Creativity – Page 3 – Life Unfolds Blog

Dreaming Big in D.C.

I’m loving my visit to Washington D.C. so far! Today was filled with dreamy and inspiring adventures.

I kicked the day off with yoga at Kimberly Wilson‘s gorgeous studio Tranquil Space. The class was challenging and grounding. Just what I needed to decompress from all the travel. I love the quote on the wall of the yoga room. The studio is brimming with so many beautiful details like the gold stars on the floor…

And a yummy selection of tea. I could’ve stayed in the studio the whole afternoon browsing the book shelves and admiring all the TranquiliT wear!

Later on in the day, I met up with a friend that I hadn’t seen in more than 15 years (gotta love Facebook for that!). She’s doing really awesome and inspiring work with animals and I really enjoyed catching up with her. I’m so glad that we reconnected!!

In the evening, I went over to Kimberly’s pink palace to lead my Dream Box workshop with a group of wonderfully creative women. It was so cool to meet a bunch of people in person for the first time and also to see some familiar faces from Kimberly’s March yoga retreat. There’s Tiffany at the left, Kimberly, Chai, Ana, Lauren and Sharon.

Here’s Sharon with her twin sister Sherry. They both have the most endearing laugh.

Hope brought some of her Paper Relics goodies which the girls just ate up! Next to her is the Danielle who took my Right-Brain Business Plan teleclass earlier this year, so it was cool to meet her in person. And next to her is Lauren who made the super cool mobile Right-Brain Business Plan.

Kimberly’s cat Bonnard was hilarious. He got cozy on the magazines and stared us down as we crafted and collaged.

Aren’t these dream boxes lovely? One of my favorite things is seeing how unique and beautiful each person’s boxes and dreams are.

Here’s another dream box. On the inside of the lid behind the window she collaged a garden. What a great idea!

And here I am kickin’ it with Kimberly after my huge post-workshop TranquiliT shopping spree! Thank you Kimberly for being a wonderful workshop host and a big inspiration. I’m looking forward to another amazing day in D.C. tomorrow.

More Fun from Boston Trip

What a treat it was to visit Leah in Boston this past weekend. She’s such a sweetie! Not only did I have a blast co-leading our Creative Play workshop with her, I really enjoyed just hanging out, meeting her great hubby and her cute kitties and getting the local’s tour of the city.

On Friday, we walked around Newbury Street. I wanted to check out OAK which had lots of cute handmade goods. We also stopped into the Fluevog store and Leah scored some super awesome turquoise shoes! So cute! I tried on a bunch of pairs, but alas, the boots I wanted didn’t quite work out for me. I will continue coveting :).

We also went to the art store and I asked Leah to give me some expert advice on supplies. I picked up a quill and some ink to play with — fun!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to see Leah’s art up close and personal. If you think her paintings look beautiful on her website, you’d be blown away at how gorgeous the colors, layers and textures are in-person. I spent so much time just poring over all her amazing art! I knew I wanted to buy something, but it was really hard to choose. I ended up getting the cool mixed media piece above called Blackbird Forest. It feels so quiet and serene to me and I love that she used some Asian newsprint for the background. It fits in nicely in my dining room.

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Leah surprised me with this darling “yoga Jenn” painting. I absolutely love it! And it’s perfect on the altar in my yoga/meditation room.

After seeing several cuddling cat photos on Leah’s blog throughout the years, I enjoyed finally getting to meet the four meows. Tabbers is certainly a character! Even though I’m allergic to cats, I couldn’t resist petting him especially when he would just come and plop himself on my lap.

Sadie snuggled up with me for a bit on the couch when Leah and I watched Glee.

Here’s Emma hiding away in an empty moving box. Shy Sasha remained elusive during the kitty photo shoot.

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And can you believe this gorgeous pond is within walking distance of Leah’s beautiful new house?! A hike through the woods on Sunday was the perfect end to a perfect trip. Thanks Leah for being the hostess with the mostess! I look forward to your visit out here when we bring Creative Play to the Bay Area — woohoo!

