I have been on a break from the creation of art for a year now. The break included anything art; blogging, talking about it, identifying myself as an artist, creating art, etc. This sabbatical was not intentional, it just was.

 And now a year later I am aware of what has happened. For years I was so focused on the marketing, advertising, selling and identification of myself as an artist. In these years of learning about the business part of art, I lost the joy of creating and sharing the creations I manifest. I have labeled my art many things and landed on one title: energy art. Now that one year has passed I realize that ‘energy art’ is not that original. It is actually very normal, all artists use energy when creating. They use their own energy to connect with the energetic they are trying to convey to the viewer. In all of the hoopla that comes with marketing yourself to the world I lost my true motive and identity in order to conform to what I believed and what I was told that the public wants to hear and see.

What I have learned in this year off, is that I love to create art using my own energetic interpretation. I have vowed to do so from here on out. My art will be genuinely me, not what I think the public wants to see or hear. That is my vow. And now I will create new works and post them and blog about them with a fresh new approach. Now if only this renewed outlook on my precious gift with remain new…

This learning has not only revealed itself in my artwork, but yet in my life as well. I am living life genuinely. Now I make decisions and mistakes and create victories from a true core that lies within the deepest reaches of my soul. I encourage you to take time to step back from your life and view it through new eyes. Are these the paths YOU would take? Are these the decisions and moves you would make in this crazy game of life? If not, you may be found living life to someone else’s avail.  Please use my sabbatical as a lesson you do not have to live to experience. Start living your life for you, the true you. And if you do, congrats! I wish I could’ve learned from you before I lived it J

Stay tuned for my newest piece of art!

So, this month I have moved to Charlotte, NC which is about 2 hours from Greensboro, NC where I have called home for five years now. Five years is pretty much a max for the amount of time I live in one place, so it was quite a transition to pick up my life and move to another city this time. I had to leave behind all of the ‘roots’ I had established there which included my art studio and community of artists residing in the studios surrounding mine. I had to leave all of the contacts I had worked so hard on establishing for the five years while in Greensboro. Contacts for my art career, and let me tell you, those contacts were hard to establish! Lots of hard work!

I am optimistic about moving to Charlotte which is much larger than Greensboro, and has a larger art community, or should I say, a large variety of different art communities. I will get to meet more people and get a new studio and new clients and new energy flowing in the way of my artwork. New, new, new… all new.

I took down most of my artwork in the Triad area and have it now finding a home in my garage. That was sad; saying bye to people, saying bye to the homes of my artwork, saying bye to my ‘roots’.

After this sadness set in and I moved into my new home, I started to feel lonely. No more art peeps to talk to about the life of an artist, about new ways to make money using our incredible talents. Sigh.

Then I went out to my artwork stored in the garage and began to hang my favorite pieces throughout my home. As I hung, the artwork gave me a renewed sense of hope. My artwork is me, it is my essence, the very material that makes me who I am. It was then that my grieving ceased. Although I will miss the roots of Greensboro, my home is where my art is. And my art is my heart, thus the saying… home is where the heart is. It really is! Now I am looking forward to establishing new roots and sharing my beautiful work with these new people surrounding me here in Charlotte.

To be continued… J

I have been thinking a lot about manifesting lately. My friend and I are starting up a new business, which is a really good idea and I think it will work. Everybody I talk to thinks it is a great idea too. My town doesn’t really have a successful service business like this. So, all is a go. Yet, in the past couple of weeks we have both been going through doubts, and then huge excitement. The polarities are crazy when you start a business. Will it work? Will it be an embarrassing waste of your time? Will I become a successful entrepreneur? Tons of other questions follow.

When the doubt arises I revert to the past several years that I have been learning about manifestation. I have studied all kinds of material about manifesting, from videos like “The Secret” to books such as “The little Money Bible”. We have even joined manifestation groups. Hell, we have even started our own manifesting group.

Manifestation seems to be the new thing. Lots of money is being made from information guiding you down the path of manifestation. I have started to wonder how much more I can read and listen to before I can successfully manifest, I have been a devout student for over a year now. Yet, if I were to step back and look at my life, I should be a millionaire by now. What is the problem here? I have done ritual after ritual and mantra after mantra, but yet I still have my bills on my mind. Why is that? The closer you hold debt, the sooner it creeps in to your life. Shouldn’t I know better after all of this studying which has been telling me to do the opposite, to release the fears, the debts, and the confusion???

