence exudes, feeling right at home.
And so are we both experiencing this, which is creating greater peace daily.
“There is always another way,” she says, “and while we feel things serve us, truly they serve our patterned beliefs – not our hearts. Love is not a struggle. Creative energy simply flows. When we relax into these spaces, spend more time nurturing and cultivating the love in our hearts, we find greater comfort in things we never thought we could. We open ourselves to different opportunities, see new perspectives, and realize there are a multitude of ways to experience what we want, rather than believe it can only be in one form.”
“And what about those old realities and lower ideals so many of us struggle to hold on to?” I ask her.
“Like the unlimited dimensional experiences you can’t see, but still exist, why is it that you feel there to be only one reality? You struggle to hold on because you are so close to letting go. It is that last piece that will change everything. The release and fall into your grace. You fight to stay small because being more means greater empowerment and awareness. It’s been easier to let others and even beliefs power over you then to truly live without constraints. Hope, love, imagination…these things no one controls, but you. They are the keys to a new reality no one can take away. They live where struggle does not exist. When you go there, you know what I mean. If you can learn to stay there, you will know what is possible,” Astrid says.
We have both been embracing this experience where struggle need not be anymore and gently breathing deeper into our hearts to help it move through.
This has brought Astrid to a place of exuberant and loving expression as her norm now, without need to struggle and fight within, as a way of preserving it only for special moments. We have both learned to trust who we each really are and that life is meant to be a joyful, creative, and wondrous experience.
The other things may exist and they may knock on our door to try to tether us back, but they will meet with surprise when they find there is no knot on the other end. We’ll see the rope and when the knocking thinks it has us, we will let go of the other end and watch them disappear.
Let this be a year we all let go of the struggle and fight.
Let this be a year to create a new reality.
For me and Astrid it is a storybook year we are weaving together, piece by piece, heart to heart.
We both wish you all a wondrous New Year – a year of greater creativity, transformation, fertile and abundant potential, and alignment for the collective with it being a 3 year in numerology.
Astrid will be back next year on January 4th, 2019.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: My Artistic Journey Creating from the Heart
Today I thought I’d answer one of the questions I get asked a lot about my artistic journey. When did you start painting and what kind of training did you have?
It seems to me that we’re programmed to think that in order to be able to do something we must have gone through a certain kind of rigorous training and so we automatically ask these kinds of questions, as we relate seeing gifts in someone to a curriculum of schooling.
While this may be some peoples’ journeys, it isn’t everyone’s.
There are many people whose training has come “built-in” from their soul history.
There are some people who aren’t born with a filter and so they just “go for it” with expressing themselves and the creative energy that moves through them.
There are people who cultivate a passion they feel.
And there are people who are drawn to training more studiously because that feels right to them, they want to advance their techniques and expand with their breadth of work, and maybe even on some level feel it’s a way to establish value for their work, as society places such high worth on things like degrees, training, and names of schools we attend and get accepted into.
There’s no one way, or one right way. We each go on the journey that feels to provide exactly what we need.
For me, it was a strong aversion to training, classes, and schooling of any kind. So much so that I even turned down working at an art school to teach others to draw because it felt boxed-in, and since I didn’t feel right about it for myself, I just couldn’t see advocating that through my work to others. It was more about consistency for me. I had to go through that process though and interviewing, in order to confirm to me what I felt.
So what has my journey been like with art?
I have been drawing all of my life.
It was my favorite pastime.
My fondest memories are of summers sitting at the dining table with my French grandfather drawing after play time outside.
I received a lot of recognition for my drawing in elementary, middle, and high school, but never had any formal training. I naturally took to it without art class teachers’ help. In fact, most of what they said didn’t make much sense to me.
I was very good at reproducing things that I saw like a photocopy. That was my left brain, detail-oriented, perfectionist that could sit for hours working on two square inches of a piece to get every pencil or paint brush stroke exact.
It’s no surprise I was also extremely good at staying “inside” the lines of coloring books – another enjoyment I loved – along with things like creating Spirograph drawings (do you remember these?!).
Detail work is something I carry in me over lifetimes, but I’ve come to find is not my joy.
It’s a soul-ingrained pattern I’ve spent years undoing in this life.
Ironically, my childhood drawings I started doing on my own before this patterning circled back through is what I’ve returned to now. A reclaiming of my “essence,” but channeled through a fresh me.
