Sacred Solitude & Artistic Alchemy
Theresa Hubbard and Walker Bird
In this episode of My Inner Knowing, we are joined by Pattie Anderson, a talented artist from Florence, Oregon, to explore the transformative and healing power of art. Pattie reflects on the importance of "sacred solitude" in her creative process and shares how her practices in yoga and qigong infuse depth and intention into her work. By sharing the stories behind pieces like Ride the Wind Down the Mountain and her novel Sea Change, Pattie reveals valuable insights into cultivating creativity, embracing life’s unexpected turns, and finding inspiration at any stage. She also highlights how art is a profound tool for self-discovery and emotional expression. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to reconnect with your own creativity and discover the power of artistic expression. Join us on the journey to inner knowing with Pattie.
Episode Links & Resources:
Pattie Brooks Anderson Website
Sea Change by Pattie Brooks Anderson
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
The New Creative Artist by Nita Leland
Connect with My Inner Knowing!
Watch the episode on YouTube
My Inner Knowing website
My Inner Knowing Facebook
Episode Transcript
Walker [00:00:04]:
My Inner Knowing empowering you to find your compass for the journey. We are dedicated to supporting you to rediscover and trust your natural ability to navigate life. Each day by sharing insight and experience through the lens of two professional communicators and their guests, we intend to prompt internal inquiry that supports all those willing to explore a unique path.
Theresa [00:00:32]:
Well, Pattie, hi. Yeah, thank you for joining us this morning. So we have lots of things we are curious about, and I'm going to let Walker start because he's really excited.
Pattie Anderson [00:00:48]:
I am.
Walker [00:00:49]:
Pattie, just so there's background. We found your art in a shop in Florence, Oregon, and I just fell in love with it. And I describe it, you know, it's like a mixture of whimsical, but there's other depths to it that just really speak to me. And so I want to share some of that with. With our viewers and listeners and. And then, you know, hopefully we can hear some of your process, how you get in that space where you are in touch with this is. This is working for me, and I'm in the flow or however you describe it. So that's kind of a prelude, I guess.
Theresa [00:01:32]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:01:35]:
Well, we can start it off. Let's do it this way. I've got my favorite, as I've told you now several times before we started, is Ride the Wind down the Mountain. And let's see if I can get this in our camera space. I need you to show it to us, babe, so we can get it.
Theresa [00:01:52]:
I could do that.
Theresa [00:01:54]:
There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Theresa [00:01:58]:
Beautiful.
Walker [00:01:59]:
And you know what I love best about that and is that his stripes are coming up out of the earth and from the roots of the tree. It looks like it's just tremendous. I love this.
Theresa [00:02:14]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:02:15]:
So I was hoping maybe you could share a little bit about a background about the piece, and then, you know, if we can tie it in with your process and getting, you know, how something amazing like this comes into being from your soul.
Theresa [00:02:31]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:02:34]:
Sometimes it's hard. Yeah. I have these ideas, and the. That particular one is thanks to my yoga qigong teacher who was doing the tiger qigong, which is ancient, 24 movements of. And one of the movements is called Ride the Wind down the Mountain, and it's about the tiger represents the shaman going up to the mountain to discover what he needed to discover about the world, you know, and he gets up to the mountain and then he becomes enlightened, and then he rides the wind down the mountain. So there's a little caricatures on there, and I had to Check with my. Nancy's, my yoga teachers. She's no longer with us now, but her brother is a Chinese Japanese instructor in Michigan.
Pattie Anderson [00:03:39]:
So I checked with him to make sure I had them right. And I wasn't saying something bad on the side because I'm pretty sure I had. I had copied them correctly. But that was the idea of. It was that one. I have kind of a series of those. One where the tiger is climbing the mountain, but that's in a different medium.
Theresa [00:04:02]:
Oh, okay. Oh, I see. The characters are here.
Walker [00:04:05]:
Well, your work is all on your website, is that right?
Pattie Anderson [00:04:09]:
Most of it, yes.
Walker [00:04:11]:
Would you see that series of the tiger in there as well?
Pattie Anderson [00:04:15]:
The whole series is not on there because part of it is in oil. And I don't have any of that up on my website because I don't do it anymore. But I started it with that. And then that was when I was in the process of developing the kind of the style that I have right now. So consciously or unconsciously developing it, but. So I had always intended to go back and do the whole 24 movements, but.
Theresa [00:04:50]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:04:53]:
That didn't. But I. But I. I can send you those.
Walker [00:05:01]:
I would love to see the rest if you share that. Yeah. I think it's just amazing.
Pattie Anderson [00:05:09]:
Some of my pictures, as I do them are on Flickr and they never get up to the website, but sure, sure.
Theresa [00:05:16]:
So when you are creating Pattie like that, what. What are you tapping into inside of you? Like you have the vision and then watch as best as you can describe. What is your process?
Pattie Anderson [00:05:34]:
Well, first it starts with a vision that's in my head. And then I start getting different references, and I always go from 10 or 12 different references as far as. And then draw it from that. And then I end up drawing a sketch. And as I'm going along, sometimes the entire piece becomes something else I didn't plan on. Because I've learned that when you try really hard to make it come out the way you want it to come out, it's just a struggle. So finally, when I sort of some. Not without painting, but with some paintings, I'm just like, okay, I give up.
Pattie Anderson [00:06:21]:
I'll just do whatever I want to with this. And then they turn out pretty good. So I'm saying that that comes from somewhere else. So they're trying to. You know, it's. It. The. The force is coming through me, and it may create something else.
Theresa [00:06:36]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:06:37]:
Or I. As I'm painting it, and I start to feel like the painting is telling me things. So. And then that that's kind of when I really get into it. That's what happens. But, you know, there are things that happen that don't let you get there sometimes.
Theresa [00:06:59]:
Yeah. What comes to mind when you say that? Sometimes there's things that don't let you get there. What comes to mind?
Pattie Anderson [00:07:06]:
Well, right now, where I have my studio, it also is connected to the garage. And so my husband likes to come through and he likes to sing, and he's kind of loud and he, you know, once this. Hello. And everything that kind of breaks your. What I call your sacred solitude, you know, and it's like. So we've had this discussion that we don't want, but he keeps forgetting he's 87 and he. He's very sweet and he's very supportive, but he wants to visit, so that kind of will break it. But we've.
Pattie Anderson [00:07:47]:
Now I put a sign up. Don't come in unless you have to go to the hospital.
Walker [00:07:55]:
Sounds like healthy boundaries.
Pattie Anderson [00:07:59]:
Got a sense of humor about it.
Walker [00:08:01]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:08:02]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:08:05]:
Oh, that's great.
Walker [00:08:06]:
Yeah, I love it.
Theresa [00:08:07]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, it just makes me think about, you know, like you said this. Did you call it the sacred silence? Is that what you called it?
Pattie Anderson [00:08:16]:
Sacred solitude? It's kind of like very. Your sacred sanctuary or your sacred solitude. A combination of different people that have read through the years that. And lately the man that does my website, his name is Clint Watson, and he's in the process of writing a book called the. See what the name of the book is. It's called the Sovereign Artist Within. Hasn't finished it yet, but. So he puts up all these little blog pieces about.
Pattie Anderson [00:08:52]:
About that sort of thing. And the last one that really got to me was the. He was explaining that there's these three aspects of your. Your consciousness, it's your. Your waking consciousness or your aware consciousness. Then there's the. The artist within or the. Some people call it the muse.
Pattie Anderson [00:09:17]:
And then there's a shadow side. And the shadow side likes to protect. In his explanation of this, he. This shadow side likes to protect the muse and wants to help the muse to find. To get to you. And so if he can't, then if you. If you. If the muse, she.
Pattie Anderson [00:09:39]:
Or he can't get to you, then the. The. The shadow side acts up. So you get all grumpy with people and you might, you know, take up drinking or, you know, any. Any number of those things because you're not getting. Your. Your muse is not able to get out or your creative spirit is not able to get out. And that could be creative spirit to do anything, you know, not just painting, but so this.
Pattie Anderson [00:10:15]:
When this. It's like the demon within, he calls it. So when that comes up, that means you really need to get in and start working on yourself.
Walker [00:10:26]:
When you say, I'm sorry, he.
Pattie Anderson [00:10:29]:
Well, he calls that having your sacred solitude. So.
Theresa [00:10:37]:
Sacred solitude. I like it.
Walker [00:10:40]:
In. In the start of your process, you said, first I'll have the, you know, the image or the vision. What is your process that you go through to get that?
Pattie Anderson [00:10:54]:
Well, I start looking at all kinds of images because I'm like a visual person, and I see in pictures and think in pictures, and just images start to inspire me as to how I'm going to. Going to lay the piece out. So I got it completely in my head. So, like, for instance, the Wisdom Council, which, I don't know if you saw, but there were five owls, and all I had was a vision in my mind of five owls, but as I was. Yeah, that one.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:31]:
That's right.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:33]:
And they're called the Wisdom Council, and they come together to discuss the state of the world. That was the idea of that. So I looked up all these owls and found pictures of owls from different areas in the world. The green one is a crested owl, and it comes from South America. And some of the other ones are in our United States in different areas.
Theresa [00:11:58]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:59]:
Yeah. North.
Theresa [00:12:03]:
Yeah. It's so beautiful.
Pattie Anderson [00:12:05]:
As I was, you know, going through that, that's one of the ones that started to speak more to me because it was just the image in my head at first, and what it became became something else. And it was kind of a hard time coming because I. I just wasn't working and painting just wasn't. You know, it just. It was there, and everybody would go, oh, that's really, really nice. That would come into the studio. But then I knew something was wrong with it. But finally I put Clouds over the Moon, and it.
Pattie Anderson [00:12:41]:
And it just worked. I didn't have clouds over the moon before, so it was. There were too many light sources. You know, that's in your. That part is not in the. When you're in the zone, those things aren't there. That comes later in your conscious, your consciousness that knows about composition and everything else. And, you know, you say the composition, okay, I got this whole thing down, but the composition isn't working.
