What do you want to create in your life? There are times when you know, so if that’s where you are now, go for it!
However, there are also times when you don’t have any idea of what you want and today I will show you a creative pathway that will guide you out of confusion and uncertainty. Often when you are creating something, symbols just “show up”. I have learned to include them without much analysis, and look them up later for clues to guide me.
I’ll share a personal experience that illustrates what I am talking about. I started this painting because I wanted to be able to hear from Sue what she wanted, as I was feeling pressure to euthanize her. So I drew her talking into my ear.
The snake represented the opinion of the vets who think she will never get better. (Symbol of the medical profession) I wrapped the snake around me to show this pressure. Then I remembered that the snake is also a symbol of Feminine Spirituality and I liked that as well, because I have been using the more feminine modes of healing with her, like TT, CST, and essential oils. So the snake could also be a positive image of my connection to the feminine aspect of God.
I didn’t want to split the canvas by putting myself in the middle, so I shifted everything off to the side, but then needed something to balance the composition. I had a stamp of a dragonfly so I stamped some dragonflies in. Several years ago on two different occasions when I was mountain biking thousands of dragonflies flew in a circle around me. Both times it was amazing and I felt there was a message in it for me to discover.
I goggled the symbols in my painting and discovered that they really resonate with me:
Dragonfly: Has huge eyes that allow it to see all 360 degrees around it. One of the things a dragonfly symbolizes is the ability to be able to see beyond the limitations of the human self into the cosmic dance that our Universe really is.
Snake: The coiled snake is a symbol of the cosmic feminine energy that fuels spiritual awakening.
Both the dragonfly and snake are symbolic of my journey into Conscious Creation.
The process of painting put me in a receptive state where I could see another possibility/reality. The symbols I used gave me insight into what wants to be created in my life.
As you create, you become more connected to your Higher Self and it becomes progressively clearer to you what you want to create in your life. So if you currently don’t have any idea of what you want, start by paying attention to what shows up around you, (For me one thing was the thousands of dragonflies.) Anything that grabs your attention potentially can contain a message for you to discover. When you express your creativity in any form, you start building pathways that will lead you. Just include what ever you want to and look for deeper meaning later.
Symbols often have multiple meanings so go with the ones that resonate with you the most. When you access your Higher Self, you step into the flow and your life becomes magical and meaningful.
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Recently, I have become more trusting in the harmony of everything working together for good. Watch my video to learn more about this process.
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I am reading from a book by Jean Bolen called "Like a Tree, How Trees, Women and Tree People Can Save the Planet" This book has inspired the painting I am currently working on. I reacted a bit to the words “Tree People” only to later realize that I am one!
I suspect that I am not the only one; because so many members of the Creative Woman Cafe shared that their number one way to get inspired is to walk in nature. A tree person is someone who has an affinity to, or feels a connection to trees.
Although, I have always been drawn to plants and trees, the first time I felt a physical connection to a tree was a few years ago. I saw a teenager carrying a large stick and as he walked by a young tree, he swung the stick like a baseball bat and smashed it into the branches. To my surprise I physically felt the trees’ shock waves. So I really resonated with something Jean Bolen said in her book,
“Soul recognizes soul and is nourished by it. Soul feels invisible connections and it is this that draws people to trees.”
A few weeks ago I was reading a magazine and it talked about how creative people can have the symptoms of a psychological disease without actually having the disease. Specifically, what I would call a mystical or spiritual experience was listed as one of the symptoms. I questioned why someone would classify “peak experiences,” as Abraham Maslow called them, as pathological. It is not my intention to be negative about another persons’ opinion.
I bring this up because it is important for us to value these experiences, because it is often in these moments that we break through to higher inner knowing. Jean Bolen says “Often our deepest subjective experiences become minimized, ridiculed, or pathologies when they are processed by left brain authority.” This helped me to understand why my perspective is so different than the magazines.’ It is the right brain that recognizes the oneness of all things and feels deep connections. I realized that we are looking at the same type of experiences with different brain lobes and that colors our opinion.
I encourage you to cherish your peak experiences and be careful who you share them with, so that potential negative reactions don’t pour water on your passion and smother what wants to emerge. The Creative Woman Café is a safe haven to connect with like-minded souls.
Join us in the Creative Woman Café, where we explore the Holy Grail of Creativity and learn to direct our creative flow more productively. I invite you to join the Creative Woman Cafe by Clicking Here
I am working on a painting of the Greek Goddess Artemis. I have moved her into the present day. Her companions join her: a horse, a bear cub, a doe and fawn.
This is the first in a series on Archetypes that I plan to paint. Archetypes are powerful inner forces that can be personified by Greek Goddesses. I just recently discovered these archetypes and am blown away by how much I recognize myself in them. At least in Artemis! I really resonate with Artemis and the self-knowledge I have gained has given me the confidence to take a stand on several things that were deeply important to me. I have long been a fan of the Meyers Briggs type indicator, because it validates who I am in a culture that generally doesn’t, but I resonate even more with seeing aspects of myself reflected to me in the stories of Greek Goddesses. They are a great tool for self-discovery. Perhaps part of the appeal is that the Goddesses are easy to put into images and that satisfies my artist soul.
