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 My new book, Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life, is finally making its lil’ way into the world! To celebrate, we’ve got an amazing online launch that is starting next week: The Creating Time Mega Event, featuring 25 of today’s creative leaders who are inviting us "time travel" as a collective community to create a new paradigm of time! You can keep reading to get all of the details, below.
Have you noticed that time is moving faster than ever these days? As I researched the different elements that seem to affect our perception of the flow of time, I pinpointed several key factors, one of the most significant being the difference between focused and scattered time. When we are focused on just one thing, time seems to move more slowly; on the other hand, when our focus is scattered, time seems to move more quickly. These sensations seem to be true whether we’re talking about hours, days, months, or years.
At this point in our planet’s social evolution, we are constantly taking in much more information than ever before on an internal level, constantly being stimulated with new thoughts, feelings and ideas. At the same time, we are being asked to multi-task on the external level, as more and more demands are made on our daily productivity. The result is a near-constant state of extreme scattered focus, which in turn makes time feel like it is moving very quickly. On the one hand, multi-tasking may make us feel more productive, but that satisfying feeling is typically rather fleeting, as the very act of multi-tasking makes us feel like we have even less time, since our dispersed focus plays tricks on our perception.
I believe the solution lies in a blissful state of being less aware of time itself but more aware of the present moment. Connecting right here to this moment and focusing on one single thing, as if we had all the time in the world, makes time slow down and give us all that we need. To me, “creating time” means that there is amazing power held by each of us to imagine, create, and completely reshape the way we experience time. For too long we have been servants of time when in fact, time that can and should serve us. We can finally drop all the archaic view and limitations of time that have held us back from fully embracing the wild beautiful truth: time is not a defined line; it is instead a vibrant, completely moldable, layered, multi-faceted work of art that is in your hands to create and design, each and every day.
If you’d like to learn more about changing the way you see, imagine, measure, and experience time, I hope you will join us for The Creating Time Mega Event …three unforgettable weeks that start on Monday!
For those short on time, to simplify this week's Artellagram, here are some "quick links" to the highlights in this edition. You can simply follow the links that you're interested in and go directly to that section.
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1. NEW! The Creating Time Mega Event starts next week!In the 10 years since Artella began, I can honestly say I've never been as excited about a free event as I am about this: The Creating Time Mega Event....three FREE weeks of inspiration as people all over the world will come together and welcome the ending of time as we know it...and the beginning of an exhilarating new life! The Creating Time Mega Eventis part of the celebration of the release of my book, Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life and features 25 amazing luminaries inviting us to "time travel" as a collective community to create a new paradigm of time.
It's FREE and it all starts April 2, 2012 and runs for three amazing, life-changing weeks. I invite you to join us and enjoy live webinars, daily email inspiration, dynamic time-shifting games and challenges, a lively interactive community of fellow time-travelers, and so much more. Learn more and sign up here!
 2. NEW! Creative Kairos Immersion Weekend! I’m so excited about the workshops and appearances I’m making in live events on the Creating Time tour in our current destination cities (which include Dallas; San Francisco; Cleveland; Ann Arbor, MI; the Poconos, PA; Portland, and Houston). I’m particularly excited about the Creative Kairos Immersion Retreat taking place in Pennsylvania’s gorgeous Poconos Mountains the weekend of May 18. I invite you to join me and an intimate group of creative women for A Weekend in Extraordinary Time and Space as we leave ordinary life behind and enter a world that is simultaneously both deeply relaxing and dynamically invigorating, all at once. Come be creatively reborn in kairos time during this amazing weekend! You can get all the details here.
3. Creating Time Countdown! There’s obviously lots going on to celebrate the launch of “Creating Time”. We encourage you to wait to order your copy until April 17, which is the official publication date. We’ll have a great package of bonus goodies for all who grab a copy on that day, and we’ll announce all the details during The Creating Time Mega Event. In the meantime, we invite you to "like" our new Facebook community for ongoing creative prompts and games related to "Creating Time" and sneak peeks at fabulous artwork created from the book, like this “Time Collage” by Patricia J. Mosca. Come join in the countdown to the end of time as we know it...