Pattie Anderson [00:13:14]:
So I might chop off one side or something like that or whatever. But it. It's like, that is something that I never really understood completely till I was a teacher. And then I had to Teach on the principles of art to my students. And then I was like, oh, this is what this is all about.
Walker [00:13:37]:
I think sometimes we learn the most when we teach. Right. It's an odd juxtaposition, but it's true.
Pattie Anderson [00:13:44]:
It is, but it's really, really true. And your students teach you, too? You know, my students were high school.
Walker [00:13:51]:
Students, but, yeah, I have just, you know, as we're looking at this and you're talking about composition and just, you know, how it came about. There's a story, though, that develops somehow for you. And I know because I have a book called Enchanted that you wrote and illustrated. But when you. When you get to the point where you say those owls are discussing the state of the world, you know, that's very touching to me because I have, you know, just this affinity for nature. It's where I feel the best. I'm sure it's part of why I love your work so much. But how does the story come to you? You know, what told you that's what they were talking about.
Pattie Anderson [00:14:38]:
It just seems like when I'm painting it, all these little thoughts come into my head and pretty much it starts to build a story. Sometimes I don't even really know. And so I've got to go, okay, what's this story about? So I might go do some research and find out. Like the one painting that I have called the. It's. It's called the Procession to the Sacred. Well, but it wasn't called that. All it was was a hooded procession of people going somewhere.
Pattie Anderson [00:15:11]:
Oh, you have that one.
Walker [00:15:16]:
Told you.
Pattie Anderson [00:15:19]:
That one. Told me what it was.
Theresa [00:15:24]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:15:27]:
You know, there.
Walker [00:15:34]:
It's just funny that you're picking the ones that I picked because I. Tons of art.
Walker [00:15:37]:
But, yeah, I like it.
Theresa [00:15:42]:
When you. In this process for you, do you think that you're knowing. Do you think it's in your body? Do you have a sense of it? Can you describe it? You know, like, where it just feels like even thinking about the five owls. Like, where you're like, yep, that's it. Or the clouds over the moon. Like, how do you. How do you know when you're not quite there? And then how do you know when you are there?
Pattie Anderson [00:16:20]:
Oh, when you're finished. That's going. When you're finished with a painting, isn't. And sometimes I just sit and look at it for a while, and then it starts to say, well, I need this. Or I need. The painting is saying to me, I need this or I need that. And it. Wherever the.
Pattie Anderson [00:16:41]:
This. These thoughts are coming from? I'm not quite sure, but I know must be something like what you're saying, inner knowing. And people talked about when you're really painting and it's really. Everything is coming out really well that. They used to call that the zone. You know, you're in the zone. Sure. My professors.
Pattie Anderson [00:17:05]:
I went to school for 30 years, my professors would talk about that. And, like, what is that? You know, what is it? So finally, I have this little process that I do to get ready to paint, and I turn on a certain music, and I have everything ready to go. And kind of the thought in my head what I'm going to do. And pretty soon I'm into that, into that, where I'm feeling like I'm connected. And then there's another place that. That happens, and that's at the end of the painting. Okay, what does this need, you know, to make it finished? I'm there with a couple of them right now. Yeah, yeah.
Walker [00:17:52]:
What is the. What can you describe? And maybe you can't. But what. What is the feeling when you know you're connected? You've got the music on, you've done your prep session, everything's ready to go, and. And you're there. What's it feel like?
Pattie Anderson [00:18:06]:
It feels just very relaxed and exciting at the same time. I can't explain that, but you just know that, okay, this is. This is coming out pretty good. This. This is. This is where I wanted it to be.
Pattie Anderson [00:18:25]:
And.
Pattie Anderson [00:18:26]:
And. Or you have the opposite feeling, which is, yeah, this is really bad. What am I doing with this thing? You know? And that is when I really found that. I just say, okay, I don't care if I ruin it. I'm going to do this and that and everything else. And sometimes it actually comes out better than I thought it was going to come out. So I think sometimes then that's me struggling with the inner knowing, you know?
Theresa [00:18:58]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:19:00]:
But I'm not letting it.
Theresa [00:19:03]:
Sure, sure.
Walker [00:19:05]:
Earlier you were talking about sometimes getting into this space where something else is coming through you. It's. And I. In my mind, I describe that as allowing, you know, a process that. That can be applied in lots of different experiences. But in art, you know, how does the allowing space feel different than just you being connected?
Pattie Anderson [00:19:30]:
I don't know that those two are not the same. Feeling connected is part of knowing I'm there, you know? Sure. Connection. Sometimes I. By doing different things to the painting at the end, I feel like I'm creating a connection somehow to make it all connect together. Unity. I Don't know. That would be the.
Pattie Anderson [00:20:01]:
That would be the art term for it is to create unity with the painting. It's not flying apart.
Walker [00:20:09]:
Yeah. There's so many layers of the educational process behind art that, you know, people who aren't artists or haven't developed their art skills, like me, you know, I. I don't have a grasp on all that goes behind it, but what I know is when I see it and I like it, it speaks to me.
Theresa [00:20:28]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:20:29]:
Feel good if people are connecting to it too, because that means you kind of got. So somebody years ago called it the golden thread. That if you're connected to the golden thread and then you're on the universal idea of what everyone responds to, human beings respond to.
Walker [00:20:52]:
Yeah, I love that.
Theresa [00:20:54]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:20:55]:
Yeah. Can you share more about the golden thread? I mean, is there more to it than that?
Pattie Anderson [00:21:00]:
Well, I don't think every painting is really got the golden thread, but some of them really seem to bring. Touch people more than others.
Theresa [00:21:12]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:21:13]:
And sometimes they. One person is touched by something somebody else isn't, by whatever they're experiencing. Right, right. So get just to. There's. I have to just let go of my control over it all to be able to get to that space. Because when I try to control it too much, it never works out very well. And there's paintings that I have probably up right now that don't really.
Pattie Anderson [00:21:53]:
They don't seem to respond to anybody, but they did to me, so I don't know whether that makes a difference too. And eventually someone will come along and they, oh, that's the best thing I ever saw.
Theresa [00:22:06]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:22:08]:
But usually I can figure out why it's not working out, but that's my conscious knowing composition. All those things that you do when you are starting to learning how to paint, you know, you there, you have to have your point of interest, your composition, your unity of the whole painting. And then also, like, maybe you want to have movement, maybe you want to have rhythm, you know, so it. All of those things are kind of like a con. Come back consciously and go, oh, okay. This is what it seems to be wanting to do. And so then you let that. Let that come out.
Theresa [00:22:56]:
Yeah. When did you start creating in this way, Pattie?
Pattie Anderson [00:23:02]:
Oh, late in life. Okay. I'd say because I went. I. I went to San Diego State in 1963 and graduated in 1993. So I had a lot of art professors through those years, those 30 years. And I was raising a family, so really didn't let myself take the time to find my Space. But I.
Pattie Anderson [00:23:31]:
When the children got a little older, I started to carve out a little space for me in the house where nobody else could go.
Theresa [00:23:40]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:23:41]:
I've heard other artists talk about it, like some really famous artists where she had 10 children and she had a closet that she opened up when they were all gone and would do her artwork for women, it's kind of, you know, I think. I don't want to be. Say it's this way for everyone, but it's. It's difficult because you have the responsibilities of the household sometimes and the children and all of that. So I. It's fun to listen to how they actually did their artwork when they're so famous. You know, when one woman would do them all in her head, and when she finally got to her house, she would be able to paint this painting.
Walker [00:24:34]:
Wow.
Theresa [00:24:34]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:24:36]:
And I think there's something to doing the painting in your head when you know what you want to do and you're just sort of doing it psychologically. And then when you're ready to go, you can just put it down there. The other woman that had the closet, she. She would just have all these paintings started, and then she would take them and finish them. So she'd throw down all the color, and she's a watercolorist, so throw down all the color and then decide later what it was.
Theresa [00:25:09]:
So interesting.
Walker [00:25:10]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:25:10]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:25:10]:
And that. That's. You know, I've done that before. That's. It's actually an interesting way to work.
Theresa [00:25:17]:
So for you, the. What are the different mediums that you have experimented with, and which ones do you prefer? What speaks most to you?
Pattie Anderson [00:25:29]:
Water media speaks the best to me, but I really, really liked working with ink because when I was a graphic designer, that I really enjoyed doing things with ink. And so I kind of. When I went back to San Diego state in the 90s, I started combining watercolor and ink and did a little bit of experimenting with that. And then after I graduated, because there were no water media classes, really, I took a lot of oil classes to finish out my degree. So for 10 years, I painted in oil.
Theresa [00:26:12]:
Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:26:13]:
And. And did mostly landscapes. I don't think those are on the website, but I'll give you the link to the Flickr site, and all those are there. But so I did that for a while. The background of all of those paintings to me were based in what I was also studying in college at that time, and that was women's rights and rituals. And so people would have these sacred sites that they would go to. And so each painting was kind of like a sacred site to my. In my head, wasn't necessarily one that they.
Pattie Anderson [00:26:57]:
That they had. But the aborigines, you know, they all go back to the same site. The whole family goes back to the same site once a year and once every two years. And because it was mostly decided by women how they would do that, that the anthropologists missed all of that. They didn't see that till later. That it was all the women would go back to this site particularly. And I connected with this family.
Theresa [00:27:35]:
What was the site? How was the site significant to them? I mean, as best we know.
Pattie Anderson [00:27:42]:
Right, right. And it might be anything like a special tree or a mountain or a cave or a cliff, you know.
Theresa [00:27:54]:
Gotcha. Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:27:56]:
Yeah. Particularly in those peoples, you know. And as if you look at rituals particularly for women, it has a lot to do with food.
