I lived next to the Source when I was 20. The body of water that fed the Nile (Lake Victoria). This mass of water is the literal life source for the community, home to fish and plant life which fed the people and the water source for all. You go back to its shores over and over to be nourished. But the calming effects that mass amounts of blue have on us and the open air that gives our minds rest offers a different kind of nourishment—one for the spirit. It’s often that spiritual nourishment I’m craving, and I‘ve come to learn it’s closer to my home in Colorado than I thought.

There are many other names for this close to home source, some might call it The Divine or God, but after leaving the church years ago those were words I couldn’t include in my vocabulary, at least for the time being. I needed distance from the theology that wounded and instead started forming my own spiritual practice, one that recognized Source long before I had the language to call it that.

To be clear, I never saw my art practice or the things I read (Greg Boyle, Clarissa Estés Pinkola, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Caroline Myss) as a spiritual practice, but the deeper I go now and the more I crave spirituality, I see how these have become my own roadmap. Together they taught me about love, healing, and our deep connection to nature—one more source to return to physically. They brought back the roots of a religion I still loved but the waters had been polluted. Even the deep conversations in my 1:1 Source Sessions were spiritual. I knew that they meant a lot to me, but I didn’t see them as spiritual direction, just creative direction, and now I know they are one of the same.

For years I have dreamt of becoming a wise woman, someone who guides and heals often using herbs and nature’s wisdom. To me, this is the next step on my spiritual path, my way of healing, being close to nature, and offering something back to the world. What I never imagined was I could be a wise woman through art. Using color and story to guide and heal—My own personal maps to help other women find their way back to their Source.

Like the life-giving body of water in the heart of Africa, the Source is where you find life, sanctuary, and a deep knowing and art is your guide back to that place, already inside of you. Through visual story, color, and of course, nature, each piece is a reminder of your interconnectedness to the world and the deep connection you have to the wellspring of life inside of you. My paintings are a daily reminder on your walls that you are spiritual even if you don’t have a name for it, yet. And by sitting with this art long enough, it might just lead you back home.

Find Your Way Home

Studio Update: Next week’s Greenhouse painting workshop (we paint inside of a greenhouse at a local flower farm) still has a few seats left. If you’re ready to come home to your Source through creative direction, I’d love to have you there. Save your seat here.

When we had our floors remodeled and there was dust and chaos, home wasn’t a place of grounding. The first year we lived here, while we loved this house, it wasn’t a home…yet. Something happened over time to make this place be the space we need to recharge, reconnect, and re-enter the world. People leave our home feeling more grounded, more themselves.

This isn’t by luck. It’s by design. The magic I use is simply color.

Design Emotions Through Color

There’s a lot to cover with color, especially when you want to design a full space so I’ll direct you to my color bible, Living With Color. What I will dive into with you is how artwork changes the feeling of a space, how it brings out emotions. The bigger the piece the more emphasis it will have on a room and your emotions. The same could be said though, on how many times a day you walk past it. A painting set in a high traffic area for you, will also have a greater effect on your emotions. Tie this altogether with wall color, fabrics, and other soul-filled objects and you no longer have a house, you’ll have a home. It’s that simple.

Emotions of Blue

Sky blue, ocean blue, or the blue gradients that memories live in. Blue calms us and opens up a space. Because it’s a cool color, blue recedes into space. Artworks that are heavy with blue will give the feeling of a sigh of relief, a remembrance of nature, the pause you’ve been craving.

My nostalgia collection (blue and white with a pop of yellow) can bring out more emotions of memories by being so heavily blue. This allows us to go into a calm state and remember. The small pop of yellow energizes it and almost makes it feel like the summer sky.

The Dillon Reservoir soft pastel painting emphasizes sky and water in this piece with a ton of breathing room and therefor ombre blue effects separated by clouds and land. But because there is so much open space, it gives the feeling of calm.

Featured from top left to right: On The Other End, Dillon Reservoir, Horse With No Name, Sailing Adventure, Kitchen Memories

Emotions of Pink

Pink adds life, energy, and freshness to a space. There is something youthful about pink. Maybe it’s because we think of little girls and their love for pink everything. But the new blooms in the spring are also pink, a newborn baby is pink, new love starts with pink cheeks and on and on. Pink takes us back to the beginning.