As a child I was very good at creating simple images of what I saw in my mind’s eye of things I loved in nature all around me.
My favorite and best thing I could draw was, and remains to this day, animals.
I never felt drawn to taking classes outside of the ones we either had to, or had as electives, through high school.
For some reason I felt inclined to keep this part of my life raw in its nature and didn’t want to feel controlled by rights and wrongs. I wanted simply to bring forth my visions without boundaries. Having everything else in life feeling so controlled, this let me have one little sacred piece to myself where anything goes.
Interestingly, while I could draw people if I wanted, I just don’t really want to and it’s more effort.
What flows for me is nature, animals, magickal beings, and enchanting or cosmic visions.
While my work could easily be judged by art critics who have their own idea of what makes art “good,” for me I love the raw expression of what moves through someone’s heart.
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the beauty of fine works of art. I am in awe of the masterpieces hanging in galleries and marvel at how incredibly they’re executed.
But I do love purity and innocence too, which is what my presence here on Earth is about. And I equally see the beauty within this type of creative expression and see them as fine works of art in their own right because, to me, art is something that not only captures a visual gift come to life, but truly moves you with emotion to experience something deep or even triggers the opening of your own heart with the images acting like keys.
Creative energy is unlimited and therefore there are many ways to bring forth artistic expression.
I say, if it feels joyful to your heart to create, then that’s art.
So, while I’ve cultivated my own form of artistic expression by listening to what moves me and implementing what I’ve integrated and worked on throughout my life, I believe we each have our own journey with this.
But I encourage anyone who feels the desire to draw, paint, or create in some way, to just do it!
There is value in expressing what you feel and if you feel it, I guarantee there is someone out there who needs just what you have to share.
What do you feel your artistic journey has been?
Sometimes we start out one way, but move into a different arena later.
Don’t be afraid to try something.
The value of art is not based on whether it hangs in a gallery or gets critical acclaim.
The value of art is in the expression.
Creativity yearns to be shared.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: Custom Commissions Versus Creative Freedom
As artists we are challenged to find a way to get our work out to others while still enjoying the process and not compromising ourselves. While everyone has a different journey with this and relationship to their work, their self-value as an artist, and the timing of their releases, not all artists find it easy to make a living at what they do right off the bat and not all artists may hit it big in having their work discovered or desired by every gallery or person. So, artists are left with wanting to be able to do what they love, not compromise their integrity, remain authentic to the style they enjoy, but also still be able to enjoy that connection that happens when someone purchases and takes home a piece of their work.
In many cases, this is why some artists may opt for offering commissions and take on custom work, as it allows them to still be an artist, while helping to support their ability to keep creating.
Some artists simply prefer doing custom work because they truly love that one-on-one connection and intimate relationship they create with the person they’re creating for and it allows them to challenge themselves with continued new subjects and ways to create.
They love the interactive quality of the work and having something new to work on every day.
For some, it’s more consistent work than trying to sell original pieces.
Then there are artists who purely love creative freedom and not having to create something someone else tells them to, not have to be concerned if it’s exactly what that person wanted, and simply love to work from that impetus of creative energy that moves through them when inspired and not on a timeline or schedule.
And then there are the artists that like a balance of both and find they compliment the process of being able to do what they love and tempers the right balance of compromise and variety, while helping them live and work as the artist they see themselves to be.
Where do I fall into all of this?
Well, having done all three levels, I find myself back in the place of truly feeling the call of full creative freedom at the doorway of my heart.
That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed the process of commissions in the past, as I’ve met some dear souls through that work, was able to challenge myself in many ways, and did enjoy that intuitively intimate connection and relationship channel during the process of creating – this was both with paintings and sacred tattoo designs.
However, I much preferred total creative freedom and found that when, in some cases, I was being dictated by every little part of the process and was at the mercy of someone else’s feelings around something I may have spent hours working on, it really could be a very stressful process and put a damper on creativity.
I adored the times when I was handed creative license with commissions and found that those pieces came out the best.
Custom work can, in essence, have the potential to be an interruption to an artist’s flow of their own planned work, unless it truly is an artist’s joy and perhaps first love, to create commissioned pieces.