Theresa [00:28:11]:
Yes.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:13]:
So there's always these ritual dishes you make, you know, and always fascinated me.
Theresa [00:28:18]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:20]:
But my landscapes at that time and the idea I had was to have them be sacred sites. And so there's a little bit left of that. And that's kind of how I got into so much ink. And using the watercolor as a base. But then putting ink in was because I didn't have the contrast that I want, that I had when I was painting with oil. Because I've always wanted black lines.
Theresa [00:28:49]:
Yeah. So these, the ones that we have, those are a mixture of water and ink.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:56]:
Water ink, wash and sometimes. Sometimes acrylic. A little bit of acrylic. But they all are water based. The ink is not water based. And actually the Watercolor Society let me in, even though it's not, because it has shellac in it. And in the. In the first painting I did with water soluble.
Pattie Anderson [00:29:24]:
Soluble ink, I washed over it thinking it was going to be like the other ink that I use in it. And it went just a black going all over everything. But it was kind of a happy accident because it was. Then I started using gouache in the dark areas. And so you had all this where you could put in details into those shadow spaces. So it was. It was a. That's the one.
Pattie Anderson [00:29:55]:
You probably don't have this one. It's called holding the Moon. Do you have that one? It's a bear holding the moon.
Walker [00:30:04]:
Oh, actually.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:07]:
You do have it in the book. And Enchanted. It's in there. But yeah, that one was the one that when I washed over it, underneath all down in the bottom was just completely gray, black mixed together. And so I had to add Back color. That was the first time that had happened. That's what we call a happy accident.
Walker [00:30:33]:
I'm gonna have to find it. And I keep looking down, just so you know that I'm not being disrespectful, but I'm admiring your work as you're talking.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:42]:
Yeah, that's it.
Walker [00:30:45]:
Sorry, Theresa. I got your.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:47]:
Down in the branches there is where I had washed across it to be a happy accident with that. But he inspired the enchanted book.
Walker [00:30:59]:
Just so everyone could see it.
Pattie Anderson [00:31:02]:
And that one I wrote the story about using the paintings as the illustration inspired the story, which I wrote for my grandchildren. But by the time I finished it, they were teenagers and really didn't care. They do now, but they didn't at the time.
Walker [00:31:25]:
Sure.
Theresa [00:31:28]:
I wanted to go back and ask you a little bit about this painting. The. I don't know what you call them because I don't know exactly what they are. But the white dots that are kind of like near.
Pattie Anderson [00:31:44]:
They're carrying. They're carrying candles or lights because it's also like a festival of lights. I have that in my mind already that they would be holding lights. I did a couple of sketches beforehand, but it's the ancient celebration of the goddess Bridget, which later the Irish called it St. Bridget. So it's beautiful.
Theresa [00:32:16]:
Yeah. So they're all holding light. So candles.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:20]:
Yeah, they are.
Walker [00:32:21]:
And you've got them.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:22]:
Bridget is the goddess of family and light and fire and light and. And actually creativity or music that they. All of those things.
Theresa [00:32:41]:
Yeah. It's so beautiful. Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:46]:
So that when I was making that painting, then I went, okay, what are these people doing? So I started looking at all these rituals that. And it's the celebration of IM bulk, which is the February 2nd. And that. That's what they did on that particular celebration was a lot of different things they did. But I just finally I was. That was going to be a whole series of. I did also one called the. The Thin Veil of Sauen, which is.
Pattie Anderson [00:33:22]:
Looks like Samhain and it's a Halloween. It's November 2nd or November 1st, I think it is, when the spirits are the closest.
Theresa [00:33:35]:
Oh, okay.
Walker [00:33:38]:
Yeah, I'll bet that one's fascinating. There's. There's a real earth centered, you know, sense to these and touching on indigenous cultures. Just wondering what drew you to that area and has driven at least the work that we're talking about.
Pattie Anderson [00:33:58]:
Well, I think it's always been something that's been interesting to me because I was always interested in ancient Egypt and interested in ancient Cultures of all types. And. But when I took that one class, which was a class that I audited because it was. I didn't think I was going to be able to pass it. So I audited it. It was a graduate class, so. And I could have gotten an A. And I should have.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:30]:
I should have. It was fun.
Theresa [00:34:36]:
Was it an art class or was it.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:39]:
No, it was a women's studies class.
Theresa [00:34:42]:
Women's studies class. Okay, okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:44]:
Women's rights and rituals studied all of Joseph Campbell and all of that. You know, I've, I think the way that people are drawn to spirituality then they, they didn't really have a whole lot of knowledge about anything, but they were. That was very sacred to them. And so I think that's what kind of draws me to it as well.
Theresa [00:35:17]:
Yeah, yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:35:22]:
But to get where I am, I sort of like. Well, I think I started reading about all these things and, but also reading all these books that I had no idea my family would not have known anything about any of this because they just, it's too woo woo. They would. That's a woo woo. Pattie, don't talk about that.
Theresa [00:35:51]:
What are some of your favorite books, Pattie, that you feel like have taught you?
Pattie Anderson [00:35:59]:
A whole bunch of them really. But the ones that I remember the most is to begin with probably was Dr. Wayne Dyer's books. I always enjoyed his books and his, he's a motivational speaker too, so it was kind of fun to watch him. But.
Theresa [00:36:17]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:18]:
Julia Cameron, the Artist way.
Theresa [00:36:22]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:24]:
And then later on, Gary Zukav wrote this book called Seat of the Soul is what it was called. I had to look it up, I've forgotten the name of it, but it's called the Seat of the Soul. And he actually inspired me to really look more within because he's always talked about your authentic self and, you know, what is that? You know.
Theresa [00:36:51]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:53]:
And reading his book was very inspirational for me. And then art wise, Nita Leland is a, she's a. She does watercolor and she does, she does a lot of teaching and she does collage and she wrote a book called the Creative Artist. And I happened to find the book on the ground one day back. Oh, let's see, when was that? It was probably in the 80s. And at that time I had a little studio in town in Escondido and out in the parking lot was this book just sitting there. And so I went around and asked everybody, is this your book? And they went, no. So I'd had it.
Pattie Anderson [00:37:42]:
And it really has a lot of interesting things about how to be creative and how to get to that and how that process goes. And so she. It was kind of inspirational for me. And. And she calls it, like, inspiration comes from the words in spirit. So you actually are in spirit when you're inspired. So that's. So that.
Pattie Anderson [00:38:11]:
That was her. And then she came out with a new version of it. So I wrote to her and said, I found the first book on the ground, and now I've got to get the new copy.
Theresa [00:38:24]:
Which is great. I love that.
Walker [00:38:26]:
It is great. I mean, it's nice when the universe, you know, puts breadcrumbs in your path. Right?
Pattie Anderson [00:38:32]:
Yeah, exactly. That's. It seems like just when you need it, just need it, there it is, you know, and this blog of digress. But the blog that Clint Watson does, the one where I told you about the shadow self and the conscious self and the artist within, I had just picked that up after I'd had my studio show, and everybody was coming into the studio, and it was really fun for the first two days. And then I started to get very resentful about them being there on the last two days. And because. And I figured out what it was, was because I was showing them the paintings that were in progress, and I wanted to get started because I was seeing things I needed to do, and I couldn't do it because there were people coming in all the time. So I found myself getting kind of grumpy, and then I felt bad and said, what's the matter with you, Pattie? You should be more receptive.
Pattie Anderson [00:39:40]:
So one day, the third day, I had somebody come in in the morning, but nobody came in the rest of the day. And my husband didn't come in because he was. He thought there were people there. So he was staying away. Yeah, I had all that time to myself, and I was. And so when I read Clint's thing where he said, you know, this. The. The shadow side gets really grumpy if the.
Pattie Anderson [00:40:11]:
If. If he's being blocked for any reason. Communicate with your muse. So I thought that came just at the right time to kind of explain what was going on with me. So I sent it to all my gallery mates, because when we all get testy with each other, I said, we need to start working with your artwork instead of worrying about all these. Because it's hard to run a business and be an artist at the same time.
Theresa [00:40:40]:
Sure, sure. You know, Pattie, what keeps you doing this work? What propels you?
Pattie Anderson [00:40:55]:
Well, like I say, it's just there are times when I say, okay, why are you doing this, but if I don't do it, I do get it comes out negatively. So I'm happier when I'm doing it. I write too, so I'm happy to happier when I'm writing. Writing isn't as easy because I see in pictures and not words. So I have to, like, wait till the words are coming.
Theresa [00:41:29]:
Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:41:31]:
But I did manage to finish a novel during COVID because I wasn't painting during that time.
Theresa [00:41:37]:
Oh, wow. Wow.
Walker [00:41:40]:
So what's your novel?
Pattie Anderson [00:41:42]:
It's called Sea Change, and it's about a woman from Wisconsin who decides to just go as far west as she possibly can. She said some bad things happen in her life and she just wants to go make a new life for herself. So thus the. The title Sea Change. That's what sea change means. To make a complete change. And so she ends up in this little town on the Oregon coast. Isn't that original?
Theresa [00:42:21]:
It's.
Walker [00:42:22]:
It's. Yeah, I love it.
Pattie Anderson [00:42:26]:
You know, anyway, the. The town is fictitious because it's a combination of all the coastal towns. And she ends up buying a bookstore and opening up a jazz bar because she's always wanted to do jazz singing and has never done it. So she does everything she wanted to do.
Theresa [00:42:49]:
Finally. Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:42:51]:
Kind of like that's the way a lot of people that come to the coast of Oregon, they're coming because they are. They want to get in touch with themselves that way creatively. And so they sometimes have. Take up art when they get here, you know, the first time in their lives, and they're in their 50s, 60s, you know, retiring from whatever they're doing. And so it's kind of a book about that sort of thing. Yeah, I'm working on. I'm working on the sequel. The Sequel is about three artists that are in the same town.
Theresa [00:43:26]:
Wow.
