Submitting to Creative Energy to allow a work of art to create its own image means giving up control. For me this means allowing the materials to use my hands and my eyes to direct me in every movement, regardless of what I've been taught, or assumed from my own experiences. It requires quieting of the critical mind, resisting the urge to "make" it into something I recognize, not caring how others will perceive it, not worrying if it will be "marketable." When I can let go of all control and enter into a meditative state, I get to watch the piece evolve into something I never could have thought of on my own. It tells me when it is finished and ready to share with those who will have their own experience while looking at it and who will see things that I never saw until they share their experience with me. And so it flows - Creative Energy - a gift given to all who allow it in whatever form it may appear.

"My name is Judi, and I have been an artist my whole life. As a child I would take my lunch money and secretly purchase beautiful inks, and hoard my treasured supplies. I became a school teacher, and taught art classes, then began making portraits, while living the life of a traveling artist. I began to realize how rigid the "rules" that I set for myself were, in the way of how I was supposed to create art. All these years of teaching other people that there are no rules and no mistakes in art, and there I was with so many for myself! My Creative Energy painting is an emergence from this cocoon. I allow the energy to flow through myself and my brush, and work to release this flow from my ideas of what is "right" and what is "wrong". I work to free it with joyous expression. These new discoveries have breathed a new life and perspective to my portraits as well, showing me new hidden secrets in my subjects, colors and depths. I cannot wait to see what this journey will bring next!