Interview and Art Activity: Mind Body Spirit Collage

I was delighted to be a guest on the University of British Columbia’s Learning Circle. I hosted this weekly educational webinar in 2018 and it was super fun to come back as a guest. The delightful Cole Daley interviews me on Arts’ Medicines and how art and creativity are healing.

I share:

• teachings from my Squamish culture on how everything can be medicine

• how making art has many medicines to share

• how we can meet the medicine half way. 

• an arts activity where we create a Mind, Body, Spirit collage on cardboard

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Supplies

• Cardboard, card stock or thick paper for the surface

• Text page from an old book or magazine

• Coloured or patterned paper from a collage pack or a magazine

• Mod Podge, glue stick or glue of some kind (brush if needed)

• Scissors

• Black pen (or other colours)

• Words printed out (or can hand write words)

• White paint or gesso (optional)

• Circular item to trace around (optional)

Talking with Artists Interview: Art is Magic

I’m always nervous to do a video interview. In my childhood, teenage and early adulthood years, I was painfully shy. I didn’t think I had anything important to say and I worried what others thought, so I stayed quiet. Is that familiar for you?

I’ve always stretched myself out of my comfort zone and have now spent the last 20 years as an educator and public speaker! Talking about art, creativity, and self compassion are huge passions of mine and I continue to step more and more into my real self. Now, I aim to be me and to not pretend or try to be something I think others want.

So, a long introduction to this interview!! I was thrilled to spend half an hour talking with Galia Alena from Art is Magic, about the joy of creating and the practice of kindness in our creative process.

My Interview:

• why I create art

• my journey in becoming an artist

• what is inspiring me

• what my creative practice looks like, how I keep it fresh, and how it has evolved

• how I care for my creative practice

• and what I wish I knew in the beginning of my creative journey

I hope you enjoy the interview.

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Make Create Express: The Creative Journey Continues

• a year-long mixed media adventure

• 27 teachers sharing 2 lessons each

• different techniques, processes and new ways to express your own unique creativity

• my lessons include ‘Moment of Serenity’ and ‘Journey’. Both are mixed media expressive portrait lessons

My Lessons:

Journey and Moment of Serenity

5 Tips for Creating Art While Traveling

Bringing art on the road can be a great way to ground, relax and enjoy while you are away. What is hard, is deciding what to bring!! Do you ever bring art supplies on a trip? Unsure what to bring? Do you want to bring them all?? Are you expectations high on what you will create and how often you will create while you are away? I hear you. I struggle every time.

When I traveled recently, I brought the smallest travel set I've packed yet. I wanted to keep it simple and light.

Supplies I Brought:

• black micron pen

• white gel pen

• white and black charcoal pencils (soft)

• 4B pencil, blender, and eraser

• 4B Lyra water-soluble pencil

• stabillo all in black

• small brush

• notebook

What did I end up using? I used the black micron pen and my notebook!! It reminded me that creativity doesn't need to be fancy. In fact, limitations foster creativity. I usually use acrylic paints, so using only the felt pen helped me learn some new ways to shade. I also kept my expectation low by starting my sketch with my non-dominant hand.

Here are my tips for making art while traveling:

• keep your travel set small

• don't expect to create every day, maybe just once is enough

• don't expect to create a masterpiece

• remind yourself why you are brining your supplies-- what are your intentions-- to relax, to practice, to get grounded, to learn...

• be kind to yourself about what you create and how much you create

Below is my poem I wrote to go with the sketch:

In Flight

He holds her dreams up,
Pointing the way, softly reminding,
Wings spread, open to the flight,
They move together,
Through foggy skies that obscure the mountain tops,
Gliding along sunbeams, following their light,
New territories, new journeys await,
Hope, joy, discovery,
Delightful dreams are held in the dance of the flight.

What is it like for you when you travel with art supplies? What struggles do you have? What works for you? What is the smallest travel set you have ever brought? Please share your comments below.

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Interested in some FREE art lessons:

Inky Background: Art Video

I LOVE acrylic inks. Have you tried them before? These are the reasons I love them:

• they are so rich in colour

• a little goes a long way

• you can layer on top of them

• they are watery

If you struggle with perfectionism tendencies (like me), acrylic inks can help because there is little control with them! I have to surrender and allow them to move and flow where they want to. Tilting the page is fun too— watching the ink drip and merge with other colours.