Creating and Playing in Boston

I had so much fun in Boston this past weekend visiting with Leah Piken Kolidas. Our Creative Play workshop on Saturday was a blast and it was such a treat to finally meet so many creative souls and online friends in-person.

Carolyn Rubenstein of A Beautiful Ripple Effect and her co-worker Whitney got crafty. I was so happy to have Carolyn sign my copy of her new book Perseverance.

I met Kerry and Dayna on Facebook through my Right-Brain Business Plan page and was thrilled to hear that they were coming!

Creative goddesses Julie and Margaret collaged up a storm.

Leah’s friend from high school, Judean, joined in the fun, too!

There’s Mindy Tsonas of Wish Studio in the gray next to Janet O’Connor of Dolci. Mindy shared a bit about Saturday here.

After the workshop, Mindy, Melba McMullin (who braved a hellish commute from Cape Cod), Leah and I did a road trip up to New Hampshire to catch the Squam art fair. I’ll share more about that exciting adventure later!

Here are the pieces that I put together. We used small cards to encourage quick collaging. Since we gave permission to be messy and silly and to make bad art, I found it so much easier to make some wacky things that I probably normally wouldn’t do. It didn’t need to make sense or look good, but boy did some of my images make me laugh!

I have much more to share about my trip, so stay tuned.

The Power of Play

Play

When you were a kid, what were some of your favorite playtime activities? Did you enjoy building forts out of blankets? Playing a game of tag with your friends? Putting on talent shows for your family? Stuart Brown, author of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul invites us to bring more play into our lives by conducting a play history.

Here are just a few highlights from my play history: When I was little, I enjoyed drawing, painting, coloring, making things like books or games, playing with my stuffed animals and Strawberry Shortcake dolls and pretending I was Pipi Longstocking. When I was about seven or eight, I used to do “fashion shoots” with my friends. We’d get dressed up, put on frosty pink lipstick and sparkly blue eyeshadow and strike poses for my Kodak disc camera. In college, I got a kick out of passing scribbles back and forth with my friend Julie. As our environmental studies professor droned on about eutrophication we’d create funny pictures out of each other’s doodles.

Reflecting on my play history and on what has always brought me joy, it’s pretty clear to me that I have The Artist/Creator play personality perhaps with a dash of The Storyteller. While I’m not great at telling stories (and am even worse at telling jokes!), I have The Storyteller’s emotional connection and vivid imagination. Stuart describes eight play personalities including: The Joker, The Explorer, The Kinesthete, The Competitor, The Artist/Creator, The Director, The Storyteller and The Collector. Your play personality may be a combination of a few of the types.

While Brown doesn’t like defining play as it’s more of a state of being, he describes play as not seeming to have a purpose, something we engage in voluntarily and want to do again and again, where we lose a sense of time, we become less self-conscious and we experience improvisation. Even though play seems to have no purpose, Brown asserts that play, which combines emotional, physical and intellectual experiences, is essential to our continued growth and development.

Check out his TED Talk below to hear his brilliant insights firsthand including amazing examples of play in the animal kingdom and how play in the workplace increases innovation.

If you’re hankering for some creative playtime and are near the Boston-area, then please join Leah Piken Kolidas and me for our Creative Play workshop on September 19th. And, if you can’t make that, then come play with us over at the Creative Juicy Living podcast with Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio as Leah and I talk about Creative Play today at 3pm PT.

Creative Connections

The other weekend Brian and I met up with the fabulous Carla White and her husband Colin while they were visiting the West Coast. They’re such a fun and adventurous couple. What a treat to finally meet Carla in person. Our hubbies had lots of interesting things in common, too!

One of the things I love about the blogging world is connecting with so many cool, creative people online, in person and through snail mail.

