Lead By Imagination

Creative activities reduce stress . The major studies looked at creating visual art, https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/museum-75.php but I've no doubt all creative exploration can reduce stress. We could call it play. Not competitive play, because that may spike someone's anxiety. Real play where no one loses. Imagination leads the way.

Life means process. Always ongoing, never finished, moving forward to engage imagination along the way. A painting might be finished eventually, but not so with people; we keep changing. Movement and change fill our lives with meaning. The challenges along the way help us grow and keep us focused on the process of life. We live in the ever changing progression of every day, week, month, year, decade...; we can never fail because life provides new opportunities for learning to overcome the challenges, to become fully alive. Like good yeast, we embody the natural energy to help the world grow. We are not the finished product, not the bread itself. Bread is finished when it comes from the oven. Then, it cools and is sliced and begins from that moment to grow stale. At best it's a good breakfast toast. When breakfast ends, the toast has been consumed. Perhaps we need to use more color in the painting of our lives. Paint colors can be blended together to make more colors, dee...

Nancy Hellis , author of The Artist's Journey, lays out and examines FOUR traps to avoid as an artist. Create your art as exploration. The journey of art is inner focused. Self-expression looks within. Art releases the expression and our identity emerges through evolution. Art is a leap into the unfamiliar. I have lingered in one and sometimes all four of the traps. Frequently. Even continually. 1. I must acquire the technique first. 2. What will the real artists say about my artwork? 3. I'm not a real artist. 4. Fear of vulnerability in expressing myself. As a writer, the same traps swallowed me up for a long time. Even after multiple publications and success as an editor for others' work, I stumble into the traps. Hellis leads us into daily practice for the development of one's art as regular exploration of the elusive deepest work. The most wicked self-doubt comes from thinking "real artists" do not need webinars, classes, mentors, etc.; theref...

"The unusual two-piece "Foot and Arch" was created by Indian sculptor Ganesh Gohain . It was installed near to Charles Rennie MacKintosh's House For An Art Lover in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park by Alan Kean in 2005." Great place to visit if you find yourself in Glasgow.