Intuitive Painting

Wild Heart Painting!  Wow!  I think I've found my heart centered home.  Chris Zydel teaches people to paint intuitively and discover them selves through painting. Here is her site:

http://creativejuicesarts.com/wild-heart-painting/

What is striking about this is that I recently had my own bit of discovery.  For the previous year, I had enjoyed a lovely habit of sitting by the pool on Sundays with a group of friends and painting. It was a joyous exercise of just putting paint to canvas and paper and just exploring art in my own way.  I had a glorious year in this way.   

Recently wanting to improve my skills as a painter, I signed up for a quite expensive series of art lessons that I found I tortured my self with, too driven to meet a creative bar that for me I discovered was set too high and I did not particularly like.  And was so dissatisfying to try and paint like an artist or hear the critical suggestions of my instructor.  And half way through I decided  I just did not care.  That art was something I engaged in to express myself on my terms,!  an expression of my inner self.  And so I decided WHO CARES WHAT OTHERS THINK!   

I just need to LOVE the PROCESS of creating, who cares about the out come, it is the feel of the brush, feel of the strokes, the smooth slippery feel of lots and lots of paint globby paint my brush.  And the beautiful beautiful friendships of the ladies and children that joined me .  And so I embrace my informal Art Sundays with the sometimes goofy art that results.

Can We Make the World A Million Times Better?

My son today sent me via email today a Note of Appreciation that I just had to share for it's beauty and something I will cherish forever. Find it here> Shaan's Note of Appreciation.

His note was inspired by a project called The Note Project at http://noteproject.com created by Mike O'Mary.

Mike O'Mary (pictured left) believes every one of us has the power to change someone's life. A note from his little sister changed his life forever.

The Note Project is a global movement to make the world a million times better by inspiring 1 million people to write a note of appreciation to someone who made a difference in their lives. It is free to join AND because Mike is so passionate about writing notes of appreciation, a portion of all proceeds from the sale of his book The Note on The Note Project website goes to charities that support literacy projects around the world.

Mike's vision for how The Note Project will change the world is pretty inspiring. He says, "Everyone has the power to make the world a million times better. And it's so simple. Just think of all the people who have made a difference in your life, whether friends, family members, neighbors, teachers, employers, co-workers, old classmates. Think of the good times you had together or the nice things they did for you…Maybe they cheered you up when you were sad or made you feel special when you were questioning your self-worth…Whatever it was, a simple note of appreciation from you could make their day, their week, and maybe even their whole year!"


One day, Mike woke up and thought, "If one simple hand-written note can change my life so profoundly, what if I could inspire one million people to write a note of appreciation? It could make the world a million times better."

And that, in a nutshell, is the essence of Mike's latest creation: The Note Project at http://noteproject.com