Purpose Exploration

What brings you a sense of purpose in your life and work?

I’m excited to be getting back to a thread of research I started quite a while ago looking at how we define and describe purpose.

Opening the file again gave me renewed excitement about better understanding what that word means. I am also thinking about the ways my own understanding has evolved over the past year.

Mixed-media art journal page with collaged, found text, polaroid photo of fern, fiber, ink, and acrylic paint. Text reads: “Writes about purpose” and “It is convenient and might approach it”

Mixed-media art journal page with collaged, found text, polaroid photo of fern, fiber, ink, and acrylic paint. Text reads: “Writes about purpose” and “It is convenient and might approach it”

“So what does purpose mean to you? How do you cultivate it for yourself, your coworkers, your clients & communities?”

Natural Pigment & Professional Identity

Today, someone called me a “fellow guardian of open inquiry and conceptual collaboration.” While experimenting with natural pigments on an altered book page I came across some words I had coated several days before with a clear acrylic medium:

Thus, in their own terms

stand like guardians

certainly one of the major achievements

As I washed pigment over the top of the paper today, and saw those words pop out I felt them more deeply. Sometimes, our next role or sense of identity or mission comes from an unexpected place. Creative practices make room for that possibility. I am curious to see how this page evolves and to play more with these new paints from www.fortheloveofsoil.org

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Today will be…

I wonder what words inspire a great day? I do have a professional name plate my great uncle had made when I completed my Ph.D., but this is the one that I keep directly under my computer monitor. It is a good reminder. Today will be awesome!

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Our titles and roles shift across our lifespan. My new book includes creative practices to explore your transitions:

Getting On in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Hands-On Guide to Personal and Professional Development

So much.

So many things have changed since my last update… Experienced a pretty serious health crisis over the winter months… I’m emerging into the oncoming spring with an even deeper appreciation for the role that art plays in restoring us and helping us understand lived experience. Each breath we take is no small thing. And each paint stroke on canvas or photograph taken or note played or step danced matters.

My newest book with Jessica Kingsley Publishers came out this month:

Getting On in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Hands-On Guide to Personal and Professional Development

I am so grateful to have emerged from this winter into deeper opportunities to engage in creative exploration. I will be sharing ideas and prompts based on the ideas of the book, both here and on social media.

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Words Matter.
& Words can inspire.

What words have deeper meaning for you?

Making Time for Making Art

It is a balancing act to:

  1. Make time for art.

  2. Make time for yourself.

  3. Not make “making time” one more to-do item!

Here is an article about zoom fatigue, over-scheduling, and participating in some of the really fabulous offerings for creative practice out in the world.

Photograph of an art journal page created during an online comics workshop. Depicts several human figures on a blue ink background with written and painted text on the right-hand side and large letters spelling out the word “express” in pink paint.

Photograph of an art journal page created during an online comics workshop. Depicts several human figures on a blue ink background with written and painted text on the right-hand side and large letters spelling out the word “express” in pink paint.


Heal

I have been thinking a lot about what we can and cannot expect of ourselves at this time… So many changes, so many losses, and so many opportunities to rethink the status quo. Art can be part of this evolution we are involved in. The most important part is to be in the process

A page from my art journal created with materials from the ArtSnacks box. Text reads: “if your heart feels broken by this world please know that you are not alone we can heal.”

A page from my art journal created with materials from the ArtSnacks box. Text reads: “if your heart feels broken by this world please know that you are not alone we can heal.”

A tour of an altered book

Here’s a video tour of an altered book art journal. Most of it was completed during the stay-at-home orders in Northern California, though if you look closely, you’ll see some ephemera from before from an airplane flight.

What creative endeavors have been helping you during the stay-at-home orders? If you haven’t found any time for it, consider setting out some paper by your work from home area to doodle on or joining with your children in creating images to share in your windows, or making a temporary sculpture out of objects from around your house.