creativenachos.com Blog

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page by Natasha Reilly

Sometimes you just need to throw paint around in your journal and then wait to see what else arrives. I LOVE playing.

See what some other fabulous folks in Art Every Day month are doing!

I spent the weekend working on a new poem and swishing colors around. I love the inspiration Art Every Day month brings to my life. I love that it reminds me to play and explore. It’s such a breath of fresh air.

Here is my new poem….

Surface Color

Naked, I stand here as it bubbles to the surface.

Colors bursting forth like sun flares

- will you turn or risk being blinded?

Tears running red

-  will you take cover or let them tattoo your skin?

Hold tight to the strings being severed from the  dying heart.

Let the lines blur till there is only green.

Don’t wait for starlight but instead

EXPLODE

And feed raindrops to the hungry lion that rips open your soul

Dip the body in freezing water and scorch fingertips upon the sun

Just don’t look away

Don’t look away

Give it all

NOW

And as you inhale

The cactus,

The locusts,

The wolf’s howl,

The eagles’ feather,

Taste the wind,

Lust covered fingertips,

The eager body,

And desirous soul.

Drink in the dead birds,

The victorious fish,

The nonsense and

The nonconformity.

This is the moment.

This is it.

Don’t wait.

For if you do –

-BLINK –

It’s gone.

- Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011

Creative Cartwheeling: Writing & Art Mentoring to Invigorate Your Life

Do you write down observations from daily life secretly longing to write stories? Do you doodle on everything secretly wanting to create a larger work? Do you long for more of a creative life? Then let that creative wild child cartwheel out and share all the phenomenal stories you have to tell – and YOU DO have stories!!

You might be thinking, ‘But I’ve always hidden that wild child, what will happen if I let him/her come out to play and people reject me? What if I fail? Or look stupid??” My answer is when you are being your most authentic, fabulously expressive self – when you are true to your creative heart – none of those thoughts matter!

You see, I was one of those people who hid her wild, fiery, cartwheeling, creative self and creating a more creative life has transformed everything. Playing with words, paint, images, and more allowed my entire life to became a rich place to live – the colors of sunsets are more vibrant, the sounds of leaves dancing is more exciting, food tastes more delicious, and the list goes on. My overall daily life is more enjoyable. So, I created these sessions that are essentially personal, customized workshops to help you live your most authentic life too!

Getting your true voice out there and being exceptionally proud of it takes courage. It helps to have someone cheering you on and providing the advice and encouragement you may need while working to make your dreams come true. Let me use my educational and personal experience to be the world best personal cartwheeling cheerleader for YOU!

Stop over-thinking or holding back – that’s just fear – and begin exploring the stories that reside on the landscape of our soul through artistic mediums such as creative writing, art journaling, painting, a mixture of art and writing, photography, or a combination of all these. Discover the depth of your inner strength and heart while creating a deeper meaning in your life and connection with the world.

I believe in my heart that we are all worth the time. Our creative lives are worth the time. So what do you say? Are you ready to start cartwheeling with me??

Packages

These sessions are essentially personal workshops created just for YOU! They allow you to go deeper into your writing, art, art journaling and more. Once you begin you will feel like cartwheeling at the start of everyday. Here are the personal packages both 1 and 3 month options.

Introduction session – Begin with an initial chat about where you want to go with your work (you do not need to have a definitive answer) so that we can set a goal(s).

Package #1 – Creative Writing and Photography

Over the course of four weeks you receive:

-       One weekly exercise tailored toward your goals (exercises alternate between creative writing and photography)

-       Personalized honest feedback on your weekly submissions

-       Inspirational emails 2x a month focusing on your goals & expanding upon the journey discoveries

-       Bi-weekly discussion about your personal journaling progress

-       Time tips to help you develop a daily practice

-       One scheduled online Skype conference about process and progress

One month cost: $75

Three Months (including $15 discount): $210

Package #2 – Creative Writing, Photography and Art/Word Art Blend

Art/Word Blend Art: is the process of creating pieces of art that contain a fusion of words and colors. I like to think of it as Visual Poetry.

Over the course of four weeks you receive:

-       Two weekly exercises tailored toward your goals (combination of Creative Writing, Photography, and Art journaling

exercises)

-       Personalized honest feedback on your weekly submissions

-       Inspirational emails 3x a month focusing on your goals and expanding upon the journey discoveries

-       Bi-weekly discussion about your personal journaling progress

-       Time tips to help you develop a daily practice

-       Two scheduled online Skype conferences about process and progress

One-month package: $90

Three-month package (including $15 discount): $255

Package #3 – Creative Writing, Art/Word Blend Art, Photography and Art Journaling

Over the course of four weeks you receive:

-       Three weekly exercises tailored toward your goals (combination of Creative Writing, Photography, Art Journaling

and a Specialty Focus – the Creation of Art/Word Blend Art)

-       Personalized honest feedback on your weekly submissions

-       Inspirational emails 4x a month focusing on your goals and expanding upon the journey discoveries

-       Bi-weekly discussion about your personal journaling progress

-       Time tips to help you develop a daily practice

-       Two scheduled online Skype conferences about process and progress

One-month Package: $105

Three-month Package (including a $15 discount): $300

Email me to let me know which package you are interested in. If you love a particular package but you would like to discuss customizing it, we can do that together. I would be more than happy to discuss it with you! Natasha(at)creativenachos(dot)com.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly, Copyright 2011.

