As a professional artist and an exciting creativity facilitator Cheryl Jones Evans will ignite your exuberant, expressive creative self. She is a passionate well-seasoned leader with more than 28 years in all facets of the visual arts industry and 18 years of creativity facilitating. Cheryl holds a BA in Arts Management (UMASS) has been listed with Florida Department of Cultural Affairs as a presenter, the Creativity Coaching Association, the Florida Arts in Education Association, and the National Independent Artists Association. She served on the City of Casselberry Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as the Arts liaison and currently serves on the Leesburg Center for the Arts board as the director of Artistic Community Building. She actively facilitates The Central Florida Artist’s Way Group, has instructed classes at a small private college, conducts weekend creativity seminars, and regularly facilitates other spiritually based creative and art marketing classes with arts organizations all over the state of Florida.

Oh....and she actively, passionately, constantly CREATES!

http://www.cheryljonesevans.com/

Monday, February 29, 2016

Shadow Artist.......Is that what I am?

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way describes a shadow artist as a creative that chooses a career that is close to the life they would like to have themselves, but are afraid to actually pursue themselves. YEE-OUCH that stings!

I should know, when it comes to shadow artist’s it is very possible that I am the queen! As a young woman I went to school and got a degree in interior design, in practice and the real world interior design was more about budget and installations than the opportunity to be creative. I became increasingly dissatisfied with my work and life!

The chance to manage and then own my own picture framing business brought me even closer to the art my soul was silently screaming to be near. I made certain I stayed very close to the energy of creativity by limiting my business to art galleries and artists, drawing even closer to my “tribe” but still afraid to acknowledge or God forbid give into it.

Years of unrealized dreams zapped my energy, joy and happiness, until finally this interesting book came along and called me a shadow artist, and gave me the tools to move forward into the life I was meant to have.

Woo-Hoo! 20 years (and counting) and not a day passes that I am not grateful beyond measure for the creative tools, the artistic support and the phenomenal creatives that "The Artist's Way" brings into my life!

Shadow Artist.......I don't think so! Not any more.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for this post I've been doing my morning pages and artist dates but coming accross this lifeform that is me defined as the artist shadow blows my mind (I teach art to kids at a youth center yet I can hardly breath when I go to a gallery because the denied longing to create is so painful - add to that my inability to create when i gift myself the time). your post gave me much needed clarity ~ in identifying the problem, knowing there's a solution and hope that I can be free of this blockage that is cutting me off from my lifesource it's like death by papercuts!!! Time to pull out and dust off my Artist Way book and do the work..
Thank you again for sharing your journey.