Creative Every Day

Interview with Goddess Leonie

January 8th, 2009

Hello everyone! As part of the Creative Every Day Challenge in 2009, I'll be sharing interviews with fabulous creative people! This month, I'm thrilled to be interviewing the beautiful, Goddess Leonie. I immediately thought of Leonie when I thought about this month's theme of "play." Her youthful energy is contagious! Be sure to check out her site for loads of juicy, creative, and playful inspiration. I put part of this interview in the extended section, so be sure to click below to read the rest!

Leah: Leonie, please share a little bit about yourself.

Goddess Leonie:  I'm a 26 year old goddess, artist, writer, photographer and retreat and e-course creator. I live in the alpine mountains of Canberra, Australia with my delicious wise man & my healer dog. I create Soul Story and Goddess in You artworks for goddesses all around the world to remind them just how wise, precious, divine and beautiful they are. I run soulful and creative retreats, workshops and online courses and circles. I self-published my first book when I was 22, photograph the gorgeous souls and beauty of amazing people and call myself a “Goddess Guide.” My online comfy couch with mugs of tea, rainbow paint and joyful healing is www.GoddessLeonie.com.

Leah: What does creativity mean to you?

Goddess Leonie: Creativity means paint on the fingers, ink stained palms, gluey fingernails, pastel smudges on the cheeks. It's that place where you feel pure bliss, and unabashed joy, the moment where you remember you were born to be a creative goddess. It's about writing the stories the world needs to hear, painting your beauty and truth, showing the world what it means to see through your own eyes and feel with your own heart. Creativity is the place for your spirit to soar, like white geese flighting into the air together, honking wildly, exuberantly and vibrantly.

Creativity is finding where you are on your sacred journey, and finding the way forward. It's finding the temple of expression, sharing, divinity and wisdom inside you. All with colour and paint and papers and glue and pens and a camera.

Leah: How do you infuse your daily life with creativity?

 Goddess Leonie: For me – my creativity and spirituality is intertwined. Art + soul = my way to be a goddess in this world. Creativity is my way of expressing my vision, heart and soulful truth... reminding myself and others that we are beautiful and needed and precious. It's about being brave enough to trust the voice and wisdom and insight inside me... and letting it pour out in all kinds of ways for others to see.

But that's so not what you asked me – tee hee hee! Hello passionate ramble!

My creativity + spirituality is a part of my every day. I meditate. I dream up ideas and visions. I live tenderly. I write. I walk the mountains. I share. I paint when I'm called to it. I think up ways I can help all the Goddesses out there live more creative, radiant, sacred, abundant lives. 

My most treasured part of creativity is creating a life that is rich and lush and textured and FUN. Fun is way more sacred than we give it credit for! FUN is Fabulous Universal Nourishment. It's laughter and play and ridiculousness and being a kid again.

Yesterday, my crowning creative achievement was an impromptu dance party at my cubicle-job-sweetheart-teammates to George Michael's “Faith”. Hello shopping trolley dance! Hello walking man dance! Hello working out how to Y-M-C-A F-A-I-T-H. It was full of spirit and laughter and possibility and invention and inspired movement and rapture in the moment – total creativity.

Leah: Our (totally optional) theme for the month is "play," so I'd love to hear about how you incorporate play into your creative activities!

Goddess Leonie: This is such a gorgeous question! I love your theme I want to be a cheerleader of creative play + soulful replenishment – a cheerleader with pigtails and pom poms and synchronised moves and everything!

I actually just did a video talking about creative play a couple of weeks ago – you can watch it here. It talks about how I created one of my paintings when I was stuck – by hugging the painting with paint, throwing it on the ground, letting Charlie puppy walk all over it.

I run Creative Goddess Circles, and one of the first things I make the goddesses do is paint... and then throw it across the backyard into the grass. And we – as adults – tend to freak out about it. We worry about “wrecking” it. Or letting go of control. But then we do it, and we begin to laugh, and let go, and have fun with it. We become that gorgeous, slowing child inside us filled with innocence and wisdom and enthusiasm. We remember that creative goddess wise woman inside us who trusts, and knows, and accepts, and enjoys.

Run the hose on it. Paint with your feet. Jump all over it. Do all the things you think you shouldn't do. Play is about remembering there are no mistakes – only exploration, discovery and joy along the way to be had.

Because I'm in the mood for making words acronyms today, I reckon PLAY would have to be Perfectly Luscious Adventures with Yes. Or Pants-free Loony Abseiling while Yodelling. Probably the first one actually.

Leah: What do you do when you're feeling stuck or blocked?

Goddess Leonie: I either take myself off for a walk or go lay outside on the ground. Even if you just take whatever you are working on outside, things shift Mama Earth heals us as soon as we let her in.

I usually round up my healer-dog Charlie, and a blanket and we have a Creative Replenishment Picnic in our backyard. I take a pile of books, whatever I'm creating and a water bottle. A little lay-down in the sun, a nibble of my favourite books, some water and I'm usually so replenished that I'm itching to create five minutes later.

If you feel like you're stuck and can't give out anything more {either creatively or soulfully}, this is usually a signal that we need some replenishment – and need to receive energy back. Mama Earth can help us re-circuit our energy and receive energy back. Just take five minutes to sit on her, next to a tree, watching the sky dance – you won't feel the same as you did five minutes ago.

Leah: What are some of your favorite creative resources (books, music, movies, websites, etc...)?

Goddess Leonie: The creative, inspired, wise lake inside each of us. I so believe that all we need is right here, inside our beautiful, magnificent selves. Your story needs to be told. Your art needs to be made. Not like others are doing. The way that it's born through you.

The greatest inspiration, woman and artist we will ever meet – is right inside us. To know – that the guru, the Creative Goddess, the sacred one, the wise one, the one who will love us and show us the way – she's inside each of us. Creating our art, stories, lives and selves is deep and natural and profound. It is what we were born to do. Our own biggest inspiration and deepest marvel is inside each of us

Leah: And lastly, I'd love to hear more about your upcoming Creative Goddess e-course!

Goddess Leonie: I'm running a six week Creative Goddess e-Course & Circle, starting January 15. Here's what you can expect from it!

* Six weeks of magic, inspiration & creativity to awaken, discover & experience the Creative Goddess inside you

* Intention :: A divine way to start the New Year and make 2009 your most radiant year yet!

* Wisdom :: How to create art as a spiritual practice to connect with the Goddess inside you

* Soulful Creativity :: Every week you will be sent Creative Goddess projects to do for the week in a range of creative mediums ~ you will be exploring new ways of creating and connecting with the gorgeous soul & wisdom inside you

* Joy :: Private videos created by me just for the Creative Goddess participants * Bliss :: MP3 goddess meditations by me to work with during the course

* Connection :: Access to a private Goddess Circle message board to connect with me and other gorgeous goddesses, and to share your experiences throughout the program.

For more information and to enroll, go here. And if you've got any questions please feel free to email me {leonie AT gmail DOT com}. May we all remember to PLAY and be the shining, creative, magnificent Goddesses we truly are.

Thanks so much for the interview Goddess Leah! And thank you to your gorgeous readers. It is a joy to connect with each of you...