“It took a while to get people to exercise 20 minutes a day, and now it’s drilled into our heads that you have to find a way to walk or get on the treadmill. We hope with this book to create a movement of people who understand that what art does to rewire your brain is just as important as those 20 minutes, and that every day is an opportunity for some kind of self-expression. It’s our birthright. It’s part of being human”

— Ivy Ross, co-author of "Your Brain on Art"

Do you ever have the feeling that too much of your life exists in a sphere that is not tangible?

Phones, screens, cars, houses, stores, air pods, walls, and jobs all tend to command most of our time and attention and remove us from the natural world. We can easily go days and weeks without physically interacting with the world around us in a meaningful way.

After my Grandma passed last summer, I developed a clear notion about magic in the real world. In my mind, magic exists wherever we bring things into being. Woodworking, gardening, mothering, cooking, building, writing, designing, creating- in these acts we bring something into being that did not exist before.

There was a void in my life where this act of creation was missing. When my Grandma passed I looked around at her seemingly infinite creations in embroidery and pottery and wondered what could I offer to my loved ones?

Would I ever be able to create the way she created?

Author Sarah Seidelmann once wrote that we should pay attention to our jealousy. I noticed that I felt jealous that I didn’t know how to make things. One of my sisters is an artist. Another sister is a shop teacher and knows how to build almost anything.

I was jealous- a sign that it was time to get to work.

As you may know, in 2021 I participated in a 100 day project where I recorded one song on ukulele daily. I wrote about that experience here.

This year I decided to create a mini watercolor every day for 100 days.

I have not taken an art class since the requirements of high school. That has been part of the thrill of this project. I have absolutely no expectations for myself. I expect myself to be horrible at this endeavor, so anything that turns out remotely well is a thrilling delight! Because I know nothing, there is EVERYTHING to learn. Every youtube tutorial is brand new information and I am hungry to learn more.

The goal is to dedicate simply 15 minutes a day to this endeavor. Sometimes I can’t even fit in that, so I’ll do a bit extra the next day. I’ve quickly found that picking up my paintbrush in the evenings is one of my favorite parts of my day.

Around the time I ordered myself watercolor supplies, I heard a podcast on Armchair Expert with Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, the authors of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. In many ways this book gives voice to things we inherently know to be true.

Creating for the sake of creating has biological benefits
Practicing art, whether it’s coloring or creating an original work, lowers our stress levels and releases endorphins. The quality of the art doesn’t matter! Coloring has the same benefits as an original creation.
Practicing art helps us get into the flow state, a state of consciousness where our worries and mental chatter disappear.
We are going to dive deeply into the science and research in the book at our upcoming retreat!

Maybe you are also longing to practice some practical magic. Maybe you wish you could embroider mini butterflies on the sleeves of your sweatshirts or play a song on guitar. Maybe you wish you could recite poetry or knew a choreographed dance to a song. I’m here to tell you that you can do it. You can find tutorials for just about anything on youtube.

You might be bad at it, do it anyway.

Creating will amplify your life. Creating will delight and surprise you. Creating will help you see the world in a brand new way.

Start prepping for the fall retreat now. Order yourself the fancy lego set you’ve been eyeing or the sticker book paint-by-number you’ve seen at a store you love. Dig out some old paints. Go to a thrift store and pick out some clothes you plan to reimagine in some way. Dry some flowers. Try cyanotype.

Start digging until you uncover the artist within. She is dying to express herself.

p.s. There are two things I’ve noticed when we host art workshops at retreats. The first is a struggle with perfection. When the art doesn’t meet your inner-eye, your vision, the first instinct is to throw it directly in the trash. The second is a possessiveness over creation. The belief that anything you spend time creating must be hung in the home, given to a loved one, or be sold.

I invite you to cultivate awareness around these two instincts and try to ignore and overcome them. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of creating for the joy of it. Be mindful of your own attachment to what you create.

Art, Movement, Nature Retreat- Learn More

“One of the biggest aha moments in the research was that you don’t have to be any good at an art form to derive great benefits. I sing. I write really bad poetry. I dance. I collage. We’re not talking about being a virtuoso. It’s simpler and more accessible than that.”

— Susan Magsamen, co-author of Your Brain on Art