Walker [00:43:29]:
That sounds like fun. Is. Is Sea Change available to the public? If you want to pick it up, where would you find it?
Pattie Anderson [00:43:35]:
Is Amazon or Amazon has it. Backstreet Gallery has it.
Walker [00:43:42]:
I must have missed that in the corner somewhere. I don't know. I think I bought a sample of everything else.
Pattie Anderson [00:43:55]:
The cover isn't something that I did with my art. I. My. I have a gallery mate that's a photographer, and I took one of her photographs of a wave and put that on the front.
Theresa [00:44:09]:
Wow. Wow.
Walker [00:44:12]:
No, I think it's a big theme. You know, that when you. When we get to the point and it doesn't happen, you know, sometimes we just never get there where we open up to what our. You know, at Least one of our true purposes may be to create. Right. And to take that, you know, whatever it is that precipitates the change that, you know, the sea change. Right. You get to that point where it just is, this is going to happen because it cannot continue to exist the way that I've been.
Pattie Anderson [00:44:48]:
Exactly. And you powerful, you realize that this life does end. So if you're going to do it, you didn't just pick up and do it, you know, because otherwise you'll be regretful that you never did, you know, and that's kind of the way I've looked at it. My. I'm on the downhill slope right now. I'm going be 80 next year. But. But those are things I always wanted to do.
Pattie Anderson [00:45:21]:
I always wanted to do a children's book. I always wanted to do a novel and. And when I've always painted and done print making too. I do print making. Not anymore, but I used to do printmaking and too many chemicals.
Walker [00:45:42]:
Oh, sure.
Theresa [00:45:43]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Interesting.
Pattie Anderson [00:45:47]:
Yeah. You don't have. Well, they have some. Now they have some very. Some printmaking materials that you don't have to use nitric acid and all of those things. But there's a lot of art materials that are really not good for you, so you have to really be aware of them.
Theresa [00:46:13]:
And I would not know much about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, you know, it's just something to seriously consider.
Pattie Anderson [00:46:20]:
Yeah. Put your brushes in your mouth.
Walker [00:46:28]:
Children's book about that.
Pattie Anderson [00:46:31]:
Yeah. There you go.
Walker [00:46:33]:
Oh, my goodness. What would your advice be, Pattie? You know, to. People are in that. Who are in that space where. Where the sea change needs to come, but they just aren't, you know, they're too afraid or whatever it is that holds you back. What's your advice? To get past that barrier?
Pattie Anderson [00:46:59]:
I think to just make some space for yourself to go do that. Make a. Make a. And if it's just a corner of the house or whatever, make that space and go there every single day with the idea that you're gonna do something. It doesn't have to be pressure and you don't have to worry about if anybody is going to look at it. Just do it, you know, just do what you feel like you want to do. Whether it's. I mean, even gardening or whatever.
Pattie Anderson [00:47:27]:
Just if your soul is telling you that's what you want to do, you need to do it. And you need to kind of make that space for yourself because I think a lot of people don't. They. They have so many other Things that get in their way. Oh, I didn't do it today because I had to do this or I had two loads of washing to do or something like that. So they didn't do it. But it's like, to make that space and be very stingy about it. Don't let people take it away from you, you know, don't.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:04]:
Don't let people steal your space.
Theresa [00:48:09]:
Yeah, interesting. I mean, Pattie, one of the things I talk about often is experimenting and practicing. Like, that's life, experimenting and practicing. It sounds like that's what you do.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:20]:
Right. And you. You can do that in many, many ways these days. There are so many places where you can. Online, there's teachers online. I mean, it's like, it's open to you so much and, oh, the materials are open because you can mix anything with anything nowadays, you know, or it used to be kind of like, well, I. I don't know how to do watercolor, but you start putting watercolor down and see what it does. And that's what I would tell people to do.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:51]:
And to not think it's too late or anything like that, because it's not too late, you know, Good Grandma Moses. She started when she was 90, I think.
Theresa [00:49:06]:
Wow. Wow. Yeah, I agree. It's never too late.
Pattie Anderson [00:49:11]:
Ever too late. And it doesn't have to be like, if you, like, you say, you know, I don't think I could ever do art, but there's something in that stimulates your spirit. And so do that, you know.
Theresa [00:49:26]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:49:29]:
Do that. Make something that gives you joy. I think that's one of the processes too. Because if you're getting so much joy about how, you know, doing it and everything, and somebody else and you close to you is saying, you know, why is that so important? You know, come and do this instead. You know, because they think it's not important because it's fun, it's important to you.
Theresa [00:49:58]:
Yeah, yeah.
Walker [00:50:03]:
I'm thinking about that. That theme of, you know, and I don't know what the psychological piece is behind it, but if it's, you know, if it's fun, how could it be important? If. If it's easy, how could it be, you know, worthwhile? Don't I have to. Doesn't have to be hard to earn it and those sorts of things.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:25]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:50:26]:
For it to have value. Right. It should be hard.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:30]:
And the. And the value isn't necessarily in monetary value. The values in the process and.
Walker [00:50:35]:
Right.
Walker [00:50:36]:
Yeah, yeah.
Theresa [00:50:39]:
Always learning. Well, an opportunity to always learn. Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:47]:
Yeah. Just. That's the advice that I would give was just be into, not stop and say, oh, this isn't any good, so I'm not going to do this. You know, just play with it and have a good time doing it, and you come up with something. Because I think everybody has got an artist within themselves.
Theresa [00:51:12]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:51:13]:
And I think they. They. If you play enough, you figure out what marks you make that are interesting to you, you know?
Theresa [00:51:26]:
Yeah. I have some pieces that I created a few years ago that are still in process, and I look at them, you know, and I also think about the. Setting aside the time, you know, to step back into that space, definitely the artist piece is something that, you know, I recognize I have some resistance to. And I also know that when I'm in that space, you know, that I. I've created the space and I have the time that it feels very meditative for me.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:05]:
Right. And that's, you know, that's worth a lot.
Theresa [00:52:09]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:10]:
It is meditative for you and you. These days. You know, even your art journals, it doesn't have to be a piece of paper you hang on the wall or a piece of canvas that you put on the wall. It can. Everything can be in a journal. And playing with that every day, it's kind of a fun thing. Yeah.
Theresa [00:52:30]:
Nice. I like that.
Walker [00:52:32]:
Yeah, that's less pressure.
Theresa [00:52:34]:
Yeah. I've seen those smaller sketch journals that are like just sketch paper instead of, you know, amazing.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:41]:
Some of them are even labeled as art journals. And so you can. All of the things that are interesting to you and. And paint in it or, you know, just. That's the one thing that if you. If you're needing that space to come to, you know, you could come and do something like that, because it's all for you. It's not for anyone else. And you don't have to worry about.
Pattie Anderson [00:53:09]:
I. I had a class one time that I. We'd made masks, and this wonderful woman that was in her 80s said, you know, I said, well, aren't you going to take yours home? And she goes, no, no, no. My husband would make too much fun of it. And so, you know, I just said, you will. So I still have her mask.
Theresa [00:53:34]:
Nice. Nice, Pattie.
Pattie Anderson [00:53:38]:
She also said, you know, halfway in, when we're putting plaster on her face, oh, honey, be careful when you take it off, because my skin is very thin, and you might pull off some of my skin with it. You don't have to put all this stuff into the podcast.
Theresa [00:54:04]:
Okay. It teaches us all. It teaches us all. Yeah. Oh, Pattie, thank you so Much for this time today and sharing, you know, some of your process and your artwork and your journey and just those words of encouragement, because I agree with you, too, that we all have an artist within, and I unfortunately think very few of us get to let it out. I don't Just don't feel like it's encouraged as much as I think it would be helpful for us to. I just think it teaches us so much about who we are and how we see things.
Pattie Anderson [00:54:42]:
I agree.
Theresa [00:54:43]:
With ourselves in the world. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you. And thank you for doing this. Not just the podcast, but, I mean, but putting your creations out in the world because they are beautiful.
Pattie Anderson [00:54:59]:
Well, thank you very much.
Theresa [00:55:00]:
Thank you.
Pattie Anderson [00:55:01]:
I think they need to go out into the world. I just want to keep all of them years and years ago.
Walker [00:55:09]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:55:10]:
You kind of realize that, you know, they need to go out. Any people need to see them.
Theresa [00:55:16]:
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Any last thoughts you have there?
Walker [00:55:22]:
I just am very appreciative, as Theresa said, it's. And. And for you, sharing, you know, going deep to share the process behind it, how it feels, all those things. It's. Sometimes people don't, you know, aren't able to access. Access it or don't want to go there. And I just. It.
Walker [00:55:42]:
You know, I appreciate you doing that for us. It just. It helps everybody, you know, learn how to make those choices in life. So thank you.
Theresa [00:55:53]:
Yeah. Giving us permission. I think about that.
Theresa [00:55:56]:
We.
Theresa [00:55:57]:
We need so much permission.
Walker [00:55:58]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:00]:
I want to say one more thing, and that is that art is a way to heal yourself, I believe. And it's worked with me. I think it's worked with people that I know. And it. It is just your little personal art journal as a way to reach some healing for yourself, you know, and during a very hard period in my life where we lost four people in the family within five years due to suicide.
Theresa [00:56:39]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:41]:
It was a difficult time. And if I didn't have my art at that point, I don't. I think I might have gone crazy.
Theresa [00:56:48]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:49]:
Go and dissolve into that instead of be into what was going on.
Walker [00:56:56]:
Yeah, sure. My goodness.
Theresa [00:56:59]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:02]:
So that's always been important to me. Is having it be a way to heal yourself as well? Yeah.
Walker [00:57:09]:
Well, I think you're healing others, too, because, I mean, for me, when I look at these, it's the con, you know, that connection with Earth and not just observing it, but there's a feeling behind it too, you know, that you're. This art evokes in me. And it. I think that's healing too. So, yeah, you know, you're. It's way more than just for you. Thank you.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:34]:
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Theresa [00:57:37]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:37]:
Thank you for liking my artwork.
