We went down to New York last week for a few days holiday. We thought of going somewhere warm but thought New York would be more fun. We could visit galleries and walk around. So down we went, with nothing in particular on our agenda.

The first evening, we were heading out of our hotel when a man in the elevator struck up a conversation with my husband about the coat he was wearing. It’s the kind of coat that looks like he just stepped out of the Australian outback in the early twentieth century and everywhere we went people kept asking him about it! Once we got past the coat, our new friend told us that he and his wife were in New York for the same reasons we were—they were there to see art and get some inspiration before they headed back to Martha’s Vineyard. He gave us their tips—The High Line (the new park that extends from 18th Street up to 30th on the abandoned elevated railroad tracks) and the galleries in Chelsea. He didn’t specify which galleries through.

Off we headed to the High Line first— a brilliant oasis of peace in the center of one of the most hectic cities in the world. We loved the modernist bird houses. There was no one up there on this windy, cold day but us and the birds! But the Chelsea galleries we ventured into proved a bust. The art left us feeling detached—paintings of decapitated bodies, sculptures of dogs with latex gloves emerging from every orifice, and assemblages of old film stock arranged in colorful patterns. Nothing that made us want to see more.

So we headed back to The High Line and looked at the city from all sorts of angles. And here was this wonderful image. Life is art.

I’m working in the studio and have begun my new series—inspired by Pop Art but with a twist. More soon on that—with visuals. Yesterday my good friend, the fantastic folk artist, Maggie Stern, popped in for a visit. It was great to have her see what I was doing. We don’t need permission to make art but the support of friends and fellow artists really matters. At a certain point and no sooner, it helps the creative process to share and to get that instant, unspoken response. Some of what we do reaches people—other things are simply exploration. Nothing’s a dead end but some experiments come to an end. That’s the creative process. It’s a wrestling match to clarify intention and match it with experience.

Last year I saw the great Californian artist, Robert Irwin, speak at Harvard. He’s in his eighties and hugely vibrant. Artists never age because they’re engaged. He talked about designing the amazing garden/labyrinth at The Getty Museum in L.A. and how he went in his own truck up and down the length of California in search of the perfect bush, with the size and color he’d envisioned. He searched when he didn’t know what he’d find, if anything. He made it his mission. He paid attention and asked that he find the right thing. That attention makes the experience at The Getty so awe-inspiring.

Following this work, he was asked to design the experience of the Dia:Beacon, a 21rst century museum in a gargantuan old factory in upstate New York. He envisioned this project starting with the visitor getting on the train at Penn Sation and travelling up to the museum. How would that experience unfold and what might a visitor feel? He chose the trees and the bushes, how much we would see from the train window. If traveling by car, we discover a different fruit tree in front of each parking space. It’s about losing our sense of self and connecting with something beautiful, amazing and transcendent. And fun.

I’m reading Lawrence Wechsler’s excellent book about Irwin, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, first published in 1982. It’s a document of Irwin’s creative process. Starting as an abstract expressionist, he responded to the questions painting asked of him. Why do this? Why have an edge to a painting? What is the experience of art? How can we engage in it in a larger way? He asked really interesting questions and continued to explore when experiments failed.

Art is a process of discovery. If we knew what would emerge it wouldn’t be interesting to make. We’ll all ask different questions depending on the nature of our own minds and lives. There are many ways to make art—as many as there are artists. We’re not all going to wrestle with Irwin’s questions but we’re all trying for that transcendence , in our way. Part of the process is seeing how well we pay attention, the questions we ask and how we receive the answers. Sometimes through the visits of friends.

“It isn’t enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.”~Tim Ferriss

Artist-child of the sixties that I am, I’ve had fun this week reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss—prompted by one of my kids. As an artist/writer, I hardly consider what I do to be “work” though I work very hard at it. I haven’t had a job since I was 26. That’s when I quit regular employment to be an artist. And, yes, there have been plenty of moments of stress, financial uncertainty and creative doubt. Where will this go? And what’s possible? I’ve come to believe, through long study and experiment, that anything is. Think Tim Ferriss might too.