In a couple of weeks I’ll get to play with Leah Piken Kolidas in Boston and some of my other blogging friends at our Creative Play workshop. I’m really looking forward to finally getting to meet everyone in real life!

Recently, Hope Wallace of Paper Relics sent me some delightful goodies in the mail. I adore the quote that she included and admire how her style permeates all that she does. Both Hope and Carla participated in Susannah Conway’s Unravelling e-course and loved it. I’m excited that I made it in to course that starts later on this month (it sold out in record time!) and know I’ll meet more creative souls in the Unravelling community.

Monica of Creative Beast sent me this darling card which was handmade by her late grandmother. How precious is that?! I love the color and the intricate detail. Monica’s note was so sweet, too.

If you’re looking for more creative connection, join Leah, Connie and me on Connie’s Creative Juicy Life podcast tomorrow at 3pm PT where we’ll be chatting it up about Creative Play!

Putting Things in Perspective

Last week’s Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training program was a blast. I can’t believe how quickly the retreat flew by. I discovered and re-learned so many colorful lessons. I mean, how could I not when my huge paintings were staring me right in the face giving me loads of perspective?! It’s like a visual journal on steroids.

Here are some of the gems from the week:

I stay in my creative flow when I keep the paintbrush moving. The critical mind turns on when I stop to “think” about what’s next.
Allowing myself to venture into taboo subjects and uncomfortable territory paved the way for an abundance of freedom. It takes way more energy to stuff down doubt or ignore an unwanted thought or feeling than it does to just let it move through me.
The intuitive painting process has incredible capacity and range. The paper can hold all the parts of myself including ones that don’t seem to fit or I want to deny. Painting all of it provides permission for wholeness.
Intuition has tremendous wisdom that may not be apparent until after an entire painting is done (or perhaps years later!).
Painting daily gave me visceral insight into the nuances of my experience. Each time I sat down to paint, I was acutely aware of the shifts in my relationship with myself and with the painting. This underscored for me the impact of having a committed daily spiritual/creative practice.
Things I am proud of: On the first night I realized I needed more private, quiet space so I asked to have my own room (last time I was at Mountain Home Ranch, I played the martyr and stayed in a very rustic communal cabin), I spoke up and made specific requests to shape our group “container,” and I honored my need for self-care/alone time which helped me stay very present throughout the entire retreat.
One of the biggest gifts of all has been truly acknowledging the value of this creative and feminine approach and how it resonates so deeply with me. Chris had mentioned one night how the intuitive painting process is by nature very “INFP“-like. As a fellow INFP, I appreciate the beauty of this process and I want to bring more of it out into the world. It’s an emergent, emotional, creative, internal, intuitive, reflective, mysterious and soulful journey. And that’s what makes it so rich and powerful!

Here I am next to the three intuitive paintings I worked on throughout the week. For our closing ceremony, we hung all of our paintings around the room and shared about our experiences. I was so inspired and touched being surrounded by all this powerful art and the amazing women who put their hearts and souls out on paper for us to see.

I am so glad I said “Yes!” to this year-long program. Not only was it valuable to be fully immersed in my own intuitive painting experience last week, it was also extremely helpful to observe Chris in action as she guided each of us through our process with gentle encouragement. I’m really looking forward to the next retreat where we’ll get to shadow her and get more hands-on experience leading sessions. Until then, I’m enjoying staying connected with my fellow wild heart trainees online.

Going Deeper with the Painting Process

We’re more than half-way through our first week-long Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training retreat in Calistoga. As I go deeper into the process, I’m bumping up against my own edges in new ways. From the start, I showed up here with confidence in myself. I’ve asked for what I needed. I’ve been really practicing being big and staying with that, even when it’s uncomfortable. This is quite a shift from my normal pro-longed “warm-up” period that usually lasts from a few days to sometimes mid-way through a program. I used to need more time to find my footing and to find my voice in a new group setting. So, it’s been interesting to be in this new place.

