How to deeply explore your inner world

Original, fresh, new, innovative, groundbreaking.  Fuck ’em.  Find your myths. Find your idols, symbols, guardians, guides, angels, totems, whatever you want to call them. Call them cliches if you want. Find YOUR cliches, and love them, squeeze them and hold them tight. What reoccurs in your dreams? Moments of synchronicity? What image do find yourself spontaneously drawing, even if you […]

From spirit to paper to clay…

If you ever get tired of feeling like you have to come up with new ideas, fret no more. There are two reasons. First: reiterating symbols and themes allows you to explore and understand them more deeply, so stop trying to come up with new stuff and see what happens if you try working with the same ideas in new, […]

Are you fake with your art?

I am in Florida, at the airport, on my way home from two weeks of intensive studio classes for my masters degree.  There are so many layers and angles to my experience here…I am still digesting it all, but a theme definitely emerged. During our final discussion for the printmaking class, one of the other students, Annette Saldana, said “just […]

How to use authentic movement to relieve anxiety and stress

An unwelcome friend has returned to my life. Anxiety.   Ahhh…..anxiety.  I went a few years without much of it, but lately it has been providing a bitter hum to my days.  I hoped giving up caffeine would solve it. It did not. Anxiety. My dear friend. It started up a couple of weeks ago, in response to a stressful […]

So what exactly is Expressive Arts? And what does it have to offer you?

This is my manifesto.  1. Expressive arts is intermodal Not just multimodal. Intermodal. That means we use the different modes to see our images, thoughts and yearnings through the different lens each offers, in combination with each other. Our cells express hidden wisdom through expressive movement. Spontaneous image making is a form of active imagination – dreaming while awake. Improvised […]

Healing a pesky sub-personality

Sisters, let me tell ya, it has been QUITE the week here.  I love summer break, don’t get me wrong. But being home all the time forces me to deal with all the stuff I escaped by going to work.   The grand experiment this week is to see what effect creativity has on my ability to deal. And what […]

Why your creativity should be part of your self care

Burn out.  Those of us that work intensely with people, such as teachers, parents, therapists, and social workers, are often under appreciated. The work we do is on the front lines of the evolution of society: educating, socializing, peaceful communication, intervention.  It is complex work, often thankless. It is work that requires a lot of energy, and if we don’t […]

Burning out and recommiting

Falling down… One area I am particularly interested in researching is how the arts can help people deal with burn out. I have a personal interest in this because I frequently feel totally burned out. After weeks of feeling good, somewhat on top of things, the bottom suddenly fell away and I was devoid of energy, irritable, and uninterested in […]