I can even remember when I created my first mural for an investment firm I worked for and several large commissioned paintings I was hired for in the beginning that I had to work at convincing the very left-brained people who hired me with proposals and long explanations of what I envisioned, supplies needed, logistics, and how long and how much it would cost, as well as having to provide a sample sketch even when I knew that the magick happened during the process of creating. I then felt like I had to stick to that plan and wouldn’t have any room for inspirational flow in the unfolding of its creation. It became too much of a business and my need to make someone understand a right brain process with left brained explanations.
The connection can potentially get lost in the translation of this.
Luckily, those paintings went really well, although were stressful and tied me up in things I ended up rather not be involved with, but the mural wasn’t as much embraced even though they agreed to my sketch.
While they liked it, they didn’t love it. I found out that it lasted only several months before they painted it over. Not a surprise, as my heart saw a potential for them that the financial people there just didn’t quite understand. They were stuck in the old ways and this new vision was a bit too uncomfortable.
I was grateful to all of them for my very first opportunities to get my business going, which ironically allowed me to quit that investment firm job in the first place, and was still proud of myself for being able to acquire some really huge projects without any resume behind me.
These experiences may not have been my perfect fit, but at the time were my perfect reflection for what I needed to learn and what I called up for growth.
Then there were the many wonderful fits where harmony and synergy were in flow.
I think this is key if you do choose the custom work.
It really depends on the individual and what feels right. It’s important to align yourself, as well as put out intentions of the type of clients you want to work with, be willing to say “no” when something doesn’t sit right, and not take something on just for the money if at all possible.
The theme of this post actually was inspired by my continuing to get requests for custom sacred tattoo design commissions and people finding me online and even sharing my work with others, which happened twice already today. Even though I’ve removed my website and these offerings, there’s no way to remove the world-wide web of your past work altogether and those phantom pages that float in the ethers, so I take it as opportunity to feel grounded in my choices and able to say, “no” with gratitude.
I think these are key things for any kind of work we do and not just as an artist.
There isn’t one right or wrong way with this, but there are things to weigh and options to look at to see what feels right and where you’re willing to compromise or not. Or in fact, what doesn’t feel to be a compromise, but maybe just a shift in perspective that can open you to more possibilities.
You may even move in and out of these choices over the course of your artistic journey.
My professional artist life began as all commissions, then turned into a mix of custom and originals, and now is solely original-based creations.
This has all moved me into the new creations I’ve been inspired to paint solely from my inner child’s joy, imagination, and love.
I had hoped today I’d be sharing the first of these little paintings with you, but Spirit has something else in mind, as this past week has been very full and so I won’t have the last two of this first group done until next week.
Astrid feels next Wednesday is the day to reveal them, so stay tuned for Whimsical Wednesdays on 12/12 – no surprise there that alignments have it falling on this day.
Until then, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you’re an artist of any genre, where do you find the greatest joy?
Is it in creating custom pieces, your own originals, or a mix?
Is there something you could tweak that would make your current path more enjoyable?
How do you hope things to evolve and what steps do you plan to take to make that happen?
In love and creative magick, I wish you the most heartfelt journey with your art.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: The Value of Your Inner Artist
Ironically, because I’m in such a creative flow right now with my new paintings, I haven’t been able to channel an original post for today’s Whimsical Wednesday’s series. That said, the theme I did have in mind, when tuning in, is one I have written on before and I was able to find it to reblog for you today. It expounds on the value of creativity and how I feel it to be key to our current collective shifts and intentions we want to manifest.
For this reason, I am very supportive of artisans and small businesses, choosing to purchase all of my gifts and personal items from other creative entrepreneurs from around the world.
I’m hoping that by next Wednesday’s return to The Artist’s Corner, that I will have a snippet of the fun and whimsy I’ve been bringing to life on canvas here. So stay tuned!
For now, here is my take on the intrinsic value of creativity and nurturing the inner artist, which holds true today:
Creativity is love.
It is a magickal and powerful energy vital to exercise and cultivate as a channel of creation itself.
It’s an exciting time for alchemizing our very existence. We are infinitely creative beings here to evoke the remembrance of what lies in our hearts. This is an opportune and timely alignment of energies for really bringing forth the authenticity of your heart and expressing it in its most beautiful light, outward to all from within.
