Just watched shame researcher, Brené Brown, PhD, speaking at the Omega Institute in New York via live feed. Pretty cool. She spoke about similar things from her TED talk here. In today’s talk she shared some thoughts on our culture of “scarcity”, in which we wake up saying, “we didn’t get enough sleep,” and we go to bed saying “we didn’t get enough done.” Basically, telling ourselves that we aren’t enough all day long. She also spoke about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol. I find her genuineness and warmth to be rather comforting and her research on vulnerability to be uber-inspiring.

I was watching the live feed on my computer in the studio and felt the urge to get out the brushes and ink—my own comforting practice. There are reasons that I am not painting these days…but that is a topic for another day.

Some of Brené Brown’s ideas on becoming wholehearted (I added the Facebook one).

Certain imagery always come back again and again in my work: empty bowls, bowls with stuff in them, pomegranates, flowers, natural things, eucalyptus branches, the cracks in streets. They just repeat over and over for decades. I often think that we really only have one thing to say as an artist, much like a musician’s Opus. The vessels for these thoughts, ideas, and feelings are as arbitrary as anything. The imagery is just a container for the stuff that lives in our heart. When we feel like we have said what we need to say, we can stop.

But I am not done with bowls or any of it. I started playing with Brené Brown’s ideas and creating reminders for myself…post-it notes for the soul…written on little bowls. Then I dragged them into Illustrator and had even more fun.