The Soulful Artist

Mundane: Day 22 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

January 23, 2021

Day 22 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

I used to believe that I lived this ordinary life. Working, raising my children, doing the parent thing while others around me appeared to be living lives that were “exciting.”

Here’s the truth … I loved and still love my life. Even when I was single MANY moons ago, I was never a partier, or one that did crazy shit. I liked my mundane life and never really tried to change it. But for some reason, I thought I had to go out and do the things that the others were doing. The only thing that did was depress me. I thought I was anti-social because I never wanted to go out. I learned later that I am sensitive to the energies of others and what I was doing was a defensive tactic as I was protecting my energy. I work in an environment that is full of swirling, crazy energy and if I’m not careful, that energy will “stick” to me. So before work, I place a protective shield around myself, and after work, I make sure to remove any residual energy that tries to follow me home.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing your thing. If you want to stay home with your people, stay home. There’s nothing this says you must do what others are doing. Protect yourself. Protect your energy. This is the meaning I found in the mundane and I love my mundane life.

No Limits: Day 21 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 22, 2021

Day 21 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

How far would you go for someone you love? You’d go pretty far, yes? But what about if that someone was yourself? Would you still go as far?

Working on Valentine’s cards and it made me think …

There was a time in my life where I didn’t put myself first. I was taught to be self-less and to put others first. Except, I was kind of selfish. It took me a long time to truly put myself first, but I loved myself enough to not let myself fall all the way to the bottom of my long list.

When your selfless act causes you to lose yourself, you do yourself, the world a disservice as you try to fill expectations to your own detriment.

Self-love is a powerful thing. It harnesses magic and allows for you to do hard things. Love yourself that much. Be full of yourself. Put yourself at the top of your priority list. You are just as important. My love for self is evident in my creations. Whatever I create is done from a place of love. Every single piece is infused with love and Reiki energy.

Love has no limits.

Layers: Day 20 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 21, 2021

Day 20 of My 30 Day Creativity Challenge …

I didn’t really create anything new today. Well, I take that back … I spent some time today working on some paintings and cards I already had. Playing, adding layers, enjoying myself.

My paintings are a lot like me. I’m the same, yet I’m different. I would not be the Row. that I am today without the Row. that I was before. Like my paintings, I am all the added layers. Stronger, better, more beautiful for having experienced every single thing that has come my way.

I love that I’ve followed all the things that have lit me up over the years. I love that I have a career that I love and enjoy, and that I have multiple passions that light me up. Painting and creating is just another layer.

Your life is a series of layers – experience, people, heartbreaks, disappointments, laughter, grief. They have all made you YOU. Love the you that you are … beautifully and wonderfully made.

Be Where You Are: Day 19 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 20, 2021

Day 19 of My 30 Day Creativity Challenge.

Have you ever been so engrossed in something, or distracted while doing something that you totally miss the entire experience? I mean, you’re just not there, not present.

In the past, it’s happened to me more times than I care to admit. There but not there. I didn’t enjoy the experience (whatever the experience was), nor was I there for my children. That, was the most shameful and the most hurtful for me in hindsight. I don’t know if my children can or will remember, but I do. Lessons learned in hindsight. It wasn’t always, but looking back it happened enough times for me to remember.

Taking the time, making the effort to be where you are, to enjoy the experience, to remember. These days, I know that I am cognizant to make the intention to savor my time with my people, or with whoever I am with. I am cognizant to slow down and enjoy the moment. To breathe in the moment. If you’re with your people, be with them. If you’re painting, paint. Enjoy the sunset that’s before you. I’ve learned that life’s too short to miss out on what’s happening before you.

Wherever you are … be there.

Little Things: Day 18 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 19, 2021

Day 18 of my 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

Spent time in my little creative nest today … painting, singing, playing, lost in my own world.

Small things. Life is in the small things. The things that you discount, that you think don’t matter. We like big things because they make an impact, but little things when added up can and do make a H U G E impact. They sneak up on us. Little things.

I ask you to make note of the small things. The little things. The moments that are fleeting and seem insignificant. They seem minuscule, they pass so quickly … take a moment today and give gratitude for them, record them.

My daughter Grace’s little chicken, Ginger, fell prey to a raccoon earlier last week. So strange because we live in the city. (I saw it when I ran outside to check out the commotion.) Anyhow, paying tribute to Ginger in the last photo. She was my daughter’s and my husband’s favorite. She would follow them around, sit in their laps as they held her. The picture is not her, but a likeness of her red hen self. RIP Ginger.

Little things.

The Extraordinary: Day 17 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 17, 2021

Day 17 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

Making art can be hard especially if your goal is perfection. This is an impossible goal to have as there will always be something to improve. Something will always look a little off, you’ll wish you used a different color or a different brush. Always something. Striving for perfection will only lead to your demise as an artist because there is no perfect.

Art is a lot like being human. We are all different and unique, and flawed. We are not perfect by any means, yet for the most part we’re always looking to improve something about ourselves instead of just loving and accepting the way we are.

I look at my art sometimes and think of it’s “ordinary” disposition. Just there, you know. Not museum quality, but rather something simple and beautiful in its own way.

It’s important to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. We, as humans, may be looking at the same thing, yet fail to see what the other sees. We all perceive differently. This is okay. This is important because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To some we may see smeared paint, but to another they may see the convergence of sea and sky, or the wing of a bird. It’s important to have an open mind when dealing with matters of heART. (See what I did there?) Art created longs for acceptance just as humans do. It longs to, as we long to be reminded that we are loved and accepted as we are. It longs to be, as we long to be told that we are, in our most ordinary and seemingly “boring” state, are extraordinary loved unconditionally.

Look for the extraordinary.