Our creative energy is an expression of the boundless love of All That Is and it is essential in creating new realities of experience. Cultivating the imagination, dreaming, hoping, allowing and supporting vulnerable and passionate expression, utilizing creative visualization… is all vital to manifestation.
The creative and healing arts are rapidly taking more of an essential role, as they once did, in leading the way to a new experience of life.
Once again the arts, integrated with the other essential aspects of wholeness, are and will be recognized as foundations that will create experience as a memory of harmony embodied and we’ll return to the conscious dance as partners with Earth, Nature, the Cosmos at large, and our very existence.
Cultivating the right brain back into balance with the left will help to anchor in new energies. This is why it is vital to support people in the arts and to cultivate those aspects within yourself that have called to you. Valuing the contributions that creativity shares, not only to the individual practicing their own expression of it, but to all who are touched by their creations and services, enriches communities collectively.
I am moved to share about the invaluable ways art enhances my own life and how it has the ability to do the same for others.
I find joy in walking the magickal path, and I channel and express everything in symbolic and creatively loving ways whether on my person, in my personal environment and sacred space, or through my work.
Painting has been my sacred key of life – my personal ankh that opens the door to life aligned with universal will. I didn’t set out to produce art, but like the wings of a butterfly are essential to its flight, I discovered that creating art is the breath of life to my soul.
From the onset, the unconscious, life-giving process of manifesting on canvas, the visions that pervaded my day-time dreams, struck me as magickal. And, over the years, that magickal essence persisted despite deterrence, yet the unfolding process is now accessed in quantum leaps of conscious experience.
It was a naturally progressive evolution that infiltrated my life with creative passion at every corner, reminding me that who I was, is who I AM. I paint from the inside out, employing naturally innovative and intuitionally guided techniques, as my unconscious is the undisputed light that guides me through the maze of tunnels to the divinely aligned, creative destination.
I was always an imaginative and creative child, whether singing, dancing, drawing, painting, make-believing, inner-eye journeying, dreaming…and any time I immersed myself in strictly left brain-focusees or jobs over time, it always resulted in imbalance, health breakdowns, unhappiness, diminished light, low energy, and basically like a piece of my soul dying.
I’ve learned the same can be true of only focusing on the right-brained things, which has resulted in fine-tuning a balance. We can’t forget all of our parts.
Whenever I let myself wander the creative paths, supported the integration of creativity into action, and watered the seeds of driven inspiration and passion, my life blossomed in all the ways the latter, on its own, wilted.
And yet, if I didn’t bring along the wisdom of the left brain and put things into action with courage and execution, my creative expressions would never see the light of day, could never be more than a side hobby, I wouldn’t be able to manifest intentions, and the value of what I did would go unseen or embraced.
But like many of us go through, as I grew up those creative parts of myself were not exactly nurtured and the natural me was reconditioned into an unnatural me, that I then had to relearn once again. Left brain took over and I had to relearn my creative nature. At a later point, that creative part out-weighed the other, and once again I needed to step back and retrieve the powerful parts of both to learn alchemy.
Everything evolves in perfection, and while it didn’t have to be that way, without this process, much of the depth, compassion, value, and ability to see with wider perspective would not have been cultivated as it was.
Creativity and painting, in essence, supports what feels most natural to me and supports every aspect of life. If you think about it, creative energy is life, and the life-giving force. So, it makes perfect sense.
I’ve experienced what it was like when I was disconnected from it and what it is like nurturing its expression.
I’ve also realized throughout my evolution and work, and observing the shift of energies, how vital to the collective our value, support, and cultivation of the creative arts is to where we are headed.
The male aspects of ourselves can help lift these parts up, fortify them, and create more effective use and action with their expression.
Creative and healing arts were once solid foundations that pervaded our experience throughout ancient times – times when we understood and realized the importance of being in balance and harmony with nature and the cosmos, which came through our cultivation of these aspects of consciousness.
As things have shifted, many of these aspects that enriched life were forgotten, lost, went more underground, were diffused and scattered, or replaced by new values. There are always cycles to life and the circle has been cycling back in a new way, as we are remembering, reevaluating, and understanding that balance is essential and cultivating natural creative expression is healthy to the state of collective humanity.
All forms of art have the ability to enhance life in amazing ways, not to mention, help us get more in touch with Source. It is an invaluable expression that through support and cultivation, can help us to connect more with our natural essence as creative, loving beings that are individually beautiful expressions of collective diversity.
