Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathleen Schmieder.
Hi Kathleen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I rarely go anywhere without a camera or small notebook. I’m always scanning the world for beauty and inspiration, whether in a quality of light or color, the shape of a face, grace notes of vegetation in the landscape, a spontaneous line of poetry, or less tangible expressions of beauty we know as love, kindness, wonder, and joy.
I’ve always loved making things. Drawing was perhaps my first spontaneous prayer: thanks crafted through hands that loved the rhythm of a flowing line, heart enchanted by the power of clay, pencils, paper, paint, and glue to give form to the ephemeral images wafting like incense in my imagination, ideas and feelings no one else could see until—Abracadabra!—I could see and touch what had not been perceptible to the senses mere moments before.
Like many artists I followed the typical developmental arc of striving for realism, wanting at first to reproduce the forms around me, to bring clouds, birds and doe-eyed forest dwellers into the rooms where I spent time alone, lost in books and drawing. Alone, but not lonely as a gentle inner voice began to offer observations and instructions. Sometimes it was practical direction: “Fatten that line”… “a little more curve here”… “no, darker”… or a full bodied “YES!” when inner and outer vision aligned. Sometimes it was more philosophical commentary from a numinous presence that felt wiser and more loving than my usual inner chatter, an invisible teacher decoding nature’s secrets in acorns or seashells as I walked in the forest or by the ocean.
Once I mastered basic rendering skills, mimicking external phenomena no longer satisfied—especially when the camera could do so with greater speed and efficiency. I turned more and more to my imagination for subject matter, thumbnail sketches that arrived behind my eyes packed with symbolism, visual metaphors that infused observations of the natural world with the infinitely playful and creative spirit that permeates and animates everything. I began to understand my role of artist as mediator or bridge between invisible and visible worlds. Between mind—soul!—and matter.
Like any well used muscle, my trust in the voice of intuition continued to grow as it coaxed me through a succession of mediums over 60 years, each with it’s own lessons to impart: pencil, charcoal, pastels, ink, color pencil, collage, painting, and assemblage. My projects grew accordingly in size and dimensions, leading ultimately to curating what I hope are compelling spaces and sacred events for others to tap into the joy of their own innate wisdom and creative potential.
Some of the best artistic advice I ever received was to “make every line beautiful.” Science today confirms the power of beauty to literally change body chemistry, reduce stress, and improve cognitive functioning. Making art is a practical tool for regulating the nervous systems of artist and audience alike. So is viewing it.
Our home houses an eclectic collection of art—mine and that of other artists—that covers every wall in our home. You might call me aesthetic-compulsive, *LOL* as I can’t seem to turn off the urge to pick up things that strike me as seeds of creative inspiration: stones, shells, feathers, bird bones, butterfly wings, textiles, hand crafted and unusual found objects that seem to organize themselves into little altars on shelves, windowsills and bookcases in every room. I enjoy refreshing my large kitchen altar with flowers, shells, autumn leaves, sparkling acrylic snowflakes and so forth to honor the changing of the seasons. It’s a good place to slow down. Stop. Contemplate my blessings. I stroll the hallway lined with photos of beloved people and places when I need to self-soothe, remind myself of the goodness that exists in a sometimes frightening world, and feel the love in my own heart.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My mother, among others, mistook my introverted interests in the convergence of art, psychology, spirituality, and consciousness that I call the “myndscape” for escaping reality, rather than a passion for deeper understanding of it. Especially before brain researchers began to identify the complementary functions of analytical and intuitive processing and flow states, and the impact of thought, beliefs and emotion on health.
All innovations, personal and social changes begin as an invisible idea or feeling, a spark of imagination, which, unfortunately, is slowly being starved by defunding of the arts, and proliferation of technologies that encourage us to be consumers rather than generators of beauty and wonder.
I felt I had to hide my interest in esoteric subjects, until I landed in the global heart-centered visionary community of artists who are also familiar with the internal landscape of intuition and the creative process. It was life-changing to meet other souls dedicated to soothing, healing and uplifting the spirit through visions that shimmer with each artist’s love and hopes for a better future for all humankind and the planet.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Art is more than artifact for me; the most fulfilling chapters of my creative life have been discovering my love and aptitude for teaching by co-creating an art-enhanced coming of age curriculum and ritual with a circle of adolescent girls the summer before my oldest daughter entered high school… then later, becoming artist in residence at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, with a similar emphasis on cultivating dialogue with the divine within, which enables us to see further and reach deeper in understanding ourselves and our world than is possible through intellect alone.
I feel the greatest gift I have to give is to create a space sheltered from critics and nay-sayers so something holy can flex its wings … I want to re-awaken child-like wonder, whether around a table piled with blank books, colored pencils and permission to draw whatever one wishes, or in circles of women sharing stories as they create altar boxes amid the explosion of possibilities presented by paint, glue, and a variety of touchstones to their personal mythos.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Life itself is the Great Art into which we all are born. Time, space, matter are the medium, the malleable clay we shape through thought, word, and deed into a perpetually updated version of personal and collective reality. Every choice we make, whether in attitude, belief, conversation, education, relationships, diet, work, or play, shapes the substance of our lives. “Yes!” to this, “No,” to that. Every day we exercise the power to make our lives more or less beautiful, more or less meaningful, more or less comfortable, colorful, chaotic, humorous, dramatic, daring or inspirational. I believe the greatest creative satisfaction and fulfillment comes from choosing consciously and embodying our choices with love.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.myndscaping.net/
Image Credits
PC: Asmita Runge