Last night I was feeling kind of down and was searching through my artwork for some kind of answer to this dilemma. Then I crossed the picture of a piece I painted last year titled Manifestation. I believe I painted this in the beginning of my journey of defining manifestation for myself.  As I gazed at the painting I realized one hugely important point I was missing in this journey. The main symbol in the piece is the black curvy line. That represents me. I am the vehicle to manifesting. I look at something and change it into something different. Nobody can do this for me; I am the only one responsible for my manifestations. I realized that I have been looking to the books and videos to show me how to manifest and even to the point that I was looking for the rituals and information in the material, to transform my reality for me. I have been inhibiting the process of my own path of manifestation!

What I have learned is that I am responsible for my own life and creating the reality it is. If my manifesting is not working, the only thing wrong is me. When manifesting, it is so very important to make yourself as transparent as possible. The ego needs to diminish, and you need to allow yourself to be a screen of sorts so the object you are manifesting can transform.

In conclusion, I plead that in this new era of a craze of manifesting that you do not lose the whole point of the process… that is being a transparent human. Drop all baggage by the door and you can manifest whatever you really want in your life.

I am going to be adding giclee prints for sale on my website! Gradually this week I will be posting the older prints, the ones from the festivals I have attended that you guys have thumbed through.

There have been a lot of people interested in buying prints of the original artwork that have not been printed yet. So, you will be seeing some prints of older works as well as the newer pieces. If you have any special requests, please let me know!

An e-newsletter will be sent out with the new prints available each month, maybe even a few times a month. The prints that I will be advertising on the e-newsletter will be available as pre-orders at a discounted rate. So you will be able to put in a pre-order via my website or contact me directly by email or phone.

The picture in this blog ‘Energy of 2009’ is the latest print available for pre-order. 

So go ahead and sign up for my e-newsletter on my website and you will get the opportunity to purchase these new prints at the cool, low prices!  

This is an excerpt from a blog i read often. I thought it was pretty cool. Enjoy!

Language is powerful. Words can create reality. If you're wondering how to begin watching your words, here are 7 practical language principles for becoming a better creator of your life.

1 - Eliminate "never" and "always."

Never and always are words of hysteria. "I always mess everything up!" "I'll never figure this out!" "I'll never get an Olson Guitar."
First off, it's not true. If you always messed everything up, you wouldn't have made it out of the womb.

And second off, extreme words are designed to hook you. It's just your emotions taking a joyride. You're more powerful than that.

2 - Use AND instead of BUT.

"But" dismisses the statement before it. "And" includes it. For instance, "That's a good article, but it needs some editing" isn't nearly as encouraging as "That's a good article, AND it needs some editing.""I love you, but..." is another great example of the dismissive power of "but."

3 - Avoid "Should."

Should is a heinous word for many reasons. It is victim-speak. It disempowers its object. It negates desires, thereby making it harder to make choices. It adds a nebulous energy to the decision making process. Use empowered language instead: "I could..." "I would..." "I am choosing to," "I would like to," "I don't want to," or "You might consider..."

4 - Stop calling yourself depressed.

Also stop allowing anyone to tell you that you are depressed. When you call yourself "depressed" or "obsessive compulsive" or "ADHD" or whatever - you're claiming this thing. You're calling it forth with the most powerful two words in our language: "I am." That creates very little option for the transformation of this condition.

5 - Delete the word "hate" from your vocabulary.

"Hate" has lots of energy. When you use it, you send lots of energy out into the very thing you "hate." Even if it's negative energy, it's still a powerful force, adding its charge to that thing. You're also depleting this energy from your own spirit as you say it.

6 - Be "great." Or "wonderful."

A disease of the creative temperament is a belief that we must be authentic at all costs. So we can't answer a simple "How are you?" without delving into an in-depth scan of our emotional temperature.
Try this instead: When people ask you how you're doing, just say, "I'm great!"
I used to think if said this, then I better have a good reason for saying it, like I just won the lottery or something. I thought it would make me look suspicious, and people would start to wonder if something was wrong with me. But then I did it. And you know what? Most people don't care why you're great. You're saying it for you.

7 - Pay attention to the music of your speech.

You know how some people? They talk in question marks? And you have no idea why? But it makes you think you shouldn't really rely on them? And it makes you not want to hire them?
The music of your language says a lot about you. If you let your sentences droop like Eeyore, ("Thanks for noticing me.") or if you do the uncertain question mark language, take note of what attitudes are causing this. These patterns are created for a reason. Even if it feels like faking it at first, generate confidence as you speak.

