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 I succeeded in simply attending at the birth of all my works.
– Artist Max Ernst
Little Kai turned one year old last week, so it's been a fun week of celebrations. We've been celebrating his life, and also remembering our profound experience of his birth and delivery a year ago. This joyous focus on birthdays has made me become more aware of how important it is to honor all the birthings of our life…including the birth of a creative project.
If you have a creative project that you are birthing right now, here are a few suggestions of ways that you might honor its birth:
- Buy a beautiful candle to keep in your creative space as your “birthday candle”. Light it each time you begin a work session on your project.
- Send a “birth announcement” to your friends, announcing your new project
- Take yourself on a Birthday Adventure outdoors. Pick up items that catch your eye – a leaf, a shell, a lucky penny. Put them in a special place, where you can cherish them as birthday gifts from the Universe!
Commemorating the “birthday” of a creative project sends a message – to our subconscious minds, to our friends, to our inner critics – that says “hey, this is important to me!” It allows a natural opening for ritual, which joins spirit and practicality in sisterhood for optimal creative success. It recognizes the bitter-sweetness of labor and delivery, and it provides a natural timeline for tracking progress. It also can reduce overwhelm, making the beginnings of a project feel joyful and fun instead of draining and difficult.
Finally, the wonderful thing about creating a ritual surrounding the birth of your project is that you can continue to celebrate it on each subsequent anniversary -- be they yearly, monthly, or weekly anniversaries -- to continue the sense of magic, mystery and expansiveness of what you have birthed into being.
For those short on time, to simplify this week's Artellagram, here are some ”quick links” to the highlights in this edition. You can simply follow the links that you're interested in and go directly to that section.
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 1. Yippie Kai Yay! It's Finally Here! Your Free Trial of the Artella ARTbundance™ Coach Training Program! This year, it's been very inspiring to help people navigate through this economy in new, creative ways, as I myself have learned plenty about navigating through mommyhood with baby Kai. I've seen the success that happens when people find their true vocation – that often-elusive but ever-rewarding entity which Buechner describes as “that work in which the world's deep hunger and our deep gladness meet.” That's why I'm thrilled to announce our newest Program to help support your creative dreams. Over a year in the making, ARTbundance™ Coach Training is an in-depth Certification Program that provides joyful and effective training, extensive materials, and unique opportunities for hands-on experience, PLUS turn-key marketing and PR tools for those who would like to become Certified ARTbundance™ Coaches.
An ARTbundance™ Coach is a pioneering, unique hybrid of inspiring coach, creativity teacher, workshop leader, and spiritual guide. If you have been trying to figure out how you can steer your vocation to fit in with the world's current deep hunger, this training is a joyful, immensely promising opportunity unlike any other offered anywhere.
On Monday, June 29, I'm offering a free sample ARTbundance™ Coach Training Workshop. This teleclass will present the Top 9 creative strategies that you can pass on to your own clients, or even integrate into your own creative endeavors. We'll do some fun interactive exercises to examine your own professional, monetary, and life goals, to help you determine where your best path and next step in life might be. You also will get a first hand look at what training to be an ARTbundance™ Coach is really all about, and a pioneer's wagon full o' nifty resources and tools to help you determine if it's a right fit for you, and whether applying for the full Training Program is the inspired next step for your creative journey!
While everyone is welcome to attend the free workshop above, to preserve the inspiring and intimate nature of the ARTbundance™ training program, I am looking to keep the actual inaugural ARTbundance™ class of 2009 coaches limited right now to a maximum of about 12-14 individuals, since I will be working personally with each training coach myself. This inaugural class of training coaches in particular is very important, and I am investing extra time with each person in the group, since it is this first class of coaches that will in effect become the face of the entire ARTbundance™ program when they are done, receiving a great deal of exposure featured throughout Artella's sites and publications.
Everyone is invited to attend the free call and the content, materials and gold nuggets o' wisdom :-) you'll receive during the workshop are yours for the keeping, even if you do not apply or are not ultimately chosen for the inaugural class of the ARTbundance™ Program.
If you'd like to sign up for the free Training Sample Workshop on June 29, or find out what the heck all the hoopla for ARTbundance™ and ARTbundance™ Coach Training is all about, simply visit this page.
 2.May YOUpons now feature discounts on our newest and most popular e-courses. Take a look at the May YOUpons, and you'll find discounts on our newest, most popular e-courses!
