Super Exciting Spectrum Announcement

Hali Karla is an artist/healer, with a deeply intuitive creative practice. She is wise, kind, loving, and generous. And I am extremely grateful to be able to call her my dear friend.

Her call to help women heal has inspired her to develop SPECTRUM, a holistic, online, visual journaling workshop that will run for 10 months in 2014. She has gathered together more than 30 artist/healers to share their intuitive wisdom and creative practice over the ten months.

I am even more grateful to announce that I am one of the artists who will be contributing over the course of the year. I'm already deeply involved in devising my offering--delving deep into my journey to tell my story and to devise a workshop that will allow women to explore their own creative intuition.

Let me tell you more about why I am so excited about this program. I got the chills when I saw the photo collage of the contributing artists. Some I consider my friends, other my mentors, some are wise women that I have long admired, and some I cannot wait to learn from.

To be more honest than that, I got teary eyed to be part of such a beautiful circle of women. I just know that their offerings will be so rich with wisdom, guidance, inspiration, and love. The ten-months will be a potent time for reconnecting with your body wisdom and deepening your understanding of your creative intuition.

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Each of the eleven PDF guides will carry a theme related to one of our body's systems. Hali has created a structure for SPECTRUM that is rich in metaphor and meaning. I'm looking forward to seeing how beautifully our bodies' natural cycles map onto cycles of life and creation and inspiration.

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I'll be sharing more about what I have planned and what others will be offering over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

If you want to read more, check out the SPECTRUM page. There you will learn about the Early Bird Pricing of $99 that runs through December 16, 2013. As a contributing artist, I am an affiliate for SPECTRUM and will receive a portion of the registration fee if you use the green link below.

Use this link for more information and to join as part of my affiliate program.

Breathing Room

Space is the breath of art.
~Frank Lloyd Wright

One of my themes for 2013 has been Release. Over the course of the year, my husband and I have decluttered almost our entire home--excavating every closet, cupboard, and drawer for items and objects that were unused, redundant, or just taking up space.

It has been an amazing process to work through that touched on concepts of abundance and scarcity. It made me question what we truly need versus what we think we need.

For each item, I asked myself three questions:

• Is it beautiful?
• Is it useful?
• Is it loved?

If I couldn't answer Yes to at least one of the questions, then the object, in theory, needed to go. In reality, I still found myself clinging to some of my stuff.

The most unexpected items sometimes caused the greatest difficulty. Who knew that so much of my sense of security revolved around owning 38 bath towels, 18 hand towels, and 45 wash cloths? It took my husband several days to convince me that we would be fine winnowing it down and that the local animal shelter could use them more than we could.

But as we worked through the process together (all along it was much easier for Kevin than for me), it became fun. There was something liberating in sorting through our belongings and keeping only those that were beautiful, useful, or loved.

And so after several months' work, we managed to work through almost the entire house, releasing umpteen carloads to local charities and to the local landfill. The change was dramatic. Our newly decluttered home felt spacious and open. There was truly room to breathe.

I say we worked through almost the entire house because one room saved for last was my studio, which was my responsibility. Kevin didn't care if I decluttered it or not.

As the year went by, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable in my studio. It is a large room and contained my fabric, craft books, sewing and cutting tables, ironing board, painting table, shelves for paint, an easel, a design wall, and my mother's hope chest. That is a lot of stuff, even for a large space.

My studio was no longer a place of refuge, no longer a sacred space for creation. I'd toss things in without putting them away. It became a confusing jumbled mess.

One morning, Kevin and I were enjoying our morning caffeine, and I started musing about my ideal studio. This is how I described it at the time: "I can see it perfectly. White walls. High, sloped ceilings. Excellent natural light. Wide blonde pine floorboards. A large cabinet for storing supplies. Loft area for reading. Open. Spacious. Clear."

Not only could I see the space, but I could feel how it would be to breathe in the space. It felt so different and I longed for the ability to make the change. Then I had a realization: I already have a studio. If I decluttered and reorganized, then I could make the space feel closer to my dream.

I mapped a plan.

With Kevin's encouragement, I decided to move all my sewing and quilting supplies to a spare bedroom and dedicate my studio space to painting.

It's been a week since I finished and the space is more than I dreamed. I may not have the pine floorboards or a loft area, but those are mere details. What I do have is the experience of an open, spacious, and clear studio.

I no longer feel confused when I walk into my studio. I feel clear and creative. And I can breathe. 

 

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