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The Art of Aliveness: A Creative Return to What Matters Most
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About The Art Of Aliveness: A Creative Return To What
Product Description Are you ready for more joy in your life? Writer Flora Bowley believes that everyone can learn how to create a joy-filled life by practicing what she calls The Art of Aliveness. Aliveness, in this context, goes well beyond the acts of sleeping, eating, working, etc., inviting us instead to look into the depths of our own experience, embrace what we find there, and commit to bringing our truest self into the world. The Art of Aliveness teaches us how to create beauty out of sorrow, find meaning in the apparent madness that we sometimes find in the world, and choose to build a life we love regardless of the cards we’ve been dealt. In this powerful, moving, and deeply personal book, Bowley shares pieces of her own story and the life lessons she’s learned to help readers cultivate this Aliveness within themselves. Packed with exercises and writing prompts, The Art of Aliveness offers readers a way to make lasting change in their lives. If you’re ready to be the artist of your life, this book can show you how. About the Author Flora Bowley is an artist, author, and gentle guide whose approach to the creative process has touched thousands of lives. Blending over twenty years of professional painting experience with her background as a yoga instructor, healer, and lifelong truth seeker, Flora’s intimate in-person workshops and popular online courses have empowered a global network of brave painters, while creating a new holistic movement in the intuitive art world. Flora’s vibrant collection of paintings can be found in galleries and shops, and printed on unique products around the world. Her previous books include Brave Intuitive Painting and Creative Revolution. Visit her at https://florabowley.com. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world. —Mary Oliver When my first painting professor walked into the room and said, “Well, we all have a thousand bad paintings in us, so let’s get going,” I caught my breath. That was a lot of bad paintings. As a nineteen-year-old art student sitting in my first college art class, I loved how this place made me feel. The rich smell of turpentine, the worn wooden easels, the it’s-OK-to-make-a-mess paint-splattered everything—it all made me feel alive. Like anything was possible. Looking back, I realize those daunting and discouraging words struck a lasting chord. I would spend the next two decades of my life painting at least a thousand good and bad paintings, and in the process I would come to understand that the simple act of applying paint to canvas had become my life’s greatest teacher. Fast-forward over twenty-five years, and I can say with heartfelt certainty and deep gratitude that the creative process has informed and seeped into every aspect of how I live my life. Like a dear friend, painting has guided me through the deepest valleys of loss and lifted me to the highest peaks of joy and release. It has gently taken my hands and shown me why letting go creates space for more magic and how change is not only necessary but life-giving. Painting has given me a safe space to get lost and find myself again inside the great unknown, and it has reminded me time and time again that following my heart will always lead me home. Ultimately, what I’ve learned from painting is that artmaking is a practice, and the practice of making art is also a practice in living. I’ve always thought of artists as changemakers and paradigm shifters. Hungry for inspiration, they dip below the visible surface of the everyday, alchemize what they experience there, and create innovative portals into new ways of doing and being. Having the opportunity to be an artist in this lifetime and to view the world through the lens of a maker has always felt like a profound honor and privilege. What I’ve come to understand through my own experience is that the very same