In Nature’s Chaos (can be hung horizontally or vertically) these pink blooms erupt all over the canvas. They are grounded with some green and brown and give breathing room with a touch of sky blue but otherwise they are energized with new life in a variety of shades of pink.

Muse in Motion is dripping in pink, literally, and Confidence, is backlit by pink. The energy in this color brings out the power inside of us, it is a color that empowers. Personally, my art studio is light pink balanced out with a lot of white to not influence my paintings, but when I walk into this space I feel ready to work, ready to create.

Featured from left to right: Nature’s Chaos, Muse in Motion, Confidence

Emotions of Purple

The color of royalty. Originally, purple pigments were so hard to obtain, it was saved for imagery of royalty or Christian Icons (purple robes). Because of this, we now see this color as one of power, prestige, elegance. Any painting that is heavily leaning purple invites us to remember our own royalty and to embrace a little more luxe in our lives.

Inner Forrest is still one of my all time favorite paintings. Filled with symbolism and meaning I love what it stands for. But the soft purple light in the background and reflecting off the snow it was truly makes this painting magical–royal.

Featured from Top left to right: Inner Forest, Purple Mountains Majesty, Boundaries, Aphrodite.

Emotions of Green

Green is probably the easiest color to add to our homes because we are so often surrounded by it in the outside world. Add some houseplants to your space and you won’t imagine how much more lively your space feels.

Personally, I love the deep shades of green which bring a feeling of safety (like the painting, Safety, below). Paintings with green have some energy but they still offer the pause.

As humans we instinctually want more nature in our lives. There is a mass amount of science now showing how forest bathing and spending time in nature will help with anxiety and depression. Artwork of nature you can get those same benefits. Bathing in your nature themed art regularly (The Modern Magic Podcast is a great way to do this!) will only increase those benefits.

Featured from top left to right: Persephone, Safety, Wise Woman, Maroon Bells, Blossom + Branch, Take Me Home (Steamboat)

Emotions of Orange

Like the fading sun, the nutrient dense soil, or the fall season where everything begins to rest, Orange grounds us. It’s a color that brings us back to nature. And while it can be filled with energy (like a glowing sun on the horizon) paired with muted or earth tones, it helps us feel stable.

The National Monuments in Utah (Entitled Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone) is a great example of this feeling of groundedness. Our bodies know this land, our souls call out for the dirt, and so the orange brings us in.

Kingfisher uses orange like a sunrise that enhances energy. While the blue tones of the bird bring down some of the energy, it doesn’t have the same effect as the images in the blue section (with vast skies or waters).

Finally Fall farm and Uncertainty from the Uncaged Collection both bring out an almost melancholy feeling. It’s the end of something. It’s beautiful beyond belief but it also brings out the sadness we so often have tucked away. Sadness can be the most grounding feeling of all–for better or worse.

Featured from top left to right: Air Balloon Adventures, Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Till It’s Gone, Kingfisher, Uncertainty, Fall Farm.

Shop By Feeling with Modern Magic Fine Art

Whatever emotion you want to bring into your space, there is a way to do it with art. I take all the guess work out of it by allow you to shop by feeling with Modern Magic Fine Art Studio.

Shop Modern Magic by Feeling

It sounds like a character out of a children’s book. A small light in the growing dusk as the full moon rises over the horizon line, just like she’s rising today. You step outside your door, most likely without any shoes on, and follow her into the yard.

Where is she going? Where did she come from? Was she asking for me to follow?

Whim creates curiosity wherever it goes. That’s the gift that following a whim gives us.

Get Curious

Yesterday I led a discussion on Creative Spark at the Entrepreneur Club I help run here in Denver. It was my first time doing a mini workshop because I like the time and space to go deep, but this 40-minute sessions revealed so much to me about how people perceive creativity and why it doesn’t feel accessible. There seem to be a lot of barriers to entry (they’re all made up of course) but to me, whim is the easiest way to find your creative spark.

When you’re walking down the street and you get the sudden urge to go this way, not that way, and you follow through. Then you come upon something else and ask the question what if?