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

I miss having fun, really having a fun time in my life daily. My email inbox accumulates daily with stuff. I read all of the marketing ideas, all of the messages from friends and family, I visit Facebook at least once daily along with other social media, renewal notices, membership expirations, advice on everything from where to hang art to what shampoo is best for my hair type. I read these emails daily or at least spend significant time organizing the emails to their designated folders; junk, read later, read now, family, friends, work, important... etc. After this intense mind warp, I head to the studio to do one of the most fulfilling things to me; create art. I love to paint, read energy, interpret energy… but my world is not only about creating the art, but selling it. I work every day on ways to sell my art; marketing different audiences, where can I install my art, where can I get the best publicity, what networking venues should I attend, etc. It is hard work and I am grateful that I create art for a living. I am very fortunate to have passion for the thing that brings me financial support. BUT, I want to have fun too! Painting used to be true fun when the business side was not attached to it and it was more of a hobby or research.

By the time I am finished with my art business for the day, it is family time. And I have learned quickly that if I do not hang my business hat at the door, my family hat does not fit well. So the family consumes most of the evening and then it is into the late nights that I spend time catching up on the emails and business stuff I didn’t get to in the day.

Where is the fun? This story of my day is not a foreign story to most artists, let alone most people with a business. I have recently learned how important it is to own a fun hat too. You can incorporate fun in all parts of your life, but to section out a part solely for fun, a fun hat, is rare. Ask people what they do for fun. Just ask them what fun means to them, and see how many people give you an answer that is purely fun, and not meshed in with family, business, and the other duties of life.

What I have learned recently is that if I do not find what defines fun for me, and I do not act on that often, my other areas of life suffer and become burdensome. This is not fair to the other parts of my life. By adding this aspect to your life, you enrich not only your own life, but the enhancement of the time you invest in the lives of others around you in priceless.

So I encourage you to venture onto the path of a life involving periods of enjoyment. It may be hard at first to find the space and time, but that is the one thing we humans have from now until the end of life… time. Manage time well and you will find life a much more fulfilling asset.

I was just coming up with some type of explanation for one of my most recent pieces of art titled “Healing Energy”, and I realized something quite profound. Healing begins from within your soul.

This seems obvious, but let’s really think about it. How many times have I been in a down and out moment in my life and have run to the book store to find a book on the subject I was feeling less adequate about? LOTS! Actually I will usually buy several books on the same subject and begin to read one and then lose interest. Those books will sit on my shelf for years. And then one magical day I will catch a glimpse of one of those books and it will grab my attention. I will begin and finish the book and find great help within the pages.

Or, better yet, I remember on several occasions when I have hit hard times in my life when I have gone to a psychic or some type of spiritual healer. I can now say that I went to the healer in vain. I went to be fixed. ‘Show me what to do next, tell me what is wrong with me’, and I have found the healing work inadequate or just so-so. 

Why have these things happened to me? Why have I lost faith during these hard times in my life? Well, my answer to myself is this… I was not looking in the right places in order to be healed. I was looking outside of myself, looking for anybody to save me, to fix what was broken. And in all honesty, I was not accepting the healing that they bestowed upon me because I was not ready to be healed. Healing has to start deep in my soul. I have to accept the fact that something is broken and that I need help to fix it. I need to want to see the broken pieces, no matter how ugly they are. And I need to be willing and able to expose those. To work on those pieces in order to mend them. Once exposed, we can do a lot of self healing via books or other methods in private. And once we have tried that, then is the time to seek professional healing. But not until we are open and ready for healing can we be open and ready for help.

So, years after I bought those books, they were very helpful. The reason I believe this, is that I was not ready to listen when I first bought them. Years later I was more open, and had done some extensive self healing and could now except the messages the books were holding for me.

I have blamed spiritual practitioners for not giving me what I needed, or else not really knowing what I needed. Yet how could they know if I was not clear in what I wanted, and I was not open enough for them to do what they do best?

In the end, this piece of art that I created shows me that healing is a very personal process. There should be no blame anywhere, not even within myself. From healing comes personal growth and that is evolution my friends J

I was encouraged to submit artwork for an exhibit here in Greensboro North Carolina called Artista (http://greensboro.skirt.com/node/24653). This exhibit is quite profound. They are raising money for the future leadership of young women. I knew I could not pass up this wonderful opportunity to be a part of such a cause. So, I decided to create a piece that was appropriate and near and dear to my heart. This piece exemplifies the empowerment these young girls will adhere to upon their coming of age. Through their experiences of life and the honing of their focus as young women, this piece represents the leadership and energy they will create as strong independent women.

