I just finished reading The Artist Way (for the 3rd time) which is always such an incredible tool for re-connecting with my inner artist child and better insight into my creative cycles and obstacles. This time around I facilitated a local group of artists and over the past 12 weeks we have all become so close and such a wonderful supportive, sacred circle for one another. I have learned as much from them and our weekly gatherings as I did from the task and wisdom of Julia Cameron’s book.

This past week I had some beautiful opportunities to play, explore and restore my inspiration and connect with creative community. Can you relate to how challenging it can be to step away from the must-do’s or obligations of our daily grind and re-connect with your sacred creative self? As creative beings we owe it to ourselves and our communities, family and one another to take these much needed breaks and re-fill our creative well. One of my favorite tools in The Artist Way is the artist date. Over the 4 or so years since I first read the book I’ve lost touch with the tools from time to time but finding the time to be in Joyful celebration of our creativity is such an incredible gift! As long as I think of it when I’m planning my week I am almost always able to sneak a little artist date into my week.

This past week I took two day long artist dates! This is often how I reward myself for hard work and successful completion of projects. The first fun date last week was to Art Fields (now in it’s 3rd year) in Lake City, SC.  There were over 400 exhibiting artist of almost every medium you can imagine! It was incredibly inspiring and humbling to see how much local talent there is in the Charleston community and the region. I won’t comment on the winning pieces (other than to say not what I would have picked). If you want to see all the works they are on the Art Fields website and I’ve got more photo’s of some of my favorites in this album.

These two pieces were at the top of my favorite’s list, both were playful, 3-D hanging installations. The piece above won the Artfields People’s Choice Award for 3-D work and the one below is called Atoms & Stars (and there were a lot of Bees, which always make me happy!).

As if seeing over 400 works in one day wasn’t enough! I also went to a gallery hop and saw one of the artists I’ve interviewed on my blog, Mary Edna Fraser‘s work in it’s final week at the City Waterfront Gallery.

Her retrospective show Above-Between-Below was incredible, and sadly it’s over but if you want to see more check out my album here. I admire the passion, purpose and fine craftsmanship of Mary Edna and she is one of the most fun, energizing people to be around, she’s infectious (in a GREAT way).