When we follow a whim it takes us out of our day-to-day. To try a new style of music, take a road you’ve never been down, experience a new drink order at the local coffee shop, put a mark on paper, and then another.

We think creativity is this magical thing that only the greats are born with. In reality, it’s a practice of following whim and curiosity constantly.

Practicing What I Preach

In recent weeks my spark has been dim when it comes to my art. I haven’t found the same joy in it. The pressure for making a successful business out of it has been a lot. And then I canceled my workshop this week and last week’s print drop didn’t go as planned. It was easy to want to quit altogether. Instead, I played with my paints. I experimented with a new style of painting, of throwing color onto paper and seeing what happens. I didn’t play small and went with a larger scale paper to let things flow. I ask “what if…” a lot. And a painting emerged that I’m truly in love with.

Something else emerged though that means so much more. My creative spark came back. And through this practice of painting, a little bit of tarot pulling and journaling, I found the source of what was extinguishing my spark and I have the tools, ideas, and inspiration to protect it again.

My creative fire is strong now. I have the motivation to finish the commissions on my easel and bring in more this May when my bookings open up again.

I am finding inspiration at every turn as I witness the colors of spring coming to life and the magic of light playing through branches or lighting the sky on fire at night.

Curiosity was the cure. A childlike mind is the answer.

What if…

If you are feeling stuck, lost, or burnt out (literally, your spark has been snuffed out) I invite you to ask the question “What if…” It doesn’t need to be big, starting small is just as good. But the more you ask this question, the more you’ll discover new worlds, and you might just find that the whims you follow are what light that spark again.

Follow your whim

If you’ve been curious about the Modern Magic Creative Spark workshops, there are more coming. One a month through October. In May I host them in a new location at the Schoolhouse Studios in Boulder. Kristen Abbott is a soulful abstract artists who uses this 1800’s schoolhouse as her studio and gallery. She has kindly allowed me to take it over for a Saturday morning to invite curiosity, play, and a whole lot of magic to happen.

These 2-hour workshops aren’t about the art. Yes, we’ll paint together and you’ll experience the scientifically calming (and cortisol lowering) effects of gouache paint. But this time is an exploration of what it means to be an artist. You were born with the title of artist, its time you claimed it.

Follow Your Whim To A Workshop

Mother Athletes

Francesca Lollobrigida is an Italian speed skater winning 2 gold medals in the 2026 winter Olympics. But that isn’t why she stood out to me. Her emphasis on being an athlete and mother spoke to me deeply as a mother artist, myself (duality in action). Two sides pulling you in different directions, both 100% necessary for your survival. And yet, she did it. She mothered a beautiful son, she won gold for her country (with an Olympic record and on her 35th birthday no less) and she proved that mothers can do anything. Every minute after her race she showed just what motherhood looks like–from celebrating with her son to letting him be a part of the interviews, even when causing pure havoc.

Francesca was just the first story of motherhood I got to witness in these games. Every athlete that got to stand with their medal holding their child gave me goosebumps, so much so that the next big painting I’m working on has a mother athletes theme to it and I can’t wait for the layers of symbolism and story to shine through. More on that to come…

Choosing Our Full Selves

Then there was Alysa Liu. At the ripe old age of 20 she has more connection with her intuition than many of us. She retired at the age of 16 after her last Olympics because she no longer loved the sport; her creative fire had gone out. (Sound familiar?) She felt the need to please everyone and be perfect and at 16-years old she just wanted to be a kid. That childlike wonder in her was calling, and, I’m sure, it’s calling inside of you too.

She ended up coming back to the sport 2 years later with the condition that she do it her way. That this sport would not control her but be creative restraints for her to become her best self. And that the accolades would mean nothing, it was simply about showing up, having fun, and proving something to herself. In the end, she would win 2 gold medals at the 2026 Olympics and showcase how doing it your way, without the pressure might just be the best way to do it.

Partners not Sponsors

While Simone Biles is not part of the Winter Olympics she was still there and a lot of her story around mental health and making choices for herself and not others became a huge part of this games narrative. One of the most revealing things was that after the 2020 summer Olympics (that actually happened in 2021) she walked away from her sponsor Nike, leaving $1.6 million/month, for Athleta, a company that’s about 0.2% the size of Nike. Having a voice matters and she wasn’t going to have a creative voice with Nike. So she chose less money, to embark on a partnership, not just a sponsorship.