What I experienced in creating this piece was amazing. I not only wanted to show the girls through the energy I painted in this artwork, but I wanted to find in myself the empowerment I have acquired as a woman. I did not realize the magnitude of the power I have grown to embrace through the past 15 years of my life. Since I was a teenager I have learned some influential lessons of what it is to be a woman. By learning to say what it is I think and feel, yet I have mostly learned these lessons by NOT representing my moral compass that I have fine tuned. During those times that I was not true to my strong feminine self, I felt how much it hurt to not be me; to not show the world what it is that represents me as a feminine entity. The world during my life in my 20s was just coming into separation of the negative and positive traits of being a woman. I was torn between being a nice girl who did not speak her mind in fear of being titled a bitch if I did, and the other side of the coin which was representing my true self which is quite blunt and practical and still being called such things. I have learned now the balance in being logical and to the point, yet in a soft and compassionate manner. This is where I have found my leadership role. I can now be who I am despite what others say or how they label me, and I can have confidence that I am an independent and powerful woman, a powerful human, and by speaking and living my truth I am respected as such.

It took nearly a decade for me to find this perfect spot as a woman, and too, our society has come a long way. Though there is still much adversity to conquer being a woman, or a minority of any kind by that matter. I can honestly say now, in the year 2009, that I am proud to be a woman, a human, a leader, a mentor, and most of all a genuine person that can help mentor others honestly and truthfully.

Please come by the Greensboro Cultural Center Thursday, February 26^th from 5:30 to 8:30, to experience this wonderful event!

Trust yourself. How do we trust ourselves? Well, I believe we are trained from birth to trust our minds, our brains. This is all crazy. We should be receiving information with our brain, just receiving. Once you receive the information with your mind, go deep down inside of your soul and make decisions from that space. Your soul is your higher self, your infinite self. Think about it, your higher self knows all, past, present and future. Why not make all decisions in our lives from that space? Your mind only knows the information you have collected from past to present. It just doesn’t make sense to make life decisions from that space. The hard part is in trusting the spirit, trusting that you can come up with the answers all by yourself, with confidence. Learn to quiet the inner landscape in order to listen to what you need to know. Start by making small decision; for example, what kind of creamer do I want in my coffee today? Forget the fact that you have three different kinds in your refrigerator that you use, go deep into the soul and it might just tell you that you need to add a little milk instead of the vanilla creamer, or the half and half. By making decisions from this space you are incorporating your mind, your body, your soul and your emotions; all elements of you and not JUST the brain.

I don’t know, perhaps we will make the best decisions in our lives if we train ourselves to come from spirit. It is a hard habit to initiate. I have been trying for months, and it is inevitable that I will default to my brain. It never fails. But I will continue trying; I am determined to see how my life goes this year by adhering to this practice. So, I invite you to join me in this journey, and give me feedback. Does this theory work? Let me know… I will keep you posted as well J

I have a muse. It’s my little secret and I love having my muse. I know several other artists who have muses as well… one artist I know has a secret fantasy affair with someone and plays out his creativity according to that fantasy. Another artist I know totally is consumed with Salvador Dali, he is her muse. I bring up muses because they have been on my mind lately. I am actually starting a new series entitled, “My Muse”. Sometimes I feel secretive and enigmatic when tapping into my muse, but I have come to realize that having a muse is quite a wonderful thing! It is very inspirational, and provokes creativity when you think you are depleted of it, creativity to do anything. We are creative every day. Not only artists are creative, but everyone. You create your day every day, through the decisions you make moment by moment. You create your responses to other people; you create your route to work, to school, etc. Sometimes you just have a block in your creativity and we usually learn to work around this block by doing routine habits. Find your muse to help you to get back in touch with your creativity and to unblock the daily routine.

For this New Year perhaps you should think about adopting a muse. At one point in my life I had a different muse for the many different aspects of my life. So, go ahead, adopt several. The process of adopting a muse is quite simple, just think about a person or situation that has been totally inspirational to you in your life. Or think of a person you would like to be like, or a person you are jealous of or envy. Anybody or situation which initiates a very strong emotion in you, that is it. A lot of times you can channel that intensity of emotion into your creative process. For instance, my friend who has the fantasy affair with someone, he wanted to quit smoking. He knew that in order to be with this person, he would have to stop. He did stop smoking in order to please his muse, although he never had the affair and continues to create art for his muse.

So, join me this new year by listening to your Muse!