Artful Musings
Visual Journaling ABCs: W is for White & Black
Welcome back to my series on the Visual Journaling ABCs. I am wandering my way from Z to A through the things I love about about visual journaling and how it has helped me on my creative and healing journeys. Yesterday’s post was Y for memories. Today is the letter W for white and black.…
Y is for Yesterday: Visual Journal Your Memories
One of my favorite ways to create visual journal pages is to capture memories of my past. Childhood experiences of my own, travel adventures with my hubby or other favorite moments are perfect for visual journaling. That is why Y is for Yesterday. If you missed my first post on the ABCs of visual journaling…
The ABCs of Visual Journaling – Zip Zap Zop
Zip Zap Zop is an improve game that’s fun, focusing and energizing. Use this playful game to overcome your fear of approaching the blank visual journal page. For the next 26 days I will be sharing the ABCs of Visual Journaling and thanks to my friend Nancy Shobe, I’m starting at Z and working backwards.…
7 Tips for Creating an Visual Journal Page
Have you been wondering how to get started with visual journaling? Here are 7 quick tips for creating an visual journal page that is meaningful and pleasing to you. Are you seeing all those pretty pages on social media and wondering if you could do that too? The answer is yes! You absolutely can start visual…
What is Art Journaling?
Art journaling means many different things to artists and creatives. If you search the hashtag art journaling on Instagram or Pinterest, you will find a scrumptious assortment of exquisite pages that leave you wondering, how did they do that? For me art journaling is a very special aspect of my creative process that is quite…
13 Strategies to Increase Focus and Productivity for Creatives
Here are 13 of my favorite strategies for artists and creatives who want more focus and more finished projects: 1. Track your time. Analyze the results after a week. At the end of the week you will see the truth of your relationship with time and you can get rid of what I affectionately call your…
Plagued by Self-Doubt?
When it comes to doing your most important work, you will be plagued by self-doubt throughout the journey. It’s normal. Sometimes the doubt stops us in our tracks or sends us to bed in our pajamas for a day. Sometimes the doubt is just a blip, a brief thought that dissipates like the morning fog.…
The Principles of Design: What are they, and why do they matter?
If you’ve been around any sort of creative industry or practice, you’ve probably heard about the “Principles of Design” and their importance to every piece of art. For some, these principles are hard rules to be followed to a tee (though this is a highly ethnocentric stance) while others, like experts at the Getty Museum,…
My first ever psychic reading
When I was 25, my mom gifted me a reading with a psychic in Austin, TX where I was living at the time. I can still see her clearly in my mind’s eye, sitting in a rocking chair, eyes closed, her gray hair long and loose around her shoulders. She was a lovely, gentle woman,…
SoulCollage: Making friends with my Monsters
SoulCollage®: Making friends with my Monsters If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that I am passionate about art, collage and personal development. I love using SoulCollage® and intuitive art practices to tame some gremlins and make friends with my personal monsters. SoulCollage® is a powerful tool for pulling…
How do you practice the art of appreciation?
Core Values in Action: How do you practice the art of appreciation? We can talk about our core values all day long, we can make a list and hang it on our fridge (I did) but if we don’t understand how to put that value into action, we are not genuinely embracing or honoring that…
Intuitive Collage and Spring Cleaning for a Woman’s Spirit
Spring cleaning for your Spirit! by Dr. Minette Riordan If you are anything like me you are experiencing a bit of spring fever! Spring is my favorite time of year. At the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, our minister commented that “Spring in Santa Barbara is like icing on the cake.” What a great…
Deep Necessity: The Secret of Success for Artists and Creatives?
I’ve been cleaning out my studio and office this week in preparation for a few girlfriends who are coming for art camp next week. And in one of the piles of paper I came across an article written by Brendon Burchard for Success magazine on the topic of Deep Necessity. Brendon Burchard is a high…
Make Time For Your Art
Do you wonder how to make time for your art? How much time are you willing to invest? What else are you willing to let go of to make space for your art? I found this mandala I drew in 2011 – 10 years ago. That’s how long I’ve been on my creative journey to…
Painting to Heal
There are many, many paths to healing the wounds, doubts and stories we hold in our hearts and bodies around creativity. The one that has transformed my own life most dramatically is painting. I love painting to heal stories and create wholeness out of the fragmented sense of self I often feel. On the canvas…
Free Magazines for Making Collage
As a SoulCollage® and JourneyCircles™ facilitator, I often get asked where people can find free magazines or images to use in their collage work. Finding free magazines for making collage is easier than you think as often people would rather gift them than put them in the trash or recycling. Here are a few of…
7 Essential Creative Lifestyle Principles: Play
When my friend Andrea from A Work of Heart Studio and I get together to brainstorm, magic happens! Earlier this year we launched a new program called The Creative Stretch with the intention of supporting artists and creatives to commit to their practice and shift their habits to make art-making a priority. We knew we…
Your Burning Questions: Who am I?
What are your burning questions? I often have questions rolling around in my head like, who am I or what’s my purpose? Most days I have a pretty good sense of who I am and that my purpose is to help others see their own brilliance and beauty. Sometimes I find it hard to put…