It was clear that Nike wasn’t supporting her creative fire and so instead of just sticking with it because it was good money, or that’s what you’re “supposed to do” (always red flag language in my book!) she followed her gut. Now she not only has a brand that supports her in her quest for mental health, but she has someone to co-create with.

So, what does all of this mean?

We get to choose what success looks like. We don’t have to follow the way things have been done just because they’ve been done that way. It has me looking at my business, at art, at marketing with new eyes. With wonder and imagination. It added to my creative fire knowing that doing things differently doesn’t make you crazy, it makes you a visionary. And what’s better proof than seeing the best of the best showing up as themselves fully–mother, creative, and athlete–on the world’s biggest stage?

If you’re craving this kind of permission; to be passionate, to choose yourself, to create without performing I invite you to my next painting workshop here in Lakewood on March 6th. This is space to get out of your head and into your hands, to connect with new friends, and of course to reignite your creative spark. If childlike wonder is calling you, like it called to Alysa Liu, answer the call and come paint with me.

I WANT TO PAINT!

P.s. I’m thinking about making the Francesca Lollobrigida painting next months limited edition print, available just in time for mother’s day. Let me know what you think!

I grew up religious. In community, in a church, with people who cared dearly. And it still caused a lot damage for me. Not physically, but to my soul.

Religion is a container, it creates boundaries, a mold. And while these boundaries can be really good as children who are learning good vs. bad, as we grow up we need to learn about dualities and the spectrum of grey. I believe in boundaries. They hold things, they can keep us safe, but if we let them, boundaries can strangle us. And in my experience, the way I’ve seen religion used is taking the oxygen right out of the room.

Spirituality, on the other hand, is the water inside the container, and it’s meant to flow, to move, to spread. In many ways it’s like the divine feminine. It needs to move, to create, to flow.

You need spirituality in religion, but you don’t necessarily need religion for spirituality. Or maybe, it’s better said that you don’t need the religions we’ve created for spirituality. Because boundaries (divine masculine) paired with spirit (divine feminine) can create beautiful things.

When the container of religion is broken and spirit is set free, something beautiful happens. Oxygen is put back into the room, life can flourish, and we discover new parts of ourselves.

Maybe it’s not that the container itself that is bad. Maybe its that the container needs to be more like a river bed–allowing ebb and flow, rising and lowering tides, extreme forces that sculpt, and gentle streams that feed. I think the container of current day religion is simply too small and we need to open it up so that our spirits can truly thrive.

Purchase This Original Painting

Prints that celebrate this kind of spiritual flow are available in the shop, and I'm always open to creating custom pieces that honor your unique path.

My 18-month old son recently learned to say no, and he sings it like an anthem. Whether it’s a short and sweet no, an elongated whine, or my favorite–a sing song “nooo”. He says no for everything.

“Do you want milk, fruit, ice cream?” No!

And then, soon after saying no, he realizes that maybe that should have actually been a yes.

I’ve heard many parents complaining about the no stage, but I love it. Not just because I love hearing his voice, but because it’s a reminder to me, that instinct taught us to say no first.

When I replace yes as my automatic response with no, I can hear my inner voice, the one who lives in the depths. This allows me time to make a decision in full. I process things, so being on the spot never works for me. (If you come to a workshop, you’ve seen how well prepared I am!)

No keeps the calendar open. It keeps our to do list short. It gives us the openings for what we want most. You can usually say no, and change your mind to a yes later. It’s harder to go the opposite way. And maybe it’s not even rushing into always saying no. You could start with maybe… “I’m saying no for now, so I can have a moment to decide if this feels right and I’ll get back to you.”

As women, we were taught to make things easy, not get in the way. But when we look at the layers of self, the very first one is about creating boundaries. Developing a healthy masculine energy (your gender doesn’t matter, feminine and masculine energy live in us all) is necessary to live a healthy and fulfilling life.

