Feed your artist soul: guest post

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Pastel landscape painting En plein air
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve written about my attempts to feed my artist’s soul. Just heard from a subscriber about how she feeds hers—she invites others to join her on trips to Europe. Pretty cool.

Nina Weiss has been a professional artist and educator for twenty-five years. In all that time teaching she’s had many single women students at various stages in their lives and careers. She says she noticed that no matter how busy, stressed, and swamped they were, these women seemed compelled to find time somehow to attend an art class or carve out a weekend to attend a workshop.

“The women who attend my workshops come from all walks of life, including lawyers, architects; executives, and homemakers. They realize and honor the knowledge that no matter how fulfilling their jobs may be, they still have urges to dig a little deeper into their creative selves and give those urges an outlet.”

What happens when you honor these urges? Nina says, “Our creative selves are quiet, but they’re very important to our happiness and well-being. Creativity is a process that is not necessarily linked to outcome.” It’s more about the process, she says, and how that process makes us feel. “It can be something just for yourself and not meant to please anyone else…fulfilling and pleasurable regardless of how it turns out. Acknowledging the creative process can lead to a deep contentment that cannot be overestimated!”

Nina teaches classes and workshops throughout the United States. In case you find yourself with the urge, the time and the money, check out Nina’s European Landscape Painting and Drawing Workshop coming up. She’s been doing these workshops for ten years and says they offer a wonderful opportunity to give your creativity “free reign in a comfortable setting of like-minded travelers and artists under the tutelage of a compassionate and experienced teacher.”

BURFORD, UNITED KINGDOM - APRIL 21:  A view do...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This year the workshops include a visit to the Cotswolds in England. I’ve been there and can tell you  it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I actually did a watercolor from a photo I did there—and sold that picture right away. You can check out a catalog of Nina’s workshops here and visit her website at www.ninaweiss.com.

“Whatever you do, be sure to go make some art and feed your soul!” says Nina. I second that thought.

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Book review: Wife Goes On – women getting single again

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“Wife Goes On” by Leslie Lehr is a witty, sexy novel about what it feels like to get divorced. Four characters, each woman going through a divorce in a completely different way, connect with each others’ lives and find out that they have something very important in common–the overwhelming emotional burdens that come with losing your status as part of a couple. One of the main characters talks about the great mystery of the divorce process. She realizes after a long struggle to find her way that the process has an incredibly steep learning curve. And once you “get” what’s it’s all about, you have a vast store of information that’s now useless for you and only of interest to someone else just starting.

A quote begins to express some of the book’s sharp observations about what it means to be single in our society. An exchange between two waitresses in a restaurant:

‘The four in the corner’s clearing, but the server just got stiffed and there’s a VIP party due. We need a loser table.’, ‘I beg your pardon?’ Diane said. The waitress turned around ‘Oh, I’m sorry, that’s just an expression. It means table for one.’

The expression shows unthinking prejudice that’s not unlike the accepted use of racist language that was so common about African Americans in our country for generations.

If we change the language, we can start changing the thinking. We’re working on it…