Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso
Think back to a moment in your childhood when you can remember creating with abandon, fully present, losing track of time. Where were you? Were you with other people or alone? What were you making and how did you feel?
My mind goes to making up dances with Allie and Jenny, my neighbors across the street, and then performing them for our parents. We’d draw up invitations and put on shows in the back yard. The young me was free and alive, full of endless ideas. Connected and happy.
Your memory may be totally different—building a tree house or drawing for hours in your room or singing along to the radio. But I’m guessing that the feelings are similar.
Free. Alive. Happy. Connected.
The very feelings that are often missing in our busy, tech-filled, grown up lives.
It's time to get them back.
While life may seem a lot more dull now and like the spark you felt back then is gone, these feelings are actually right at your fingertips. Your young playful artist self never actually left, she just went into hiding.
At some point the world of judgment and productivity and competition got involved and we started evaluating the things we made. And getting the sense that people didn't like them, and maybe they weren't actually very good. So we stopped building and drawing and singing.
Or maybe you held onto your creative passions past childhood and became a theater kid in high school (like me) or excelled in art (that was my brother.) But at some point you learned that it wasn't a practical career path, or you just got discouraged. You let your dreams slip away in favor of more "reasonable" pursuits. But you've always felt that something was missing.
Or perhaps you did pursue writing or art and have been making a living at it. Awesome! But you still tell yourself that you don't have rhythm and you need a few drinks to make it onto the dance floor at a wedding, or you only sing in the car when you're sure no one can hear you. You can't move and play and express yourself freely, even though you identify as an artist.
This work is for you, and you, and you.
It's about reclaiming the fullest expression of your creativity. It's about hearing and celebrating your unique voice, in all of its forms. It's about you getting to be more and more yourself in this world. And feeling alive again.
But wait, the world is falling apart around us. Isn't art and creativity frivolous, just a distraction from facing climate change and the intensifying wealth divide and what sometimes feels like the imminent apocalypse?
Nope.
What we need to find solutions to the crises we are facing collectively is creativity, imagination, and also hope. When we can access these capacities more fully in ourselves, we can bring them to our work in the world. And how do we do it?
It's actually pretty simple.We just get together and create-- art, music, movement, writing, drama, and whatever other kinds of play we come up with.
This work is very powerful in groups, where we witness one another with generous open hearts and allow ourselves to be seen. Workshops and retreats are an opportunity to connect deeply with ourselves, each other, and the creative inspiration that flows through all of us.
In 1-1 sessions we create the safety and container for you to express yourself freely and fully. I guide you in connecting to your intuitive creative expression, and together we process and build on whatever comes up--resistance, joy, grief, current life challenges, childhood hurts, curiosity, anger, possibility. All of it and all of you are welcome. And even through the hard feelings, and sometimes especially through them, time and time again I see that clients discover the beauty and magic that lives within them.