The heArt of the matter...
Today I am resting and I’m thinking about what matters most...
When the whirlwind of life threatens to take me away... my studio is my sanctuary.
I can gaze out the window and watch the busy world go by, but inside it's quiet and still.
To create you first must be inspired. But inspiration doesn’t come from busy-ness. It doesn’t come from pushing hard to reach goals or left-brain thinking, planning and analysing...
Today I'm resting and thinking about what matters most...
“You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when you are still.”
When the whirlwind of life threatens to take me away... my studio is my sanctuary.
I can gaze out the window and watch the busy world go by, but inside it's quiet and still.
To create you first must be inspired. But inspiration doesn’t come from busy-ness. It doesn’t come from pushing hard to reach goals or left-brain thinking, planning and analysing... It cannot be forced.
Inspiration comes from the right-brain, feminine, intuitive way of being. When you are in this state, you're open and receptive to insights, new visions and ideas... Inspiration comes when you're relaxed.
What we create in this world comes from the non-physical realm of the imagination. To create requires the feminine energy of intuition and insight as well as the masculine energy of action to give it form.
It's a fine balance.
Too much action without rest and we can easily become depleted.
Too much day-dreaming without action and we'll never see the results of what's possible.
It takes inspired action to create.
So, after a flurry of activity, today I'm resting. No matter what happens out there in the world, I must always stay connected to my Self (my heArt).
It’s the heart that matters most.
The second step is to imagine...
Life isn’t always pretty.
It isn’t always fun, exciting or even comfortable...
So thank goodness for the imagination!
The second step in the creative process is to imagine the details...
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. ~ John Lennon
Life isn’t always pretty.
It isn’t always fun, exciting or even comfortable...
So thank goodness for the imagination!
The second step in the creative process is to imagine the details...
“Imagination is the highest form of research.”
Using your imagination is like playing in a sandbox; you can make whatever you want…
Sand is malleable.
In your imagination you can be wherever you want to be and you can do whatever you want to do…
Your imagination is real. Whatever you imagine in your mind’s eye has the potential to become real in your life. Everything is imagined into existence.
Once you have a dream or vision of what you want to create, begin imagining the details…
You don’t have to figure it all out. You need only play with it in your imagination…
Just imagine...
“Visualise this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin.”
Download the 7 Steps from Ethereal to Real, part one from the Little Book of Big Dreams here
Thinking From The End
When I begin a painting, I've already created it in my mind. The painting is complete and hanging on my wall. This is what imagination is. It's tapping into the universal mind, or spirit, and visualising what already exists in essence, and then bringing it into the physical plane.
When I begin a painting, I've already created it in my mind. The painting is complete and hanging on my wall.
This is what imagination is. It's tapping into the universal mind, or spirit, and visualising what already exists in essence, and then bringing it into the physical plane.
It's easy to understand this when you think of making dinner. You first think of what you want to eat. Perhaps you picture the entire meal laid out beautifully on the table, with candles and wine... you imagine if you are sharing the meal with someone... you imagine what it looks like on the table and on the plates; the smell of the food, the taste...
All of this happens in a flash when you think, "What should I make for dinner?"
Once you know what you want to create, you get out your recipe book, head off to the store for the ingredients, and then you make dinner. Within a few hours you are enjoying your creation!
It's the same when I paint. I create an image in my mind, perhaps as an idea that I want to express...
I'll picture the size and shape of the canvas, the colours, shapes and images that will express this idea and feeling that I want to create on canvas.
I keep the finished painting in mind, but of course, there are little surprises along the way... I let go of the outcome and allow it to unfold and come to life as it is meant to.
Like giving birth - when the baby is born there is joy and surprise, yet you also feel that you knew this person all along.... everything is exactly as it is meant to be.
Right now I have a few paintings in mind. They are there, just hanging in my mind, until I'm ready to give birth. This is the joy of creating; having a vision and then experiencing the coming into being...
Enchanted, 60" x 36", SOLD
And now for something (a little) different...
Every painting is an experiment. I never quite know how it will turn out...
With my most recent painting I delved deeper into the abstract. Working from a photo I took of the early morning sun shining through autumn leaves, I played with the shapes and colours until the abstraction became a whole new image...
Every painting is an experiment. I never quite know how it will turn out...
With my most recent painting, I delved deeper into the abstract. Working from a photo I took of the early morning sun shining through autumn leaves, I played with the shapes and colours until the abstraction became a whole new image.
Now I feel as though I'm looking at the drifting sea-life of an underwater world...
This painting will be part of an upcoming 3D art show (stay tuned for more information!).
Venturing into the abstract...
I'm working on a new painting. It's a little abstract...
It's fun. It's playful.
It's an adventure into the imagination.
With each shape is the hint or suggestion of a figure, a face, a story...
I'm working on a new painting. It's a little abstract...
