an eight day community exploration running from apr 01- apr 08. eight days tending soul: yours and the collective. eight days to take a permanent stand for deep engagement and beauty.
let's begin
đź‘‹ hi. I'm so thankful to have you here.
When I sat down with my chai
at dark o'clock this morning,
the following is what poured out
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Art is NOT about making something worthy of likes or making something and hoping to go viral... Art is about slipping on the seal skin of you and diving into the soul of the world.
When someone makes tea with love, there is more love. When someone writes a letter with their weird musings, more nuance is added to the world. When someone makes music, their songs reminds the wind to play more. When someone makes art, what they create, recreates the world.
 In a time when we are being put to sleep with a hypnotic stream of algorithm pleasing "thumbs up and subscribe" content, it is a necessary pressing revolution to bring our full waking attention to art.
 You with me? That it is a necessary pressing revolution to bring our full waking attention to our art?
Because really, what is art?
Art is not the thing that you create. We call the thing art but the actual art is the energy that you weave into the thing you create.
Art is a ritual of awakening the soul.
Art is animistic.
You saying hello to the tea pot, to the leaves, to the water, to the cup. Eyes closed feeling the steep like it is happening in your blood? This is art.
Picking up thread, carefully pushing it through the eye of the needle, bringing it to the cloth, again again again. Restitching the weave after the proverbial black dog has pulled everything apart. This is art.
Taking your full heart or your broken/ dulled/ fearful/ angry/ quiet heart and pouring the truth into the timber of a song? This is art.
Art is wildly unreasonably brave. Because to make art we need to show up in the real. We need to run our fingers over the smooth jagged hot cold unbearable beauty and muck of the world.
And can I stop us right here? Because I don’t want to be brave alone. I don’t want you to need to be brave alone. For f*^ks sake, we need to walk together if we’re going to remain awake in this extended dream.
It’s easy to get lost looking at the dross of the alchemical process and miss what’s molten underneath. It’s easy to think our worth is tied to making "something that meets approval" rather than remembering what you came here to do.
You came here to be an artist. Damn it. You came here to be an artist. Because "being an artist" is being alive, awake and creative. You came to be the stroke of the brush. Maybe that's literally painting or maybe that's a metaphor for a brush with life.
The particular kind of art you make is way less important than the act of making art. You can choose any art form to dance with on a given day. Some require a slow dance, others a cha-cha-cha, still others a mosh pit, or Macarena. You and life, leaning into each other, breathing hard and becoming art.
Honestly, we could finish the following phrase with most anything
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The art of….
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The art of tea with the ancestors. The art of conversation with snails. The art of walking amidst redwood sorrel. The art of acrylic on canvas. The art of mounding dirt under freshly planted strawberries. The art of... (your turn here)
Art is a deeply vulnerable deeply intimate conversation with life.
So yeah. This is big. And this human over here (me) is being called to dive deeply into a new level of devotion and conversation with art. And if you're reading this, I'm hazarding that you also are being called into a dance with your art.
And it's way better if we do it together.
- If you were told you were not an artist, if the art you’ve made doesn’t look how you want and maybe even makes you want to give up, hold out your hand. We can walk this together. There is art that will sing with everything.
- If you found your art but began to adjust and adjust it in a mad twist for approval until it stopped even whimpering, hold out your hand. We can walk this together. We may need to go off road but we can find your art again.
- If you show up every day and do your art but it's been a lonesome road, hold out your hand. We can walk this together.
- If you don’t even know what your art is, hold out your hand. We're in this together.
We've got this.
LOGISTICS
- There won’t be any video prompts. This isn’t like one of my journaling or painting classes where I lead you hopscotching step by step. Instead each day will have an email with juicy inquiry along with three requirements (1) create art (2) report back in our community space (3) comment on the post of at least one other person in the community. Those three commitments? They may seem small to some of you (and big to others) but they are a thick weave of the ritual we are creating together. Because showing up, listening deeply and doing it together is the magic.
- This course will run for eight days from Sunday April 28 through Sunday May 05. But in honor of the fine Down Under ladies in this international community, the first emails will go out at noon Saturday Apr 27 in my Pacific timezone (which is 7am NZST and 5am AEST). So you can start any time after that. There will be eight total emails and lots of juicy shares in the group.
- Note that this course will be 100% email plus active community space in Mighty. Once we are complete with the eight days I'll leave the group open throughout the rest of May so that we can share what comes out of this activation zone.
I think that's about the gist of it! You'll want to muse about the specific art you are going to devote yourself to during the 8 days. And gather whatever supplies you will need and book yourself at least a half hour each day to do art and report back. All that hitting your spot? Let's make some freaking magic together!
There are two payment options for this course.
The front door is a flat 50 USD. That's the price my Muse said is correct for most folks. But, with a nod to both the human and to the ridiculous, there is a side door with an option to put in your own amount. This is for folks who can't stretch to $50 and are willing to open up negotiations with their own Muse. And it's also for folks who have particularly hand on hips kind of Muses suggesting outrageous things like putting more up on the barrel than the front door rate!
Click to choose your door
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Overheard in the Inspired Inquiries Community
"I cried on Friday when the last instructions were complete. This course has been helpful and cathartic. I needed something to guide me through a serious health crisis to find wisdom and center. I am so grateful."
"This course is one of the biggest glimmer-anchors for me right now. Some days it's the only one, and there is also a ripple effect spreading out from this journey where I look for more meaning around me."
"I am full of feelings - recognition, empathy, joy and sorrow yet today I can't seem to find the right words. Let me say that I feel such love for you all, for your openness, bravery, your willingness to look into the eyes of whatever appears. I feel that I am part of a traveling band of explorers, guided by the adorable, inimitable Jena.
👣♥️👣
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