Art Garden

✨ June’s Free Holistic Artistic Offerings Theme: Heart Flame ✨

As we approach the Summer Solstice, we enter a season of light, vitality, and personal power.

This month, through a simple art prompt, guided drawing, affirmations, and a meditation, we’ll gently connect with the flame within.

Stay tuned throughout June for free opportunities to draw with me, affirm with me, and meditate with me as we nurture our Heart Flame together. ☀️❤️🔥

Love,
Shelley

It's easy to live in the shame closet. The performance closet. The 'this happens to other people closet'.

It's easy because it is escape, but that escape is not easy after it starts to eat us alive and strain everything we are trying to whitewash and keep 'fresh and clean'.

What if the mess was coming clean? What if the discomfort is the purifier? What if the pain were the connector?

I used to struggle with perfectionism and masking so much so that even my closest friends were shocked when I announced I was getting divorced years ago, because I kept my issues hidden.

Injuries in 2022 knocked the lid off of my shame. I had to learn to tell people other than my mom and new partner I was having a hard time. I had to ask for help from people I didn't know or trust.

What do you keep inside that needs to be let out? Maybe there is some art out there that 'speaks' what you feel. Non-verbal language is important. I urge you to explore art about your specific issues. It may free you in unexpected ways.

To talk about creativity and healing with me in my private Skool community, and receive weekly art journal and art mind prompts, join Creative Care Circle:
www.skool.com/creative-care-circle-3827/about

For Holistic Artistic Experiences online and in West Seattle visit:
shelleyirish.com.

Art: They are Gone, We are Here by me

So much divides us if we let it.

Ever been in a room where someone is brave enough to mention the vulnerable thing they are feeling, then everyone breathes a sigh of relief? We have way more in common than we often acknowledge. The more open about how we are feeling, the less disconnected we can feel from others.

That is the point of great art. To catalyze. To make people feel.

This isn't an article where I'm going to try to convince you that even though the world is on fire, at least you can draw a flower and feel better. (Which I do believe, but this is a different point.)

Sometimes we don't know what we're feeling deep down until someone says it in a way we would never think of. Sometimes we view art that doesn't make sense to the 'logical' mind, but it makes us emotional.

In our fast paced, concrete world, it's more important than ever to feel.

Sad art unites us. Messy creations connect us. We see each other. Our hearts open. All everyone wants is to belong. Art helps us with this without saying a word.

What is weighing on your heart, that you could turn into art? Let it out! It might just make someone feel like they are less alone.

To talk about creativity and healing with me in my private Skool community, and receive weekly art journal and art mind prompts, join Creative Care Circle:
www.skool.com/creative-care-circle-3827/about

For Holistic Artistic Experiences online and in West Seattle visit:
shelleyirish.com.

It can feel unrealistic to use art as regulation, but hear me out.

Simple, fast, creative acts tend to negate the argument of mind over matter. For instance, when we scribble, we are affecting both the mind and the matter.

The amygdala is the part of our brains that processes stress, sometimes before we realize it. We fly off the handle, react instead of respond, and things come out of our mouths that we regret, that's the amygdala having a freak out. When reacting that way it's because our baseline peace-ometer is not at equilibrium.

The amygdala is much like a fussy baby that goes back to calm instantly when it gets to play with its favorite toy.

The favorite toy of the amygdala is art!

There's no way for you to truly understand this until you experience it, so I'm not going to drone on with details.

I do implore you though, the next time you get stressed out, as soon as you can, zone out into the colors around you. As soon as you can, scribble out your feelings. As soon as you can, sing or dance your heart out.

Please try it. Come back here and tell me about it. I read every comment and love to know how these things land for folks.

To talk about creativity and healing with me in my private Skool community, and receive weekly art journal and art mind prompts, join Creative Care Circle:
www.skool.com/creative-care-circle-3827/about

For Holistic Artistic Experiences online and in West Seattle visit:
shelleyirish.com.

Last night's full moon is said to come with a dose of shadow work.

Were you feeling it? I have been!

Anything you wish to release? It's a great time to be very clear on your boundaries.

It's always a GREAT time to work with your feelings and use your non-verbal language to delve inward.

When we create art with personal meaning we give ourselves space and permission to be real and raw, honest and expressive, and overall, open our hearts to ourselves. This can feel great or painful depending on what we are currently experiencing in life.

Society is shifting, but many of us are still programmed to shut our feelings down, to suppress and mask, and to be in some level of emotional pain to keep the peace.

Ewww. No more.

If you have things rattling inside you, let them out!

If you feel filled with joy, let it out without guilt!

Either way, you are brave.

Even scribbling mindlessly is brave. Messy, chaotic, non-sense inspired doodling can be more freeing than it sounds.

True strength is found in knowing oneself, and we can have deeper realizations through art making than other traditional therapeutic methods.

Be brave. Make art!