I get to be ME!

I spent way too many years wanting other lives, but not anymore. Today I led my first corporate group in a creativity workshop (thank you, Utah chapter of the American Heart Association!) . After leading private groups for several years, and watching the synchricity emerge in those dynamics, I started to feel like all I do I is open the door and let God show off with what happens next. I have watched connections form in the group process that are authentic and precious. I have seen needs expressed and the person across the table has an abundance to share to fill THAT need. I have watched magic.

I have learned a lot about creative thinking in my journey from art major to law student to non-profit worker to wife and mom back to artist (finally!). And it turns out it was me, the artist, all along. This path of leading individuals and groups into the creative process weaves together all of my history, and perhaps feels most like being a camp counselor (shout out to all of those Lachlan Ladies!).

Today I decided to surrender to the urge to share in blog form some of what I know and am seeing.

I am a digital cave-woman, so patience, please.

I don’t even know how to load the pictures yet.

But today I led 11 women and 2 men in the project I call the One Color Collage Self Portrait. They quietly wrote a few phrases about themselves and then started collecting images and materials in the color they had selected. The chatter started as cutting and gluing got underway. By the end, people were sharing their own stories in such a deep and heart-felt way that it gave me chills. And when several pulled me aside to thank me for the experience, and why it mattered so deeply to them, all I felt was the privilege of intimacy.

When we create, we are tapping into our own internal springs and letting our own uniqueness spring forth. When we create together, we share that flow and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And that, in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, is some Big Magic.

#bigmagic #lachlanladies #artandsoul #creativityworkshop #gincyartist

(see I don’t even know how those hashtag thingies work so that last bit is an experiment!)