Image credit: Gina Greenlee, paint, ink, marker, collage An excerpt from Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art  by Stephen Nachmanovitch: “I have never ceased to be astounded at the power of writing, music making, drawing, or dance to pull me out of sadness, disappointment, depression, bafflement. I am not talking about entertainment or distraction, but of playing, dancing, drawing, writing my way through and out. This process resembles the best in psychotherapy. We don’t

Image credit: Gina Greenlee, Pinterest Mary said, “you need grounding before you take this big trip around the world .” So, she coached me to “create-destroy-recreate” art pieces for 30 consecutive days in the months leading up to the trip. Minimal instruction, no elaborate context, only “ Try it and see what happens. ” Image credit: Gina Greenlee, quick fashion magazine collage Always playing with art , I was open to possibility in the moment without having to know what came

Image Credit: Gina Greenlee, paint, ink, collage For more of my take on growing up on New York City’s Lower East Side: Black and Blintzes: Growing Up Not Quite Jewish on the Lower East Side Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments in New York Hush Life, a novel No Tears for Frankie: A Memoir on the Life of an Essay     ◊ ◊ ◊ Take a YouTube tour of my hometown. The background song is the 1977 hit Native New Yorker , performed by Odyssey . The lyrics, shared in this

Excerpt from Art Heals , The Shaman Within:   Students and colleagues over the years have repeatedly asked certain questions that have...

Image credit: https://www.pinterest.com/summerhouseart/

“9. Begin Anywhere. John Cage  tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.” ...

Image credit: Cats, the musical In one of his most viewed TED Talks, the late Ken Robinson told a story  that deeply resonated worldwide:...

Image credit: Pixabay The River After years of experimenting and practicing trust in how my mind works, I discovered research by...

Image Credit: Gisela Photographie at Pixabay “What is universal is the human propensity to create order out of chaos.” Anthony Storr,...

From Amazon:   Creative people will experience depression—that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts...

Dairakudakan is a butoh  performance art company founded and led by MARO Akaji , a celebrated butoh dancer , as well as a choreographer,...

Image credit: Alvaro Calvo at Unsplash More Happy Visuals: Saketh Upadhya Alan de la Cruz Belinda Fewings   Gina Greenlee   Girl with Red...

I felt compelled at that time – this is mid-1960s – most of what was being published by Black men were very powerful, aggressive...

Interviewer : You don’t think you will ever change and write books that will incorporate White lives into them substantially?   Toni : I...

Image credit: Aphton Corbin My March 11 post got me Googling: “Drawing black people features in cartooning.” Image credit: Aphton Corbin...

For decades, research in neuroscience has shown that people who doodle when they are exposed to verbal information retain more of that...

“This is a simple but never truer sentiment. I originally came up with this phrase in 2008 and have since drawn multiple iterations. If...

Acclaimed Canadian physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté has worked for decades in Vancouver as a family physician, palliative care...

Junk mail collage art: Gina Greenlee Creating junk mail art is a great visual art practice if you don’t already have one. It’s the...

Pen and ink drawing by Gina Greenlee, inspired by one created by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. “Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a...