The Creative Sanctuary: Rituals + Practices

The studio is a creative sanctuary from which to connect with one’s artistic self. Designing a personal space that inspires and motivates helps to facilitate the artistic process, keeping the creativity flowing. For me, it is important that my working environment be an external expression of my artistic personality, providing an ever-evolving means of visual, verbal, tactile and even aromatic stimulation.

Check out the Rediscovering Your Creative Self podcast episode on collecting and bringing in objects into the studio environment that inspire, sparking nostalgic memories and joy.

When I walk into my studio and begin to paint, I maintain an open mind about what is to come. To keep distractions at bay, I employ movement and yoga as well as Zen-based mindfulness and meditation practices. My sensually-aware, mind and body artistic approach gives me clarity and insight, allowing me to work in a spontaneous process that relies on the unexpected to enter into the mix. As I begin to create, I establish a certain atmosphere in the studio.

Check out the Rediscovering Your Creative Self podcast episode on the importance of the studio as a sanctuary for creativity.

Get FREE access to the Rediscovering Your Creative Self podcast which focuses on developing a relationship with the creative spirit that resides within and making daily lifestyle changes that enhance creativity, building a more creative and playful mindset.

Throughout the audio program, topics such as battling the inner critic, handling creative block, working through anxiety and self-doubt and interrupting the patterns that bind are explored. Managing fears, seeing mistakes as rites of passage, knowing when to open and close doors, riding the wave of triumphs and tribulations, avoiding distractions and coping with naysayers that keep one from seeing the light that resides within are covered. You can become a FREE patron, accessing all my public posts. I am no longer on social media. I deleted all my accounts because of all the policy changes that have not only impacted artists but also art institutions, universities and mentorship programs. I am posting now on my Navigating the Labyrinth of the Creative Mind patreon site.

If I am writing, sketching or composing, I like to light scented candles throughout the space, engaging the senses heightens the experience for me. While painting, I enjoy instrumental, new age and classical music. I especially love listening to scores created for the big screen and opera, as they conjure stories and induce surrealistic, dreamlike pictures in my mind. Through interpretative sound and essential oil stimuli, a stream-of-consciousness approach to painting begins to ignite my imaginative faculties.

In addition, I listen to sound audio recordings as well as books on tape while I am working. Symbolist poetry and literature beckon me to other worlds and I am completely drawn in. I drift off to another place and time, venturing outside myself into the world of the fantastic.

I also love to experiment and work in sketchbooks as a way to warm up and wind down from a day of painting. I will often use scrap surfaces and leftover paint on the palette as the elements to make something with. Instead of throwing them away, I challenge myself to create. It has become an ongoing challenge to come up with something interesting each time.

Some days all I create are intriguing backgrounds, while other days I pull a subject from a previously created, abstract environment. It just really depends on my energy level and interest on any given day. If my day is very structured, I like to cut loose and let go in my sketchbook, allowing the painted marks to fall intuitively on the surface. The experience transforms the artmaking process into a performance, where the pictorial surface becomes a theatrical stage and the paint, mediums and instruments are the dramatic actors dancing across the surface.

Sketchbook Meditation + Exploration Weekly Social

Every other Tuesday, I host an open sketchbook social event called Sketchbook Meditation + Exploration. We discuss the Rediscovering Your Creative Self podcast episode of the week, setting an intention for our work and making daily lifestyle changes that enhance creativity.

Artists use the Sketchbook Meditation + Exploration biweekly get-together as a time to commit to working in their sketchbook, experimenting and discussing with other artists topics that will help in developing a relationship with the creative spirit that resides within. Recordings are available for patron artists if they miss a session. Be a part of a creative tribe, interacting with artists and enthusiasts from all around the world who have shared interests in art. This is an opportunity to create a robust artistic community, broadening your horizons as a creative person. Join us!

In addition, every month on the Navigating the Labyrinth of the Creative Mind site, there is new Sketchbook Challenge prompt and directive, allowing artists to discover alternative ways in which to practice art that is more personal. Art created from this endeavor is shared on the private Community Chat with other artists. I also have a Just Imagine series of posts and videos explore working in a sketchbook as well as creating custom made books. Tactile surfaces, unique designs and engaging presentations stimulate brain activity, allowing artists to drift back to a playful state of mind. Paint Pictures with Words Writing Club: This series of posts and videos explore writing about our works, creating poetry and prose and using the power of words to assist in the creative process!

Check out the complete Collection of Content already on the Navigating the Labyrinth of the Creative Mind site!