Walker [00:57:39]:
Yeah. Okay.
Theresa [00:57:44]:
Thank you so much, Pattie. It was really lovely. Thank you for joining us today. We are excited to explore life, life with you. We encourage curiosity, self growth, and we strive to be more compassionate every day.
My Inner Knowing empowering you to find your compass for the journey. We are dedicated to supporting you to rediscover and trust your natural ability to navigate life. Each day by sharing insight and experience through the lens of two professional communicators and their guests, we intend to prompt internal inquiry that supports all those willing to explore a unique path.
Theresa [00:00:32]:
Well, Pattie, hi. Yeah, thank you for joining us this morning. So we have lots of things we are curious about, and I'm going to let Walker start because he's really excited.
Pattie Anderson [00:00:48]:
I am.
Walker [00:00:49]:
Pattie, just so there's background. We found your art in a shop in Florence, Oregon, and I just fell in love with it. And I describe it, you know, it's like a mixture of whimsical, but there's other depths to it that just really speak to me. And so I want to share some of that with. With our viewers and listeners and. And then, you know, hopefully we can hear some of your process, how you get in that space where you are in touch with this is. This is working for me, and I'm in the flow or however you describe it. So that's kind of a prelude, I guess.
Theresa [00:01:32]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:01:35]:
Well, we can start it off. Let's do it this way. I've got my favorite, as I've told you now several times before we started, is Ride the Wind down the Mountain. And let's see if I can get this in our camera space. I need you to show it to us, babe, so we can get it.
Theresa [00:01:52]:
I could do that.
Theresa [00:01:54]:
There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Theresa [00:01:58]:
Beautiful.
Walker [00:01:59]:
And you know what I love best about that and is that his stripes are coming up out of the earth and from the roots of the tree. It looks like it's just tremendous. I love this.
Theresa [00:02:14]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:02:15]:
So I was hoping maybe you could share a little bit about a background about the piece, and then, you know, if we can tie it in with your process and getting, you know, how something amazing like this comes into being from your soul.
Theresa [00:02:31]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:02:34]:
Sometimes it's hard. Yeah. I have these ideas, and the. That particular one is thanks to my yoga qigong teacher who was doing the tiger qigong, which is ancient, 24 movements of. And one of the movements is called Ride the Wind down the Mountain, and it's about the tiger represents the shaman going up to the mountain to discover what he needed to discover about the world, you know, and he gets up to the mountain and then he becomes enlightened, and then he rides the wind down the mountain. So there's a little caricatures on there, and I had to Check with my. Nancy's, my yoga teachers. She's no longer with us now, but her brother is a Chinese Japanese instructor in Michigan.
Pattie Anderson [00:03:39]:
So I checked with him to make sure I had them right. And I wasn't saying something bad on the side because I'm pretty sure I had. I had copied them correctly. But that was the idea of. It was that one. I have kind of a series of those. One where the tiger is climbing the mountain, but that's in a different medium.
Theresa [00:04:02]:
Oh, okay. Oh, I see. The characters are here.
Walker [00:04:05]:
Well, your work is all on your website, is that right?
Pattie Anderson [00:04:09]:
Most of it, yes.
Walker [00:04:11]:
Would you see that series of the tiger in there as well?
Pattie Anderson [00:04:15]:
The whole series is not on there because part of it is in oil. And I don't have any of that up on my website because I don't do it anymore. But I started it with that. And then that was when I was in the process of developing the kind of the style that I have right now. So consciously or unconsciously developing it, but. So I had always intended to go back and do the whole 24 movements, but.
Theresa [00:04:50]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:04:53]:
That didn't. But I. But I. I can send you those.
Walker [00:05:01]:
I would love to see the rest if you share that. Yeah. I think it's just amazing.
Pattie Anderson [00:05:09]:
Some of my pictures, as I do them are on Flickr and they never get up to the website, but sure, sure.
Theresa [00:05:16]:
So when you are creating Pattie like that, what. What are you tapping into inside of you? Like you have the vision and then watch as best as you can describe. What is your process?
Pattie Anderson [00:05:34]:
Well, first it starts with a vision that's in my head. And then I start getting different references, and I always go from 10 or 12 different references as far as. And then draw it from that. And then I end up drawing a sketch. And as I'm going along, sometimes the entire piece becomes something else I didn't plan on. Because I've learned that when you try really hard to make it come out the way you want it to come out, it's just a struggle. So finally, when I sort of some. Not without painting, but with some paintings, I'm just like, okay, I give up.
Pattie Anderson [00:06:21]:
I'll just do whatever I want to with this. And then they turn out pretty good. So I'm saying that that comes from somewhere else. So they're trying to. You know, it's. It. The. The force is coming through me, and it may create something else.
Theresa [00:06:36]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:06:37]:
Or I. As I'm painting it, and I start to feel like the painting is telling me things. So. And then that that's kind of when I really get into it. That's what happens. But, you know, there are things that happen that don't let you get there sometimes.
Theresa [00:06:59]:
Yeah. What comes to mind when you say that? Sometimes there's things that don't let you get there. What comes to mind?
Pattie Anderson [00:07:06]:
Well, right now, where I have my studio, it also is connected to the garage. And so my husband likes to come through and he likes to sing, and he's kind of loud and he, you know, once this. Hello. And everything that kind of breaks your. What I call your sacred solitude, you know, and it's like. So we've had this discussion that we don't want, but he keeps forgetting he's 87 and he. He's very sweet and he's very supportive, but he wants to visit, so that kind of will break it. But we've.
Pattie Anderson [00:07:47]:
Now I put a sign up. Don't come in unless you have to go to the hospital.
Walker [00:07:55]:
Sounds like healthy boundaries.
Pattie Anderson [00:07:59]:
Got a sense of humor about it.
Walker [00:08:01]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:08:02]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:08:05]:
Oh, that's great.
Walker [00:08:06]:
Yeah, I love it.
Theresa [00:08:07]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, it just makes me think about, you know, like you said this. Did you call it the sacred silence? Is that what you called it?
Pattie Anderson [00:08:16]:
Sacred solitude? It's kind of like very. Your sacred sanctuary or your sacred solitude. A combination of different people that have read through the years that. And lately the man that does my website, his name is Clint Watson, and he's in the process of writing a book called the. See what the name of the book is. It's called the Sovereign Artist Within. Hasn't finished it yet, but. So he puts up all these little blog pieces about.
Pattie Anderson [00:08:52]:
About that sort of thing. And the last one that really got to me was the. He was explaining that there's these three aspects of your. Your consciousness, it's your. Your waking consciousness or your aware consciousness. Then there's the. The artist within or the. Some people call it the muse.
Pattie Anderson [00:09:17]:
And then there's a shadow side. And the shadow side likes to protect. In his explanation of this, he. This shadow side likes to protect the muse and wants to help the muse to find. To get to you. And so if he can't, then if you. If you. If the muse, she.
Pattie Anderson [00:09:39]:
Or he can't get to you, then the. The. The shadow side acts up. So you get all grumpy with people and you might, you know, take up drinking or, you know, any. Any number of those things because you're not getting. Your. Your muse is not able to get out or your creative spirit is not able to get out. And that could be creative spirit to do anything, you know, not just painting, but so this.
Pattie Anderson [00:10:15]:
When this. It's like the demon within, he calls it. So when that comes up, that means you really need to get in and start working on yourself.
Walker [00:10:26]:
When you say, I'm sorry, he.
Pattie Anderson [00:10:29]:
Well, he calls that having your sacred solitude. So.
Theresa [00:10:37]:
Sacred solitude. I like it.
Walker [00:10:40]:
In. In the start of your process, you said, first I'll have the, you know, the image or the vision. What is your process that you go through to get that?
Pattie Anderson [00:10:54]:
Well, I start looking at all kinds of images because I'm like a visual person, and I see in pictures and think in pictures, and just images start to inspire me as to how I'm going to. Going to lay the piece out. So I got it completely in my head. So, like, for instance, the Wisdom Council, which, I don't know if you saw, but there were five owls, and all I had was a vision in my mind of five owls, but as I was. Yeah, that one.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:31]:
That's right.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:33]:
And they're called the Wisdom Council, and they come together to discuss the state of the world. That was the idea of that. So I looked up all these owls and found pictures of owls from different areas in the world. The green one is a crested owl, and it comes from South America. And some of the other ones are in our United States in different areas.
Theresa [00:11:58]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:11:59]:
Yeah. North.
Theresa [00:12:03]:
Yeah. It's so beautiful.
Pattie Anderson [00:12:05]:
As I was, you know, going through that, that's one of the ones that started to speak more to me because it was just the image in my head at first, and what it became became something else. And it was kind of a hard time coming because I. I just wasn't working and painting just wasn't. You know, it just. It was there, and everybody would go, oh, that's really, really nice. That would come into the studio. But then I knew something was wrong with it. But finally I put Clouds over the Moon, and it.
Pattie Anderson [00:12:41]:
And it just worked. I didn't have clouds over the moon before, so it was. There were too many light sources. You know, that's in your. That part is not in the. When you're in the zone, those things aren't there. That comes later in your conscious, your consciousness that knows about composition and everything else. And, you know, you say the composition, okay, I got this whole thing down, but the composition isn't working.
Pattie Anderson [00:13:14]:
So I might chop off one side or something like that or whatever. But it. It's like, that is something that I never really understood completely till I was a teacher. And then I had to Teach on the principles of art to my students. And then I was like, oh, this is what this is all about.
Walker [00:13:37]:
I think sometimes we learn the most when we teach. Right. It's an odd juxtaposition, but it's true.
Pattie Anderson [00:13:44]:
It is, but it's really, really true. And your students teach you, too? You know, my students were high school.
