Creative Courage Soul Sisters : Part II

More inspiration from our Creative Courage Soul Sisters today! I'm honored and thrilled that these multi-talented, highly successful women will be sharing their exclusive interviews with us in my Creative Courage e-course, which starts on Monday, April 9th.

Tracey Clark spends her days (and nights) juggling an all-encompassing career as a photographer/writer/blogger/teacher with the precarious art of raising both a spirited grade-schooler and a tireless teen with her husband in sunny So Cal. Although she’s got 20 years of professional photography under her belt she simply considers herself an Everyday Photographer, not only because she shoots ever day but because her favorite subject matter is found in the everyday-ordinary.

Tracey founded the community photo blog Shutter Sisters, where women with a passion for photography are celebrated daily. She also co-hosts an annual event for the community with the next one, Oasis, happening in October 2012. She teaches a number of creative photography classes at Big Picture Classes (Picture Black & Whiteis next on tap) and can also be found on her personal blog.

Tracey is the author of Waiting for Baby, Baby of Mine and is co-author of Expressive Photography: a Shutter Sisters Guide to Shooing From the Heart. Right now, she is most giddy about her soon-coming latest title Elevate the Everyday: A Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood, due out July 2012.

One Tracey’s creative goals is to work with HGTV on at least one of her MANY creative project ideas.

Tara Sophia Mohr is an expert on women’s leadership and well-being. Her work helps women play bigger in their work and in their lives.

With an MBA from Stanford University and her undergraduate degree in English literature from Yale, Tara takes a unique approach that blends inner work with practical skills training, and weaves together both intellectual rigor and intuitive wisdom.

Tara has a deep commitment to amplifying women’s voices. She is the creator of the global Playing Big leadership program for women and the co-creator of two anthologies of contemporary women’s writings, The Women’s Seder Sourcebook and The Women’s Passover Companion.

Her “10 Rules for Brilliant Women” have struck a chord with tens of thousands of women around the world. In 2010, Tara was honored as a Girl Champion by the Girl Effect organization, which supports girls’ education in the developing world.

Tara is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and has been featured on The Today Show, BigThink.com, Whole Living, CNN.com, USA Today, the International Business Times, Ode Magazine, Forbes, Beliefnet, and numerous other media outlets. She is also a poet, and the author of The Real Life: Poems for Wise Living. 

She lives in San Francisco, California with her husband, and enjoys poetry, modern dance, cooking for friends, and walking by the bay.

Tara writes: "a top creative dream for the future: spend the summer teaching writing workshops in a beautiful place."

Jennifer Judd-McGee is a mixed media artist and illustrator who lives and works in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Much of her inspiration comes from her coastal Maine surroundings and the patterns and forms she sees in nature. She has shown her work in galleries across the US, and in England and Canada, and her work has been featured in several books, including Old School, Jen-11, and The Handmade Marketplace. She is a regular illustrator for Maine Magazine, and has done design work for companies including Target, I-Pop, The Art Group and Modern Twist.

Jennifer's creative dreams: "there are many! and they compete for space in my brain on a daily, if not hourly basis. one big dream i've had that's actually coming to be this year is to finally make myself a proper website. i've had a blog for the past five years but no real website, and i am ready to think about an update/freshening to that space, as well as finally working on some branding and identity stuff for my business. it is going to be a lot of work, time and a financial investment, but it feels totally worth it.

another dream i am hoping to make a reality is to attend haystack this year. it's a world renowned two weeksummer arts intensive workshop on the coast of maine, living and working there - i've wanted to go for years. it's a lot to juggle with my family's schedule, but i am really ready to push myself, learn some new skills and immerse myself in work with no distractions. it's exciting to imagine how that's going to feel. "i'd also love to start expanding what i make to include more textile designs. this particular dream is in the overwhelming and scary category - there's a lot to figure out. but i hope to get somewhere on it in the next year or so."

