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I am an artist… shared story by Soraya Nulliah

Posted on 2011-11-21 at 3:00 pm.

Today’s *shared story* comes from artist Soriah Nulliah.

I am an artist. From before I was even born…this is what I am. It’s what makes my heart sing… it’s what fuels and sustains me. However…I didn’t always know this or believe this.

I was born into a family and culture that was extremely oppressive, abusive and stifling; there was no room to breathe and grow. Girls were only meant to get married, be obedient and produce (male) children. That’s it! I was not allowed to have my own dreams or ambitions or creative expressions. For me…following my heart and doing what I love has really been the long road of individuation, empowerment and building my self esteem. I used to paint, draw, write poetry and journal when I was a teen but I was ridiculed and belittled so I kept it hidden. I put all of my dreams away in a box and locked it shut. I lost the key.

As I entered my 20s, I was fractured and very broken…dealing with the deep scars of my childhood experiences and wandering about the world as a lost soul. I entered a long period of soul searching. I left home and managed to educate myself. I travelled and lived in an ashram for about 6 months. I read voraciously, visited museums and art galleries but I was very very lost and living a life that was devoid of heart and meaning. Externally I had everything but, paradoxically, I had nothing.

The turning point in my life was when I turned 30 and went on a 4 month pilgrimage to India. It changed the course of my life. I am of Indian descent but had never visited the land of my ancestors before. It was this journey that led me to the very heart of my SELF and to my art. In the claiming of my whole self, I realized I simply had to create, write and paint; it simply wasn’t an option any more. I found the key to my locked box of dreams; that key was my true SELF!

When I came back from that trip I took classes on painting, drawing and photography. I started putting paint to paper and pouring out my heart onto large canvases. I spent all of my money on fat jars of paint, books and classes. Most of those early paintings were truly horrible…but I was happy for the very first time in my life. My heart was singing and I was learning and growing.

I think the biggest sacrifices I have had to make in the pursuit of my art has been after the birth of my daughter Tara. On one hand I absolutely adore being a mother and raising my little girl, but on the other I absolutely have to paint. So it’s a balancing act of sleep deprivation, guilt, passion, love, time management and creativity – a balance I am still struggling to find! I have an amazingly supportive husband so that helps tremendously.

Motherhood completely changed me and ignited all of my maternal instincts with wanting to be there completely for my daughter. And just to complicate things, motherhood also fired up my creative juices and I had all of these paintings and stories inside of me just aching to be told.

Doing what I love doesn’t mean that I don’t suffer disappointments, frustrations and setbacks. What it does mean is that when I do experience these, my heart and passion allows me to sustain the commitment to my art.

What do I wish I had known back then? Hmmm…everything and nothing! Every single joy, heartache, pain, success and failure has led me right to this moment here; it’s all part of my personal journey. In many respects I have had an extremely difficult and painful life yet I firmly believe that those very same experiences have allowed me to be the person/mother/artist that I am today. I can be a great mother to my child because I never had that for myself. I can tell these stories of brokenness and wholeness because I have been on that very journey. Doing what I love continues to be humbling, healing, invigorating and exciting.

[Images courtesy of Soraya Nulliah.]

Soraya Nulliah is a wife, mother, friend, artist, creative soul, seeker, budding photographer. Find out more about Soraya on her blog or connect on Facebook and Twitter.

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Have you heard about my collaboration with surface pattern designer Rachael Taylor?

The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design is open for registration now! Find out more here

Weekend book club: Sketching and illustration

Posted on 2011-11-13 at 5:40 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

I have always been a bit scared of drawing formally (still lifes etc) but I hugely admire people who can whip out a fantastic sketch in seconds and would love to be able to do that one day. I do love peeking into other people’s sketchbooks though, and have many books which either display incredible talent or try to help me draw better myself. Here are a few of them…

(PS With ‘Weekend Book Club’ I share a different theme each weekend and archive them on the sparkly new Weekend Book Club page here.)

Beauty in Bloom by Natalie Bloom

Written and stunningly illustrated by the founder of Bloom Cosmetics, this is actually a beauty book but never fails to inspire me.

Tokyo Sanpo (walks around Tokyo) by Florent Chavouet

Having lived in Tokyo for three years I love the memories this book recalls for me. There is incredible detail in the hand-drawn observations, and it makes me want to put a pack of coloured pencils in my handbag and go out right now.