Walker [00:13:51]:
Students, but, yeah, I have just, you know, as we're looking at this and you're talking about composition and just, you know, how it came about. There's a story, though, that develops somehow for you. And I know because I have a book called Enchanted that you wrote and illustrated. But when you. When you get to the point where you say those owls are discussing the state of the world, you know, that's very touching to me because I have, you know, just this affinity for nature. It's where I feel the best. I'm sure it's part of why I love your work so much. But how does the story come to you? You know, what told you that's what they were talking about.
Pattie Anderson [00:14:38]:
It just seems like when I'm painting it, all these little thoughts come into my head and pretty much it starts to build a story. Sometimes I don't even really know. And so I've got to go, okay, what's this story about? So I might go do some research and find out. Like the one painting that I have called the. It's. It's called the Procession to the Sacred. Well, but it wasn't called that. All it was was a hooded procession of people going somewhere.
Pattie Anderson [00:15:11]:
Oh, you have that one.
Walker [00:15:16]:
Told you.
Pattie Anderson [00:15:19]:
That one. Told me what it was.
Theresa [00:15:24]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:15:27]:
You know, there.
Walker [00:15:34]:
It's just funny that you're picking the ones that I picked because I. Tons of art.
Walker [00:15:37]:
But, yeah, I like it.
Theresa [00:15:42]:
When you. In this process for you, do you think that you're knowing. Do you think it's in your body? Do you have a sense of it? Can you describe it? You know, like, where it just feels like even thinking about the five owls. Like, where you're like, yep, that's it. Or the clouds over the moon. Like, how do you. How do you know when you're not quite there? And then how do you know when you are there?
Pattie Anderson [00:16:20]:
Oh, when you're finished. That's going. When you're finished with a painting, isn't. And sometimes I just sit and look at it for a while, and then it starts to say, well, I need this. Or I need. The painting is saying to me, I need this or I need that. And it. Wherever the.
Pattie Anderson [00:16:41]:
This. These thoughts are coming from? I'm not quite sure, but I know must be something like what you're saying, inner knowing. And people talked about when you're really painting and it's really. Everything is coming out really well that. They used to call that the zone. You know, you're in the zone. Sure. My professors.
Pattie Anderson [00:17:05]:
I went to school for 30 years, my professors would talk about that. And, like, what is that? You know, what is it? So finally, I have this little process that I do to get ready to paint, and I turn on a certain music, and I have everything ready to go. And kind of the thought in my head what I'm going to do. And pretty soon I'm into that, into that, where I'm feeling like I'm connected. And then there's another place that. That happens, and that's at the end of the painting. Okay, what does this need, you know, to make it finished? I'm there with a couple of them right now. Yeah, yeah.
Walker [00:17:52]:
What is the. What can you describe? And maybe you can't. But what. What is the feeling when you know you're connected? You've got the music on, you've done your prep session, everything's ready to go, and. And you're there. What's it feel like?
Pattie Anderson [00:18:06]:
It feels just very relaxed and exciting at the same time. I can't explain that, but you just know that, okay, this is. This is coming out pretty good. This. This is. This is where I wanted it to be.
Pattie Anderson [00:18:25]:
And.
Pattie Anderson [00:18:26]:
And. Or you have the opposite feeling, which is, yeah, this is really bad. What am I doing with this thing? You know? And that is when I really found that. I just say, okay, I don't care if I ruin it. I'm going to do this and that and everything else. And sometimes it actually comes out better than I thought it was going to come out. So I think sometimes then that's me struggling with the inner knowing, you know?
Theresa [00:18:58]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:19:00]:
But I'm not letting it.
Theresa [00:19:03]:
Sure, sure.
Walker [00:19:05]:
Earlier you were talking about sometimes getting into this space where something else is coming through you. It's. And I. In my mind, I describe that as allowing, you know, a process that. That can be applied in lots of different experiences. But in art, you know, how does the allowing space feel different than just you being connected?
Pattie Anderson [00:19:30]:
I don't know that those two are not the same. Feeling connected is part of knowing I'm there, you know? Sure. Connection. Sometimes I. By doing different things to the painting at the end, I feel like I'm creating a connection somehow to make it all connect together. Unity. I Don't know. That would be the.
Pattie Anderson [00:20:01]:
That would be the art term for it is to create unity with the painting. It's not flying apart.
Walker [00:20:09]:
Yeah. There's so many layers of the educational process behind art that, you know, people who aren't artists or haven't developed their art skills, like me, you know, I. I don't have a grasp on all that goes behind it, but what I know is when I see it and I like it, it speaks to me.
Theresa [00:20:28]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:20:29]:
Feel good if people are connecting to it too, because that means you kind of got. So somebody years ago called it the golden thread. That if you're connected to the golden thread and then you're on the universal idea of what everyone responds to, human beings respond to.
Walker [00:20:52]:
Yeah, I love that.
Theresa [00:20:54]:
Yeah.
Walker [00:20:55]:
Yeah. Can you share more about the golden thread? I mean, is there more to it than that?
Pattie Anderson [00:21:00]:
Well, I don't think every painting is really got the golden thread, but some of them really seem to bring. Touch people more than others.
Theresa [00:21:12]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:21:13]:
And sometimes they. One person is touched by something somebody else isn't, by whatever they're experiencing. Right, right. So get just to. There's. I have to just let go of my control over it all to be able to get to that space. Because when I try to control it too much, it never works out very well. And there's paintings that I have probably up right now that don't really.
Pattie Anderson [00:21:53]:
They don't seem to respond to anybody, but they did to me, so I don't know whether that makes a difference too. And eventually someone will come along and they, oh, that's the best thing I ever saw.
Theresa [00:22:06]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:22:08]:
But usually I can figure out why it's not working out, but that's my conscious knowing composition. All those things that you do when you are starting to learning how to paint, you know, you there, you have to have your point of interest, your composition, your unity of the whole painting. And then also, like, maybe you want to have movement, maybe you want to have rhythm, you know, so it. All of those things are kind of like a con. Come back consciously and go, oh, okay. This is what it seems to be wanting to do. And so then you let that. Let that come out.
Theresa [00:22:56]:
Yeah. When did you start creating in this way, Pattie?
Pattie Anderson [00:23:02]:
Oh, late in life. Okay. I'd say because I went. I. I went to San Diego State in 1963 and graduated in 1993. So I had a lot of art professors through those years, those 30 years. And I was raising a family, so really didn't let myself take the time to find my Space. But I.
Pattie Anderson [00:23:31]:
When the children got a little older, I started to carve out a little space for me in the house where nobody else could go.
Theresa [00:23:40]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:23:41]:
I've heard other artists talk about it, like some really famous artists where she had 10 children and she had a closet that she opened up when they were all gone and would do her artwork for women, it's kind of, you know, I think. I don't want to be. Say it's this way for everyone, but it's. It's difficult because you have the responsibilities of the household sometimes and the children and all of that. So I. It's fun to listen to how they actually did their artwork when they're so famous. You know, when one woman would do them all in her head, and when she finally got to her house, she would be able to paint this painting.
Walker [00:24:34]:
Wow.
Theresa [00:24:34]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:24:36]:
And I think there's something to doing the painting in your head when you know what you want to do and you're just sort of doing it psychologically. And then when you're ready to go, you can just put it down there. The other woman that had the closet, she. She would just have all these paintings started, and then she would take them and finish them. So she'd throw down all the color, and she's a watercolorist, so throw down all the color and then decide later what it was.
Theresa [00:25:09]:
So interesting.
Walker [00:25:10]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:25:10]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:25:10]:
And that. That's. You know, I've done that before. That's. It's actually an interesting way to work.
Theresa [00:25:17]:
So for you, the. What are the different mediums that you have experimented with, and which ones do you prefer? What speaks most to you?
Pattie Anderson [00:25:29]:
Water media speaks the best to me, but I really, really liked working with ink because when I was a graphic designer, that I really enjoyed doing things with ink. And so I kind of. When I went back to San Diego state in the 90s, I started combining watercolor and ink and did a little bit of experimenting with that. And then after I graduated, because there were no water media classes, really, I took a lot of oil classes to finish out my degree. So for 10 years, I painted in oil.
Theresa [00:26:12]:
Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:26:13]:
And. And did mostly landscapes. I don't think those are on the website, but I'll give you the link to the Flickr site, and all those are there. But so I did that for a while. The background of all of those paintings to me were based in what I was also studying in college at that time, and that was women's rights and rituals. And so people would have these sacred sites that they would go to. And so each painting was kind of like a sacred site to my. In my head, wasn't necessarily one that they.
Pattie Anderson [00:26:57]:
That they had. But the aborigines, you know, they all go back to the same site. The whole family goes back to the same site once a year and once every two years. And because it was mostly decided by women how they would do that, that the anthropologists missed all of that. They didn't see that till later. That it was all the women would go back to this site particularly. And I connected with this family.
Theresa [00:27:35]:
What was the site? How was the site significant to them? I mean, as best we know.
Pattie Anderson [00:27:42]:
Right, right. And it might be anything like a special tree or a mountain or a cave or a cliff, you know.
Theresa [00:27:54]:
Gotcha. Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:27:56]:
Yeah. Particularly in those peoples, you know. And as if you look at rituals particularly for women, it has a lot to do with food.
Theresa [00:28:11]:
Yes.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:13]:
So there's always these ritual dishes you make, you know, and always fascinated me.
Theresa [00:28:18]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:20]:
But my landscapes at that time and the idea I had was to have them be sacred sites. And so there's a little bit left of that. And that's kind of how I got into so much ink. And using the watercolor as a base. But then putting ink in was because I didn't have the contrast that I want, that I had when I was painting with oil. Because I've always wanted black lines.
Theresa [00:28:49]:
Yeah. So these, the ones that we have, those are a mixture of water and ink.
Pattie Anderson [00:28:56]:
Water ink, wash and sometimes. Sometimes acrylic. A little bit of acrylic. But they all are water based. The ink is not water based. And actually the Watercolor Society let me in, even though it's not, because it has shellac in it. And in the. In the first painting I did with water soluble.
