I started this in 2009 in the middle of the Great Recession: no sunshine, no jobs, no money, but plenty of flip phones still. No Instagram.
Back in 2009, I worked in a newborn ICU, and on my way in one morning, Gary Vaynerchuk was on the radio talking up his latest book “Crush It”: he was speaking about his big business in video blogging about wine.
I heard him say it was a great time to build your brand. He is quite the sales-guy. I could not really envision myself as a brand as I listened to him talk with self-promotional ease; and at the same time both his enthusiasm, which is remarkable, and the despairing economy, which was bad…it was enough for me to try something different and re-think my professional future. I bought his book and started writing about what I love here.
Not much has changed in 10 years, aside from age. This blog is still about art I make that is inspired by nature, and then all the people, places and things that go into that process: which is ultimately a holistic and creative process.
The only thing that has changed is, I am retired from clinical social work; I use that valuable experience now working as a life coach and an astrologer. For information on my coaching click here.
The creative process provides solutions, and gives us tools to solve our own life problems. We get into our flow state and see outside whatever box we are in–suddenly we are open to different ways of seeing things. Being curious is an essential human emotion, at least in the psychological literature–so it serves a real function in our development. Back in the day we needed to feel curious to wonder if there was water over that hill and food to eat: to stagnate was to die. So, creativity helps us survive. Also, creativity and art-making help express complex emotions and heal complex life problems.
I hope you enjoy navigating through some of the older content and learning something with the new posts. Be well in all you do and strive to bring beauty into our world in your actions and speech. And thank you for your attention–it is a precious commodity in the online world we created.