If you want to find out what archetypes are most active in your life right now (they can vary at different times), go to the following link and take the questionnaire. I got a lot of insight from this website.
1. Lighting plastic figures:
I have been having trouble making up the light falling on my subjects, because usually I use several photos all with different light sources. My instructor suggested I get some plastic figures and light them. Finally I got the figures and waited until dark and set them up, lit them with my headlamp and photographed them from different angles. I wanted a moonlit scene and it worked very well.
2. Getting rid of the detail:
I found a program online from AKVIS called ArtWork that simplifies photos. I hope it will keep me from getting caught up in the details.
3. Painting all the highlights white and then painting a dark transparent color over the whole board.
We’ll see how they progress!
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This painting is not part of the Goddess Archetype series. I have been working long hours and didn’t want to research a new Goddess. Instead I wanted to do a painting to remind me to tap into the abundance that surrounds all of us all the time. The irony of me talking about consciously co-creating at the same time that I am working insane hours was not lost on me. I wanted to shift myself out of overload into a more sustainable lifestyle. I have been averaging around 15 hours a day and usually weekends too, so haven’t had much time to do anything else, including thinking about what I would really like to create in my life. This painting was my way to create that shift into abundance for myself.
I love farmers markets. To me they are a powerful symbol of abundance. The flowers, fruit and veggies are the earth’s abundance. When I grew native wildflowers, I sold them at farmers markets, so they also bring up my memories of that time in my life. I did this painting to give myself an example of what I wanted–the kind of life I want to create. Rather than working all the time, I want to redesign my life so I am working less.
It is interesting that this painting has one side that is grey, concrete and asphalt, which could represent hardship, struggle, effort and working long hours, and then the other side is the overflowing abundance of the farmer’s market. My hope was that by making this painting I would shift into the abundance side and things would just flow to me in an effortless way. The difference would be like standing in a stream and just picking up the things we want as they float to us, rather then having to struggle upstream to get to the things we want that are stuck in the rocks.
The magical thing about this piece is that about 48 hours after I started it I had rented my house to the most perfect family. I have wanted to rent my house for quite some time now. It was very important that I rent it to a family that would take fantastic care of it, because it is not a rental house, it is my dream house and I plan to live there eventually. This painting was the catalyst that shifted me into abundance long enough for them to be drawn to the house. They had called a week or 2 earlier and I don’t know how it happened, but they fell through the cracks. They actually had a dream about the house and that caused them to call again. They loved the house and rented it on the spot.
I would love to hear your stories of how you are using your creative process to co-create the life of your dreams.
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Hello and welcome to the Creative Woman Café, a place where your creativity flows. Is creativity a gift only bestowed on a small number of people or is it something we all possess?
In my very unscientific study of children with boxes of crayons or lumps of clay–watching them dive in with joyful abandon, I concluded that everybody is creative! Some people have just forgotten!
Somehow along the path of growing up most of us just forget that we are creative. So many people tell me that they can hardly draw a stick man, but drawing and painting are just learned skills, like cooking or accounting and whether or not you can draw has no bearing on whether or not you are creative. Creativity is already in all of us, we may just need to reawaken it.
The process of creating is good for us because it connects us to our soul and brings the unconscious in to conscious. Many people compare art making to meditation and there are similarities in the sense of timelessness and predominance of alpha brainwaves. But for me painting is a lot more fun then meditation. Harvard psychologist, Ellen Langer, has discovered that mindfully creating anything can increase our mindfulness, which has the following benefits: we become more competent, healthy, happy, creative, charismatic, satisfied with our work and to top it off we also live longer. All fantastic benefits from doing something that we enjoy!
The bottom line is that no matter what you are creating, if you get lost in the process, it is good for you! So lets get out there and create something!
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Steve Jobs was a man who followed his heart, did what he loved and changed the face of the world in the process. Steve made computers friendly for non-teckies and creatives. I have to admit to not following Steve Jobs career, I was too busy using his creations to make my own. However, last night upon hearing of his death, I watched his 2005 Stanford University address and was deeply touched. He told three stories from his life that contain a wealth of insight.
Thank you to Stanford and U-tube for making these inspiring words available to everyone. I encourage you to watch this video if you haven't already. What Steve says is outstanding.
Steve was a creative genius who had the courage to follow his heart and intuition and he will be missed.
Create the life of your dreams by tapping into your flow and abundance. Watch this video to learn more about this topic. Embrace the Holy Grail of Creativity.
I invite you to join the Creative Woman Cafe by Clicking Here
Review the creative preparation process and define the problems you have encountered.
Watch this video and join us in the Creative Women Cafe, where you can release your creative flow. Embrace the Holy Grail of Creativity.
I invite you to join the Creative Woman Cafe by Clicking Here
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