Pattie Anderson [00:29:24]:
Soluble ink, I washed over it thinking it was going to be like the other ink that I use in it. And it went just a black going all over everything. But it was kind of a happy accident because it was. Then I started using gouache in the dark areas. And so you had all this where you could put in details into those shadow spaces. So it was. It was a. That's the one.
Pattie Anderson [00:29:55]:
You probably don't have this one. It's called holding the Moon. Do you have that one? It's a bear holding the moon.
Walker [00:30:04]:
Oh, actually.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:07]:
You do have it in the book. And Enchanted. It's in there. But yeah, that one was the one that when I washed over it, underneath all down in the bottom was just completely gray, black mixed together. And so I had to add Back color. That was the first time that had happened. That's what we call a happy accident.
Walker [00:30:33]:
I'm gonna have to find it. And I keep looking down, just so you know that I'm not being disrespectful, but I'm admiring your work as you're talking.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:42]:
Yeah, that's it.
Walker [00:30:45]:
Sorry, Theresa. I got your.
Pattie Anderson [00:30:47]:
Down in the branches there is where I had washed across it to be a happy accident with that. But he inspired the enchanted book.
Walker [00:30:59]:
Just so everyone could see it.
Pattie Anderson [00:31:02]:
And that one I wrote the story about using the paintings as the illustration inspired the story, which I wrote for my grandchildren. But by the time I finished it, they were teenagers and really didn't care. They do now, but they didn't at the time.
Walker [00:31:25]:
Sure.
Theresa [00:31:28]:
I wanted to go back and ask you a little bit about this painting. The. I don't know what you call them because I don't know exactly what they are. But the white dots that are kind of like near.
Pattie Anderson [00:31:44]:
They're carrying. They're carrying candles or lights because it's also like a festival of lights. I have that in my mind already that they would be holding lights. I did a couple of sketches beforehand, but it's the ancient celebration of the goddess Bridget, which later the Irish called it St. Bridget. So it's beautiful.
Theresa [00:32:16]:
Yeah. So they're all holding light. So candles.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:20]:
Yeah, they are.
Walker [00:32:21]:
And you've got them.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:22]:
Bridget is the goddess of family and light and fire and light and. And actually creativity or music that they. All of those things.
Theresa [00:32:41]:
Yeah. It's so beautiful. Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:32:46]:
So that when I was making that painting, then I went, okay, what are these people doing? So I started looking at all these rituals that. And it's the celebration of IM bulk, which is the February 2nd. And that. That's what they did on that particular celebration was a lot of different things they did. But I just finally I was. That was going to be a whole series of. I did also one called the. The Thin Veil of Sauen, which is.
Pattie Anderson [00:33:22]:
Looks like Samhain and it's a Halloween. It's November 2nd or November 1st, I think it is, when the spirits are the closest.
Theresa [00:33:35]:
Oh, okay.
Walker [00:33:38]:
Yeah, I'll bet that one's fascinating. There's. There's a real earth centered, you know, sense to these and touching on indigenous cultures. Just wondering what drew you to that area and has driven at least the work that we're talking about.
Pattie Anderson [00:33:58]:
Well, I think it's always been something that's been interesting to me because I was always interested in ancient Egypt and interested in ancient Cultures of all types. And. But when I took that one class, which was a class that I audited because it was. I didn't think I was going to be able to pass it. So I audited it. It was a graduate class, so. And I could have gotten an A. And I should have.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:30]:
I should have. It was fun.
Theresa [00:34:36]:
Was it an art class or was it.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:39]:
No, it was a women's studies class.
Theresa [00:34:42]:
Women's studies class. Okay, okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:34:44]:
Women's rights and rituals studied all of Joseph Campbell and all of that. You know, I've, I think the way that people are drawn to spirituality then they, they didn't really have a whole lot of knowledge about anything, but they were. That was very sacred to them. And so I think that's what kind of draws me to it as well.
Theresa [00:35:17]:
Yeah, yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:35:22]:
But to get where I am, I sort of like. Well, I think I started reading about all these things and, but also reading all these books that I had no idea my family would not have known anything about any of this because they just, it's too woo woo. They would. That's a woo woo. Pattie, don't talk about that.
Theresa [00:35:51]:
What are some of your favorite books, Pattie, that you feel like have taught you?
Pattie Anderson [00:35:59]:
A whole bunch of them really. But the ones that I remember the most is to begin with probably was Dr. Wayne Dyer's books. I always enjoyed his books and his, he's a motivational speaker too, so it was kind of fun to watch him. But.
Theresa [00:36:17]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:18]:
Julia Cameron, the Artist way.
Theresa [00:36:22]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:24]:
And then later on, Gary Zukav wrote this book called Seat of the Soul is what it was called. I had to look it up, I've forgotten the name of it, but it's called the Seat of the Soul. And he actually inspired me to really look more within because he's always talked about your authentic self and, you know, what is that? You know.
Theresa [00:36:51]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:36:53]:
And reading his book was very inspirational for me. And then art wise, Nita Leland is a, she's a. She does watercolor and she does, she does a lot of teaching and she does collage and she wrote a book called the Creative Artist. And I happened to find the book on the ground one day back. Oh, let's see, when was that? It was probably in the 80s. And at that time I had a little studio in town in Escondido and out in the parking lot was this book just sitting there. And so I went around and asked everybody, is this your book? And they went, no. So I'd had it.
Pattie Anderson [00:37:42]:
And it really has a lot of interesting things about how to be creative and how to get to that and how that process goes. And so she. It was kind of inspirational for me. And. And she calls it, like, inspiration comes from the words in spirit. So you actually are in spirit when you're inspired. So that's. So that.
Pattie Anderson [00:38:11]:
That was her. And then she came out with a new version of it. So I wrote to her and said, I found the first book on the ground, and now I've got to get the new copy.
Theresa [00:38:24]:
Which is great. I love that.
Walker [00:38:26]:
It is great. I mean, it's nice when the universe, you know, puts breadcrumbs in your path. Right?
Pattie Anderson [00:38:32]:
Yeah, exactly. That's. It seems like just when you need it, just need it, there it is, you know, and this blog of digress. But the blog that Clint Watson does, the one where I told you about the shadow self and the conscious self and the artist within, I had just picked that up after I'd had my studio show, and everybody was coming into the studio, and it was really fun for the first two days. And then I started to get very resentful about them being there on the last two days. And because. And I figured out what it was, was because I was showing them the paintings that were in progress, and I wanted to get started because I was seeing things I needed to do, and I couldn't do it because there were people coming in all the time. So I found myself getting kind of grumpy, and then I felt bad and said, what's the matter with you, Pattie? You should be more receptive.
Pattie Anderson [00:39:40]:
So one day, the third day, I had somebody come in in the morning, but nobody came in the rest of the day. And my husband didn't come in because he was. He thought there were people there. So he was staying away. Yeah, I had all that time to myself, and I was. And so when I read Clint's thing where he said, you know, this. The. The shadow side gets really grumpy if the.
Pattie Anderson [00:40:11]:
If. If he's being blocked for any reason. Communicate with your muse. So I thought that came just at the right time to kind of explain what was going on with me. So I sent it to all my gallery mates, because when we all get testy with each other, I said, we need to start working with your artwork instead of worrying about all these. Because it's hard to run a business and be an artist at the same time.
Theresa [00:40:40]:
Sure, sure. You know, Pattie, what keeps you doing this work? What propels you?
Pattie Anderson [00:40:55]:
Well, like I say, it's just there are times when I say, okay, why are you doing this, but if I don't do it, I do get it comes out negatively. So I'm happier when I'm doing it. I write too, so I'm happy to happier when I'm writing. Writing isn't as easy because I see in pictures and not words. So I have to, like, wait till the words are coming.
Theresa [00:41:29]:
Okay.
Pattie Anderson [00:41:31]:
But I did manage to finish a novel during COVID because I wasn't painting during that time.
Theresa [00:41:37]:
Oh, wow. Wow.
Walker [00:41:40]:
So what's your novel?
Pattie Anderson [00:41:42]:
It's called Sea Change, and it's about a woman from Wisconsin who decides to just go as far west as she possibly can. She said some bad things happen in her life and she just wants to go make a new life for herself. So thus the. The title Sea Change. That's what sea change means. To make a complete change. And so she ends up in this little town on the Oregon coast. Isn't that original?
Theresa [00:42:21]:
It's.
Walker [00:42:22]:
It's. Yeah, I love it.
Pattie Anderson [00:42:26]:
You know, anyway, the. The town is fictitious because it's a combination of all the coastal towns. And she ends up buying a bookstore and opening up a jazz bar because she's always wanted to do jazz singing and has never done it. So she does everything she wanted to do.
Theresa [00:42:49]:
Finally. Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:42:51]:
Kind of like that's the way a lot of people that come to the coast of Oregon, they're coming because they are. They want to get in touch with themselves that way creatively. And so they sometimes have. Take up art when they get here, you know, the first time in their lives, and they're in their 50s, 60s, you know, retiring from whatever they're doing. And so it's kind of a book about that sort of thing. Yeah, I'm working on. I'm working on the sequel. The Sequel is about three artists that are in the same town.
Theresa [00:43:26]:
Wow.
Walker [00:43:29]:
That sounds like fun. Is. Is Sea Change available to the public? If you want to pick it up, where would you find it?
Pattie Anderson [00:43:35]:
Is Amazon or Amazon has it. Backstreet Gallery has it.
Walker [00:43:42]:
I must have missed that in the corner somewhere. I don't know. I think I bought a sample of everything else.
Pattie Anderson [00:43:55]:
The cover isn't something that I did with my art. I. My. I have a gallery mate that's a photographer, and I took one of her photographs of a wave and put that on the front.
Theresa [00:44:09]:
Wow. Wow.