They are very meditative to use and I find myself smiling every time I use them. I enter a state of flow and am immersed in the moment. Pure play!!

Art Video

Here is a short video (6 minutes) where I create a vibrant acrylic ink background. This video is an excerpt from my Earth Mother, mixed media course.

Final Piece

When I first started this piece, I was just playing with acrylic inks. I loved the background so much, that I decided to paint this Earth Mother on it. She became a part of my Earth Mother, mixed media course where we create an expressive portrait and capture her story in a poem.

Earth Mother, mixed media art course

She Whispers to Us...

She is steadfast through time

Enduring the cycles

Her heart beats strong

She hosts us with her love

Bringing ancient wisdoms

‘We are all one’ she whispers

Stone, earth, fire, wind

Life connected across oceans, air, and lands

One home- one family

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Interested in some free art video and lessons?

Connect to Your Piece: Mixed Media Free Art Lesson

Ever struggle with an art piece?

I just wasn't connecting with this painting as I was creating her. Most paintings go through the 'ugly' stage, but this was different. While I started to get frustrated and doubt that I could ever paint anything I liked again (familiar??), I asked myself these questions:

• Did it matter if I connected with the piece?

• Did I want to continue?

• Did I enjoy myself so far?

• Did I learn something?

• Could I be bold and experiment?

• Did I want to go back to a familiar technique?

I asked for help from other artists in the on-line art community. Many said put her aside for a few days so that is what I did. I ended up going back to a familiar technique and adding more opaque layers and warmer colours. I feel a connection now.

I share my whole process of working through this struggle in this video. 

Supplies

Copy right free photo by Dmitriy Ilkevich on www.unsplash.com

Watch Video Here

I hope you enjoyed it.

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Another Free Lesson

If you are interested in more lessons and demos from me, please consider subscribing to my newsletter below. 

Sign up for my newsletter

Raven and Crow Series: Free Art Video

Free Art Video

I love creating in a series. Across a few pieces, I can find a colour scheme that I enjoy and problem solve design challenges while finding some variation and interest between the pieces.

In this time lapse video, I share the making of a mixed media Raven and Crow series. I used wood cradle boards in various sizes and created 7 pieces at one time. Each piece has its own inspirational saying.

Follow along and create your own series combining images and words that resonate for you. I downloaded royalty free raven and crow images from Pixaby. This is a fun, relaxing way to create inspirational art you can hang on your wall or give as a gift. The wood cradle boards are ready to hang and are a nice hard surface to collage on to. 

Supplies

• wood cradle boards

• assorted collage papers, old book pages, washi

• white and clear gesso

• acrylic glazing liquid

• acrylic matte gel

• paints: white, purple, quinacridone violet, violet

• acrylic inks in lime green, blue shade, quinacridone magenta, muted grey

• pastel pencil in violet and teal, black and white charcoal pencils, white gel pen

• brayer, bubble wrap

• spray bottle, old credit card, palette knife

• assorted brushes

Check out my Raven and Crow images I’ve saved on Pinterest and Unsplash.

Free Time-lapse Video

Enjoy this time-lapse video. 

Video 1

Video 2

Please share your questions and comments below. Remember, to be kind to yourself as you create.

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If you enjoyed this video, consider joining my email newsletter for additional free videos, giveaways, and news on upcoming classes. Upon joining, receive access to a mixed lesson where you create your own Tree Woman.

Arts' Medicines- Why Making Art is Healing

“Art is our one true global language. It knows no nation, it favors no race, and it acknowledges no class. It speaks to our need to reveal, heal, and transform. It transcends our ordinary lives and lets us imagine what is possible.” —Richard Kamler”

— Richard Kamler

With many expectations surrounding us from multiple sources—work, children, and spouses— life is stressful, fast-paced and overwhelming at times. It can be challenging to remain grounded and focused on the real priorities of life. Many of us are exhausted and/or experiencing depression and anxiety. These challenges are a part of my life and I suffer with anxiety on a regular basis. Making art is an effective way to bring balance, feel energized and restored.

There is a great freedom to be found in expressing yourself through the process of creating art. It helps you relax, express what can’t be put into words, boosts your immune system, and increases your resilience. It is good medicine for your mind, body and spirit. Finding art has been incredibly transformational for me. After sitting down to create, my anxieties melt away and I find my center again. How do you feel after you create art?

