Picture this as the backdrop:

No, really, that was the backdrop. 
You are now in magical Petaluma, California, at the Institute for Noetic Sciences (EarthRise Retreat Center), where gentle deer families roam the area totally unconcerned. It is dawn, the crisp air feels clean and light, but there is a definite electricity for what is about to happen in the following three days.

Now picture a group of 52 beautiful & talented ladies (and one friendly man), all gathered for the sole purpose --or should I say the soul purpose-- of tuning into their creative beings, to play with art supplies, and share with one another. You have arrived at the Call of the Wild Soul (#COTWS) Retreat!

The fun actually started the evening before this dawn, but that was the best picture I took all weekend, so consider that licentia poetica, and let me backtrack to the very beginning.

Thursday, November 7
I leave Portland, OR and head straight south through the fog and rain. About half way into the ten hour trip, about 20 miles from the California border, the first ray of sun appears, and it is sunshine thereafter. Around 3:45pm I enter the enchanted property where the retreat is to be held and met the beautiful Erin Faith Allen, the woman dreamed up this retreat, and she is every bit as friendly and lovely as I imagined.

Opening activities for the night started with a warm welcome from Erin followed by wise words on losing the fear of business in art through strategizing with Jess Green (the genius behind Seek Your Course). A quick shimmy-shake-dance for a transition, and finally a fast deepening to facilitate bonding (and to really set the tone) with the soulful Katariina Fagering (GypsyLoveCafe) who shared her stories and powerful photographs and lead us straight into an experiential challenge helping us connect with one another.

Friday, November 8
Meeting Teesha Moore

followed by the art sale

Saturday, November 9
Meeting Tracy Verdugo

Sunday, November 10
Meeting Erin Faith Allen

In how many ways are you creative every single day of your life?

In today's post I would like to acknowledge one of my favorite ways for creative expression: playing dress up.
Every day I have a small version of this when I get ready to go into the world and choose an ensemble that mirrors my mood. 


But this is a little beyond that... What follows is a visual narrative of my physical transformation as I got ready to attend Day of the Dead Portland @ Tabor Space and finish the night at the Vagabond Opera's Dia de los Muertos Ball downtown!

Be Present Retreat's Maven, Liz Lamoreux, offered a free 10-day online adventure to help us practice saying Yes to THIS Moment. Some of the days seamlessly fit with what was happening in my life... Others brought forth just what I needed. Here's a recap of my pics and notes for the week++ In December she will be offering an e-course to help us stay grounded and nurtured during this doozy of a month! Here's a link: http://www.lizlamoreux.com/water-your-soul-december/

Day 1: I love to breath. I mean CONSCIOUS breath... I still remember one of my first yoga classes when breathing blew my mind. Today got close...!!

Day 2: My garden is starting to fall asleep. Lots of leaves are turning yellow. Fruit left on the vine frozen in time:unripened. A beautiful morning glory that volunteered next to the pumpkin is withering. The dahlias, rushing to give one more bloom, collapse on the path under their own weighty heads... so many moments of beauty in just a corner of the yard!

Day 3: The studio is where I look for my center... sometimes I find it...

Day 4: There are really no coincidences... Today's prompt is to have an adventure of the senses... I had Lasik surgery yesterday, and today I am delighted by the smallest of things... I awoke a little groggy from the meds, looked over to the side and SAW the time clearly without reaching for my glasses!!! I am thrilled to start my senses adventure in such a powerfully simple way!!

Day 5: Going back into my heart I wanted to know what I most deeply want... to my surprise, instead of an epic answer, I heard an encouraging whisper that suggested I continue to explore this in one powerful way: Play More!


Day 6: Sunday's frequently such a busy day... clean & cook, reply to e-mails, connect with friends, try to get things organized for next week, catch up with phone calls, and definitely call home! -- And then I open the message for today and the prompt is to REST. Wow. I needed that!

Day 7: Joy Seeking is a practice that my friend Kristen Maus (beautiful soul, friend, artist & coach) has been talking about for ages. Whenever this comes up in conversation these days, I can totally see what it has done for her to cultivate this simple thing... What will I focus on today?

Day 8: Connect ~ I have a dear friend who lives in LA... She doesn't feel at home that, and now that she is recovering from a health-thing, she is particularly aware of how far she feels from 'home.' Today, in the spirit of connecting, I send this dear friend some Joy Mail (art in an envelope). It feels so good to imagine her smiling when the letter arrives... Why am I not more connected again??

