Nola recently did an interview with the Breaking Into The Arts blog, talking about creative expression and the journey to accessing your inner creativity.

“There was no such thing as cubism or pointalism before somebody decided to make these marks on a canvas – in effect to break the rules of art. So what’s stopping us from just making a mark on the canvas?”

- Nola Diamantopolous

You can hear the full podcast interview by clicking here.
And you can read the full blog post on the Breaking Into The Arts blog.

We are beings of potential. We were born with this from source. It’s there at all times and it’s there forever. We don’t have to do anything else other than to recognise the potency that resides within us and then to action it. Without action it stays within us dormant, unused, unexplored, unshared.
Many of us don’t know that it’s there or believe that we have it, yet we do.
Potential is the power of possibility.
The power of possibility is our Imagination accessed.
Are you creating with your imagination – the powerhouse of potential?
Maybe your creative spirit needs a little coaching.
Get out of your rational mind now and draw a shape that you connect with, that represents you. Draw this shape on a piece of paper. Don’t think about this too much. Intuit the shape – maybe a triangle, maybe a circle, maybe something that is organic and nameless. This shape is you.
Are you ready for the next part? Read on once you have your shape drawn down.
For the next 4 weeks carry this shape with you. In a pocket size journal of unlined pages, start documenting everything that you see, hear & feel that is that same shape. You can record it in your journal with a word, you can draw it or if you find your shape in an image in a magazine, then cut it out and paste it in your journal. You might find your shape in text form, in a poem, in a dance movement, in the sound of music. Date each entry.
As you mindfully attend to this exercise your imagination will move you from the ordinary and the expected to beyond. Your imagination will awaken so quickly, so amazingly. And this little exercise alone will change the way you experience your world and the way you experience yourself.
This exercise creates a journal of perspective’s. The ability to see multiple perspective, the ability to think metaphorically, is one of the gifts of our imagination.
Coach your creative spirit with this exercise.

We are all sent messages.
I believe this.
I call the obvious ones coincidences.They’re obvious because we experience them as a cluster of different messages that allow us to see their connection.
But there are more. Some are so subtle that we miss them. Others create a curious feeling within us and then we get distracted and forget them.
I am acting as a messenger now to remind you to become aware of your messenger(s). They come in a variety of ways – a word from a child, an image from a doodle, a smile from a stranger, someone you keep thinking about, a book title, the curious markings on a tree, something in a magazine that you just randomly picked up, the spontaneous desire to pop into a store on the way to somewhere else.
I believe our messenger’s like to mix it up – keep us curious and alert – giving our imagination a true work out if we choose to use it.
Imagination is the key to our creativity – our ability to create our life, manifest our hearts desires, discover our souls purpose and be all that we can be.
All we have to do is exercise our imagination – we don’t even have to work out the exercise routine – our messenger’s do that for us. We just need to get on the program.
So do you want to activate your imagination, access your creativity – then listen, look & feel into the messages – they are there. I wont tell you how though – I’ll let you use your imagination instead!

What a funny thought that anyone can be imperfect when indeed they are. Our uniqueness comes from that that distinguishes us from the perfect straight line. Bend a little. You might see something differently when you do. Imperfection is I’m perfection. With all my quirkiness and sometimes not niceness, my goodness and my forgetfulness, my smartassness and my love for all, and there is more…creates the recipe for the life that I am living and the more I bend to see myself, accept and love myself, the more I deeply respect the perfection of every other living soul on this planet – however this is a work in progress!
At any given point in time, in this very moment, as we breath life into our body, this very given moment is a gift and cannot but be perfect.

Utter, mutter, blah, blah, blah…the sound of the Inner Critic that talks to us uninvitedly and always in an unkind way, lacking compassion or any concept of the power of positive thinking. What is that about?
These toxic thoughts that say ‘no don’t do that, you aren’t good at doing that, you are not talented, that person doesn’t like you, ask someone else to do it because they are better at it, you cannot learn creativity, just go back to your day job” & the nicest of all Inner Critics might say, “don’t attempt the drawing until you have been given all the instructions and make sure you follow all the instructions sequentially, that’s important because if your drawing is not good then its not your fault’.
This little voice (sometimes the Inner Critic appears as a feeling that physically creates discomfort – sweaty palms, nausea), intends to protect you from experiencing failure, and whats the best way to not experience failure? Simple. Avoid the experience altogether. And you intuitively know that avoiding experience means to avoid life.
Experience, from the Latin experientia , knowledge gained by repeated trials. No trials, no experience, no knowledge.
So get to know your IC. The IC truly wish’s the best for you and you can help them by listening to them and re interpreting their fear based language with positive language.
Yes – have a dialogue with them – and it is best in the written form. Get a pen and paper and write down what the IC is saying. Then respond – on the same piece of paper and continue the process. let the dialogue be one that seeks to understand – do not fight each other – accept the right for each others point of view even though the language of the IC maybe harsh. The IC has had to get your attention quickly – that’s been his/her strategy – hence the very strong & judgemental language.
Each time you do this you will be creating a wonderful supportive inner voice and it wont even take very long for the conversion from an Inner Critic to an Inner Coach.

