I am fascinated with the healing properties of art. As you all know by now I am a big believer in the innate creativity within all of us. I believe that when we tap into that creativity we heal our souls, relax our bodies, and calm our minds. I do not believe that to receive these these benefits you have to be a great artist, and yes I know that we are not all great "Artists" but that is OK. When we give ourselves permission to let go an enjoy the process of creating we invite those benefits into our lives.
I have been spending a lot of time on the internet researching mindfulness in art,  the healing properties of art, and art therapy. Along the way I have found some very interesting resources which I would love to share with you. I wrote recently about our Yoga instructor Leslie Ellingburg, and her blog Aum in the Arts which looks at the connection between yoga and art. Leslie teaches the yoga portion of our monthly yoga and art Series here in the studio.  Today I wanted to share with you another wonderful resource, the Mindful Art Studio and the lovely artist/writer behind it:

Amy Maricle

Image Via Mindful Art Studio

Amy writes, "I created Mindful Art Studio because I wanted to share all that I know about the healing power of art for ANYONE and EVERYONE. I work with people from all over the world who don’t think of themselves as artistic but want a creative outlet for stress relief, and artists who want to learn to be more playful, authentic, and insight-oriented in their art making. We can ALL use art to know ourselves, understand and transform our feelings, and PLAY."

Amy's blog is filled with inspiration for what she terms "creative self care." She blogs a lot about art journaling which I believe to be one of the best ways for aspiring creatives as well as experienced artists to really experiment, play, and even push themselves creatively.  Her post, Simple Drawing Techniques for Anxiety  is the one that initially drew me to her site, and from there I was hooked! In this post she talks about the calming effects of drawing and challenges you to pick up a pen and try these very simple drawing techniques including lines, circles ,and blind contour drawings.

Images Via Mindful Art Studio

These challenges really resonated with me because they fit with my own thoughts, everyone is capable of creating, and everyone can benefit from creating! We can all draw a line of some sort...We can all draw a circle even if it might sometimes be a bit wobbly ;) yet look how beautiful these marks can look on a page. When you start just placing mark after mark down on the page, you hand and your mind tune in to that process, you focus, and you can achieve mindfulness through art!

Amy offers several online classes, an e-book, an online workshop...for FREE, one on one mentoring, and of course her blog which is filled with awesome inspirations like Doodle and Destress or What is Creative Self Care? While you are on her website be sure you sign up for her email list to receive her Free Guide to Self Care 6 day email course!

I am so very glad that I have found Amy's blog and I look forward to learning more about mindfulness in art through her blog and others. I will keep on sharing my findings with you here on the blog so be sure to follow along, and as always I would love to hear from you! What are your thoughts on art and mindfulness?