Take a look at some of the comments about these courses that we've received just this week alone:
 Here are some happy words about Make Change with Your Muse!: Mixed Media Art Projects to Attract Prosperity and Change in Your Life:
“The first "assignment" brought me to tears, it was so sweet and creative as a project. The questions we were to ask ourselves brought me great insights and 8 pages of long hand writing. I haven't even done the journal prompts that came with it yet! I am grateful to be involved in this project Marney provided. I am awed by all that Marney offers. She, the website and her calls and offerings are all so inspiring, exciting and creative. I feel it's all a wonderful gift…I don't recall how I landed on the Island, but it's the best side trip I have ever taken.” – Kimberly
“Marney, you've done it again, this time giving us a kit to go along with the course. I am using the world coins in the kit and looking forward to incorporating more of the supplies. Since starting the lessons about a week ago, I've already manifested unexpected gifts of prosperity. I feel it working! Thank you!” - Tara
 Here are a few comments about “Mixed Media ME-flections: 30 Self Portrait Projects to Change Your Life":
“My creative horizons have been broadened to an astonishing degree and, more fundamentally, there has been a shift in how I see myself.” – Rosemary
“Thank you so much for this great art course. I have learned so much about myself through it. I have noticed my intuition is getting stronger the more I know myself. I have taken a lot of workshops and courses and found this one to both very deep yet playful. I love how Marney encourages the lighter side to be dominant, I have really needed that. Thank you!” - Gina
 And some happy words about Artella's AlphaBetter Muse Workshop:
“I truly think this is one of your best classes. I found the journal prompts fantastic and the clip art was great. I was truly excited to open my mail to find out what kind of treat you had for me.” – Patricia
“I have thoroughly enjoyed receiving these very creative prompts from the various AlphaBetter Muses. Both my writing and artwork have been sparked by them.” - Valerie
If you're interested, you can find coupon codes for all three of the above courses, plus savings on Artella print magazines, vintage photographs, and more, on the May YOUpons page.
 3. Luxury Member Ship Update…Live Events! I'm excited to announce that we've now begun our LIVE events for Artella Luxury Members! The Live Events are just another free perk of membership, in addition to all of the weekly goodies that are sent out each and every week. If you are not currently a Luxury Member, you can get more information, here. You can access the instructions for signing up for the new live events immediately when you sign up!
I've also got exciting news for Luxury Studio Members! We're working on an all-new interface and delivery presentation for this month's Studio Kit - called “Paint Splashes”. We've designed this new setup in direct response to your feedback and requests, so I think you'll love it! Check your inboxes to get your kit later this month!
 4. Great free offer from SARK! The ever-inspiring SARK has a new online program called SARK's Transformation Exper!ence: A Multimedia Journey of Healing and Transformation for the Splendidly Imperfect. I'm excited to share that you can now sign up for a free two-day sample of SARK's Transformation Exper!ence. Sign up for the free two-day sample, here!
 4. Feeling Lost? Have you ever just wished someone could hand you a literal map...with all the steps and paths mapped out to get directly to your creative dream? That's exactly what happens in my one-on-one Creative Cartography™!
 5. New Payment Plan Option for The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp!You can still join the awesome group of creative folks who are taking part in The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp! As soon as you sign up, you'll have instant access to download all the class recordings, the 110-page Action Guide workbook, and lots more. And with our new payment plan option, it's easier than ever.
 6. Earn money for spreading the word! Join Artella's Generous Affiliate Program, It has great commissions, bonuses, and it even makes your teeth sparkle! :-)
 7. Interested in Becoming Part of Artella's Team? You're interested in becoming part of the Artella Team, check out this post in the Artella Cafe for details.
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Nadine Bozek is such an upbeat, creative soul, and her art truly reflects her warm, giving spirit. I hope you enjoy this interview with Nadine!
Artella: What art supply could you not live without, and why?
Nadine: Right now, I could not live without my computer and digital camera, as I am doing a lot of digital art. I use the photos I shoot as design elements for digital collages I make.
Also I am loving my inexpensive little sewing machine that sews through multiple layers of fabrics, as I have been sewing lots of little handmade books lately. I got it for a Christmas present three or four years ago, and never touched it, because I didn't know how to sew, and this year, I just said, "What the heck." And I started playing with it and teaching myself. I get a pure, child like pleasure sewing on it, because I don't have to be perfect.
You can read the rest of Nadine's interview, here
See Nadine's products in The Shoppes of Artella, here.
 If you want more artist interviews from Artella, take a look at our eBooks Artist Profiles Assembled and Artist Profiles Assembled, Vol 2.
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ART TIP OF THE WEEK:
Since Kai just turned a year old, it was fun to revisit this series of small paintings that I painted during the early stages of labor, which I titled "Love's Labor Found". This was the first time I had ever purposefully created a series of paintings, and it was a very interesting exercise (well, labor pains notwithstanding! LOL).
Creating a series of paintings (or art in any other media) may sound like a daunting task, but it actually can be quite simple. An easy tip is to start with any piece of art you've already created. Observe the key elements in that piece: shapes, images, colors, borders or frames. Now, create another piece that slightly alters at least one of those elements. You could slightly change the color scheme, or change the position of some of the key images. Perhaps each issue in the series could introduce a new technique or media. Remember to keep SOME elements consistent in each piece, as a way to draw the series together.
The number three is often used in art; colors on the color wheel are grouped into threes, and group elements in threes is a tried-and-true composition tip. So a series of three artworks is a great place to start and experiment. Of course, if you end up really liking your subject, you can continue to extend your series for as long as you get inspired!
WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK:
Writing classes often teach the "rule of threes", which suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. Here are some examples:
- Write a story based on three characters (i.e. the three little pigs, the Three Musketeers, etc.)
- Write a joke in threes: introduce the topic, reinforce it, and then give the punchline.
- Group adjectives together in threes in order to emphasize an idea.
- Divide your plot into thirds: create tension, build it up, and then resolve it.
- Incorporate lists of threes to create rhythm in all kinds of writing.
- How else can you incorporate "threes" in your writing?
Three is formula of all creation. - Balzac
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Marney