Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Maricle.
Amy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always been involved in the arts, but my path as an artist has been circuitous. As a kid, I loved performance art, but it wasn’t until after college that I started getting deeply into visual art. I had an artistic renaissance where I took dance, guitar, pottery, drawing, and painting. I started reading about the spiritual and emotional dimensions of the art process with books like The Artist’s Way, Creative Companion, and The Art Therapy Sourcebook.
These books got me drawing and painting for personal healing and exploration. I have always found the arts are a spiritual experience for me, but having someone talk about it so clearly, and show me how to use it purposefully was a revelation. When I’m really open during the art process, the images develop, and I dance back and forth between me directing the image, and yielding to what seems to want to appear. It’s an adventure in paint where we are channels for the creative energy of the universe. I decided to become an art therapist so I could share this with others.
I worked for many years with clients with complex trauma using art therapy, which was incredible but rich work watching clients learn to cope and creating meaning out of so much pain. Over time, I wanted to teach people in the community, not about art therapy, but what I had learned through my training about using art as a tool for personal exploration and healing. I offered an art journaling workshop in my community, and when folks saw it and asked me to create an online class, I did. About 6 months later, Mindful Art Studio was born, and I’ve been developing online classes to help people use the arts as a mindful, playful, spiritual part of their lives since.
Now that I can reach people all over the world and help them to use art as self-care, and I am no longer practicing art therapy because my teaching style is heavily influenced by my training, and I can reach a much larger group of people.
There is a hunger for people to have permission to make art. We need permission to create not because it’s productive or purposeful, but just because it feels good. People want permission to focus on the process as much as the product- to use this as a way to slow down and tune into the moment. My students gain skills and confidence in their abilities as artists, but they also understand how to calm their inner critic so that they can inhabit that freeing, wide open space that opens up within us when we are fully immersed in the imagination and the process of painting.
Mindful Art Studio – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Mindful Art Studio offers online classes in art journaling from a mindful, soulful approach. I think the folks who seek me out are interested in doing more than making a pretty picture in their journal. They want their journal pages to be deep, meaningful, and playful. They want to learn about themselves in the process, and connect to an online to a community of other art-positive, encouraging people.
The online communities for my classes tend to be tight-knit and a safe place for people to take chances in their art and grow. It’s an honor to be a part of this process with people from all over the world.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think success in work for me is doing something that is meaningful because I’m helping others, while also making enough to take good care of myself and my family.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://mindfulartstudio.com
- Email: amy@mindfulartstudio.com
- Instagram: @amymaricle https://www.instagram.com/amymaricle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindfulartstudio/
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