.jpg)
​
Many moons ago, I was the good girl in school. It was important to me to NOT be called out in front of everyone for misbehaving. Then came sixth grade. And Mr. Lincoln. How he saw the WILD in the shy, awkward me, I'll never know. He took me aside one day and asked me if I would be in charge of a bulletin board. "Make it yours! Every month, a new design"
Why yes! I'd love to inspire my peers into my artful way of thinking.
Why yes! I'd love to use my creative powers to paint and draw and cut and paste the inner me onto a huge canvas.
Why YES! I'd love to be teacher's pet!!
haha..ok, the last isn't true because that would involve a whole other dimension of attention I did NOT like..but I did gain some popularity. Mr. Lincoln was the coolest teacher in school and that he and I were now creative comrads..well, he championed something inside of me that has never left.
I've made it my mission to see the WILD in people. Where I work, my community, strangers..YOU!
It's not hard...just takes some attention and an optimism...finding our wild. Using it!!!
If you aren't doing something with your wild..with your natural creative light...how about now?
I've had many "how about now?"s
When I survived a broken brain in 1999, I knew it was time. You know what Leonard Cohen says "there's a crack in everthing..that's how the light gets in"
I started painting like a happy mad woman. No wall or piece of furniture was safe from my paintbrush.
I still had the sense that my creative work needed to be useful to others..be in gifts or home decor or work place programs. I still had the desire to monetize my art and if I wasn't generating income with it, what's the point?
A lot of this came from people and messages OUTSIDE of me. Once I started listening to my inner artist and attracting supportive community and listening to the goodness of my mind, body and spirit...well, I started to get my WILD back.
Now is our time for a sustainable creative practice and be a light for others to practice their own creative expression. I feel it in my bones that this is what we are meant to do. I can't wait to see your light shine!
​
I feel so blessed to have a studio in beautiful Mountain View, Wyoming.
This is where the CARE Alliance was born. I've long believed that ART HEALS. Having worked in places and with communities that need healing, my immediate go tos are to get out the paints, journals, music.
Some of my best memories are time spent journaling, making art, playing guitars with kids in lock up and treatment. When I moved on from direct care staffing, I still wanted to volunteer in that capacity so I created the CARE Alliance. We got our 501(c)3 designation at the beginning of The Pandemic and spent some time training and planning for the time when the world could open up to taking healing art on the road. The virtual platforms are being created as well. I've sent creative expression tools to places of recovery and am now excited to visit those places and share the many ways to use the tools of expressive therapy.
CAMP CARE is the container. CARE Alliance is going to be one great delivery system.
Here's what I believe:
*Making art is for THE PEOPLE. It's not some elite "only the gifted" thing (well, it's a lot of gifts but..you know what I mean?)
*We are born makers. We take what we are learning from our head to our hearts through our hands. Thanks to my girl, Brene Brown..I have the best battle cry!
*When you are grateful, you notice things. When you notice things, you are an artist.
* Creativity is free. It is the continuous small treat writer Iris Murdoch talks about as a secret to a happy life. It is classless, genderless, raceless. It is one of the best things we can practice for a freaking awesome life.
I love you, Tori
.jpg)