There was a time in the not too distant past when I was utterly and totally convinced that I would never – could never – create a course and teach it. No way, no how. I just wasn’t that kind of person. I didn’t know enough. Wasn’t talented enough. Wasn’t skilled enough in the technology, or the art, for that matter. I wasn’t saying yes.

If ‘yes’ was a door to possibility, I had not only slammed that door, I’d locked it with several different types of lock, added chains and wooden bars, and dragged a heavy piece of furniture in front of it for good measure. Then walked away.

That’s how much I was not a course teacher, in my mind.

Right now you will find four courses and two workshops on this website.

So, um, yeah, it’s fair to say I was 100% wrong about who I thought I was and what I could do. It turns out I’m perfectly capable of doing it, to the extent that I find it kind of hilarious that I ever said no. {Ah, hindsight.}

My courses might not Change The World, but they help people find their way into a more satisfying experience of expressing themselves through art, and what more could I ask for than that?

I’m telling you this because I think we all do this door slamming thing sometimes, and because if you’re doing it around making art, I’d really like to help you change that. And the reason that I can is because I said {and keep saying}

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YES.

If you’re in any way not saying yes to moving forward with your art or your creativity generally, whether that means getting started, gaining confidence, refreshing your approach or getting better acquainted with your unique personal style, that’s what we do here.

Everyone who says yes to a place on any course anywhere is also saying yes to the possibility of change. It takes courage do to that. Often when you say yes to something you cannot even begin to imagine the implications that that yes will have.

Change can be instant, but it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. It’s more like the product of a series of different sized yeses.

I’d love to give those who struggle with fear about their capabilities or doubts about their worthiness a quick fix. I’d love to hand them a magic pill and say “Take this and everything will change instantly and exactly as you’d most love it”.

I wouldn’t mind taking one of those pills myself sometimes. 😉  But the fact is that for real, lasting change to happen, the yes has to come from inside each of us, we can’t give it to each other. What we can do for each other though, is create conditions in which the change can happen.

I create the environment in which a yes to art can thrive, you say yes {to that and to yourself}, and then you walk step by step into your change until it clicks, something shifts inside you, and then it’s yours to keep.

I didn’t see all this clearly, how deep it goes, how complex and yet simple it can be, and I couldn’t have done until I had said enough yeses for them to bust through from energy to physical manifestation and prove to me that I could do what I was aiming for. And let me just say I was scared to death a lot of the time at the beginning, and knowing I could do it did not come until quite some time after I’d agreed with myself to give it a go.

Seeds planted often take a while to show evidence of growth, but with some patience and watering, eventually a tiny green shoot appears. Of course a real green shoot is fragile; once you identify and claim the green shoot of what’s truly yours, clarity of purpose, your truth, your reason for being, whatever you want to call it, you can’t kill that. You can ignore it, stamp on it, refuse to water it, but it will still be there, like a cockroach after a nuclear blast. Just waiting for you to say yes to it.

Just three letters can change everything.

PS. Abstractify – my only live course – is running again, and probably for the final time, starting today! If you think you might like to say yes to discovering more about your own unique artistic style, it’s not too late to join us. You can register here by the end of the day. It would be a great pleasure to be part of your yes.