My Connection to Medicine:

I’ve been honoured to receive a Stl’atl’imx name from Elder Gerry Oleman through a naming ceremony. My name is 7mlemelwet and it means medicine. I’ve spent many years contemplating what ‘medicine’ means in my traditional Squamish culture, what is means in today’s society, and how I can ensure I am well myself, so I can share my gifts with the world.

This has not been an easy journey. I have held the limiting belief that if I look after myself that I am being selfish. Does that feel familiar? We all need to look after ourselves (without guilt) in order to be our whole selves and so that we can give to others. 

“I cannot take care of others, unless I take care of myself”

— Choices Seminars

Everything as Medicine:

In my Coast Salish culture, I have been taught that everything is medicine. Some medicines are directly beneficial like a traditional plant that has a healing property and is used to treat an ailment. Medicine can also come in the form of an experience that teaches us something. The experience may be painful at the time, but it may help us grow as a person. Everything has something to teach us and we can choose what we learn and how fast.

For thousands of years, Coast Salish people have drawn on the medicines of the animals and birds who live around us. Each holds different characteristics and qualities that we can reflect on and apply to our lives at different times. The animals have many medicines to share with us:

• a wolf shows us how important family is

• an eagle that flies high over the landscape shows us how to gain perspective

• a deer has a quiet, unassuming strength

• a whale shows us the importance of community

Medicine is… a ritual that nurtures the spirit

Medicine is…a teaching or lesson that we learn to better ourselves

Medicine is…a quality of another being or object that we can apply to our own life

Medicine is…an activity or food that helps strengthen our bodies

Medicine is:

• spending time with friends

• meditating

• laughing

• going to yoga

• going for a walk

• standing with bare feet on the earth

• and of course--making art

How do you view medicine? What experiences have you had that you have learned a valuable lesson from? How do you look after yourself? Are you able to do it without guilt? 

An Ancient Need to Express:

Humans have been expressing themselves through symbolic art for tens of thousands of years. The earliest known cave paintings, made by Neanderthals, are now believed to be 65,000 years old.

The beautiful cave paintings at Lascaux cave, dating 20,000 years ago, are so incredibly moving. They are created with warm pigmented tones made out of oxides of iron and manganese, as well as charcoal (next time you use charcoal or grab your red iron oxide paint, think of these paintings). When I look at these paintings, I feel a deep connection through time to a core aspect of our humanity--- artistic expression. Check out this virtual tour. Anyone been there? I totally want to go! 

Arts’ Medicines:

Humans have a need to express, whether through movement, voice, music or symbolically. Art is an avenue to express and let out emotions, discover inner truths, connect to others, and share messages that cannot be put into words. The act of creating art has many medicines to offer. Here are a few:

Stillness: Engaging in art making brings you into the present moment. No past conversations to review, no future plans to worry about-- just the present. It settles your mind to be in the present. At your art table, in the present moment, you are safe. You enter a state of flow where you don’t perceive time. Serenity and peace emerge. 

“Stillness isn’t about focusing on nothingness; it’s about creating a clearing. It’s opening up an emotionally clutter free space and allowing ourselves to feel and think and dream and question.”

— Brene Brown

Joy: Pure joy can emerge while creating art. Let your inner child come out and play, paint with your fingers, use the colours you love, get messy, and don’t worry about the end product.

Connection: Making art helps you connect to your inner self, to discover emotions you weren’t aware of, to help find a path forward, to connect to forgotten pieces of yourself, and to connect to others.

“Embrace your real beautiful self through the act of creating.”

— Melanie Rivers

What medicines do you experience from engaging in making art?

Meet the Medicine Half Way:

It is important to meet the medicine half way—to move towards it. This is a valuable teaching from my culture. When I apply this teaching to making art, I see how important it is to be kind to yourself while creating. Don’t take away the peace and joy of creating by judging what you are creating. Focus on the process and be present—meet the medicine half way.

“Acknowledge, accept, and honor that you deserve your own deepest compassion and love.”

— Nanette Mathews

I invite you to engage in making art today, even if it is 5-10 minutes. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and do some sketching. Allow art to heal, restore, and transform you. Set aside time to look after yourself and ensure you are being kind to yourself while you are creating.

What is your next art project? When will you set aside some time? How do you want to feel as you create?

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Author Profile:

Melanie is a mixed media painter and teacher. She believes that we are all creative in some way and that the very act of creating is healing. She invites others to experience arts’ medicines--- joy, connection, and stillness.