Hello AwakendCreative Week 37.
Feels pretty good to be here.
I've talked with a lot of artists recently,
Filling the compound,
Growing this space,
Created this environment of creativity and hope and generative goodness.
It made me realize stories.
Stories of them.
Stories of me.
And stories of us.
So that's what this week is going to be about.
Week 37.
I'm going to tell you the story of my life.
Grab your tea.
Sit back.
Let's dig in.
We've come a long way to find ourselves here in week 37 of our 52-week journey through this one universal year in numerology.
I recently met with friends.
One by one.
Organically,
But each one I find us discussing our life's trajectory.
And because of that,
It's had me contemplating what it means to share it in this way.
I often disregard things I've done over time and in history because they're done.
In talking with my friends and hearing where they've come from,
How they've landed where they are.
I realize how inspiring it is to hear them repeat these stories,
Share with me their histories.
And that perhaps.
.
.
I'm shortchanging not just myself,
But those who come,
You even,
By not sharing my story,
By disregarding it as history and only looking forward.
So in this week 37 of our journey.
I share my life story.
I go back only as far as my art.
This timeline I find myself on began in abstract painting.
With four small children underfoot.
Ping pong table in the basement was my work surface.
They played.
I could interact when needed.
But I was mostly.
Fully engaged in spilling color.
And brushing bright hues and discovering what it meant.
To express not through words.
But through texture,
And line,
And form,
And of course,
Color.
As they grew,
Those children.
So did my time and the opportunity to invest in this expression.
I happened upon a medium called encaustic.
It's ancient.
It's said,
One of the first expressions,
Before oils.
In caustic painting.
Is simply melted pigmented beeswax in the same way that watercolor is pigmented water.
There's a little more to it,
But you get the idea.
At this point in my life,
At the point of this discovery.
I was enthralled.
Fully invested,
Deeply impassioned.
By this.
New Discovery.
There was something of life opening before me in an entirely different and new way and being all ready.
Exposed to life,
Living fully,
Family,
Children,
Business.
It was a wonder.
A naive exuberance filled me,
Woke me early,
Had me exploring.
I was fortunate enough to begin teaching at this point,
Locally.
This inspiration bled into my own work.
This sharing fed the expression,
Inventiveness,
And discovery of my own.
At one of these teaching opportunities,
I sat at lunch with an editor who inquired,
You've created a great buzz around this thing called encaustic.
Would you like to write a book about it?
As these things can sometimes tend to be,
I did an immediate yes followed by a,
What have I done?
It was meant to be.
My naive exuberance was carrying this journey.
And I welcomed it wholeheartedly for two more decades.
This thread of encaustic or exuberance.
Or the twining of them.
Was strong.
Strong enough to hold me through divorce.
Through children moving on.
Through aging into new decades.
Through tons of travel.
Through sharing and caring in ways that I didn't foresee at the starting point of this twining.
Five books.
Five books before YouTube and Instagram and social media.
Five books I was able to create as resources for other artists to discover their passion.
To pick up that naive inquisitiveness.
And ride that journey for themselves.
My life has gone in many different directions,
But again,
That through line,
That thread.
Has been a stronghold.
In Costa Camp,
An annual retreat I created,
Traveled throughout the world.
Italy,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Bali,
Found me teaching for days and weeks and months and years the glory of this medium.
Now what this journey,
This through-line thread-line,
Gave to me was a life.
A sustenance of discovery and creativity,
Exploration,
Self-awareness.
That I would not have had otherwise.
What it gave to the world.
Is opportunity where there wasn't any before.
I'd like to think I opened other minds and hearts,
Souls.
To the healing power,
To the creative expression,
To the self-discovery.
That art offers.
So many wonderful things came into the world through my naive bravery.
Courageous choice-making.
That art fostered.
Would I do it again?
But of course it wouldn't look the same.
And I can't look in the rearview mirror.
And make choices for the future.
It doesn't quite work that way.
The thread still exists,
But of course,
New fibers have come into that twining.
I'm now no longer in Seattle,
Washington,
But Lexington,
Kentucky.
I now don't live in a modern suburban home.
But an 1880s three-story limestone castle on a compound I've created.
Given the cute name,
Like Incasta Camp,
The Incasta Castle.
Here,
The art isn't just encaustic.
It's everything.
It's 10 artists here on the compound,
Painting,
Expressing,
Stitching,
Forming clay.
As they express,
Discover.
And ignite.
And residencies.
Artist residencies.
They too come here to discover.
And ignite.
It's not easy.
It's not traditional.
Our world right now and of course at other times.
Doesn't easily hold space.
For the one who sits back,
Thinks.
Formulates.
Wonders,
And visioneers.
Creation into the world.
The return on investment.
Isn't what our current society would see or want,
And yet… Without it?
Without the poets and the authors.
The painters,
The ceramicists.
We would be half.
Each individual half.
Each neighborhood half.
Each city and state and country,
Half of what it could be as a whole.
This is what I find myself fighting for.
Without fighting,
Because I just don't believe that's the energy.
Moving forward comes from creativity.
In all its forms.
Moving forward comes from collaboration.
Shared Communion.
And inspiration.
That ignition.
That feeds me.
But each other.
This is where I sit in this one universal year.
My 60th.
As the world turns.
I didn't know.
In my consciousness a year ago as we closed out the nine year to move into this new cyclical nine year cycle.
I didn't know.
Consciously that I'd be at this place.
Of reinventing this Encosta Castle compound.
I didn't know I'd reintroduce artist residencies and retreats and workshops.
I didn't know I'd get to have 10 artists coming and going,
Sharing,
Inspiring,
Smiling and chatting.
Creativity into the world.
Where are you?
Where are you?
You've left the starting block.
The year is fully underway.
And as summer turns to autumn and the leaves begin to fall.
Give grace,
No matter where you stand.
But also thanks,
Gratitude.
And also.
Simply because we're turning this year and beginning to lean into the next.
Just a bit.
Doesn't mean it's over.
Each of us take that next step.
At our own pace.
This is yours.
Your life.
Your hope,
Your journey.
Live it fully.
Live it passionately.
And that's it.
Simply.
Awaken creative.