I wish I had taken photos of the process of creation. This work went through so many evolutions before it came to life. I started with a desire to understand movement – specifically the dance of my fingers across the page. At first, the dance led to the creation of a tree but the tree was nice, pretty, something others would like – it was not a reflection of me.

Why was I not being true to myself? Why was I thinking of others? I pondered this and discovered that I’d had a conversation with a friend who sometimes confuses me, sometimes makes me forget that I know who I am. My hands ran over the painting, blending the colors together so that I might begin again.  The next time a flowery plant with stars emerged. Again, it was pretty and so clearly not me. I stepped away for a moment and thought – “This is me.” I felt energy surge through my hands, my fingertips as I thought of those words and covered in paint, my hands went wild. I felt the electric energy that surges through me when I am being my most authentic self. It was exciting to see the paint and my fingers dance just the way my insides do.

When this was born, I jumped up and down.

This is me.

This painting is me when I am being true to myself.

What do you feel when you are being true to you?

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly. Copyright 2011

Last night, the kids had been crazy before bed and protested sleep because they wanted to play more. Eventually Mommy won and the house was quiet. I was so tired and I knew that I could climb into bed and sleep but instead I forced myself to get up. I had not had any creative time throughout the day and I needed to honor the commitment I made to myself  to carve out some creative time for me each and every day.

So, I got up and I didn’t really think about what colors to use as I began to paint. I just started with an intention. “Let this be me.” I wanted to see my inside on the page. I randomly grabbed some paints and started to move them across the page and when I finished I smiled. I was exhausted but it felt so good to see what had come to life on the page. That’s the magic within intuitive painting that I have been learning from Connie at Dirty Footprints. If I trust myself and just begin, my hands will know where to go.  I will know what needs to come to life.  My fatigue prevented me from thinking – “What will I paint?” I just trusted that my hands would know when they touched the page.

I love this piece. When we allow ourselves to trust in our own intuition, our own inner guidance we find answers, we find love, and we find our way. I have adopted this practice to my writing and I’m finding that I don’t need to think and overthink about what to write, I know it. If I go with it I find a way.

There a million people, companies, products and more that want you to “trust” them with your health, children, dreams, and life. Few people encourage you to trust in YOU. I say trust in you and whether you pick up paints or a pen or a sewing needle, trust that you know – just by being drawn to that medium  - what within you needs to come to life.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011

“You’re too emotional.” “Don’t wear your heart on your sleeve.”

These were common phrases I met with growing up. They led to the building of walls so high I almost couldn’t get out. Once I finally did, I thought I was home free but what I discovered was a smaller layer was still at work. It was transparent, giving the illusion that nothing was holding me back from really living but alas I uncovered the truth. That thin layer was stronger than all the walls I’d built. For behind it lay my heart and all the bursting color of emotion I’d ever hidden.

While in Sedona I shattered that layer and now my colors are bleeding onto the streets, coloring the building, the grass, trees, small dogs, people, sky, stars and Universe. It is glorious and frightening, magical and unknowable, yet knowable. It is like the whipping winds of a hurricane and the calm of the ocean on a crystal clear day. It is an ocean wave of massive proportions and sprinkle of rain during a sun shower. I love exploring the depth of this space because when I dig down deep I find things like this – this painting –  and how can I not treasure this?

Break it down. Burn it down. Rip it open. Do what you need to do, just be YOU!

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011

She makes me want to swivel my hips and lose myself in music, lights and moments. As she  finally allows herself to be consumed by the colors in life and in her soul, she finds her true center. What I love is her willingness to play …to allow her body and imagination to play with all the gifts she is given in life.

Color continues to explode from my being and as it does I discover hidden desires such as a longing to do things like learn flamenco dancing, salsa and create everything from my paintings to my writing with a new fiery passion.My longing to play has deepened as I think play is the only true way to explore anything in life.

Today I invite you to breathe deep, breathe in this beauty and let your soul get a little hot, a little spicy and bask in the colors within and all around you.

Play!

Photo of me by my Unbelievably funny, uber-warm and loving friend, Lisa Wilson.

This photo by Lisa Wilson, captured a very, very pivotal shift for me. Upon starting this hike, I had shed about a million tears; this felt like the right place and time to release. To be honest, I could not control the eruption of emotion and honestly, I didn’t want to as this was what I needed.  It felt as though I was shedding my skin. I sat there for a long while, letting everything flow from me till I started to feel like I had swallowed sunlight and a sunrise was just beginning in the center of my soul. Slowly, I began to move my toes along the red rock beneath beneath the surface of the water. and I watched in awe as the red would lift and twirl away with the current leaving behind new, deeper, richer colors. This was the most amazing natural metaphor for what was happening to me.

