Great Opportunities

Hello All! I'm starting off the Fall with several great opportunities for you. First, this appears in the current Creativity Coaching Association's newsletter. You can read the entire newsletter here. 

Join Us On September 6th!
CCA's "Transformational Tuesday" free tele-call:

Being an Artist in a Small Town
Join Bev Down, CEO of the Creativity Coaching Association, as she speaks with CCA certified coach, Kris Reichart-Anderson, on how she has created success as an artist living in a small town. Kris points out," It's easy to ridicule the lack of creative opportunities of small towns and rural communities but many of us call the middle of nowhere home. After living in a small West Texas town for almost fourteen years, I have grown as an artist and writer and want to share what I have learned." Some of the areas we'll discuss are:

• How does an artist build community and network in a small community?
• What resources are available for artists, writers and performers in a small town?
• Why is it important to create a niche?
• How is it beneficial for a creative person to live in a small isolated community?

Kris Reichart-Anderson is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach living in Del Rio, a small West Texas town. She jokingly tells people that she lives one hundred and fifty miles from anything, an Interstate, shopping malls and many of the creative outlets that most of us take for granted. http://leapingnet.blogspot.com/

To join us on September 6, 2011 @ 1:00 PM, EDT
Dial-in Number: 1-218-936-4141; Participant Access Code: 8673879#


Now, here's another opportunity for those of you near Del Rio. I will be leading a ten week session in Julia Cameron's classic work, The Artist's Way at the Firehouse beginning Tuesday September 13 or Saturday September 17.  If you are looking for a way to jumpstart your creativity or kick your art or writing up to the next level, this is the class for you. We will look at tools and strategies to trash the negativity that holds us back and develop different approaches to cultivate our personal creative expression. Call Nancy or Nicki for more information and to sign up.

So, my September is off to a wild start. What's happening where you are?     

Trip Fanastic

One of the most significant things about traveling with my husband is that we have such varied interests. Often we would look at the same view and see two totally different things.

Hollyhocks in the Munich train station

Here's one example. I see the hollyhocks growing up in the middle of the railroad tracks. Chris sees the braking mechanisms for the train. He did not see any significance in the flowers until later when our friends explained that the railroad no longer uses extensive herbicide on the train tracks as they once did.

My friend Andi thinks that these cute little lights in a coffee shop in Murnau look like the snitch, the goal of Quidditch players in the Harry Potter books. I agree with her. Chris, on the other hand, see hot wires. He sees an electrical nightmare. He sees building inspectors having fits.

Crooked hotel in Ulm

Now look closely at this photo. I see the large window boxes of flowers. Chris took the photo not because of the flowers but because of the slant of the building. It is a hotel and there are levels in the rooms to show guests that the beds and tables are not on an incline. The floor is slanted because the building has shifted over the years. It is a popular tourist attraction in Ulm today.

It was quite an experience to see the world through someone else's eyes. As creative people, it helps on occasion to shake up our thinking and question what we do. Traveling with someone we love is a good start.

And finally, here is a photo of Andi and I in Garmish-Partenkirchen.

New Horizons

Kris in Erding

Those of you who read this blog, (and I know I have more readers than followers, hint, hint) know I post at least once a month, sometimes twice. Well, last month, I didn't post anything. Why? Because for half the month, my husband and I were in Germany. 

We planned this trip for almost a year and it was wonderful. We concentrated on Munich and the surrounding area. What we didn't plan on was the rain. We experienced rain almost every day we were gone. But when I think of the crowds at some of the sights we visited, I have to be thankful. I don't want to imagine what it would have been like if it had been cool and sunny.  

Our trip gave me much to consider about how people create from the Bauernmalerei (traditional murals on Bavarian buildings to Zeppelins. I'll share photos, stories and thought in the weeks to come. For now, here are some photos. Keep in mind, most were taken in the rain 8-(.

Bauernmalerei in Garmish-Partenkirchen

Zeppelin motor

Stream running under a house in Ulm