We recently connected with Patty Ripley and have shared our conversation below.

Patty, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My growth as an artist began in my late forties when I finally chose to focus on creativity fully. Life had been busy with raising two children, many dogs and managing a home while my husband travelled extensively for work. If you’d asked me in my early twenties if I’d be living such a traditional lifestyle, I would’ve laughed. No way! Stay at home Mom? What?!

But then our first child was born and I realized how much I wanted to create a stable home environment. I’d moved to Canada from the Bay Area in California only four years before and had begun studying painting at various Vancouver BC colleges/schools/clubs. This was before the internet and online learning. Art was in my blood so while our children were very young, I kept painting. I turned it into craft for a while and created hundreds of hand-painted placemats and table runners on canvas and sold them at exclusive craft shops.

But a yearning for creating bigger paintings emerged and at almost fifty, I applied and was accepted to the Vermont Studio Center art residency program. I was so excited and incredibly insecure about showing up to this prestigious place full of working creatives. Imposter syndrome reared itself pretty quickly yet I dove in and filled the walls of the large studio with many big paintings.

I also signed up for a critique with professional artist/academic from New York. It was terrifying for me. To have to stand with these creations that truly poured out of me yet to have no formal training for speaking about them in any sort of professional way. In my mind, art with a capital A was taking over my psyche and I felt I didn’t measure up. I told him when he came in and asked about my background that I was just a stay at home Mom who taught myself to paint. I didn’t pre-plan any of these paintings. I felt so embarrassed. He gracefully acknowledged my feelings and said that every artist is self-taught.

Being at that residency was a pivotal moment of taking this big risk of being seen as an artist and having my unique path validated. The whole experience began moving me in the direction of trusting my inner voice as a creative.

Patty, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Within a year of being in Vermont, I’d accumulated enough pieces to approach galleries and got into my first one. A small but well managed gallery in Victoria, BC chose to represent my abstractions based on nature. Sales were very steady for the first years and I added another gallery in Sedona AZ. During these years, I spent hours exploring in paint as well as healing myself. Remember those insecurities? They needed attention since they were still surfacing even after attaining some pretty great goals.

In 2016 I was drawn to a weeklong retreat in California facilitated by Chris Zydel in expressive arts. Little did I know that this would be another transformative life event. Process painting, which focuses on creating from your inner world of feelings, sensations and intuitive guidance, seemed really off-putting to me at first. But, I was totally drawn to it. It was so raw, unrefined and childlike. There was a mysteriousness that was evoked as intuition guided me Yet a bigger voice in me at that time was questioning still. How was THIS art? What gallery would ever take these pieces? My mindset was riddled with art rules, desire for outside validation and commodification. All of which were actually stopping my creativity from flowing!

I became hooked on this practice. The freedom that poured out of my brushwork was liberating! Instead of trying to control how my paintings were to be, my creativity showed me areas of growth and expansion I never would’ve explored. I soon became a Master Facilitator of Creative Expressive Arts in 2020. Leading others to access their intuitive wisdom became another new experience I’d never expected. I now hold monthly sessions online for anyone who wants to connect with their soul wisdom through this painting practice. I’ve had non-artists, dancers, bankers, illustrators, therapists and painters join the gatherings from around the world. Having a safe space to simply be yourself and witness one another’s journey is affirming. It’s a beautiful support system to cultivate, especially these days.

My process paintings are channeling guidance which at first I thought couldn’t be really happening. Early on, these paintings, my intuition, began showing me things to explore. Mystical figures appeared with clear eyes and spirals of circles encompassing the bodies. Shamanic figures and wild animals. Dots sprayed around the open mouths. I’d finish a painting and wonder, am I supposed to be speaking more? Witnessing more? Seeing something? Around this time, I had a healing session with a pranic healer who used energy to clear my chakras. I didn’t understand it but I felt it! I began to notice how sensitive I am to energetics and sought out ways to learn more so I followed the breadcrumbs. I went to Peru and the Q’ero shamans for two weeks. I regularly started going to Sedona Az to hike amidst the red rocks. I learned reiki, pranic healing, energetic NLP and Ancient Mystical Rose techniques.

Now I incorporate all of these into my offerings and even into my paintings which are energetic receptacles. I also read energy then assist healing for individuals. I use this in the painting circles as well as in 1:1 sessions and coaching. I’m passionate about showing others ways to become clear channels for creativity to flow. As we trust our intuitive guidance, our lives shift toward more ease, joy and calm. We don’t bypass the hard stuff but instead allow it space to move through us. We can tend ourselves toward harmony and meet life from there.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is to let go of worrying what people think of me and the fear of being judged. It’s still a work in progress.

I’ve never wanted to stand out yet ironically I’m six feet tall! Plus I’m very introverted and attention on me can feel uncomfortable. Painting has been a way to express myself and be seen. When the creations are more traditionally beautiful like the abstractions I make that are non-objective, it can be easier to share.

Yet the paintings I create that are more raw, expressive and otherworldly, they’re quite evocative. They have big presence and spirit. They’re energized, vital and sometimes in your face. I adore them yet when I share them, it can feel vulnerable. A personal healing point. But I’ve learned that sharing them is opening the eyes for those who can see the beauty of authentic expression. Those who don’t want to see this will walk right by or pass quick judgement of what I’m revealing since they may not have it on their radar to engage.

Plus overcoming my fear of revealing my intuitive gifts has been a journey. The more I share them though outweighs these concerns as I witness how impactful they are for others in living a more balanced life.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There’s a lot of control taught around creating art. I’ve witnessed non-creatives view art from a place of proficiency of technique and be wowed by how a person can make something look so realistic or draw a figure with perfect proportions. Even children learn this at a very young age and the ones who do it ‘right’ get praise. We’re programmed with visual acuity early on and sometimes that restricts our ability to immerse into a painting and accept what’s less than perfect.

Don’t get me wrong, learning technique is helpful and I studied for many years honing my skills. But the rules can be restrictive and hold you back creatively. At some point, breaking the rules and making messy, odd, non-sensical creations will move you into uncharted territory. It may be hard for a non-creative to grasp what it’s like to have a creation respond through me but not by me. To be flowing out of me yet not controlled by standards my analytical brain may have for making art. This is true creativity that’s tapping into a universal flow available to all of us.

There truly isn’t a non-creative person on this planet. I’ve seen it over and over again in the painting circle. People can create. They simply need to let go of the controls they have around this. Those limits will keep you believing that you can’t create anything yet in practice you can! You can make masterpieces of gorgeously authentic expressions that fearlessly shine your soul’s wisdom out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pattyripley.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pattyripley/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063641286881
• Other: Painting Circles & Energy Healing website

  https://www.bewildwisdom.com/

Image Credits

Hannah Spray Photography