You are the One

Posted on June 22, 2018 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

warm wishes for solstice

The Bird in the Heartwood
Sally Swain © original art
Is it finished? Not sure

Night and day

You are the one

Only you beneath the moon

And under the sun

Resurgence
Art and Soulstice
Sally Swain © original art play-in-progress

I begin this blog with an ancient, yet fabulous Cole Porter song. It’s the sort of song I play at work in the nursing home

to get the enlivenment going;

the joyful recognition and creativity flowing.

Today, I taste the lyrics while musing on the solstice, the moment when day and night are poised in equal balance.

I get all deep and meaningful.

‘You are the one’ could be a cosmic phrase as much as a personal sentiment. Night, day,

moon, sun,

dark, light:

You are One.

Together, you polarities make up the one great gersplunking totality.

And if that’s the case, that it’s all part of one gigantic whole (Gaia, I guess), then on my microscopic insectudinal level, I can feel less timid about posting

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Chip off the old block

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

Dad and me (and she) and creativity

Do you have a muse? Many ongoing muses?

Who or what inspires your creativity?

Dad and me

My original muse was

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Art and Soulstice

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

To share or not to share my shadow side?
To show or not to show
the art that is darker, grizzlier, more sombre?

It’s a true dilemma that niggles at my artist (and social media) self.

I trace the dilemma back at least 28 years, to the success of my first book, ‘Great Housewives of Art’.

Great Housewives of Art feminist humorous pastiche

Great Housewives of Art
cover of very first edition
Grafton HarperCollins
1988.
Sorry about slightly crooked photo. I have a slightly crooked relationship with this creation.

This book blessed and

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Bringing Creativity to Everything. Even the Sticky Stuff.

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

Especially the Sticky Stuff.

Is it wise to incorporate a copyright statement on your blog?
I was badly bitten during the success of my first book, ‘Great Housewives of Art’. Oh. I will have to share a couple of the images so you know what I’m talking about. How about three then?

Mrs Renoir cleans the oven
from ‘Great Housewives of Art’
(HarperCollins, Viking Penguin, Doubleday)

Mrs Gauguin has a tupperware party
from ‘Great Housewives of Art’
(HarperCollins, Viking Penguin, Doubleday)

Mrs Picasson dusts the mantelpiece
from ‘Great Housewives of Art’
(HarperCollins, Viking Penguin, Doubleday)

Rather large success led to rather large rip-offs. But even thinking about this topic makes my stomach squirm with grey nausea.
Breathe, Sally, breathe.
I would love to live in a

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Is this OK? A bit of trumpet blowing?

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

The wonderful Val Andrews interviewed me.

Via the miracle of Skype, we chatted intimately across the miles and miles of ocean between Australia and England.

Talking of oceans, Val sails a proud boat of creativity. She paints, prints, writes, mentors.
Her book, ‘Art for Happiness – finding your creative process and using it’ comes highly recommended.

So now for the tricky bit.
Is it OK to share the interview with you? Do I dare?
Am I blowing my own trumpet? Well, yes, I guess.
I tentatively make my brassy sounds in the hope that they…

do be do be daa daa…

might inspire and fire your own creativity, whether it’s in a Big Band Glen Miller parp parpeedoo way, or a little lone trumpet on a soulful pink hill fweee way.

Let yourself express your unique YOUness.

Interview with a Creativity Coach & Art Therapist

Here’s the link to Val’s website

and to the interview on her blog.

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Be A Mused. Be Very A Mused.

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Art and Soul Creativity Coaching since 1993

Dad and me and creativity

Do you have a muse? Many ongoing muses?

Who or what inspires your creativity?

Dad and me

My original muse was my Dad, David Swain. Dad made a life of writing, cartooning and mentoring other creative sparks.
His first book, The Cantbeworried Tales, came out when I was seven. He gently satirised Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in cartoon and verse. This little book made a big impact on his world and mine.