As I moved through the weekend, I could feel the shift happening. After painting my initial “breakthrough painting” – at least that’s what it felt like – I journaled for a bit about love and gratitude for the people in my life, especially those who had helped to make my journey possible and I was struck by this feeling that I had to paint again. It was a massive, crazy urge. Without thinking, I chose colors and then let my hands begin to move. I worked outside under the stars, letting questions and thoughts, and wild emotion of all levels move through my fingertips, my entire body, my entire being.

Photo by of me by my gorgeous, fabulous, loving, amazing friend Connie.

I simply let myself  *feel* the same way II had while sitting on the rock in the water and this was born. It stopped me in my tracks. It still does.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011.

This feels like me and yet not me. It feels like the world and yet not the world. This is raw feeling and deep belief.  These are two moments when my spirit leapt to life and I was changed forever.

Let me take you on a journey that knocked my socks off.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly. Copyright 2011.

The first day we were in the mystical, vortex-ridden Sedona I painted this painting. If you look at it you will see several things. The first was that I had a REALLY hard time painting with my paintbrush. From the moment we drove into Sedona, I’d been shaking. My body was filled with all this wickedly wild energy and I was having a truly hard time holding my paintbrush. My hands so badly wanted to be on the page. So, I set them free. Covering my hands in paint, I let them play. The heart in the middle just appeared. The yellow part appeared to me to be an angel but to others a vagina – it’s all good, both are sacred.  But look at this work – what do you notice that seems a little “off”? Do you see the word “hold” written on the painting in the bottom right corner? What do you notice that seems like it might “explode”?

Before I talk about that, let me share two other paintings with you. The following were born the next day and here’s the thing…I was feeling the background and the colors on the first but not the image of the mermaid shape. Then in the painting with the woman who has some sort of veil or shield around her,  I wanted to drop kick her in the head. No shit, I could NOT STAND her . The entire work felt false, saccharine, nauseating. I was pissed.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011.

Original Painting by Natasha Reilly Copyright 2011.

By the end of this day, I was SO frustrated. I was wondering why I’d come to Sedona, why I ever wanted to paint. I wondered what the hell I was doing there and in life. My frustration level was through the roof.

The next day as we hiked we found a space that seemed as though it was carved out of the Earth for us. We climbed in and talked as a Tribe. When Connie spoke, her words landed like a firestorm on my heart. I started to cry. My Tribe was cracking open my heart and something was suddenly more than ready to come out.

Back at our art studio, we talked about our paintings and two things were pointed out to me that changed my perspective forever. Go back to that first painting with me for a minute. Look at it and notice that word “Hold” again in the lower right hand corner. At the time – though I didn’t really “feel” it, I thought the word was referring to “holding my heart.” But alas I would come to learn it meant – I was holding myself back. THAT was right. I felt the truth of that sentence the moment it was spoken. AND take a look at the  color in the upper left hand corner of that painting. It was beginning to explode off the page but I stopped myself. I held myself back from being too big, pushing beyond boundaries, running off the edges of the page.

BAM! Like a kick to my gut I realized I’ve been holding back the real juice within me for YEARS! YES, I’ve shared some in drips and drabs but for the most part I’ve been holding it back. Why? I’ve always been afraid I wouldn’t be “accepted.” But as I painted and cartwheeled, cried and laughed with these beautiful souls in the desert, I realized I like being on the outside. I like that I am different and hot damn it’s time to be ME – the me that people might not like being so big. The Me that these women opened their hearts to and the Me that isn’t “trying” to be anything in my painting or in life other than ME! I’m DONE – waiting, walking on eggshells and pleasing. I’m DONE with it. This is me…I want to be ME. Something massive shifted within.

With that thought, I got rid of the paintbrushes. I need my hands when I paint. I need to connect with the paint, the paper, all of it! and headed out alone to paint. I was in a FRENZY! It was nuts ….Connie said I looked like her dog Nyla digging. I was on hands and knees letting EVERYTHING out of me…anger, happiness, rage, joy and a whole host of Me-ness. This is what was born in that moment.

None of my paintings have been the same. I have not been the same and it’s GLORIOUS!

We need to let ourselves be the process – NOT the product. The process is where the juice is – the process is where we really live. This is just the beginning. There’s WAY more. I have a painting to share with you that stopped me in my tracks. But that’s for next week along with a big ole announcement. Sedona…it was just the beginning….

This is just the beginning…

Photo: Living Images by Carol Walker

I’m tired of control. I’ve felt it before but this time it’s different.

My soul is exploding in my body – limbs filled with fireworks.

I want to

Be the Wild…

horses grazing in fields of heather,

child laughing at funerals and crying at weddings,

colors running across the sky at sunset,

flower popping up where least expected,

wind whipping over snow covered mountain tops,

wave  falling madly in love with shore,

Untamed heart laughing too loud, shining too bright and

loving too much.

Let the WILD run through you….

Let it toss you around…

Succumb to its passion and power…

Let it sweep through your soul…

Tell me, what does it look like for YOU to

Be the WILD?