Ferriss contends that finding a muse, some essence of something, that we can sell over and over while we do other things for fun is the way to go. Interesting. He created and sold a vitamin mix then quit to travel the world and through various disciplines was able to continue to make a fortune from his original business. Nice. Now he makes money from writing. Even more interesting. So, what might this mean for we artists and writers?

Andy Warhol was onto Ferriss’s idea in the sixties with his multiples. He even hired folks to make his prints freeing up more of his time. There are all sorts of ways of being artists, of course. All are to be encouraged—no right or wrong. That’s part of the paradigm shift away from the Culture of Complaint and Judgement to creative freedom for all. But, most important, is finding our muse—what we’re meant to do. And how we envision being artists on a planet in peril. So many ways~from making paintings to public and internet art. We can choose our muse.

A big shift came for me when I wrote my book, The Confident Creative. It was a whole new way for me of sharing something I really care about—the idea that everyone is creative at their core and can connect with this consciousness. And that it matters for our world that we do. Not quite the success of Ferriss’s book but I’m still really happy that it’s sold thousands of copies. And I’ve heard from so many great people. It’s been a new way of sharing my muse and I’m now writing another one.

In the sixties, we tried out so many things—tested them. Free love. Women’s liberation. Racial equality. The world changed. In art, Andy Warhol nailed Ferriss’s idea with his posters—mass-produced works. He even hired folks to do the work—exactly what Ferriss is talking about. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and tons of other musicians figured out how making music can create energy and change society. Some experiments worked. Some got derailed by excess or the sense of limitation that lots of folks struggle with. But, if we’d not gone to the edge, not jumped in, we wouldn’t know where the edge is or how to fly. We’d be less free in all sorts of ways.

Hard times now. At the same moment as our economy crashes, imposing what seems like unendurable limitation on so many, consciousness is also rising. New ideas, new possibilities. And in a sweet reversal this week, a few hundred people left the internet and marched on Wall Street, the old-fashioned way. A fantastic creative act that has focused attention on corporate injustice all over the world. A few bold souls. So many ways to be artists. Flower power. The next round.

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On Sunday, October 23rd from 10 am until 5:30 pm I’m leading a workshop in the Boston area—

Drawing Out Creativity

Exploring how to connect with our muse.

A few spaces left!! Learn more and sign up here! Now is the time!

These are tough economic times and tough times are tougher still for artists. Even the rich stop forking out for art and the competition for grants, commissions, assignments, sales and even teaching gigs increases. Artists can get discouraged, for sure. Some might even give up or, worse, try to sell themselves short. Some of us may even compromise our art in the hope of making sales. That’s the worst. So, how do we carry on in tough times? And can we prosper?

British artist, Michael Atavar, author of How To Be An Artist, says on Futurising, “Don’t rely on art as your sole source of income – it’ll create compromises.” The point of being an artist is that we get to follow inspiration and go somewhere totally new and vital. We get to make things. We also get to know ourselves and bring the best of who we are into the world. Being an artist isn’t just about what we produce, it’s a way of being, thinking, exploring, connecting and having fun. So, a good point—all our financial apples needn’t be in the art basket. We can diversify.

In the last recession, the one initiated by Reagonomics where the rich got richer and the rest of us scrambled, my art income stream dried up almost overnight. And I had two young kids to support. A recession is like a tsunami. One minute it’s calm, business as usual, and, the next, disaster is splashing down on us virtually without warning. For a while, even while getting drenched, I thought that life would somehow carry on as before. It can be hard to know what to do or how to change course or the ways in which the world is changing. But it’s even harder to be inflexible when the bills start piling up. One day I was downtown just browsing in a high end clothing shop. A woman came in and asked for a job. Great idea, I thought, and, as soon as she’d left, I asked for one too and got it. Listen. Seize the moment. It needn’t be perfect.

I worked there twenty hours a week for six months. It did not pay well but it gave me enough to take care of a few bills. It gave me a sense too that my feet were on the ground. It was mindless work and I wasn’t good at it save for being a friendly body in the shop. I once gave a customer who bought a $20. scarf the $300. jacket another customer had bought. That got straightened out. But, the tough thing is, I didn’t feel good about this work. I felt like a loser! Shouldn’t I be making money at art? We need to separate art and money.

