The beginning…

Some years ago I decided to give up my career as a web designer to follow a lifelong dream and study textile design. I spent a year working very hard at Chelsea School of Art in London where I specialised in Stitch. However the universe had other plans for my creativity and during the summer holidays I found I was pregnant with twins. I had to leave Chelsea and so I moved back to Brighton where I gave birth to two boys in 2003. It was the start of a very bumpy ride as I had some mysterious and debilitating health problems which turned out to be MS. I was quite heartbroken to have abandoned my dreams of living a creatively fulfilling life and as much as I wished to fill that hole with motherhood, I yearned for more. Two years ago I became a single mother so I had very little time to indulge in anything artistically, particularly as any free time I had was spent looking after my health. That has been a journey of discovery in itself and I have become very involved in personal development as well as meeting all kinds of amazing healers on the way and finally getting a yoga habit. My twins started school this year so I eventually gave in to my creative hunger and decided to enrol in a course on The Artist's Way in April this year, even though I had no idea how I would find the childcare or time. But I trusted that things would fall into place and magically they did. And I haven't looked back. The floodgates of my creativity are still only just ajar - I have so many ideas but not much free time, but I am looking forward to the artistic adventures I am sure to have, whatever they may be. Right now I want to sculpt from clay, paint, draw, take photos and of course make beautiful things from fabric, but I have no idea where all this will lead and it's the not knowing that is an adventure. I am starting this blog with some photos of my embroidered textile designs from my degree course but I intend to record my weekly artist's date as well as anything else I conjure up. The Artist's Way isn't solely concerned with artistic pursuits, it is about leading a vibrantly juicy life, identifying and following one's dreams and injecting some childlike joy back into the stressful lives we adults lead. It's about noticing (and creating) magic and synchronicity, which is an adventure in itself.