 4. Join
the ARTfiliate Program! Join Artella's generous ARTfiliate
Program and enjoy all the new affiliate tools that we've recently added! You can get more info by going here.
 5.
Interested in Becoming Part of Artella's Team? We are expanding our team for all the exciting things we're working on in early and mid-2012, so if you've ever been interested in becoming part of the Artella Team, now is the time! Check out this page for details.
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 In celebration of The Creating Time Mega Event and subsequent book launch, I thought it might be fun to share one of the ARTsignments from Creating Time for this week’s Creativity Tip.In the book, each chapter concludes with an “ARTsignment,” which is an art project designed to help further absorb the concept in the chapter. Each ARTsignment combines a step-by-step introspective process; interactive journal questions; and a unique, hands-on art project. This ARTsignment is called a “Flow Chart” and it is designed to help you pinpoint your personal flow states and create a visual motivator to engage in them more often.
ARTsignments, which are at the core of my ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through creativity, offer a powerfully effective way to internalize and absorb a process and truly take it in. Through eight years of creating ARTsignments, I’ve discovered that engaging our minds, imaginations, and bodies through physically creating art catalyzes an unmistakable transition from simply reading a concept to absorbingand becoming it. Once understood,this method of essentially transporting oneself through creativity has valuable implications regarding time “traveling” and time creation. In Creating Time, ARTsignments pull us directly into the full dimensions of time and extend the breadth of its meaning and experience.
Here are the steps to create your “Flow Chart”:
Step 1: Answer the following journal questions to examine what “flow” means to you.
- Describe what “losing track of time” means to you.
- Think of a recent experience when you lost track of time. Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with?
- When and where are you most aware? When and where are you most awake? Most connected? Invigorated? Satisfied? Involved? What fills you with curiosity and wonder? When and where do you feel “at one” with the world? Pick a handful of these activities, events, places, people, and things, and create a list of elements that put you in the flow state. These are the elements that you’ll be using in your artwork.
Step 2: Create a piece of art, using any media or techniques, to represent the activities, events, places, people, and things that get you into the flow state. As you work on your piece, think about how you might bring more of each flow-inducing element into your life today. Look for both obvious and subtle ways to integrate these joyful states more often and more frequently.
Step 3: Place your artwork somewhere to remind you of your own personal doorway to flow, ready and waiting for you to walk through at any time!
The example show above is one of the “Flow Chart” examples in the book, this one created by L’Tanya Durante. About this project, L’Tanya said, “I made a collaged booklet from paper lunch bags.I knew I wanted to create a unique little book because it would be a portable, interactive, tangible reminder to relax. Creating this book a little each day reminded me that I don't need lots and lots of time to forget about time. My biggest challenge is that I've always thought that the kind of peace and relaxation that comes with the disappearance of time required a lot of time to attain. In other words, I believe that the preparation of flow was too time-consuming. But this project proved to have just the opposite effect.”
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In this new Artellagram feature, we'll feature something special in the Artella Land Storefront that matches your specific interests. Since there's always so much to see in Artella Land, you may have missed some of our special gems! This new section introduces you to a specific item that you might like to take a look at, based on your personal interests and preferences, along with a special 3 days only coupon code, only for readers of Artellagram, for 35% off what the featured item currently sells for on the Artella site!
The Storefront Spotlight for this issue is...
Artella's AlphaBetter Muse Workshop
26 Inspiring Art Journaling Muses for All-Around BETTER Living!
Meet the AlphaBetter Muses!...This inspiration from the hands and mind of Artella's own founding flowerchild, Marney Makridakis, presents a friendly family of Muses who are ready to lead you through an unforgettable journey of self-discovery, inner healing, sacred inspiration, creative fun, and all-around BETTER living! From the Asymmetrical Muse, who champions lopsided living...to the Zzzzz Muse, who lives in dreams...these dandy gals are ready to motivate you to embrace your creativity fully and create the life of your dreams!
Artella's AlphaBetter Muse Workshop has a little something for everyone. If you're a writer, you'll love the thought-provoking writing challenges. If you're an artist, you'll enjoy diving into the art techniques that accompany each lesson. And no matter what your dreams are, your soul is sure to be stirred by these inspiring Muses and the energy that they bring with them. The AlphaBetter Muses can't wait to play with you!