Street Scene by John Lee

This brilliant book shows you how to draw people graffiti-style

Manolo Blahnik Drawings by Anna Wintour

I love fashion illustration and no-one does it quite like shoe-designer extraordinaire Manolo Blahnik, edited by Anna Wintour of US Vogue

‘Fashion Illustration School’ by Carol A Nunnelly

And if you want to learn how to do it yourself, this is a fantastic guide to fashion illustration

‘Zakka sagashi no tabi nouto (notes from my shopping trips)’ by Yuki Fukui

This is a delightful book of handdrawn sketches done by a Japanese girl while out and about shopping

The Creative License by Danny Gregory

A great book for building your sketching confidence

A painter’s guide to the Catskills of Rip van Winkle by Judith Orseck Katz

A beautifully illustrated guide to the Catskill Mountains of New York State, which I picked up on a recent trip there.

‘Drawing on the right side of the brain’ by Betty Edwards

The classic book on how to draw – and it really works.

Previous ‘Weekend Book Club’ posts here: Paper / Pattern. More inspiring books over here!

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The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design Module 1 starts tomorrow! Still time to register if you are quick!

Featured in Somerset Life!

Posted on 2011-11-09 at 9:30 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

(Image via Gypsy Girls’ Guide)

Earlier this year I said that one of my goals was to get featured in one of Stampington‘s beautiful magazines, and now that has happened twice in two months – first with new title Mingle and now with the ever gorgeous Somerset Life – thank you world (and Christen Olivarez)!

(Image via Gypsy Girls’ Guide)

It is such a privilege to be featured in this fab article by photographer Alessandra Cave, mentioned as one of her global tribe of wandering contributors to her lovely blog Gypsy Girls’ Guide. It is such a fascinating eclectic group of women and I have to pinch myself that my name is there among them. You can see more about the article on Gypsy Girls’ Guide here.

Thank you Stampington! Thank you Alessandra!

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Countdown to the start of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor… only five days to go! If you haven’t yet signed up you can still register here!

Finishing touches

Posted on 2011-11-07 at 3:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Rachael Taylor preparing an audio message for class

Working with the very lovely and talented Rachael Taylor on the planning, design and development of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design has been such a fantastic experience. I have learned so much from Rachael, and had such fun along the way. I have loved diving into all the delicious exercises, and cannot wait to share some of my designs here with you over the coming weeks.

(Image courtesy of Rachael Taylor)

I have also loved helping to wrap gifts for our participants around the globe (who each get sent a surprise set of postcards designed by Rachael and exclusive to the ecourse, sent in the mail!)

As we are now just a week away from the start of Module 1 ‘Designing Your Way’, we are both really excited about the opportunities it is going to open up for budding surface pattern designers all over the world. We have been staggered with the response to the course, with pattern lovers signed up from 20 different countries on 5 continents! We cannot wait to see how everyone’s different backgrounds and cultures are going to influence their pattern design.

As we put the finishing touches on the classroom, which Rachael has designed from scratch with so much love and attention, we cannot wait for class to begin!

There is still time to sign up if you are quick – find out more and register here.

How living wildly transformed my relationship with food and my body: Nichole Kellerman shares her story

Posted on 2011-11-07 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from Nichole Kellerman, a weight loss and lifestyle coach with the drive to help as many women as possible be fit, healthy and happy while having a blast! Having struggled with her weight and self image in the past (even as a personal trainer), she has now dedicated her life to showing women how to let free that curvy, sexy, strong women she already is!

Growing up and all through high school I was never concerned with my physical image, or what people thought about it. It wasn’t until summer 2004 when I was working with a girl named Sarah (let’s call her), who broke me down day-by-day, slowly picking away at me till there was nothing left. I didn’t realize that that summer would be a summer that flipped my life upside down.

Working as lifeguards together and being that we were always in bathing suits, Sarah would constantly state how fat she was as she sat there glaring at her body in the mirror, picking, prodding and dissecting each and every part of her body.Soon Sarah began directly insulting me, looking at what I was eating and asking, “You’re eating that? It must be your fat day!!” She shot all of her insecurities at me like a rubber band, stinging and burning every time. Slowly I broke down; believing what she was saying and beginning to wonder what was going on in my mirror as well….

