Water
I signed up for a 6-day Intuitive Art painting class this Summer. I missed the first class, and attended the following four weeks, choosing to miss the last one. When I showed up for the second class (my first), the teacher showed a slide show of water images, piers, waves, etc, and she also asked us to close our eyes for a moment and let go of our day. Then, we could start painting water, and there were no instructions beyond that.
I had imagined that an Intuitive Art class would include deeper connections to one’s intuition. Perhaps a longer meditation time, ways to deepen our relationship with water for that specific class, and tips on how to use one’s intuition. I wondered if the main intuitive tool was taught during the class I missed. The directions were minimum to none, and therefore I chose to paint a waterfall I visited with my sister and friends in January. While I was painting it, I realized that I probably wasn’t using so much of my intuition, I was following pre-learned techniques and the usual way I’ve painted to date.
I committed myself to 30 days of meditation – filling my body with light and sending that light through my right hand outward, to anyone who had radical views, who had so much hate in them, who felt disempowered, and whose only solution available to their awareness is to attack.
My sister and I went on a guided tour in Cappadocia, Turkey. The group included tourists from Turkey, from Canada, from Chile, and us from Brazil/US. After visiting several ancient cave sites, we stopped in Avanos, at a pottery business. The set-up is to hear about the business and their pottery making tradition, watch a demonstration, and then shop. During the initial presentation, we learned that the business was 200 years old.
During the last class of the spring semester, I told the students “don’t be afraid to paint your own shoes”. Many of the students were graduating then, or will by the end of the year. It was my way of encouraging them to be authentic, to keep learning, to continue growing and pursuing their chosen careers and passions, and to be themselves. I was wearing the shoes I painted last year, and wrote about 
Towards the end of the year, a friend and I bought a couple of tickets to attend Paint Nites together. We went to one in December, and our paintings came out nice – we both had fun. I hung mine at my new office in school. In early January I had this idea to paint another canvas as a wedding gift. I checked the calendar and sent my friend a couple of options, one on a Tuesday and one on a Wednesday, I was leaving on a trip to the wedding that Thursday. She chose Wednesday, and even though I wasn’t sure that it was the painting or teacher I wanted, or that the day before my trip was the best option for me, I agreed to that evening.
I’ve been reflecting on the experiences I learned and lived in 2016, and in this article I'm sharing a few lessons I’ve known for years, which I was able to experience and embody more fully last year:
Towards the end of 2015 I decided that 2016 would simply be better. There were no rules, no expectations, and no resolutions. I owe many of the decisions I made, trips I took, family I visited, courses I purchased, adventures I got myself into, people I connected with, paintings I created, and retreats I attended, to it.
A friend posted on Facebook that she was going to an “Ecstatic Dance” event. I checked the website and decided to attend it. No alcohol, shoes or talking allowed on the dance floor. Since I had never attended it before I asked her what to wear, and she said “think yoga class meets dance party” and wear something comfortable.
My niece asked my sister and me to take her on one of the adventures we had in January (I wrote about them 
If you are experiencing pain in this moment, be it towards someone else in your life, towards a loss, towards yourself, towards the past, or towards something you haven’t achieved or become, consider giving it a voice through art. As I’ve shared before, when I started writing