We are all creative beings that channel creativity in beautifully unique ways. If you have felt nudges, inner callings, are receiving signs, have always wanted to explore your creative side or dabble in the arts, but haven’t fully supported it into the open, have felt insecure about your creative expression, judge it against other’s work, or wondered about what it would be like if you let yourself express yourself freely, now is a great time to harness that energy and let it flow without limiting beliefs.
The more you support these creative impulses, the more you allow yourself to explore things outside-the-box, to start creating and manifesting what you desire, to experience more magick and synchronicity in your life, discover ways to enhance your community and the collective, to create the greatest works of art you have yet to create, and to find greater sense of peace and inner joy.
Creative energy is the source of creation. If you don’t exercise it, you close the door on the endless possibilities you, as a limitless and powerful being, have the ability to tap into.
Creativity is the power of love expressing itself.
The more you support this expression in yourself and in others, the more beautiful life will be.
Here are just some of the values of expressing creativity:
- helps you be more aware of, and with greater sense of connection to, both the outer landscape of your surroundings and the inner landscape of your experience, visually, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually
- increases your sense of gratitude as simple things once taken for granted become beautiful
- opens you up to limitless possibilities and draws in new opportunities
- greater sense of self and security with who you are and choices you make that reflect you
- you learn to become more comfortable with your unique creative process and can apply it to anything you do
- you gain greater understanding of how others perceive visual information and how to communicate in different and broader ways that words may limit – enhancing your intuitive and telepathic abilities
- you feel more in tune with yourself, your inner voice and intuition
- you learn more about yourself and the collective, as your art and creative expression will mirror current themes and messages
- you feel more comfortable with yourself
- helps you realize there is something more to life out there, beyond the obvious, that you end up finding by journeying within
- creates more joy, inspiration, and lifts you up when you feel down, unmotivated, blocked
- gives you greater sense of peace and comfort in solitude
- increases your knowledge, helps you find more meaning, and expands your horizons, as you explore through art or research themes you are creating
- cultivates states of bliss and excitement when you align with the universal you
- builds your self confidence and courage
- develops your ability to share more of yourself with vulnerable curiosity
- teaches you about yourself
- develops patience and flow
- balances
- creates wholeness
- allows you to use your whole brain and by engaging both halves (left and right) this supports great things to happen
Here are just some of the values of art (both in supporting and cultivating as a collective community and in terms of what you receive from owning a piece of art or creating one for yourself):
- Art is a powerful form of expression for both the artist and those who own it, allowing the expression of individuality and can represent their beliefs, feelings, imaginations, convictions or philosophies in socially (and visually) acceptable and redeeming ways
- Art encourages people to be curious, ask questions, look within and introspect, think about ideas, experience fresh new perspectives and encourages being in the moment and stopping everything to reflect on more than just the mundane daily routines
- Art improves quality of life, enhances, revives, personalizes, and transforms any living, working, sacred, or place of gathering from lifeless to unique, beautiful, inspiring and engaging environments on an ongoing basis
- Art inspires and may spark thinking about or visualizing other ways life could be
- Art stimulates conversation and communication with the interchange of thoughts, feelings and ideas, even among total strangers who might never otherwise meet or engage
- Art speaks universally and needs no interpretation other than your personal experience of it when viewed
- Art encourages and cultivates children to dream, imagine, fantasize, be creative, express themselves, have fun with life and gives permission to do so, as well as to ask questions and expand their perceptions of reality
- Original works of art uplift, reflect, enhance and magnify the personality of the individual who owns it, as well as can stimulate and activate more of the desired elements and aspects that are desired or feel under-developed
- Art strengthens and enhances community livability, learning, creation, and engagement
- Supporting, creating and buying art improves the quality of life for everyone and serves much larger purposes than simply decorating a wall. Not only does it enhance things in personal ways, but creates wondrous transformations that revitalize, raise values and draw in new opportunities where ever artists share their artistry. This supplies the world with creative oases that stimulate culture in numerous ways around the world
We all have a creative side, even though many do not believe they are creative. It’s innately who you are as spirit manifest.
The more you embrace and allow the Divine Feminine energy (the right brain) to flow from within, in partnership with, and supported by and brought forth through action of expressing the Divine Male (the left brain), you can live in balanced harmony.