Inspiration. Creativity. Beauty. Wellness. Empowerment.
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To know me is to know what I stand for, to know what inspires my heart and guides my life. Each of the words above have influenced me, driven me, inspired me and made me who I am today. Each of them is expressed in my creativity.
I’ve been a creator for as long as I can remember. From illustrating and writing a children’s book that my public school librarian put in the library to designing, photographing and writing my new book Healthy Reminders, creativity is my passion and joy. It’s how I express myself and my heart and it’s the lens through which I see and understand myself and the world around me. When I create, I create with beauty in mind. I create with inspiration, wellness and empowerment in mind. I love writing and designing with uplifting, inspiring words, phrases or messages. I love typography and get giddy at the challenge of picking just the right typeface to make a message soar. I love how the right image with that message can create a synergy that can be felt on a subtle, energetic level...a level of the heart. And I love arranging all of these elements in a harmonious form. My love of typography and design came from my training as a graphic artist. My love for photography came from a different place. Taking photographs in nature was, and continues to be, a way to express my creativity but it’s also a means of healing as well. For me, beauty heals and the beauty of nature is a form of medicine. Photographing nature brings me a sense of peace, presence and connection. It teaches me to slow down and appreciate the little details of life. It challenges me to explore off the beaten path and invites me to open my heart to see with new eyes. It fills me with wonder and awe and is an expression of my spirituality. When I’m in the woods with my camera, I feel a deep relationship with the earth, with Spirit and with myself. More than anything, it helps me get out of my head and helps relieve my struggles with anxiety and depression. Those struggles with anxiety, depression, and also chronic pain over the last twenty-five years have taught me a great deal. They’ve brought a lot of hard lessons and wisdom and they’ve shown me that I am capable of being a strong, empowered woman who is the heroine of her own life. Whether it’s through writing, creativity, healthy eating, movement, or self-awareness, (actually, all of the above and more), wellness has been at the forefront of my life. Focusing on wellness has kept me curious but it’s also kept me humble. It’s shown me that there is not one answer for everyone but that everyone has their own answers inside. We just have to be willing to listen. So when I share with the hopes of inspiring others, I’m mindful of the fact that they will find their own way, in their own time. I’ve created many artworks and products in the last fifteen years. The ones that I am most proud of are: Love Is Everywhere, the little heart book I wrote and photographed that was inspired by my travels to Europe in 2008, the Sacred Nature Guidance Cards that I designed, that consist of forty-four of my photographs and the booklet of intuited message that I wrote to accompany them, the temporary tattoos for mental wellness that I created and sold that touched many lives, and my latest book, Healthy Reminders, a handbook of wellness strategies for the mind. All of these products share my passion for the healing power of beauty and words. Moving forward, I’m excited to try designing for clothing and housewares, and basically see where else my intuition and creativity takes me. Some fun facts about me are: I love collecting crystals, baking healthy snacks, making soup, listening to top 40 music, thrifting for fashion, especially second-hand, upscale resale, reading historical fiction, talking about the meaning of life with friends and spending cozy moments on the couch with my husband. And though I tend to be a perfectionist, I’m working on allowing my best to be good enough. xo Tracy |
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