From that summer on, I put my body AND mind through a horrible experience. I subjected myself to both mental and physical abuse on a daily basis. I would even go as far to call it self- mutilation. I went from compulsively eating to starving myself, while drowning in thoughts of self -hatred. Exercise was an obsession along with trying multiple crash diets, diet pills, and purging. I did anything to change who I currently was. I was in a state of complete self-rejection.

It was consuming me, and taking every essence of my being. It was suffocating, I felt like I couldn’t breathe! Even though my focus was on LOSING weight, I gained about 15lbs over that summer….. Coincidence? Uh, I think not!…I like to call that mental weight gain.

During that time I remember I wasn’t a great person to be around. I never smiled, I was very jealous and insecure; I was unhappy on every level.

Still struggling after 2 years, I decided to go to school to become a fitness professional. I was telling people it was because I wanted to be a trainer, stating “I’m in the gym all the time already, might as well get paid for it!” But deeply, I was just wanting to lose weight and be that perfect image I so badly dreamt about.

I now understand that, that summer, with Sarah picking me apart as if I was her project, was actually a blessing in disguise. I joined school and loved every minute! I learned that I was doing everything wrong, and the right way to get into shape wasn’t about starvation. It doesn’t take self destruction.

Yes that is a picture of my head on a fitness models body…Tactic to reach my ideal body, another self-hatred act.

Beginning my career as a personal trainer was amazing, but, truthfully, those thoughts still existed. I told everyone that I had dealt with them and that it was water under the bridge. I was just trying to convince myself that those thoughts no longer existed. I was 30lbs lighter, got my diet on track, and my compulsive exercising was under control. But I STILL was unhappy with myself, and very insecure, continuing to pick apart my body in the mirror.

It was as if nothing would ever be good enough. Being a personal trainer, I still was struggling inside. I tried everything: Starving/Bingeing; Body For Life; Eat-Stop-Eat (not eating for 24hrs); Just eating vegetables and fruit; Weight Watchers (brought back my obsessive behavior); 2 hour workouts; Jillian Michael’s Making the Cut Program; Fasting for days (horrible); Working out 2x a day; Diet Pills etc… Just trying to find the ‘perfect formula’ to reach that ‘perfect’ size 2 goal (yeah, right!). I truly believed that if I got to that size I would FINALLY be happy. Even if it meant doing destructive and unhealthy things to myself.

Over time, working with a therapist, and going to an amazing massage school, where I did lots of healing is when I began accepting myself for what I was truly meant to look like, and it felt AMAZING! To look at areas I once hated and say “I love you” is something I have wanted to do for so long.

I will never regret telling people about my story and how I struggled because I learned SO MUCH and found my passion! Helping women reach their health goals and love themselves is THE reason why I was put on this planet!

The biggest thing I learned through my experience was how I was the reason why I wasn’t changing. I did it all to myself – the thoughts of self-hatred were keeping me the weight I was and I went through hundreds of failures to figure out how to make that mental shift. When I did it completely changed my life.

I don’t want one more woman to have to fail as many times as I did to reach their goal. I have strategically designed all of my programs from my past experiences for optimal success.

Oh and just to make it clear, I never reached my ‘perfect goal’ and am by no means perfect. I have just learned to love myself, every flawless flaw and adorable dimple!

I still have my indulgences! I love ice cream, pizza, peanut m&ms and the occasional night out with the girls with one two many glasses of wine, all while still living a very healthy lifestyle. It’s all about finding balance and I can show you how to get it.

[All images courtesy of Nichole Kellerman.]

Learn more about Nichole at wildlyaliveweightloss.com

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Only one week to go until The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor begins!

Have you secured your place yet? Register here.

Weekend Book Club: Pattern

Posted on 2011-11-06 at 4:09 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Last week I launched the Weekend Book Club with the theme ‘Paper’. This week I am going to share some more of my bookshelves with the theme ‘PATTERN’ – which is very timely with the start of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design a week tomorrow! In preparing for the class with Rachael Taylor I have immersed myself in the wonderful world of pattern, and here are some of my favourite discoveries…

(PS With ‘Weekend Book Club’ I intend to share a different theme each weekend and archive them on the sparkly new Weekend Book Club page here.)

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Pattern by Orla Kiely

A wonderful peek into the career and thoughts of pattern design guru
.

