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Jan Avellana, Artist + Writer Jan Avellana was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and has always been part fish. Perhaps because her true form is a mermaid, she has never quite found her way in the hustle and bustle of a traditional life. A wanderer at heart, Jan’s first creative inklings came through creative writing as a child. She was known to burrow herself away in snug, sunlit corners as she escaped into her world of books and writing. Much later, Jan discovered the visual arts and has delved into everything from ceramics to encaustic wax. Even today, she is most at home with wide open seas and vast landscapes that allow her to follow wherever her heart leads. Jan’s art and words are a patchwork of everything that ever happened to her and also the things that didn’t, the lovely sum of her deepest fears and fondest hopes, images stitched together to tell a story full of meaning—bringing comfort and warmth in the telling of a life made up of scraps and treasures gathered through her wanderings. Jan is an elementary teacher by day, an artist and writer by night. She is always a mom to her boys Seth, Cody and Momo the cat, Radar the Puppy Butts and partner-in-crime to her husband, Steve.

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« Sunday Blues. | Main | On Becoming. »

January 23, 2017

Explore, My Word for 2017.

Explore_word_of_the_year_2017

So I was listening to Dr. Pizza :P on Creative Pep Talk, Episode 116 (Unlock Your True Potential) and in this talk he talks about giving new ideas space to grow, by thinking on those things that haven’t been fully birthed yet, and letting yourself wrestle and work on it—this all comes down to experiments, and doing the work. Illustrator Rachel Place (check her out here!) turned me onto this talk and I’m ever so grateful that she did.

Because in this talk, Dr. Pizza (what is his REAL name?), he talks a lot about exploring those nudgings through our creative work. And WHAM! It hit me—my word is 'explore'. 

Even though I realize I’ve BEEN exploring creatively all my life, and chronicled here on my blog (for the past 9 years—yikes), “explore” has chosen me and I need to honor this need in my life, without shame and tsks and criticism of the time it takes to become. It’s wasted energy, energy I could be using to continue to grow and move forward in my creative life.

So here I am. Raw, vulnerable, exposed and I intend to explore. I hope you join me <3 in your own discovery this year. <3

Posted at 04:56 PM in Finding my Creative Voice |

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