This is exactly the kind of conversation that comes up in Source Sessions. We often start by walking through the layers of self, beginning with the first layer: building boundaries - learning to say no so you can say yes to what your soul actually wants.

What would change if today was the day you started saying no to everything else, so you could finally say yes to your heart?

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Limitless with Karin

Using AI to discover your purpose

I love AI…

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9 months ago · 28 likes · 6 comments · Karin Hadadan

A few years ago I got into a Human Design kick, before AI became a common thing. I checked the book out from the library and looked up all the details about my design to better understand myself, and then saved it to a Google Doc. I check in on it a few times a year to remember who I am at my core. But Karin’s idea to combine all the personality quizzes was genius.

Our identity lives in the solar plexus chakra. After we find safety and security (root chakra) we find creativity and community (the core of what I talk about) and then we build up enough confidence to name ourselves.

There is SO much power in a name. In the bible, God speaks things into existence and then later asks Adam to name the animals and plants. Ra, the Egyptian goddess of the sun, named things into creation. In Greek mythology, there isn’t a specific god that names things but the gods gave the role to humans who were impacted by divine wisdom to give names.

Basically, names are holy.

And naming ourselves is a continuous holy act.

Because, we don’t stay the same. We ever evolve and therefore it’s easy to lose sight of who we are (especially with our cultures telling us who we should be.)

That’s where these personality breakdowns come in.

The Enneagram, Human Design, Doshas, Astrology, Gene Keys and more help guide us to understanding ourselves. They are a stepping stone in the road back home to ourselves. They are your Gandalf on the road to the dark depth of your inner landscape–Well that just got ominous and a bit geeky all at the same time.

But the inner landscape of our psyche is complex and scary. So having a guide is so helpful as we begin this journey, one that we can go much deeper in with a physical guide (Therapist, energy worker, or with my source sessions–1:1 mentoring around your creative energy and taking back your power.) You can easily spend your whole life getting to know yourself.

But for now, Let’s start with creating a profile out of your personality tests and charts to give you a foundational understanding of who you are and what you might be meant to do here.

Note: AI isn’t perfect not are these tests/charts. Take this information not as law but as a guidance for where you could go and what healing needs to be done. The life/death/life cycle teaches us that all things have a time and place and then need to be let go of, hopefully these findings will lead you to what needs to die in your life so you can let something truly great be born! Furthermore, I and AI are not therapists or doctors. If you are dealing with deep trauma I highly suggest speaking to a therapist or your doctor before taking an big actions and please for the love of god don’t mess with any medications or herbs before speaking to a medical professional or certified herbalist.

AI and your Charts

To begin you will need all your charts from a variety of different places. You can get these for free and if they aren’t downloadable, just copy and paste them into your AI browser. Personally I use Claude.ai because it seems to be more in-depth than ChatGPT for this type of work, but the choice is yours.

Profiles/Charts/Tests to utilize for this project:

• Enneagram (Take the Quiz): A personality map made up of nine core types that helps uncover your motivations, fears, and growth patterns.

• Human Design (Download here): A system that blends astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, and chakras to reveal how your energy is designed to move through the world and make aligned decisions.

• Ayurvedic Dosha (Take the Quiz): An ancient Indian system that identifies your mind-body type (Vata, Pitta, or Kapha) to understand balance, wellness, and energetic tendencies.

• Birth Chart (Download here): A snapshot of the sky at the moment you were born that shows your personality traits, emotional patterns, and life themes through planetary placements.

• Numerology Life Path (Download here): A number derived from your birth date that reflects your core purpose, natural strengths, and the lessons you’re meant to learn in this lifetime.

• Gene Keys (Download here): A contemplative system based on Human Design that explores your genetic potential and paths to higher consciousness through self-reflection.

Once you have all your reports you can upload the files or copy and paste the results into your AI browser and apply the following prompts to start diving deeper.

Start Here (Copy + Paste): Based on my Enneagram, Human Design, Ayurvedic Dosha, Birth Chars, Numerology Life Path, and Gene Keys, help me breakdown what my purpose is, how I can best show up for others and myself, and areas of interest I should explore deeper. Help me get to know myself better.