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Print & Pattern by Bowie Style

A compendium of contemporary pattern designs from the world’s leading designers (NB: The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design features an exclusive interview with the author of this book)

Rachael Taylor

Galia Bernstein

(PS Print & Pattern 2 has also recently been released)

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Cutting Edge Patterns and Textures by Estel Vilaseca

Packed with full-page pattern inspiration throughout.

Alice Stephenson

Patterns: New Surface Design by Drusilla Cole

(Top left) James Pegg, (Bottom left and right) Johanna Basford

(Top left) Emily Burningham / (Centre and bottom left) Lorien Huggins / (Right) Nadia Sparham

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The Pattern Sourcebook by Drusilla Cole

Rachel Goodchild / Anonymous for Langley Printworks

Anonymous / Gunta Stolzl

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Kimono patterns by Pepin Press

What are your favourite pattern books?

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Only a week to go before The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design kicks off!
Have you secured your place yet? Register here.

Want to learn how to turn your mixed media paintings into patterns?

Posted on 2011-11-01 at 11:19 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Do you know the gorgeous mixed media work of Kelly Rae Roberts?

In the upcoming course The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, Rachael Taylor will be working with some of Kelly Rae’s pieces to show you how to take elements of mixed media paintings and turn them into patterns – which you can then put on products! This is a very simple example of what Rachael will be demonstrating… using this beautiful painting (image courtesy of Kelly Rae Roberts)…

Rachael will show you how to isolate a particular element and turn it into patterns like these:

And then put them onto products like these…

(Images courtesy of Rachael Taylor)

And this is just the beginning. Rachael will demonstrate how to add additional elements, background textures and different colour palettes, as well as show how to mock up a variety of different products to increase your chances of selling or licensing your designs.

Can you imagine the possibilities??? It opens up a whole new world of opportunity!

Read about Kelly Rae’s thoughts on this here.

The course begins in less than two weeks – don’t miss out! Register here.

Do what you love and make money: Denise Duffield-Thomas shares her story

Posted on 2011-10-31 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from money mindset mentor Denise Duffield-Thomas.

I was a born entrepreneur but it doesn’t mean I was naturally good at it.

When I was 9, I had a fluoro bracelet business. The trouble was that I sold them for the same price as the cost of my materials which meant a zero profit. When my school teacher pointed that out, I felt ashamed, whereas before I was just thrilled by the pure joy of selling and making my own money.

That year my mum gave me an electric typewriter for Christmas and it was the best present ever! After dabbling with writing newsletters and short-stories, I went into the forgery business, selling ‘personally signed’ letters from Kylie Minogue for $5 a piece by claiming she was my cousin.

Aged twelve, I organised a club for my friends, inspired by the Baby Sitters Club, but we called it ‘The Cool Kids Club’ (we even had a song!). We worked on a random variety of projects that we never got around to finishing, like selling horse manure and organising garage sales. I’m great at the ideas, less on the follow up and eventually my mum made us throw out everything we had accumulated. Manure included.

In my teens, I came up with this concept of ‘being brave’ with my close girlfriends. We encouraged each other to get involved in ‘scary’ school projects like the debate team or running for school council. We watched Oprah together and talked about our dreams. It was my first ‘mastermind’ experience.

Undoubtedly from a young age I exhibited clear signs of being a creative entrepreneur, a dynamic life coach (although I didn’t know that was even a job) and an enthusiastic (though occasionally unethical) writer and communicator.

These are all the things I do professionally now, but why on earth did I spend my twenties denying my natural talents and doing everything from waitressing to event management – a total of over 50 random and often very unfulfilling jobs?

Why does anyone waste time living small just to pay the bills?

Don’t tell me you don’t know what you’re ‘meant to be’. I’ll bet there were just as clear signs in your childhood as there were in mine.

When I left my small town to go to University, suddenly I was in a much scarier pond, very far removed from growing up with a struggling single mum in a low-income area. I didn’t realise that people would look down on me, because most of my friends back-home had the same.

I allowed myself to feel ‘less than’ everyone else. In consequence, I failed most of my degree and often felt depressed and frustrated.

So, rather than being the vibrant kid who had zero doubt of her capabilities, I drifted from job to job, trying to find the ‘thing’ when it was completely obvious. I allowed self-worth issues to block that which would have fulfilled me. I sabotaged easy success.

Recently I went back to my old high school and spoke to 25 of the school’s most promising students. Like me, some of them came from struggling backgrounds and had limited imagination to what was possible out of our town.