Now I don’t feel that way at all. I feel that we artists are so privileged to do what we do. Economies are up and down and our economies are too. A fact of life. We can do other things to create an income-stream and we can simplify our lives. Streamline. And we can keep trying to bring our work into the world.

The great illustrator, Henrik Drescher is selling his stash of old work online. Brilliant work! Now is the time to buy and support each other, if we can.

Michael Atavar is right—no point in compromise. Carry on! Something else happened for me in that last recession—an amazing grace. One day I opened my mailbox and there was a check for $5,000. from an old and dear friend. I didn’t ask for it—he just sent it. Wow. That amazing act of kindness really got me over the hump and changed how I felt too. And from a fellow artist—the great animation film-maker, John Weldon. Thanks, Johnny, forever and ever! We’re readjusting, recalibrating and inventing as we go—with a little help from our friends. Many things can and will happen when we least expect!

What am I doing now to amplify my art practice and income? Teaching, running workshops, doing 1:1 creativity coaching and writing books. I love each of these things! For me, they’re another form of art. They’ve brought a lot of richness to my life. Not oodles of cash but real value. The Wealthy Artist is doing what we love. Everything flows from that.

I’ll be writing more on this subject as I engage in some new enterprises. It’s tough out there but I have faith that we can create good.

Please feel free to share your ideas and encourage others here!

FIRST, the workshop is now ONE full day—SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23rd from 10 am until 5:30 pm!

The workshop is about creativity—how we can connect with our creative core to do our best, most enlivening creative work. How does drawing fit into this and do we need prior experience drawing? Even if we don’t currently draw or make art, we all do have prior experience drawing. All kids draw and, in the workshop, we’ll use drawing to connect with the creative freedom we had as kids. We can use the simple act of conscious drawing as a way to come to know and free our creative minds.

We’re all creative. Sometimes we get stuck and don’t know how to begin. Sometimes our work begins to feel stale. Sometimes we lack a sense of direction or real conviction about what we’re doing. There’s an ebb and flow to the creative process and we’ll be looking at how to enter the flow with ease.

In the workshop, we’ll look at what we want in our creative lives and discover the steps we can take. Most importantly, we’ll learn how to use drawing in the creative process to liberate our highest creative selves. If you’re in the Boston area or would like a weekend away, please join us!

You can register for the workshop here!

Hi there! It’s Monday and here begins what for now will be weekly posts on art in a brave new world and how we can accelerate our individual creativity. I’m exploring how I can be an artist now when the world I launched myself into back in the seventies no longer exists in the same way.

I began as an illustrator and have done hundreds of illustrations for various newspapers and magazines. That work is gone now as print media struggles to stay afloat in a digital world. Some of my illustrator friends are now painters, some do public art, some are print-makers. I turned to writing, an equal passion. I teach too and my book, The Confident Creative—Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind, is inspired by seeing my students open to their true creativity by drawing in experimental ways. What I liked about illustration was that it went immediately into the world. I think a lot about how I can make visual art with purpose now that old venues have disappeared.

It’s easy to see a new world is being born. It’s digital and democratic and beautiful. In the old world, we needed to be anointed by those in power in order to bring our work into the world. Art directors, gallery owners and juries decided whether or not our work would be valued or even seen. All of us bent ourselves sometimes into odd contortions in order to survive. We had children to feed. We tried to keep our work pure. But in our brave new world, the power is now in our own hands. Everyone can have a digital presence. We’re free!

For me, I see that my digital presence here as evolving art. WordPress is art—a virtual world of ideas and images and presence that we can all participate in. A place where our work goes instantly into the world—and at no cost! I’m letting go of old paradigms. The energy isn’t there for me but here. I’m inspired by a new generation of writers like Ev Bogue. They’re generating great new ideas and we can all participate in the conversation. We’re accelerating creativity. It’s not about finding our way in any more—we’re in already.

But let’s give thanks. The old world grew some grit. The struggle to stay true to who we are in the midst of pressures to conform let us know who we really are is beautiful and fine. All of us. It makes me think that all the divisive politics and wars are the last vestiges of power in the hands of the few that will now pass to we, the people. That, for me, is what art is now about—creating a new world, each by offering our unique selves to the world in whatever way we choose. And we’re going to need that grit.

More next week, if not before!