You’ll get your results like this:

You’ll also probably get some very woo-woo language that you aren’t quite sure how to breakdown. So the next prompt will be about cleaning this up and going deeper.

Prompt (Copy + Paste): Help me understand this better by simplifying this with less woo-woo terms and in ways I can fully implement this into my life. I would also love to add in here some details of my day to do, what I’m currently working on, and how best to implement these into my purpose and make sure everything aligns. These details include…
(Here you will add personal information like how you work schedule handles, if you want to cycle sync within any schedules that you might have AI work up for you, other major life things happening–are you a parent, how is your health, are you working on a project, are there places in your life that you are stuck? All of those can go into this and you can ask for guidance on how to get everything to flow together specifically for you. )

These answers go DEEP and have a lot of insight so sometimes we need to shorten it to make sense of it. That’s when I ask for a simple recap.

Prompt (Copy + Paste): Can you take this and simplify it into a short paragraph of direction?

I’m starting to get a picture here. I need lot of rest, inner time, and art for play not profit (I’m terrible at making time for these things. Even now as I’m writing this I feel the energy draining and technically I should be working on client work, but I’m feeling the inspiration for this post, so here I am).

Now I want to figure out how my energy is best served in movement practices and health. Specifically I know that movement and breathwork are so important to me. I also have done a TON of reading on dosha’s so I have a better understanding of what foods are best for me and don’t feel like I need to focus there, but feel free to get into the nitty gritty of any area of your life and health!

Prompt (Copy + Paste): What type of movement practice is best for me along with breath work practices.

I hate true workouts, I have zero desire to run unless someone is chasing me and the idea of doing more slow forms of yoga has me lighting up inside. Yes, this is exactly what my body is wanting!

Okay, I want to dive deeper into the business I’m building. As a mom I have limited time during the week so I want AI to work out a schedule for me that covers all the things I do but most importantly I want to find out why I have such big blocks to money, charging the right price, and actually making my business profitable (what a concept!)

Prompt (Copy + Paste): What avenues of income am I missing out on? And why is money such a block for me. I know I’m often undercharging but also have so much I want to give away to help other women heal and take back their power, is there a way to do both?

Mic drop!

I don’t know that anyone ask linked my money insecurities back to worth but as an Enneagram 3 I feel this deeply!

Okay, let’s wrap this up with a pretty bow and let it all sink in.

Prompt (Copy + Paste): Taking all of this into consideration, I would love to create a simple breakdown of everything we just discussed and slightly less woo terms and more approachable language. I’d also love to create a guide to my schedule for the week keeping in mind (Insert your currant schedule parameters here). I prefer to cycle sync my energy based on my 28 day cycle divided into the first half of my cycle and the second half of my cycle. Knowing that the second half of my cycle, I will be lower energy and inclined to do more inner work.

I want this full breakdown to be something I can print and reference in a PDF.

Here’s the beautiful thing about this. There are SO many more things you can ask or write in yourself. There are no rules, just different paths to come back home to yourself. And that’s the mission at the end of the day–to figure out who you are before the world told you who you should be.

Use this to discover new things, get clear on others, or to affirm what you already know. Ask for journal prompts to go deeper or other resources to help you get clear or dive into a subject deeper.

This is just the beginning. The deep soul work, the underworld, is something that constantly needs to be groomed and cleaned. Use this to help you discover what needs to be born inside of you and what you need to let die.

1:1 Sacred Source Sessions

Feeling lost, depleted, or uninspired? These sessions are for the woman ready to reconnect with her creative energy — whether you’re navigating postnatal transitions, reigniting a long-dormant spark, or seeking clarity for a creative project or business.

I Want To Reignite My Creative Spark

Source Sessions are limited to 3 Clients per month and 1 monthly scholarship is available for those who cannot currently afford a single session.Reach out to book your session or apply for a scholarship.

All the monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) start with creation. A God who creates.

In mythology (which, some might argue these religions fall under) the beginning of the world is often started by a god creating the heavens and the earth, or a goddess giving birth to the world–both of which are acts of creation.

From the beginning, in every culture, we told a story of the wold starting in creation. The very first act is one of creativity.