Here’s what I told them:

Work with your natural strengths

Life is so much better when you give yourself permission to live in your brilliance. Don’t feel guilty because it’s easy and feels good. Better yet if you can find the sweet spot between your natural strengths and your passions. Every combination you can think of is possible.

Believe you’re good enough

I didn’t get this until my late twenties and then some of my natural enthusiasm and creativity came back with a vengeance. Nobody else was holding me back except for me. Give that gift to yourself and be in your own corner.

Continue to set big goals for your life

I’ve seen that any crazy dream is possible, but nobody is going to track you down and say ‘YOU – you must share your talents with the world!’ You have to be clear on what you want.

I wish I could go back in time to meet the little hustling entrepreneur I was at 9 and say ‘keep going – you’ll get there’. But it was my journey and I can honestly say that finally, I’m in a place where I can say – I LOVE what I do.

[Images courtesy of Denise Duffield Thomas.]

Denise is the money mindset mentor for the new wave of online female entrepreneurs. Her best-selling books “Lucky Bitch” and “Get Rich, Lucky Bitch” give a fresh and funny road-map to create an outrageously successful life and business. Denise helps women release their fear of money, set premium prices for their services and take back control over their finances. Denise is an award winning speaker, author and entrepreneur who helps women transform their Economy-Class money mindset into a First-Class life. Find her at www.LuckyBitch.com

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Only two weeks to go until The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor begins!

Have you secured your place yet? Register here.

Weekend Book Club: Paper

Posted on 2011-10-29 at 5:16 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

For a while I have been meaning to share some of my favourite books with you. I literally have hundreds, kept in every room in the house. I have decided to split them into themes, and share a different theme each weekend, to share some of the delicious papery works of genius and inspiration I have discovered. I will archive there on the sparkly new Weekend Book Club page here.

To begin with for this week, one of my favourite topics: PAPER…

Perfect Paper by Adeline Loh

Features stunning art works crafted from paper. Love the tactile cover…

Washi no aru kurashi (Living with Japanese paper)

A beautiful collection of unique papery objects for the home, along with features on the makers.

Masukingu teepu de collage (Creating adorable collages with washi tape)

Inspired ideas for crafting with delicious washi tape

Paper Yarn by Uta Donath & co

Lots of fun ideas for crafting with paper yarn.

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Only a couple of weeks to go before The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design kicks off!
Have you secured your place yet? Register here.

Christina Rosalie on becoming who she’s always longed to be: an artist

Posted on 2011-10-24 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from soulful writer and mixed media artist.

Image via christinarosalie.com

This is what I love to do: Make sparks. Stalk wonder. Stir ideas. Start conversations. Inspire action. Ignite joy. And while I have always known this, I spent many years preoccupied with doing what was expected of me, what was sensible, reasonable, and made other people happy. Out of college I became an elementary teacher, even though my heart was full of wanderlust, my head full of images, my notebook full of words.

It took seven years as a teacher, losing my father, the birth of my two sons, economic collapse, starting to freelance, ending my teaching career, extreme financial strain, synchronicity, uncertainty, and the willingness to reinvent everything, to even consider the wild possibility of being what I have always longed to be: An artist.

It took the kind of urgency that occurs at the storm to make me realize that the work I was doing in my scant snippets of free time -writing, painting, connecting, communicating, sharing – was the work that I wanted to be doing every single minute of the day.

This leap towards doing what I love began with asking for help, palms open to the universe. Which I did, on the spur of the moment, two years ago. And now I am here, on the brink of publishing A Field Guide To Now: notes on mindfulness and life in the PRESENT TENSE and in my second year of graduate school; moving each day closer towards making a career with creative work at its center.

This is what all the uncertainty and turbulence, heartache and adventure of the last seven years as taught me: There will never be a better time. Tomorrow is never assured. If you want to do what you love, take action now.

Say it out loud. Start with anything. Learn to fall, and get up, and start again. Trust the universe to respond. Leap. Make it real.

I have this quote by Goethe taped to the wall in front of my desk:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

There are no truer words.

[All images courtesy of Christina Rosalie.]

Christina is a writer and mixed media artist. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Emergent Media from Champlain College. Her first book, will be published by Skirt! Books in September, 2012. Find out more about her on her lovely website.

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Have you heard about my collaboration with surface pattern designer Rachael Taylor?

The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design is open for registration now! Find out more here