This is my artist friend Henry Sultan. I have known Henry for a few decades, and now I'm in my 50's and he is in his 80's! We first met when I was the Art Curator at the California Institute of Integral Studies where I hosted an art show with Henry and his wife Jenny Badger Sultan. They have both dedicated their life to painting and the creative path. Currently, I live a block from Henry and Jenny's home and they have one of the best art studios I have ever encountered. You can see it from the street; it ...

In my ‘split’ life as arts therapist/ coach/ teacher/ artist, I am a grand juggler and I thrive on being actively engaged in life and art. My work can be intense, and being a creative person and a business owner doesn’t come without sacrifice. I have to be diligent about my self-care to maintain my stamina. This was especially true during the pandemic. In early 2020, in addition to my practice and teaching, I was at the tail end of a long creation phase with a documentary film, The Creative High. I started to see very clearly that stress was taking its toll. I could feel it in my ...

“A flow state…This is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. It is the deepest form of focus and attention that we know of…We know at some level, that when we are not focusing, we are not using one of our greatest capacities.” - Johann Hari As I write this, I am sitting at a local cafe. They are playing rhythmic alternative music, the doors are open and fans are overhead on a sunny day in ...

It was an absolute honor to be interviewed by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation for an online blog entitled Meet Adriana Marchione, director of “The Creative High”.  This Q&A, facilitated by Jeremiah Gardner, was originally published for Hazelden Betty Ford’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive their advocacy emails, subscribe today. Q: What does recovery look like for you, and how has it empowered different aspects of your life? Recovery has been a waking-up process for me which is ever-evolving. It was a rebirth, which over time gave me the ability to face life with open eyes and a ...

The best forms of healing, therapy, and meditation are learning to trust. The trust is the genuine kind.” - Jack Kornfeld This newsletter is dedicated to Theresa Cangelosi who was my therapist for eight years. She guided me through the most difficult times of my life. I came to her after an estrangement from a spiritual mentor during an emotional crisis. A few years into our work together she supported me through the illness and death of my late husband due to lung cancer. Theresa was a somatic psychotherapist with a special focus working with trauma. She was Italian American which created a ...

"I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap. - Ani DiFranco I am a community-oriented person. I was brought up with festive family dinners, playing cards with aunts and uncles, and memorable parties at special events. In my formative years we lived abroad because of my father's work as an anthropologist in both Jamaica and Norway. I was introduced to an international group of people dedicated to social change. This has made a lasting impression. Throughout my life, I have maintained strong ties, yet there has been times when I have felt isolated or separate from. When I ...

Last week I wrote about 'languishing' and how art can be a way through (find the blog post here). I am following up with a ‘life/art' remedy to support you to connect to your aliveness through an Art Altar. I have found that even the simplest gathering of objects that have meaning increases the feeling of purpose and inner strength. In addition, it can be a useful guide towards healing oneself, giving hope to someone in your life, or supporting a cause you believe in. ART ALTAR EXERCISE 1) Find the intention for your art altar. What do you want to focus on, heal, offer to a ...

A Life/Art Perspective As we find ourselves in the middle of the summer in this new phase of the pandemic, more open but still uncertain, I find that the term ‘languishing’ describes what many people are feeling. As we all know loss, mental health crises and an increase in substance use has been significant over the past year, but a pervasive experience at this time is a dulling of the senses due to the after effects of 'quarantine' and underlying stress. “Languishing is apathy, a sense of restlessness, feeling unsettled or an overall lack of interest in life or the things that typically ...

Dedicated to Pablo "Animals are the bridge between us and the beauty of all that is natural. They show us what's missing in our lives, and how to love ourselves more completely and unconditionally. They connect us back to who we are, and to the purpose of why we're here." ― Trisha McCagh It has been over two months since Pablo left us. It continues to leave a big hole in my life. The space that animals inhabit can be simple and to those who don’t have pets or connect with animals on a daily basis may not understand the ...

VISIONING and INTENTION SETTING Permission to Dream even if you feel lost, broken, or fearful “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” ― Audre Lorde The most important thing about dreams and goals is to remember that everything starts with our imagination. We always have access to our imagination despite what challenges we are facing. Even the smallest seed can bear fruit. The creative process itself is a guide to create a new reality. If we can make visual art ...