Humor: Day 16 of My 30 Days Of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 17, 2021

Day 16 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

I know that before you clicked this post, you did a double take because you wondered what the heck I just posted. I hope that upon reading my caption, that you let out a little snicker, shaking your head thinking about just how crazy funny I am.

I love humor! I love laughing! I love the sound of laughter! I’m the one who tells crazy dad jokes, forgetting the punchline, and am laughing hysterically before I get to the end. I love the sound of a baby’s laughter, their full on belly laughs, and how they want you to repeatedly perform whatever it is that made them laugh over and over and over. That’s my favorite!

It’s scientifically proven that laughter IS good medicine, good for our health, good for our soul. There’s a chemical release of endorphins and other feel good hormones when we laugh. Laughter has been proven to improve pain, making it more tolerable. Laughter decreases vascular resistance – which means that our vessels are better able to deliver blood, decrease blood pressure, decreasing heart attacks. Laughter also reduces blood sugar levels which is good news for diabetics.@so many benefits. This is why if you’re ever my patient, I’m the nurse always trying to distract you with something to make you smile or by telling you some bad joke!

I hope you got a good laugh as my post. I hope that you’re enjoying your Saturday and that you’re creating something!

Connection: Day 15 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 16, 2021

Day 15 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

This past year has allowed me to slow down, see what’s important, and who is important. I’ve spent a lot of time with my daughter this past year, not that I didn’t before because we do almost everything together. For those of you that don’t know, my Grace had “Special Abilities” and being a mom of a child with special abilities can be a challenge. It’s been a learning experience for sure, and there have been many tears shed both by myself and my child (probably more by me). My tears are mostly done in private, in the shower. If you know my child, you know that she’s pretty sharp, keen in her observations, has a kind and loving disposition. I have so much to say, but honestly, I know that compared to most, my/our/her challenges are mild.

She’s had a L O N G year with this pandemic. She lost her connection to her social life, and has been stuck with her dad and I. When she asked me to make her a “Damnit Doll” yesterday, it was a no brainer for me. She rarely asks us for anything. A damnit doll is a doll that you can slam when you’re angry or frustrated. I’m really not much into sewing, but I’ll try. So today we made a damnit doll. We cut out a pattern, then cut up an old scrub top of mine. We were pretty impressed at what emerged. She’s happy to have a healthy outlet, and is proud to have helped me make it. The best part was the connection we shared as we made it. Lots of laughing, lots of discussion about healthy outlets for anger, and just time spent creating together.

Inspiration Everywhere: Day 14 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 15, 2021

Day 14 of my 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

It’s 2300 and I’m at work, on my lunch break. I know, it’s late. I had a long night last night and all I wanted to do when I got home was to sleep. If you have ever been in healthcare and have worked any hours of this pandemic, you know that that’s how it is some days. Some days you’re just tired & when you get home you just want to sleep.

I’ve never been much of a realist artist. I love abstract art because it’s your own interpretation. I’ve never really been able to draw or paint anything that resembles anything and I know that that’s why I never considered myself an artist in the past and why my own mother didn’t believe that what I was doing could ever be considered art. But I was doodling today and sometimes my doodles resemble things. I was thinking about painting & ended up doodling about my “tools.” They’re not perfect, but neither am I. The goal is to be creative, to get your creativity out, to use your creativity instead of keeping it bottled up inside and unused. My tools have assisted me in combating all this pandemic insanity. They are my weapons of mass destruction.

Inspiration can come from anywhere and can hit you at any time. Thinking about my “tools” – my pens, pencils, paintbrushes, markers, etc. stemmed from thinking about other tools that I use elsewhere in my life. I was thinking about how I’m creative in all aspects of my life – from the way I start and IV and how I tape it up at work, to how I dress a wound, how I cook food for my family, how I used to sing to my babies. If you think you’re not creative or believe that there is no where in life to at offers you a chance to be creative, think again. Think of all the things you do throughout the day that requires you to express yourself.

My point is taking a few moments everyday doesn’t have to be an elaborate feat. Scratch paper & my pen was all I used today. My intent is so stimulate my right brain, to hone my intuition, to flood my body with “happy hormones” everyday.

I Am An Artist: Day 13 of My 30 Days of Creativity Challenge

R. Wallen, R.N.

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January 13, 2021

Day 13 of my 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.

I Am an Artist.

Up until now, there were times I found it challenging to call myself “an artist.” I felt like that there was so much to live up to when you call yourself that: having talent, producing a “product,” revealing parts of yourself that expose your soul.

Up until recently, I felt as if I was just pretending. Just doing artsy-fartsy, crafting stuff. Not stuff that “real artists” would do. I had some real impostor syndrome going on.

What changed? How did the perception of myself change? It changed when I no longer cared what others thought of what I was creating. It changed when I realized I was creating art, therefore I am an artist. I wasn’t pretending to be someone I wasn’t, I was being exactly who I was. How do you “pretend” to create art? Why does anyone have to understand what you’ve made? Do you really need to explain yourself, your work? Let your work speak for itself. What I create makes ME happy.

There’s a fear artists have. A fear of revealing their true selves, pieces of their soul that they have tried to protect. People can be mean, critical, judgemental. There will always be someone who doesn’t like your work. There will always be someone who is creating and producing “better” pieces than you. I’ve learned to transcend the opinions of others. I realize that what they think and say are not about me, but rather more about their own selves.

It was traumatic for me as a child to find my art in the garbage, deemed junk. It took me a LONG time to heal from that. My art may not hang in the MET or MOMA, but more importantly, it hangs on my walls at the insistence of my husband, it arrives in mailboxes of the people that I love, and I’ve seen them hanging on the walls and on fridge doors at my friends homes.

I’m an artist because I make art. That is all.