How curious that I have only just made the connection – that of the archetype creative being.That is, many of us have a very strong image of what a creative person looks like, what they can do, and how they feel & think.
So what are the characteristics & aspects of the archetype creative being? Here is a short list of what my students have said over the last 12 years.
A creative being is a person who is talented, expressive, can draw, is enthusiastic, extrovert, curious, unique, original, is born that way, can imagine, creates all the time, is different to the norm, doesn’t care about external opinions, is sensitive, is egocentric, goes within, struggles with their art, is pained and is not understood.
Dark and light plays in the archetype creative being – as with all archetypes.
However my point is, if we could see that we are comparing ourselves to a ‘collective concept’, then we can become aware of our “personal divergencies”. But to even do that is to be be hooked into the predetermined definitions that we have thoughtlessly accepted AND then limited our experience of our creative being, because of it.
And it looks like this, ‘Im not creative because I cant draw.’ Many can relate to this.
Everyone can draw. When someone says I cant draw, what they are saying is I cant draw well. What that means is that they cant draw realistically.
So that means that everyone can draw unrealistically!
Unrealistic drawing is a genre in art. It is bold and expressive, freed from the limitations of rules and guidelines and where things should be. Guided instead by the joy of moving a pencil across a paper and making a mark that is yours. Ah, do you have the courage and desire to continue?

And as a final point, lets say you do want to draw in a realist style – here’s a clue – go to art school and learn to ‘see’ form and contour, just like you learnt to ‘see’ letters to be able to read & write – it’s the same – its a learnable skill and just because you can read and write doesn’t automatically mean you will become an author.
However that does not stop you from experiencing the joy of reading or writing.

Spontaneous Creativity – Spontaneous – from the Latin sponte meaning of ones own accord, willingly, suggests that there is a willingness to create. As adults is there a willingness to create?
Or do we feel that the idea of Spontaneous Creativity is just silly play. Sure, get out the paints and paper and just make something you feel like making and don’t worry about it if it looks like bad.
But think about it? If we have a willingness to create, a strong desire to express ourselves – to express SELF, then the rest will follow.
Our WILL to create will lead to experimenting & questioning and exploring our SELF. This leads to self expression. Expression – Latin ex meaning out, pressare to press or push. Express, to press or push out. If we are to express Self, then there is something inside us that needs a push out. Could the push out be an act of Spontaneous Creativity – a willingness to inwardly explore Self and then challenge our Self to bring it out to express.
Maybe we have a willingness and also barriers. One of the most effective barriers to halting our creativity, is on focusing on the product of our creativity, judging it, speaking badly about it and creating such an unpleasant feeling, that it inhibits, prohibits and at best makes tenuous all further attempts to pursue this path.
And yet everything we do in our life is an act of creativity. EVERYTHING.
Every decision we make creates an experience in our life, that informs us. It is when we become aware of this, that we are powerful creators,that Spontaneous Creativity is truly awakened in us.
And when it is, its both insightful and so much fun.

We cannot but Create in our lives. It is very hard to not Create and yet some of us believe that they are not Creative. However this is a matter of definition. How do you define Creativity? Is it someone who can draw like Michelangelo, or paint like Van Gogh, or sculpt like Rodin?
I wonder if those Creators wanted to be like others before them? Or did they simply give themselves permission to learn the skills of their trade and then give themselves even bigger permission to express it with their own ‘unknown’ and unique language.
Everything we do in our lives is an act of Creation. Creativity is simply the way we express ourselves – our self. The way we dress, speak, our home environment, garden, how we cook, the words we choose to communicate and all of this corresponds to the kinds of people we have in our lives, the kind of relationships we attract and therefore the way we connect with the world – all of it we have Created.
To Create a painting, a poem, a drawing, a sculpture or whatever else is no different.
The original meaning of the word Talent ( i can hear you thinking this as you are reading), talentum meant inclination, leaning, will, desire.
So maybe its not the lack of talent that is stopping you from learning to make art. Maybe its your lack of inclination, will or desire to express yourself through drawing, painting or sculpting.

You are a Creative Being – its impossible to not be.

Gestation period is over. Its time to get creative and remember that we are all here to create. I started this blog with enthusiasm & purpose. Then a pause – unplanned but fully invited. This ‘pause’, allowed me to experience my heart opening – in that fine moment of nothingness so much happens almost unwitnessed, too subtle for me at times, until I simple paused and observed. A practice (by the way), that does not end. I realise that now, as I am writing as a result of a ‘pause’.

Our life continues with each breath that we take and with each breath we give back. So many spiritual practices focus on this life force for personal wellbeing. Sports coaches teach optimum breathing techniques to enhance physical performance. When we are distressed, the first thing we hear anyone say is…breath…

As natural as it is to breath, we still require guidance to learn to focus on our breath. Breath is not only about breathing and keeping us in existence on this planet. Breath holds the key to wellbeing (take in a deep breath now!).

This breath, this beautiful life giving gift, comes hand in hand with our desire to create in our lives. Inspiration, the source of the creative journey, is in turn is unlocked by our Imagination (the key to creativity). Inspiration, from the Latin spirare, which means to breath.

To Create. To create a meaningful, fulfilling life. To have joy and to share joy no matter the circumstances. To be grateful for life’s journey and her experiences.To embrace the not so good times, accepting them with compassion and not fighting them, nor judging them – including ourselves.

So, with this renewed direction, I begin my quest for creativity and share this with you so that all our hearts may open to the life force that is held deep within – lets bring her out to play.

This is my entry to the Archibald 2010. It’s Noni Hazelhurst. It might be hard to recognize but the spirit of the person never is, just gaze into her eyes.

The journey with Noni was beautiful. The fact that she allowed me to paint her, that she welcomed me to create without expectation was a heart expanding experience. She gave me the courage to simply paint. And so I did. I didn’t paint for the Archibald, I didn’t paint to appeal to the art critic that lives in my mind. I just painted.

I am grateful to the Archibald & to Noni for the experience as I have now found my courage to express whatever comes and to quote Noni , ‘channelled from wherever these things come from.”

Nola