Storytelling

Deep Within the Dream

6/4/2022

A long time coming, the next solo show is HAPPENING!! The fire for creation and completion is burning in my belly and on the canvas. These beauties would like to share their messages with you this September.

Deep Within the Dream explores going deep within ourselves and our dreams, our imaginings... Collectively, 2020 offered us the opportunity to stop, to pause, to turn within our homes, to look a little deeper at what we have seen a hundred times before. Maybe we saw the Spirit of our daily life a little differently? This body of work explores my dive deep within and what Spirit emerged in that place.

HUGE thank you to Melissa Bunce of Essential Wellbeings for collaborating to bring this show to life in her beautiful new space!! Artist's Reception TBA.

I see you...

5/30/2022

Today I am sitting with the deep importance of seeing each other. This can take some bit of practice as we can tend to see a reflection of ourselves or our past experiences when we are seeking to understand one another in this life. While the beauty of each other as mirrors is certainly a wonderful art for personal growth there is a deeper sweetness to truly seeing
one another.

That being said, it's okay to allow your voice and your Beauty Expression even if what other's see is very different from what you see. A surprising joy about being human is our ability to experience the very same things in very different ways. Much like how even if given the exact same artistic assignment each of us would create a very different piece of artwork in a very different way... and that is a very BeautyFULL thing!

"Tending the Fire" Victoria Williams Steen 8x10 Bristol Board

January 28th, 2022

1/28/2022

BIG NEWS!!! I have teamed up with our doctor (who is also passionate about recycling and reducing waste) to offer a wonderful program in our dental office. You can read about it here or on our website: www.detaildentalkids.com. I made sure to include some of my favorite resources for sustainable living. We CAN make a difference!!

Small Changes for a Global Impact. We’re on a mission.

"Here at Detail Dental Kids we care about our impact on the planet and what we are leaving behind for generations to come. Finding green options in healthcare fields can be a challenge but we are up for it! Thankfully, we aren’t the only ones calling for change. We are now working with Terracycle, Crest and Colgate to recycle dental items in our office. We also take the extra steps in our office to recycle daily waste in our back office and breakroom. Since the program began this year, we have already recycled over 250lbs!!

Here’s the thing… We need YOUR HELP! Our waiting room currently has collection bins just waiting for your contributions. We can accept toothbrushes, brush heads, toothpaste tubes, mouthwash containers, floss containers and floss picks. Bring yours by and we will have a fun eco-friendly/biodegradable prize for you to say thanks for helping. So come on over and bring your recyclable dental items with you. We’re doing our part and appreciate you helping by doing your part. Together we can save our planet one toothbrush tube at a time!"
#RecycleEverything #terracycle #doingourpart

Want some other awesome ways you can do to help save the planet? Our Dental Assistant and MRC Myofunctional Therapist, Victoria is especially passionate about doing what we can to better our planet for the children we are handing it down to. She wanted to share a few of her household favorites for a greener daily routine:

A Little Better Bags

Love these biodegradable alternatives to Zipping bags!
These alternatives to traditional zipper bags are treated with a biodegradable, eco-friendly compound which allows them to break down at least 15% per year when deposited in landfills and in contact with biodegradable materials. Plus, they don’t leak or fall apart. From snacks to school supplies, these bags come in a variety of sizes perfect for storing anything you need. Just grab and go!

Reli Biodegradable Trash Bags

These eco-friendly garbage bags are made from plant starch and EPI additives, and are eco-certified to breakdown by moisture, oxygen and soil 100 to 1,000 times faster than conventional garbage bags. They come in a variety of sizes, perfect to suit your needs and are a great, guilt-free option to traditional garbage bags.

Who Gives a Crap

Well excuse us! But understand, we really LOVE this toilet paper! From the reduced carbon footprint to their mission to ensure everyone has access to clean water and a toilet within our lifetime, Who Gives A Crap is a great product we can really get behind. (See what we did there?) This awesome company offers customers options for premium toilet paper, bath tissues and paper towel products with plastic free packaging, AND they donate 50% of their profits to their cause. According to their website, contaminated water contributes to over 1 million deaths per year and toilets have saved more lives than any other modern invention. Learn more at their website at https://us.whogivesacrap.org/.

Cupless beeswax tealights.

Did you know beeswax emits negative ions that cleans the air of airborne allergens such as pollen, mold spores, bacteria, and some viruses? They do this by attaching to positively charged particles making them too heavy to remain airborne where they can enter your breathing passage making you sick. With these little tealights you get 100% pure beeswax and a lead-free wick? Yes, please! What’s more, you can use your existing candle holders again and again while enjoying the sweet smell of natural beeswax. Once the candle is burned down, place the candle holder in the freezer. Give it an hour or so then you can pop the old wax right out to reuse the holder again.

Autumn Songs...

11/21/2021

This year we are hosting our family for Thanksgiving. We live in an old farmhouse that is bubbled with other old farm houses. This bubble was once called New Augusta, nestled in the northwest corner of Indianapolis. It is a sweet space to call home, grow veggies and flowers in the side yard and squeeze the whole family in for food and songs. My nieces and nephews are showing us that they are going to be little singers so it felt like a good time to learn a simple song to sing before dinner this year. Gideon is helping with the singing and hand motions, silly older cousins are THE BEST! Our dear friend from North Carolina, Ashley, inspired me to name a gratitude for each day of this month. Simple songs and family singing time is mine for today!

I am attaching a free .pdf file of the lyrics in case you want to enjoy this little ditty with your family too. It is set up with 4 small sheets per page to share.

autumnsongs.pdf
File Size:	7719 kb
File Type:	pdf

One step at a time...

