Philosophy deserves practice, practice deserves a philosophy, a vibe wants a vessel and a vessel wants a vibe, a vision requires a voice and a voice requires a vision.

Creative juices ready to come through? It will require something from you.

my ways

  • Struggle isn't only attack, pressure or oppression. Often it's the discomfort of not knowing yet — heavy, dark, unclear. The temptation is to lean on mind and ego instead of the gut, so we fight, run, dig and hold on until the resources run down; or we let go at the first setback, call it grace, and drift away from what we wanted and deserved. Struggle is a challenge to balance, and balance doesn't ask us to break the rules. It asks us to return to a rhythm, where our own guidance is audible again. I have methods for mine, which is how I can hear the cues in yours.

    Struggle is in a challenge to balance. In my philosophy it doesn’t require us to break the rules but to return to a rhythm for regulation and hear our inner guidance. And because I have my methods for mine, I can hear the cues for yours.

  • The story in your head and the one you're living. The one you're presenting and the one you're planning. Words and actions have to say the same thing in the same context, and that gets harder the more you love the thing you're writing about — a promise made out of pride is a difficult promise to keep. Most of what goes wrong isn't dishonesty. It's making yourself smaller than you are, or bigger, because you couldn't see the receiver clearly. A story can be read, so I read yours before the fund, the board, the client or the audience does.

  • Everybody has sauce: the original quality you love from, what some call je ne sais quoi. It's meant to be served, and it needs a container — otherwise it goes everywhere and you run empty. Plan too tightly around it and it goes flat; follow it with no structure at all and you lose the thread. The sketch is that container: a structure around what you love doing, so it feeds you and it feeds the people at your table.

connect

my wonders

How to do life well? What comes to mind to me personally are words like service and sovereignty, followed by a thought about pleasure from peace and then one of pain and how silver linings of a story become the stitches that give a new glow to our growing heart. What comes to mind is trying your best in staying true to yourself, while refining your character. What comes to mind is being able to reach your own creative force. To learn how to cultivate it, clean it and channel it outwards to make your unique contribution to the world. I focus on that creative force in my work while I try -dare I say commit- to live my life in a way that is intentional, loving and expansive. Taking with me my capacity to wonder and be open for surprises as nourished by my mother, the ability for good sportsmanship as modelled by my father and the attunement to fertility, budding & blooming processes and the timing of harvest as understood and taught by my grandparents. Taking with me little gems, clues and lightbulbs from my brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbours, friends, peers, mentors, lovers and the occasional stranger.

While I hold a deep belief that everyone is an artist -whether they want it or not- I don’t believe every artist works with the artistic disciplines. I believe some artists will renew something in their sector, or maybe just the office they work in. Some hold a community together or fix the thing nobody else wanted to touch. Some get back up after being smacked down with more love for life they had before and others rise from the rubbles and repair the ruines after a war. In each of those examples, I see an artform.

In a way, I believe being an artist, is to be free and rich. And while I can’t say I hold the truth about what it all entails, I learned that we have our chances to be an artist in our own world. If we want to, we get to collect colours to enrich our palette and we can learn about the shades we decide to paint. We can collect tools to draw with while learning how to create the shapes that illustrate our vision. At the same time, being an artist, or owning our artistry, is both rewarding and challenging, frightening and anchoring. It can be equally intense as gentle. It’s something about learning to surrender while standing your ground, minding your business and being generous with others, learning to let go while getting more honest on your desires.