Your art. Your inspiration.

What are your goals? What are your passions? Where do you see your talents best served?

These were some questions posed to me this weekend by a very good friend who's opinions I highly value and accept with my whole heart. I will be honest however, my head was spinning and I was taken aback when posed with these questions as I have just started off on my latest path into teaching children's yoga. I've dove head first into my yoga practice and I love love love every second of it. It brings me joy and fills me in a way I haven't been filled in quite sometime. I am happy - with the choice I have made, with the way I spend my everyday, with the support I am able to offer, with the gift of this practice I can share with children. I am on the right path for certain.

Then she asked, Have you lost sight of your art?

To that I answer no. While I don't get to create as much as I would like to, as much as I used to - outside of a crate here and a mural there, I believe I am always in the artist frame of mind no matter what I am doing. She remembers me in college as someone who was always in the studio or on the floor creating my next project. It used to pour out of me. Now I find myself in another kind of studio and yet I am able to see the parallel. There is art in my life no matter what I am type of studio I am in.

Art, like many things, like yoga, is a practice. It is constant. It is everywhere. You live it, you breathe it, it is part of you. The things you are born with will never leave you. It is a gift you hold that grows with you - constantly evolving - ever changing.

Recently it comes in spurts - I get inspired and I want to create. These days, as life has gotten busy and as I adjust to this new route, it has been inside a journal of personal exploration. It comes in small sketches and words unspoken. It is small and that is okay. Right now, it is what it is and I trust it is right where it should be.

And just when I have the need for more, I stumble upon some great inspiration...tonight I've found Aelita Andre. She is a 3 year old professional abstract painter from Australia. Next month she will be holding a solo show in NYC...and it won't be her first solo show. I am in awe.

Watching this video below (several times), you can see there is more then just playing with paint that is happening here. I see something there that I've seen in very few children as I've watched them create their own art (as I often include art in my children's yoga classes). There is true comfort in what is being created - a sense of non-attachment to the outcome - seemingly no fear of judgement - an abundance of acceptance. It is not forced. It is accepted as is. It is right where it should be. It is beautiful.