My painting process has mirrored this experience for me as well. I even showed up at the retreat with a huge painting, literally taking up a lot of space from day one. My large painting had unfolded over the course of a few months. I gradually added panels as I allowed myself to move toward the discomfort of growing bigger. By the time I completed the painting the other day, I had grown quite fond of how the painting transformed and how it transformed me. The painting’s progression reminded me of my build-up toward being comfortable showing up fully.

My next painting, on the other hand, exploded out of the gates with fierceness and size. The pages multiplied quickly. I painted fast and furiously across the entire surface area, almost not able to keep up with myself. I even woke up early one morning to paint out a feeling I was having rather than write in my journal. This painting demanded to engage with me from the get go. While it’s been exhausting for me, I’m aware of how this painting’s version of bigness is challenging me in new ways and is providing me with more opportunities to grow and learn.

I’m really appreciating the sacred circle that’s forming closer and closer each day. My fellow creative goddesses are a constant source of inspiration, growth, support and laughter. I learn so much from them through hearing them share about their own process.

The other night I drew an angel card for Purification. It was so befitting given that I’m in the process of clearing out my old ways of feeling small. The last time I was at this retreat center four years ago, I struggled with feeling good enough, trusting my instincts, asking for what I needed and clearly articulating what I stood for as a leader. By the end of that retreat, I had somewhat reclaimed my footing, but it took me almost a year to fully recover from that experience and I never, ever wanted to come back to this location again! Returning to this same place now with such a grounded confidence has definitely been a purifying process for me as it has symbolized shedding the old me to create room for the new me to blossom more fully. It’s also been quite powerful to reflect back on and honor how far I’ve come since the last time I was here.

I look forward to two more days of being immersed in the intuitive painting process. This work continues to amaze and inspire me as it works its magic in mysterious ways!

On BlogHer: Curing Writer’s Block

BlogHer’s inspiring Jory Des Jardins interviewed me about curing writer’s block on this week’s The Juice. In addition to Gretchen Wegner’s fun MuseCubes that I mention in the video, a couple of other great writing resources are SARK’s Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper and Write or Die: Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab.

I’d love to hear some of your tips of how you keep your writing flowing!

Day 2 of Expressive Arts Teacher Training

Another colorful day of Expressive Arts Teacher Training filled with tears of anger, sadness, laughter and joy. I’m learning tons being in my own experience of creative flow and personal edges. This group is amazing, too!

Here are a few photos from today. I used the cover of my class journal as a blotter ala my Wreck This Journal days. I’m so grateful for the wrecking experience because had it not been for that I never would’ve thought to “mess up” my pristine journal cover like this!

These mixed paints look almost good enough to eat. Mmm, sherbert, yogurt, frosting, tomato soup! Painting all day has truly been delicious.

And these colorful mixing spoons look like yummy lollipops. Great for bringing out the kid in all of us in the studio.

I’ve been having trouble getting a good night sleep since I got here, so I’m hoping my hour-plus yoga practice tonight will help me get some deeper rest. And then another day of being in the painting process!

P.S. – Speaking of yoga, my Unfolding Your Life Vision podcast with Kimberly Wilson is now up.

Day 1 of Expressive Arts Teacher Training

Today was the first full day of the Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program with Chris Zydel and seven other wonderful women. There’s so much to share and process (just on Day 1). More to come on that later. For now I’ll just include a few pictures to set the scene.

Here’s a peek into part of the portable studio that another student and I helped Chris set up yesterday afternoon. There are large cardboard easels throughout the entire room.

Plenty of colorful paint to choose from. I loved opening up several brand new bottles – so satisfying!

We’re staying at the Mountain Home Ranch in Calistoga. I was actually here before about 4 years ago for another retreat which was quite challenging for me, so it’s been interesting to be back here with a new perspective. I know there’s lots of learning in looking at how far I’ve come since then and how differently I’m showing up now. There’s definitely more to write on that later!