8/14/2021

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the responsibility shift that needs to happen to truly make efforts towards creating a sustainable way of living on our beautiful planet. I refuse to be a person who throws in the towel and says it doesn't matter. IT DOES MATTER! How do I do this effectively? I don't use all or nothing strategies. I recognize it will never be perfect and I stay committed to problem solving rather than commiserating. When I make it past that hurdle I see the little things I can do.

Usually this looks like small habits in daily life that add up to a lot over time. Most recently I started recycling stations at our dental office. Every week I bring home about 10lbs of recycling to recycle at home AND I wrote letters to several facilities who offer recycling of dental materials until one wrote me back. Oral B sent us a return label for all the dental recycling we collect in our office. So, if you are looking for a place to recycle your old tooth brush, toothpaste tube or floss container come see us at Detail Dental Kids!

PS. Please be a carer, the world desperately needs carers right now. What is a carer? I carer is a heart feeler combined with an action taker with a dash of problem solver. Be that. Not just about the planet but about so many of the vitally important things in life.

Dream Symbols and working with our subconscious...

2/23/2021

This weekend I had a sweet opportunity to reflect on the transformational power of personal symbolism in dreams and a piece of what it has done for my life. There is a particular repeating dream that would come to me starting in my early 20's. Through personal reflection, I was able to connect this dream symbol to a particular health issue I had been diagnosed with. My subconscious was communicating with me about it. Through the years this symbol comes up in my dreams always keying me into something about this diagnoses/part of my body. Through alternative paths I was able to move to a nearly symptom free state with this dis-ease. I had a dream of this particular symbol, an aquarium, recently. I was scared when I first saw where I was headed. I thought, oh no, I have been healthy so long, is something wrong??? But when I arrived to the room all of the aquariums were healthy and doing well. There was an aid there taking care of everything. What a relief! When I woke up I couldn't help but feel grateful for my brain sending these reassuring symbols. The very first time I dreamt of the aquarium it was haunted by dying fish and a snake like creature with a human face. Scary to say the least. Dream Sharing is such a unique and personal experience that can be deeply enriching. Truly infinite outcomes and expressions come from this space. The healing work we can do all the way into the subconscious spaces of ourselves amazes me!

The sun inside me...

2/2/2021

Today as I embrace the sun in this commissioned piece I am reminded of the sun inside me... I see this as my solar plexus. This is a chakra AND an actual nerve plexus called the celiac plexus. This is a complex network of nerves (a nerve plexus) located in the abdomen, near where the celiac trunk, superior mesenteric artery, and renal arteries branch from the abdominal aorta. When you feel something in your gut, this is where you feel it! As I dance with honoring my own sense of balanced, personal sunshine, I see healing in my body and life. Striving for balance has been a life long journey. I am grateful to say at this stage my sun is shining strong and healthy. Also feeling grateful for being alive in a time where we have access to so much information and the ability to find unity in the medical and spiritual knowledge available to us. It is a wonderful time to be alive!

Holiday Cheer!

12/17/2020

The Little Library is at it again spreading holiday cheer! If you find yourself in New Augusta please grab an ornament to decorate your tree or bring back for our Little Library tree. 2020 has been a year to remind us the little things are the things that keep us connected and smiling. Wishing all a
beauty-FULL Holiday Season!!

Little Libraries in Little Communities...

11/10/2020

I feel like a lot of these posts could use the phrase, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Seems to be a life theme here. This Little Library has had quite a journey from East 10th Street to Tim and Julie's Another Fine Mess and onward to our New Augusta proper. I like to imagine how many stories it has held and shared. How many more will it share? Do the books taste yummy as they wait there in the belly of the beast? Not unlike those stories, this one unfolds in a divinely orchestrated way.

As most adventures in current life and times, this one starts with answering a facebook ad. The FREE Little Library that no one wanted once they found out how heavy it really was! We were so far down on the list I never thought we would get the call. Several weeks later with one borrowed truck, one helpful husband, two additional handy men, three directors of location, an artist and some sweat equity, we were able to fix this guy up. Then we planted him right next to our new neighbors Autism Companion Services. Swing by and check it out! This generous community will always have plenty of books, art, music and movies to share.

Surrounded by creative process...

10/13/2020

Being an artist teaches me a lot about being okay with messes... AND creating beauty out of "mistakes." I had to realize this is my way, my Medicine. My house will always be decently clean but the truth is I LIVE here. REALLY LIVE here so there is a project going somewhere all the time (and two dogs, two guinea pigs and a kitty live here with us too.) I take up space and I no longer carry negative feelings about this. I hope when you visit you feel warm and embraced by a creative processes happening all around you. I am not even going to edit or stylize these photos. It is just like this - in some version - all the time. It makes me feel fully alive and present to the incredible and simple beauty all around us. The bowl pictured is a perfect example of all of this. This bowl was off centered, misshapen, probably many would have scrapped it. Sometimes I feel like this. In my heart, I knew it just needed a little nudge, a little direction and creative problem solving. Now I LOVE this piece!! It is okay to make space in your life for the artistic part of yourself... whatever that looks like. The world greatly needs it!

On that note, I feel like I don't get to say this enough... my life partner is AMAZING! He loves me just as I am and embraces our version of home fully despite his desire for minimalism. He says, at least my "look ats" are rocks and art, so, it's not so bad. I don't know what I did to call this guy into my life but I am a very LUCKY person!

Teaching Dad about throwing pots on the wheel. (Rental from Ripple Mobile Arts)