At this point, the stories or rules, start to turn. Because creation is a powerful act. Turning nothing into something is magic. And whenever power is involved, those with the most to lose, those in power, will choose to weaponize it.

And so, creativity became something for the gods.

I, as an everyday human, was told that I couldn’t be an artist. As a child, it was okay to pretend, to be encouraged, but at a certain point, I would need to come to terms with reality, that kind of power wasn’t for me. Art, music, creative passions, they would need to be hidden away, because creation is for the gods, and I am just a mere mortal.

Amazingly, this has become the status quo in our world.

Children create. Adults work.

Better stated: At a certain age, this much power in a creative’s hands is dangerous and should be squashed before they know of the power they hold.

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Sacral Energy

Hold tight as I get a little woo-woo here.

In Eastern philosophies, there are 7 main energy sources running up the spine starting from the tailbone and ending at the top of your head. These are called the Chakras (pronounced chalk-ra). Each chakra has special components that make it up and offer us insights into the body and where we might feel stuck in our lives or health.

The 2nd charka, called the Sacral Chakra or Svadhisthana in Sanskrit, sits below your naval over the reproductive organs. This chakra is known for community and connection. It’s passionate energy, sexuality, creation, and connection. All things that we might call taboo in our society.

What’s interesting is that the chakras are in order of what’s important for our survival. The Root Charka, at the base of the spine, represents safety and security. You need to have your basics needs met. Once you feel safe though, the 2nd most important thing is creation and connection.

And yet, “we aren’t creatives.”

This though, this is telling us that we are creative. YOU are creative. We were all meant to create. And furthermore, we were meant to connect.

On a very surface level, we could see sacral energy as sex. But what we call libido isn’t just sex energy, it’s not just craving an orgasm. It’s craving connection, which any act of being in community and feeling seen or of creating will satisfy.

After having a baby, the last thing on earth I wanted to do was have sex. My body had been ripped through by this child and now every ounce of energy went to him. I also didn’t want to create. The idea of painting sounded like way to much. I needed my basic needs, my root chakra, to be cared for first. Once I felt grounded in this new life and role, once my body started to heal, I went to painting first. Intimacy with my husband came later.

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Art + Creativity as an act of Rebellion

I love talking about this energy source because I think it’s so important for our society, especially now, when politics grow increasingly more violent towards the people and AI is taking over every piece of technology we use (and often, a lot of our creative outlets too).

Art as protest has become my passion. I’ll share creative ideas I see on social media and highlight how others are using different creative avenues to talk about hard issues, to educate, and to take a stance against what they see is wrong with the world without becoming violent.

Choosing to create, even for your own benefit without anyone knowing about it, is a rebellious act because those in power do not want you to have that power.

Art creates change.

Art connects people.

Connected people make change.

Art is the path to a new world.

We’ve watched the humanities slowly be taken out of schools for years. We watch as books are removed from schools, libraries, shelves, because of what they might allow others to think (or know). Media has been censored. 3rd spaces have been limited. And the list goes on of all the ways that sacral energy has been suppressed in this society.

But now is the time to rebel. Now is the time to get creative. To go and connect.

Start a discord for you and your neighbors (we call ours The Porch and invite anyone we meet that lives within a 3-mile radius of us). Go to the same coffee shop at the same time every week. Get off your phone. Talk to the strangers in the grocery line. Go to the art store (preferably your local art store and not the mega chains) and buy something that excites you. Maybe it’s paints, or knitting supplies, maybe it’s a kit or perhaps a book on an art form you didn’t know about. Sign up for a pottery class. Sign up for a meet-up.

Go and play.

Create. Dance. Sing. Share it or don’t. The simple act of creating is changing the world. It’s changing you. And that right there is where it all starts.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Start by creating and connecting.

Call yourself a creative, an artist, because YOU ARE! You were born creative.

It’s the greatest act of rebellion we can have, and we need more rebels right now!

If you’re local to Denver, I’m teaching painting workshops here and there. These are less about turning you into the next big artist and more about helping you ignite that creative spark, learn about your sacral energy, and play with gouache paints in community with other amazing humans. We’ll laugh, we’ll play, and hopefully you leave believing you are an artist too.

LEARN ABOUT WORKSHOPS