come on in, creative beauty.
You’re here because you miss being creative.
You’re here because you’ve just realized you are a creative human, and you’ve never given yourself the time or space (or permission!) to explore your creativity.
You’re here because your creative ideas are really exciting and at the same time, the idea of getting started is confusing, even scary.
You’re here because you want to make creativity a daily practice.
The important thing is: You are here.
You get to have the relationship with creativity that you desire.
You get to make bad art to share it with the world.
And you get to make great art to keep it for yourself.
You get to make money from the work you create.
And you get to create just for the act of creating.
You get to spend your time creating.
You get to have space to create.
You get to protect your creative energy.
I’m here to grant you permission to have it all!
I’m a mentor and permission granter for creative women.
I create spaces where you can let your Inner Artist out to play so that you can enjoy the beauty, magic, and delight that comes from reconnecting to your creativity.
I’ve always been creative. Like so many of us, as a kid I was forever making a mess with scissors and glue, watercolor and chalk, leaves and mud. And like so many of us, at some point I started to believe I was too old for creativity. It was time to get serious, and creativity felt like playtime.
I went to college and studied economics. I moved to Washington DC and worked in policy. I went to law school and got an office job. And for a lot of that time, I felt disconnected from myself.
When my daughter was born, I felt a growing need to reconnect to the parts of me that felt true. When I looked back, I could see that the times when it felt easiest to remember who I had always been were the times when I let creativity lead the way.
It was when I made mix cds for my friends with collaged cover art.
It was when I started making mini books and art journaling in them.
It was when I finally took the letterpress class at the local art center and learned to print my own greeting cards.
I left the 9-5 job while my daughter was still an infant and knew that to show up as my true self in motherhood, connection to my creativity had to be a piece of the puzzle.
I started teaching letterpress classes at the art center where I learned to print and selling my greeting cards at local markets and craft fairs.
I grew a brand, found my own press, and moved it into a little carriage house studio I shared with three other artists.
Even though it was my literal job to be creative - to consistently come up with new ideas, to create products with my hands and my skills, to write and to build and to make things beautiful - I still found myself turning to creativity when I felt disconnected.
It’s practicing hand lettering to get back into flow from creative block.
It’s pulling out watercolor paints when the news feels heavy.
It’s a morning journaling practice when things are shifting and you want to get clear on direction.
Once I realized that I could get back to myself by turning in to my creativity over and over again, I started guiding others through the same journey.
Ready to start?
wherever you are in relationship to your creativity, melanie offers support to help you live your most creative life. whether you are looking to start a daily art practice, write a book, find a way to share your creative services with the world, or just get your hands dirty with ink and tools and clay and paint, book a free coffee chat to find out what support would be the most helpful on your journey.
i can’t wait to see what you’re creating!
You don’t have to do it alone.
you get to do it with support.
you get to do it in community.
you get to share the experience with others.
Connecting to creativity can offer so much healing. And in so many ways, women are made to feel guilty for wanting to connect or unworthy of time and space to create. I want to flip that narrative, to help women see that we are here to create whatever it is we are called to make, whatever it is we want to see in the world.