Art and Self Blog
How can you allow the low?
Last week, I was on fire creatively. I was wrapped up in the energy and excitement of my work, having fun conversations on the podcast, connecting with the lovely members of the new Creativity Cocoon, meeting with new coaching clients and relishing in the exciting...
What is possible for you?
I’m at the part of my book that explains my growth in the last 5 or so years, and it’s really fascinating to try to put this into a narrative that makes sense since so much of this growth was internal—many small shifts that lead to other small shifts than lead to...
my 2023 word of the year: artist
A student says to me, "I am not an artist." Immediately I reply, "Of course you are an artist. You are making art right?" How is it so easy for me to claim to other people, "of course you are an artist"—those who paint at night after working in finance all day, those...
How to Get Unstuck
In the last session of the Art Connection Circle, one of the participants was feeling very stuck in her life. She felt her identities of wife, mom, and teacher overshadowed her own wants and dreams for her life. With more than twenty years of teaching under her belt...
Top Six Reads of 2022
I love this time of year because people start posting their favorite reads of the year. This year, I surpassed my reading goal and read more than 50 books in a year for the first time ever! This was a year of mostly fiction. I did read many non-fiction books, but...
Can I have gratitude for my suffering?
Yesterday morning, I was talking to my therapist about this insidious voice that pops into my thoughts sometimes and says “I hate myself.” We talked about how that voice used to be the primary voice at one point, and the “I like myself” voice was the very tiny voice...
We need connection.
The Fall session of the Art and Self Connection Circle just ended, and my heart is full of love for this beautiful group of people and sadness that it has ended (for now), but great joy looking forward to the future, knowing what is possible in this soul-filling...
Just keep swimming?
Yesterday morning in my daily writing practice, before I learned of the passing of our beloved, delightful tWitch, I was pondering this artwork by Dana Schutz (Swimming, Smoking, Crying, 2009) to potentially write about in my book about my own mental health...