Victoria Moran is a Main Street vegan – and has been for a whopping twenty-eight years. Putting all that experience into practice, she’s written her eleventh book, Main Street Vegan: Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and Live Compassionately in the Real World. Her creative cohort on the project is her daughter, Adair, a lifelong vegan and a stunt performer. 

Victoria, a certified Holistic Health Counselor, speaker, spokesperson, and two-time Oprah guest, is also poised to launch Main Street Vegan Academy, a program to train and certify Vegan Lifestyle Coaches. And, just for fun, she's inviting plant-based eaters to post their pix on her new tumblr site to show the world that "vegans are just like us!"

One of Victoria's top creative dreams for the future: 

"With my new book, Main Street Vegan, coming out in April, a top item on my daily to-do list is to prepare the presentations I'll give on my book tour and at the many conferences and festivals where I'll be speaking throughout the year. While preparing these talks, it occurred to me that plenty of people can address the topic of going veg, but the bit of capital that's unique to me is my own experience, the stories of my life that led to my taking this path. 

"So I decided to draw on my performing and writing background and create a solo show, 'The Making of Main Street Vegan.' That's my exciting creative project of the moment. I'll perform it on the road some this summer, and on October 5th, 2012, it will have its New York premier at the Integral Yoga Institute in Greenwich Village."

Lucie Summers lives in a farmhouse surrounded by countryside in Suffolk, UK, with her farmer husband, two boys and an anti social ginger cat. She graduated a million years ago from Norwich School of Art and Design with an HND in Design Crafts where she specialised in print making. A million years later, she's still printing up a storm and sells her distinctive fabrics under the label Summersville. Lucie loves thrift stores, the seaside and summertime, but dislikes cold weather, baked beans and raisins.

Lucie's creative dreams: "I've got a lot of plans for the future...I'd still like to be designing and printing fabric for lots of different applications, most specifically for the quilting and homeware market. I'd also like to design for tableware - I recently won a competition to design a mug which goes into production this month - and I'd like to expand on this success and create chinaware for somewhere like Heals or Habitat.

I'd love to create designs for stationery too, and have been in touch with a New York company regarding this, so I hope that goes somewhere this year.My longer term dream is to renovate an old shed on our farm and turn it into a gallery and studio - I've just been asked to start teaching and I'd like to be able to offer days here on the farm teaching print techniques, and have a little shop too. I imagine open days in the summer, with printed fabric pegged on the line and serving folks tea and cake...it's all a bit  of an idyllic pie-in-the-sky type dream, but i love thinking about it!"

Marianne Elliott is a human rights advocate, writer, and the author of Zen Under Fire, a book about doing good and being well in Afghanistan. She served in the United Nations mission in Afghanistan with a focus on human rights and gender issues, helped develop human rights strategies for the governments of New Zealand and Timor-Leste and worked as Policy Advisor for Oxfam.

Marianne is also creator of the 30 Days of Yoga to help you start - or restart - your own yoga practice) and several other courses. She is the Regional Leader for  Off the Mat, Into the World in New Zealand and Australia and she teaches workshops using the tools of yoga to support more sustainable, conscious forms of activism.

One of Marianne's top creative dreams for the future: 
"Trying to answer this question has been quite revealing for me. It seems I don't really have 'creative dreams for the future'. I tend more to follow my enthusiasms and passions where they lead me and find creative adventures along the way. But I certainly intend to keep writing, and I guess an ongoing aspiration for me is to write stories that help us all see ourselves, each other and the future in new ways. 

Most of all, I love to write." 


Thank you to all of my wonderful contributors for your time, thoughts, and participation!

We have an especially fun, creative, holistic group this session, so I do hope you'll join us for our 7 week celebration of color, enthusiasm, travel, and light.

You'll learn many practical creative business tips, get loads of inspiration and encouragement, and have the opportunity to connect with others who are discovering and developing their own personal, creative paths.

We'll also take a *virtual art and culture trip* to Paris, France together this session!

To find out more details and see what former participants are saying about Creative Courage, you can visit and register here.

xoxo
Stephanie