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And if you’re interested in accelerating your own creativity, please join my next workshop here in Boston— Drawing Out Creativity! It’s fun and it will clear the way to full creative expression. Now ONE full day—Sunday, October 23rd!

Sign up here!

Hello, again! Here we are at end of summer. I hope you’ve had a good one! Mine included the very happy occasion of my daughter’s wedding—lots of people, parties and fun! As well as lots of work!

I’ll be posting much more here now about the creative process, how we can all accelerate our creativity and engage with our changing world. Watch this space every Monday to start. Or contact to receive via email. But, first, I’m very excited to announce a brand new workshop for those in the Boston area: Drawing Out Creativity.

In the workshop, we’ll learn to use drawing as a yogic tool to connect with our creative core, understand the nature of our creative process and how to work with the mind. We’ll move through a series of exercises in which we’ll begin to see what inhibits us and how we can overcome the obstacles in our path. The workshop is designed for anyone on a creative path.

If you haven’t drawn for a while, or if you think you can’t, this is also for you! Everyone can draw and everyone is creative. The workshop is totally supportive and affirming. This is a new kind of drawing—non-judgmental and exploratory.

Some of what we’ll do is in my book, The Confident Creative / Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind. We’ll be building on that base and accelerating our learning through working with others who want to really connect with their true creative selves.

The workshop is Saturday, October 22 – Sunday, October 23, 2011 at The Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA from 9 am – 4 pm each day. There is plenty of parking and two restaurants on site.

Come join us! The world needs our creativity! Sign up here!

As promised, new site is on its way and looks like it will unfold before our eyes right here. Sticking with WordPress and designing with DIYTheme. By September, it will all be as intended. These are the dog days of August. We should all be splish-splashing around in cool water. Only silly girls like me are splish-splashing in hot water—ie web design! Happy swimming…to us all!

Hi there! Apologies for the long time away but changes are coming—streamlining to focus on art and creativity in a brave new world, one full of more and more beautiful awareness in the midst of all sorts of chaos. I began this blog six years ago and in that time so many things have happened. I began teaching art and doing it with one basic rule—that we’d look for the good and nurture it. We let go of product—this was drawing for the purpose of discovery. We went where we’d never been before—week after week. Everyone became more free, more confident and crazier! It was humbling and beautiful. I wrote a book about it —The Confident Creative / Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind. Many thanks to Findhorn Press for publishing!

Then the book took me to London where I did two workshops, in March and September, and met some wonderful people. It was great to see how people shed the old stories of themselves so quickly through drawing together in new ways. Drawing is an ancient, primal way to communicate—there for all of us. Workshops followed here in the States. Super fun.

Other things happened. I was invited to make my Mahatma Gandhi Hat Company paintings into a series of cards for an international center for peace and justice. The cards were sent to people working for peace and justice all over the world. Simple yogic messages, a little humor, amazing distribution which I could not have managed myself. It has made me think differently about how art can move beyond fixed product and how ideas move into the world.

I also got to write for a bunch of magazines and The Huffington Post.

Which brings me to now. I’m writing more about how we can all be artists of transformation. Art is about possibility—that’s the fun and the power of it. Making art changes us as we discover more about who we are and envision new possibilities. When we grow, so does our world. In September, anyone who’s interested can subscribe to my new ART LETTER—food for the new creativity, like a bagged lunch for a road trip to a brave new world.

This site is meanwhile going through a transformation. Bear with me. You’ll see the changes happening before your eyes! I’m streamlining. Same url—just cleaner, simpler, stronger.

And, for all those who have been kind enough to write and ask, I’ll soon announce a new fall workshop—here in Boston. Check back mid-August!

Meanwhile, hope you’re enjoying summer—fresh food and air, sunshine, water, friendship, fun! A little sweating. All great and necessary on the creative journey!

Very happy to announce that The Confident Creative is a gold medal winner in the 2011 Nautilus Book Awards! Here’s a little something about the awards—

“The Nautilus Awards recognizes Books and Audio Books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change,  while at the same time they stimulate the “imagination” and offer the reader “new possibilities” for a better life and a better world. 

we look for distinguished literary and heartfelt contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and positive social change as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspirational reading for children, teens and young adults.“

A big thank you to The Nautilus Awards!!