Walker [00:44:12]:
No, I think it's a big theme. You know, that when you. When we get to the point and it doesn't happen, you know, sometimes we just never get there where we open up to what our. You know, at Least one of our true purposes may be to create. Right. And to take that, you know, whatever it is that precipitates the change that, you know, the sea change. Right. You get to that point where it just is, this is going to happen because it cannot continue to exist the way that I've been.
Pattie Anderson [00:44:48]:
Exactly. And you powerful, you realize that this life does end. So if you're going to do it, you didn't just pick up and do it, you know, because otherwise you'll be regretful that you never did, you know, and that's kind of the way I've looked at it. My. I'm on the downhill slope right now. I'm going be 80 next year. But. But those are things I always wanted to do.
Pattie Anderson [00:45:21]:
I always wanted to do a children's book. I always wanted to do a novel and. And when I've always painted and done print making too. I do print making. Not anymore, but I used to do printmaking and too many chemicals.
Walker [00:45:42]:
Oh, sure.
Theresa [00:45:43]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Interesting.
Pattie Anderson [00:45:47]:
Yeah. You don't have. Well, they have some. Now they have some very. Some printmaking materials that you don't have to use nitric acid and all of those things. But there's a lot of art materials that are really not good for you, so you have to really be aware of them.
Theresa [00:46:13]:
And I would not know much about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, you know, it's just something to seriously consider.
Pattie Anderson [00:46:20]:
Yeah. Put your brushes in your mouth.
Walker [00:46:28]:
Children's book about that.
Pattie Anderson [00:46:31]:
Yeah. There you go.
Walker [00:46:33]:
Oh, my goodness. What would your advice be, Pattie? You know, to. People are in that. Who are in that space where. Where the sea change needs to come, but they just aren't, you know, they're too afraid or whatever it is that holds you back. What's your advice? To get past that barrier?
Pattie Anderson [00:46:59]:
I think to just make some space for yourself to go do that. Make a. Make a. And if it's just a corner of the house or whatever, make that space and go there every single day with the idea that you're gonna do something. It doesn't have to be pressure and you don't have to worry about if anybody is going to look at it. Just do it, you know, just do what you feel like you want to do. Whether it's. I mean, even gardening or whatever.
Pattie Anderson [00:47:27]:
Just if your soul is telling you that's what you want to do, you need to do it. And you need to kind of make that space for yourself because I think a lot of people don't. They. They have so many other Things that get in their way. Oh, I didn't do it today because I had to do this or I had two loads of washing to do or something like that. So they didn't do it. But it's like, to make that space and be very stingy about it. Don't let people take it away from you, you know, don't.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:04]:
Don't let people steal your space.
Theresa [00:48:09]:
Yeah, interesting. I mean, Pattie, one of the things I talk about often is experimenting and practicing. Like, that's life, experimenting and practicing. It sounds like that's what you do.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:20]:
Right. And you. You can do that in many, many ways these days. There are so many places where you can. Online, there's teachers online. I mean, it's like, it's open to you so much and, oh, the materials are open because you can mix anything with anything nowadays, you know, or it used to be kind of like, well, I. I don't know how to do watercolor, but you start putting watercolor down and see what it does. And that's what I would tell people to do.
Pattie Anderson [00:48:51]:
And to not think it's too late or anything like that, because it's not too late, you know, Good Grandma Moses. She started when she was 90, I think.
Theresa [00:49:06]:
Wow. Wow. Yeah, I agree. It's never too late.
Pattie Anderson [00:49:11]:
Ever too late. And it doesn't have to be like, if you, like, you say, you know, I don't think I could ever do art, but there's something in that stimulates your spirit. And so do that, you know.
Theresa [00:49:26]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:49:29]:
Do that. Make something that gives you joy. I think that's one of the processes too. Because if you're getting so much joy about how, you know, doing it and everything, and somebody else and you close to you is saying, you know, why is that so important? You know, come and do this instead. You know, because they think it's not important because it's fun, it's important to you.
Theresa [00:49:58]:
Yeah, yeah.
Walker [00:50:03]:
I'm thinking about that. That theme of, you know, and I don't know what the psychological piece is behind it, but if it's, you know, if it's fun, how could it be important? If. If it's easy, how could it be, you know, worthwhile? Don't I have to. Doesn't have to be hard to earn it and those sorts of things.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:25]:
Yeah.
Theresa [00:50:26]:
For it to have value. Right. It should be hard.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:30]:
And the. And the value isn't necessarily in monetary value. The values in the process and.
Walker [00:50:35]:
Right.
Walker [00:50:36]:
Yeah, yeah.
Theresa [00:50:39]:
Always learning. Well, an opportunity to always learn. Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:50:47]:
Yeah. Just. That's the advice that I would give was just be into, not stop and say, oh, this isn't any good, so I'm not going to do this. You know, just play with it and have a good time doing it, and you come up with something. Because I think everybody has got an artist within themselves.
Theresa [00:51:12]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:51:13]:
And I think they. They. If you play enough, you figure out what marks you make that are interesting to you, you know?
Theresa [00:51:26]:
Yeah. I have some pieces that I created a few years ago that are still in process, and I look at them, you know, and I also think about the. Setting aside the time, you know, to step back into that space, definitely the artist piece is something that, you know, I recognize I have some resistance to. And I also know that when I'm in that space, you know, that I. I've created the space and I have the time that it feels very meditative for me.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:05]:
Right. And that's, you know, that's worth a lot.
Theresa [00:52:09]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:10]:
It is meditative for you and you. These days. You know, even your art journals, it doesn't have to be a piece of paper you hang on the wall or a piece of canvas that you put on the wall. It can. Everything can be in a journal. And playing with that every day, it's kind of a fun thing. Yeah.
Theresa [00:52:30]:
Nice. I like that.
Walker [00:52:32]:
Yeah, that's less pressure.
Theresa [00:52:34]:
Yeah. I've seen those smaller sketch journals that are like just sketch paper instead of, you know, amazing.
Pattie Anderson [00:52:41]:
Some of them are even labeled as art journals. And so you can. All of the things that are interesting to you and. And paint in it or, you know, just. That's the one thing that if you. If you're needing that space to come to, you know, you could come and do something like that, because it's all for you. It's not for anyone else. And you don't have to worry about.
Pattie Anderson [00:53:09]:
I. I had a class one time that I. We'd made masks, and this wonderful woman that was in her 80s said, you know, I said, well, aren't you going to take yours home? And she goes, no, no, no. My husband would make too much fun of it. And so, you know, I just said, you will. So I still have her mask.
Theresa [00:53:34]:
Nice. Nice, Pattie.
Pattie Anderson [00:53:38]:
She also said, you know, halfway in, when we're putting plaster on her face, oh, honey, be careful when you take it off, because my skin is very thin, and you might pull off some of my skin with it. You don't have to put all this stuff into the podcast.
Theresa [00:54:04]:
Okay. It teaches us all. It teaches us all. Yeah. Oh, Pattie, thank you so Much for this time today and sharing, you know, some of your process and your artwork and your journey and just those words of encouragement, because I agree with you, too, that we all have an artist within, and I unfortunately think very few of us get to let it out. I don't Just don't feel like it's encouraged as much as I think it would be helpful for us to. I just think it teaches us so much about who we are and how we see things.
Pattie Anderson [00:54:42]:
I agree.
Theresa [00:54:43]:
With ourselves in the world. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you. And thank you for doing this. Not just the podcast, but, I mean, but putting your creations out in the world because they are beautiful.
Pattie Anderson [00:54:59]:
Well, thank you very much.
Theresa [00:55:00]:
Thank you.
Pattie Anderson [00:55:01]:
I think they need to go out into the world. I just want to keep all of them years and years ago.
Walker [00:55:09]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:55:10]:
You kind of realize that, you know, they need to go out. Any people need to see them.
Theresa [00:55:16]:
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Any last thoughts you have there?
Walker [00:55:22]:
I just am very appreciative, as Theresa said, it's. And. And for you, sharing, you know, going deep to share the process behind it, how it feels, all those things. It's. Sometimes people don't, you know, aren't able to access. Access it or don't want to go there. And I just. It.
Walker [00:55:42]:
You know, I appreciate you doing that for us. It just. It helps everybody, you know, learn how to make those choices in life. So thank you.
Theresa [00:55:53]:
Yeah. Giving us permission. I think about that.
Theresa [00:55:56]:
We.
Theresa [00:55:57]:
We need so much permission.
Walker [00:55:58]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:00]:
I want to say one more thing, and that is that art is a way to heal yourself, I believe. And it's worked with me. I think it's worked with people that I know. And it. It is just your little personal art journal as a way to reach some healing for yourself, you know, and during a very hard period in my life where we lost four people in the family within five years due to suicide.
Theresa [00:56:39]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:41]:
It was a difficult time. And if I didn't have my art at that point, I don't. I think I might have gone crazy.
Theresa [00:56:48]:
Wow.
Pattie Anderson [00:56:49]:
Go and dissolve into that instead of be into what was going on.
Walker [00:56:56]:
Yeah, sure. My goodness.
Theresa [00:56:59]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:02]:
So that's always been important to me. Is having it be a way to heal yourself as well? Yeah.
Walker [00:57:09]:
Well, I think you're healing others, too, because, I mean, for me, when I look at these, it's the con, you know, that connection with Earth and not just observing it, but there's a feeling behind it too, you know, that you're. This art evokes in me. And it. I think that's healing too. So, yeah, you know, you're. It's way more than just for you. Thank you.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:34]:
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Theresa [00:57:37]:
Yeah.
Pattie Anderson [00:57:37]:
Thank you for liking my artwork.
Walker [00:57:39]:
Yeah. Okay.
Theresa [00:57:44]:
Thank you so much, Pattie. It was really lovely. Thank you for joining us today. We are excited to explore life, life with you. We encourage curiosity, self growth, and we strive to be more compassionate every day.