19 Apr What inspires you?

Ideas for art come to me…

• When I run
• When seeing live theatre (I miss it soooo much!)
• While reading poetry
• When traveling…even a small road trip
• Leafing through design magazines
• Walking through outdoor markets
• While listening to music
• When listening to my girls playing their music or painting beside me
• When I am in nature…whether it’s my backyard garden, walking my dog, or hiking some mountain trail. Doesn’t matter where…nature inspires.

Then sometimes it’s just discovering what moves me aesthetically around my studio. I’ll start organizing and decluttering, and placing vignettes together…candles, brushes, pieces of fabric, pieces of art.

And then…

“oh I like this color combo…hmmm graphic shapes with fresh flowers…or a Domino Magazine cover with a messy abstract next to it. Now I want to paint an indigo and peach abstract…something imperfect but perfectly electric in color. Yes, let’s do that.”

There are times where I’m more strategic in my planning a painting. But these days I’m going with the flow…and saying yes to what comes through intuitively.

What inspires you? Where do you get inspired?

When do you feel inspiration?

Read more on the Blog

12 Apr Essentials

I was listening to a podcast…Tim Ferriss (of The Tim Ferriss Show) interviewing Seth Godin.

Something Seth said really resonated with me. He said…

“You can’t let the world erect boundaries for yourself.”

YOU must be the one to do this, so that you don’t feel the overwhelm of falling behind in your life.

There is most DEFINITELY a correlation between the time in my life where I was drowning in overwhelm and not prioritizing what was integral for me to be the best version of myself.

What is integral for me is having personal discipline for stuff that’s ESSENTIAL to my mental and physical health.

Over the past 4 years I took serious inventory of my life. I looked at how I was spending my time, and thought about how I would like to be spending my time. There was a disconnect and I knew that I had to make changes to have the things I really love in my life.

Since then I’ve given up drinking alcohol and crappy tv. I deleted Facebook on my phone. I prioritize working out and eating healthy because it makes me feel happy. I’m a pleasure seeker with an addictive personality, which makes it THAT much more important that I adhere to my own “rules”. I can attest that living this way has opened up more possibility and room in my life for everything that I truly desire.  I found peace and clarity in shutting out the distractions and self-sabotage. My business grew, my art practice flourished and my relationships with my husband and kids deepened.

Make more time for the things that matter.

Light up your brain, move your body and nourish yourself with doing something that you KNOW you’ve been putting off. Stop waiting for permission from someone else to achieve your goals. YOU decide what matters.

And ask yourself this…

How can you clear time in your day to prioritize what’s important to you?

What can you give up to live your best life?

05 Apr Just Start

When I first started painting regularly in my adult life

I was 30 years old.

My toddler was potty training and my infant had yet to try solids. There was little time in the day to do anything other than watch my kids.

So,  I started at night. ⠀

Every night I’d put them to bed and tip toe down to the living room and look at the list of things I wrote in my journal…

“ideas of things to paint”.

First thing I painted was a picture of my babies. Next, my dog, Molly. Then some pretty tea cups from my mom. And on and on.

It was my creative outlet, my refuge from changing diapers, and a full body and soul grab at the former artistic pre-mom life of my youth. I had no intention to start a business or be a professional artist. I think my only intention then, was to try and feel a little more like me again. Motherhood is a whole bag of wonder and worry and this was my zen time.
⠀
I didn’t know it then but picking up that paintbrush 10 years ago changed my life.

Painting IS me.

It was me as a kid and it’s me now.

If there’s something you want to do in your life, whether it’s getting in great shape, finally learning Spanish, playing guitar, writing a book, becoming a watercolor painter…Just START.

Like right now…Today.

Start practicing and learning and do it every day. Do it for the process of learning and getting better. As Marie Forleo says,

“Clarity comes from action, not thought.”

So get going…

Someday you will look back at this time and think why didn’t I do this sooner?

It brings you joy and quite possibly the life of your dreams. I know art did this for me.

I’d love to know…what is one thing you would like to make a regular practice in your life?

Is it writing, painting, learning a new language? Let me know in the comments and write it in your calendar today.

07 Aug Where my Plant Cells come from…

I’ve resurrected my old blog! And hope to share more process direct from the studio.

Kicking it off with a film I made about my Plant Cell Abstracts…enjoy!