PERMISSION to SHAhaHAre

"FIND THE HUMOR IN THINGS TODAY.  IT WILL DO YOU GOOD.

SEE THINGS WITH THE FUNNY SIDE UP!  PEOPLE WILL CATCH 

ON AND EVERYONE WILL BE LAUGHING."

This is one of my favorite pages from a new book called PERMISSION SLIPS.   This book features the wise wisdom and delicious ART of my lovely WILD CHILD tribe Sister Goddess Pattie.   SG Pattie gave herself permission.  She decided to play big and shine her light wide.  She submitted her ART to StoryPeople who loved it so much they made it a book.  Woohoo.

SG Pattie's colorful pages and whimsical designs and bright words exude HAhaHAppiness. I open this book and the pages make me giggle and the words remind me to give myself permission to just be.

SG Pattie and I met at a WildChild Art Retreat years ago - when the walls of my house were still white with other people's stuff on them.  After seeing this Wise Omazing Woman create and acquiring some of her ART to bless my sacred space, I gave myself permission to paint - every possible surface I could find.  That is why my house has orange walls and yellow gold hallways and blue, fuschia and green kitchen cabinets.

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SG Pattie was kind enough to share some of her wisdom with me - here is our interview below:

1. What inspires you to create?

My heart and spirit inspires me! It is not something that I readily think about but rather it is a feeling that over comes me to pick up my paints and pens. It is a feeling of being whole, of being complete, of being ME when I create.

2. Do the words come first or the images/pictures/colors?

There really is no one way for me...Some days the images come first, which then bring whispers from my heart...Other days the words come and they direct me what to paint...color is my way of bringing the two together.

3. What is your favorite permission slip?

This is a hard question to answer because I use them all...and on any given day I will have a different answer. So, I would have to say today, that my favorite permission slip is "LUCKY DAY". I have this new book out, I am blessed with good friends and a loving family. I have found that I am much stronger than I thought I was, and that happiness is truly a state of mind. There are my 4 lucky things that I honor today!

4. Where do you get your ideas?

I get my ideas perhaps from a color I might see, from a book I am reading, or the sweet song of a bird outside my window. Ideas come from my heart and then blossom outward.

5. What is your secret superpower?

AH...my secret superpower is that I do not require a great amount of sleep! So I have many hours available to create, garden, read, love my kitties, and enjoy life.

6.  What encouragement can you offer to other artists?

Be courageous to submit anything you feel really shows who you are and what your heart has to say.  Be okay with rejection, not everyone likes everything we do. Fear traps us and does not allow us to move forward closer to our dreams. That old saying ..."if at first you don't succeed...try...try..again" is a great mantra!

7. What other projects are you willing to shaHahare with the world?

I am currently working on a board book for children of all ages. This again is a book inspired by the transformation of my good husband, Michael. I found that talking about death was not a subject most people were comfortable with, and trying to find a book that dealt with death that was suitable for a 6 year old was impossible. That is what this new book is about. How people never leave us really...because, they are always in our hearts.