The days are growing shorter, and the air carries a familiar chill—winter is approaching. This year, the winter solstice falls on Saturday, December 21st, marking the season's official arrival. Over the years, I’ve come to deeply appreciate this time of year. Winter offers a natural invitation to slow down, reflect, and embrace stillness. It’s also the perfect season for journaling—a discovery I made a few years ago.

Artist dates are something I’m making a conscious effort to include more often in my creative practice (read more about artist dates here). I recently realized it had been far too long since my last one, so I decided to change that with a visit to the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) - which offers art spanning everything from contemporary works to classical masterpieces and beyond.

This past August, I celebrated my 50th birthday—a milestone that inspired me to pause and reflect. Lately, I’ve been gradually editing and refining my vision for how I want to navigate the next few decades of life. One of the things I wanted to get back to was my own learning.

May and June have been a whirlwind of activity and I’m finally pausing to share a few things like, what I’ve been reading lately…

I knew I was an artist before I ever painted a thing because I had such a desire to create it wouldn’t leave me alone. I would visit a museum, or see something on Pinterest, or read a creative blog post and think, “I want to do that!” But, I didn’t know where or how to start. Have you ever felt the same?  

One of the benefits of teaching mixed media classes is that it encourages my own creative play. Collage is something that I have used in the past to add interesting details or texture to my mixed media art work. I more recently started practicing it on it’s own when I began teaching mark making and gelli printing to adults.

I've recently come back from a weekend retreat with my mastermind. We started this group in November of 2022 in order to support and encourage each other in our artistic and entrepreneurial pursuits. We have been meeting monthly for over a year and decided to celebrate with a weekend away in Blowing Rock, NC.

When I think about the classes I want to teach, they all have an element of experimentation, play and discovery. It is surprising how difficult this can be for many. We want instant, perfect results and can get easily frustrated when those results are less than…

The first time I ever heard of an artist date was in 2005 when I was reading the Artist Way by Julia Cameron. If you haven’t heard of Artist Dates I share what they are and some of my favorite kinds of Artist Dates on this post. They don’t have to be elaborate… In fact, you can organize one at home like I did here.