It's fun. It's playful.
It's an adventure into the imagination.
With each shape is the hint or suggestion of a figure, a face, a story...
And so, I was thinking about the importance of imagination.
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
It's through the imagination that we create anything new. It's where ideas and dreams are born...
(excerpt from Part One in the Little Book of Big Dreams)
Life isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always fun, exciting or even comfortable...
So thank goodness for the imagination!
Using your imagination is like playing in a sandbox; you can make whatever you want…
Sand is malleable.
In your imagination you can be wherever you want to be and you can do whatever you want to do…
“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”
Your imagination is real.
Whatever you imagine in your mind’s eye has the potential to become real in your life. Everything is imagined into existence.
Once you have a dream or vision of what you want to create, begin imagining the details.
You don’t have to figure it all out. You need only play with it in your imagination…
Read more: 7 Steps from Ethereal to Real: Part One from the Little Book of Big Dreams
I changed my mind...
One day I woke up.
I looked around me and asked... Is this my life?
And I answered... No, this is not my life! I change my mind...
‘The only way to change our lives is by changing our minds.’ ~ Ross Cooper
So what would that look like?
I spent a lot of time dreaming and imagining...
I realized, if I want to experience something, I can always go there in my imagination.
A memory is just a memory. The past and future exist only in the imagination...
The imagination is powerful.
‘I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.’ ~ Albert Einstein
And I see beauty all around me.
Now this is my life...
Just imagine...
As a child I lived in the world of my imagination. I could sit for hours daydreaming out my bedroom window...
With my imagination I can travel wherever I want. I can revisit past pleasures and visit future dreams...
Sometimes I just say to myself, “Well, I can always go there in my imagination!”
The past and future exist only in our minds. We can change our past and future by what we imagine right now.
Live out of your imagination, not your history. ~ Steven Covey
So when I wake up in the morning I begin imagining my day. I imagine the new painting I’m going to create... Where I might live or travel to... my next project to birth... I imagine all the details of this waking dream...
Just imagine...
If you could be, do or have the life of your dreams ~ What would you create?
What can you imagine?...
If you can imagine it, you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it. ~ William Arthur Ward
Are you ready to start living the life you've imagined? Click here for your 21 Day Dream Journey and bring your dreams to life.
Thinking from the End
When I begin a painting, I've already created it in my mind. The painting is complete and hanging on my wall. 
This is what imagination is. It is tapping into the universal mind, or spirit, and visualizing what already exists in essence, and then bringing it into the physical plane.
It is easy to understand this when you think of making dinner. You first think of what you want to eat. Perhaps you picture the entire meal laid out beautifully on the table, with candles and wine... you imagine if you are sharing the meal with someone... you imagine what it looks like on the table and on the plates; the smell of the food, the taste...
All of this can happen in a flash when you think, "What should I make for dinner?"
Once you know what you want to create, you get out your recipe book, head off to the store for the ingredients, and then you make dinner. Within a few hours you are enjoying your creation!
It is the same when I paint. I create an image in my mind, perhaps as an idea that I want to express.
I'll picture the size and shape of the canvas, the colours, shapes and images that will express this idea and feeling that I want to create on canvas.
I keep the finished painting in mind, but of course, there are little surprises along the way... I let go of the outcome and allow it to unfold and come to life as it is meant to.
Like giving birth - when the baby is born there is joy and surprise, yet you also feel that you knew this person all along.... everything is exactly as it is meant to be. 
Right now I have a few paintings in mind. They are there, just hanging in my mind, until I'm ready to give birth. This is the joy of creating; having a vision and then experiencing the coming into being...
When Life Gets Serious...
It's time to seriously get playful!
‘Heaven lies about us in our infancy,
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy.’ ~ William Wordsworth
‘To stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play.' ~ Albert Einstein
Here are seven suggestions to ignite your creative spirit:
- Call your most light-hearted friend and ask her if she can come out and play...
- Find a set of swings, preferably with long ropes and high enough so your feet don't touch the ground... Go as high as you can!
- Take a drive... anywhere. Just drive and see where you end up (it's called adventure).
- Take yourself on a date. Visit a favourite cafe, a museum, an art gallery. Enjoy a leisurely lunch... buy yourself some beautiful flowers.
- Pack a picnic and head to the beach for a blissful few hours of sun, sand and solitude...
- Go skinny-dipping! (Especially fun with a friend!)
- Write down your dreams. It's a whole other world of adventure... Dreamland is Playland!
I remember calling friends after school and saying, "Can you play?" (I'd wait while they asked their mom)... then off we'd go to build a fort, play Snow Queen or Ice Capades... or maybe just hang-out in the back garden and talk about what we were going to be when we grew up.
‘When I grow up I want to be a little boy.’ ~ Joseph Heller
What do you want to be when you grow up? Can you play?