Day 9: A list of YES - The biggest and most resounding YES I hear at this moment is to meeting myself exactly where I am in my life, in my career, in my relationships, in my art. Yes to the fear, yes to the ambivalence, yes to the joy, yes to endings and new beginnings, yes to small things that mean the mos. yes. YES!!

Day 10: Recap and Gratitude. What a generous thing to offer. What a lovely thing to accept!!

Summer 2013 was a delicious summer. Visitors and berry picking; sunshine & travel; hammock reading, ice-cream adventures, bare legs and sundresses... 

I followed my bliss and blissfully ignored (resisted) my year-long project to 'unleash' creatively, and be accountable through my blog.  Meh, what'cha'gonna-do!!  Can YOU RELATE??

So, there was nothing being put out there in July, and just that one post in August... reporting "nothing in July." 

Today is the LAST day in September, and there is no question summer as we knew it is done! I am sitting on the red couch, wrapped tight, like a little chimichanga. I can hear the wind chimes on the back porch, but louder and more furious is the blowing rain against the windows. We are having our first Fall storm: and it's a big one! 

Thus far in this creative experiment, the hardest break-through has been to be 'putting things out there...'  So I regroup, get myself ready, and try to kindly meet myself just where I am.

I have discovered a new toy in somebody else's computer (>wink<) ... a bamboo tablet that does not get along with my Mac, but DOES let me play... These are some of the Personitas I created while learning what it can do... I am thrilled with the results... Somebody said "Holiday Sale" inventory?

OK, so this is a new low!
ZERO blog posts in July.
But, as always, context is very important in Understanding (and Justifying). 

So check out this equation: 
Prfct PDX Smmr Wthr + Rd Trps & Adventrrrrs + Wdding Celebs & Berry Pckn' = Zero Blog Posts in July
It is as true as the summer day is long, I swear!

So we move on, and conveniently today is August First. 
New Month... new attitude? 
We'll see.

And, although it did not show up in the aforementioned equation, PAINTING has been a part of July.
Here are some pieces to prove it!
Enjoy

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

                                       Jim Rohn- American business man- 1930- 2009

I love collecting inspirational quotes while learning about their authors. I decided to start a weekly feature in my blog to share my favorites with YOU!

The little ritual of looking back after every month and acknowledging progress/accomplishments from the previous 4 weeks has been a surprisingly pressure-inducing self-imposed routine.

May was a great month for dragon boat practices, maternal visits, and birthday celebrations. In addition, May has been a month of many starts and few finishes in the studio... Below is a sampling... 

Sometimes things move along more than other times, and we just have to learn to be ok with it!!
Here's hoping for a better (or should I say 'more productive') upcoming month!

Nothing tempts me to be distracted from a goal more than a blue skyed day with pleasant temperatures. Make that a whole week and a half of great sunny warm days. Add to the mix a hammock, and a good book. Followed by a small pinch of a maternal visit, and a special birthday. . . I really had no chance.

Sure those things are true, but the REAL REASON for my sudden stopping of postings and creative updates is that I got scared. Sharing my work with the world is a big deal for me (and many other creatives), but pushing myself to market it and sell it, well that's a whole other thing.

I just posted the previous blog post, as it sat in the 'drafts' folder for 2 weeks! I didn't edit it or add anything to it... for some reason, the fact that it contained the etsy link, paralyzed me completely!! A million self-doubting voices (some with rather reasonable messages) vying for my attention. So today I pushed "publish live' without giving it another thought. I made sure it was not going to post the update either on FB or Twitter, but it is here on the blog. Chances are  --and I am crossing my fingers hard -- that nobody will see either of these, and that gives me a small measure of relief! 


Movement = Risk ... and I guess I am still learning to be brave in this area of my life. Cheers to pressing the 'publish live' button one more time: hooray!

I can't say April has been a raging success of a month in my pursuit of unleashing and art liberation... but it hasn't been a total dud EitherI'll take the small gains and resolve to face forward and move on... since there isn't really a choice in the matter and all.

The most nerve wracking part of this whole unleashing 2013 has been staying public with my thoughts and creations, and making myself accountable in a public way. April was a tough one in that the main goal was to 'put something, anything' in the Etsy store that I originally opened in 2008!!! I used the account to buy art and services from fellow creatives, but as of this weekend, I had nothing in it.

So, the truth is thatI met the challenge about 70% of the way. It is open, yes, but the inventory is not new, but a little collection I had finished a little while back. Oh well. I'll keep it going