Get 35% off this featured item by using the 3 days only coupon code when you check out: spotlight328-AB.
Go here to see more...
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Artella’s Member Ship Creativity Cruise is an ongoing adventure of information and inspiration, all hand-selected to be about your favorite creative topics. Each and every month, you get a huge overflowing gift basket of inspiring goodies in your Cruise Cabin. You can read about all the different Cruise Cabins here.
I’m excited to share that March is a very special month for our Luxury Cruise Cabin members. All of the March goodies – including e-magazines, kits, art tutorials, journal page packs, audio interviews, booklets, workbooks, yes everything – are all related to the intriguing theme of Time, as we celebrate with Artella Members the release of Creating Time!
 For example, right now in our Art Journaling Cabin you can flip the 65 inspiring pages (they really flip, in our cool Flash format) in this month’s special edition of The Art Journal Journey e-magazine, all about the theme of time and how it relates to creating art and living an artful life, and you’ll also get lots of other goodies, like a collection of time-themed art journal pages, and an amazing “PicturePrompt” workbook, all about journaling your thoughts about time. Over in the Blissness Cabin, the Blissness Splash e-magazine is full of tips for balancing work and life, and embracing a sense of the spiritual in all we do. You’ll also get a recording of Paula Swenson interviewing me about my behind-the-scenes process for writing and publishing Creating Time, and get lots of other kits, booklets, audios, and more.
Go here to learn more and come aboard the Artella Member Ship!
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 For today's "In the Studio" Interview, I'm delighted to present Amy Heil, a coastal boutique owner in the midst of an exciting career switch, making her ARTbundance™ training come to life through the programs and services she is developing to help others. Born with the last name “Padalino” (Italian for “little frying pan”) Amy says about her new business: “Little Frying Pan takes your ingredients, add some heat, and watch your projects Sizzle! Amy is also a new mama to beautiful young Demyen, and I thought she would be the ideal person to interview as in this edition, as we focus on the true meaning of time!!
Artella: What led you to become a Certified ARTbundance™ Coach?
Amy: I bought SARK’s “How to be an Artist” poster in college & have been following her since, attending book signings & sharing her artwork with my friends. About a year and a half ago, through SARK, I received an invite to attend one of Marney’s free calls. It was at a pivotal point in my life, & I opened myself up to directional messages. Marney was so real, & I connected at once to her teaching style. I had no idea what the ARTbundance Certification Program would lead me to, but I was literally yearning for female guidance, support, role models, & fabulous ladies who could show an example of how to live blissfully and aligned with a purpose. And I wanted to find mine. My purpose. This is exactly what I found in working with Marney, Paula, & my ACT classmates!
Artella: What kinds of people do you most enjoy working with? Who is your ideal client?
Amy: I love working with artists just starting their business. They are excited and willing to listen to ideas. I also dig working with kids. I used to be afraid of them, but really-you just need to look them in the eye & talk to them like anyone else. I learned that my integrity is more important than appearing “cool”, so wearing my authenticity is truly necessary. Kids (and most people) can spot a fake miles away. My ideal client is a new mom. This stage is all about stripping away the unnecessary in your life & rebuilding the core personality and priorities.
You can read the rest of Amy's interview, here
 The ARTbundance™ Certification Training (ACT) is now in session. The next session will be scheduled later this year. You can learn more about ACT and request an application when the next session is announced, here
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 Over the years, we've shared almost 100 Quotz Crystals: uplifting words that you can print out and keep with you as little gems of inspiration. We asked Artella Team Members for their favorite quotes that we can share with Artellagram readers.
This gem was shared from Melanie Hill, our new Community Support Manager, who helps and supports all of our audience, community, and customers. With her combination of intelligence and warmth, Melanie is such a great fit for this role, and we love having her on the Artella Team!
We thought that Melanie’s suggested quote was perfect for our readers who are inspired by creative approaches to self-discovery and awareness.
~Having the time of my life with {!firstname},
 Marney
Artella Founder, Mango Lover, Hula Dancer
Artella Land ~ the creative isles of words, art, and spirit
Artella 9090 Skillman #182A-116 Dallas TX
75243 |
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