Today we’d like to introduce you to Whitney Freya.
Hi Whitney, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up a TOTAL wanna-be artist. An art teacher had told me and my Mom, at age 9, that “drawing isn’t her thing.” What I head is, “you did not inherit the art gene.” I would hover over the shoulders of anyone who had been deemed “talented” in high school, college, until 3 years out of college, selling books door-to-door, I got inspired! Life is meant to be lived as art. It wasn’t about the product, it was about mindset. So a year+ later, I renovated a run down bungalow on a side street off an “up and coming neighborhood” and opened The Creative Fitness Center. My first painting since that art class when I was 9, was created in a class I was taking at my own art center!
After some HGTV appearances, the one thing I knew for sure is that I had a book in me that would make my easy-access approach to developing personal creativity SO THAT you could create the art that is your LIFE could be more available to more people. I started writing it in 1997, before children, and when it was published in 2007 I had three who could practically read it!
In 2009, I launched my first online programs because I was going to be moving to rural Oregon, and the rest is available to see by just searching Whitney Freya!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Wow! Ups and downs. Potholes, chasms and always, along the way, magic and synchronicities… enough that I could hold on tight during the tough times and root myself deeper into what had become my calling, my soul’s mission: to awaken as much of the Creative Spirit in humanity as possible SO THAT as our modern world inevitably shifts to a more sustainable and love-based reality, the chaos would inspire rather than depress.
From 1996 until 2004, I operated The Creative Fitness Center from the old bungalow, just enough off the beaten path in Nashville, TN that it was an act of faith to stay optimistic about finances each month. In 2004 I relocated about one-hundred yards away on the “main drag” to merge my adult program with another woman and friend who owned a gallery. Then, I ended up becoming an investor (the up-and-coming neighborhood was now a full-on commercial district with a booming fashionable neighborhood surrounding it) in the wine bar next door. The one wine bar, then a second, with three young children and a moody husband (now a was-bund) was SUPER challenging. Money was always tight and I was wearing a billion hats.
In 2010, I walked away from everything, with a full portfolio of incredible experiences and wisdom, but zero financial gain, and the loss of good friend and business partner, to move to rural Oregon in 2011. A year later, I left my marriage, moved into a rental and leaned into every mindset, success-principle in the book to grow my business enough to support me.
It has been a continual stretch, leaps out of my comfort zone almost daily, large credit card balances and TRUST that what we need most is to learn how to speak to what we WANT to happen, look for all the solutions that are available, rather than the problems, and remember that life is meant to be lived as art.
29 years later, I am where I dreamed of being in my life, with loads of freedom, constant meaning, an inspiring community and an overflowing heART. I am proud that I persevered and held on tight to my sense of purpose and my calling, while learning how to reclaim my authenticity and live the art that is my life MY way!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I offer to guide you into a Sacred & Personal Painting Practice that creates meaningful space for you to get quiet, go within, and explore your full palette of possibility in your life. I primarily teach an acrylic painting practice that involves layers and layers. We start by playing, doodling, spilling, stenciling… colors and painting the words of our intentions, personal declarations and dreams. Then, either intuitively as you paint or because of personal inspiration, you paint a symbol or image that connects you to the fruition of some thing, or some experience, that you want to experience in your life. We get out of our heads and into our heARTs, to create into our physical reality (via the paints and canvas) an image that connects you to your desire.
As you paint, you focus on what you want, while learning from the process what is holding you back. The way you do everything is the way you do anything. So perfectionists learn to get a bit wild at the canvas, and then they let go and try new things in their life. It is fun and feels like magic, and what has really happened as you paint is that you have created new neural pathways that create new patterns of choosing and taking action away from the canvas. It is highly transformational… and FUN! I have to be having fun… that is non-negotiable!
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I read recently that COMMITMENT creates “luck.” When you commit to an idea, a dream, a vision coming to fruition, NO MATTER WHAT, life around you conspires to make it happen. I remember the years, literally from 1999 to 2005 (when I found my publisher) when I was trying to get my book published. It didn’t matter how many times the book agents said “no” or leads dried up, I always KNEW it was going to happen. I was committed to publishing my book.
In 2009 I “launched my Creatively Fit Online Programs” in New York City. What that meant was that I called and called and emailed to set up book signings. I stood outside the Museum of Modern Art handing out postcards with my website and a graphic tutorial about opposite colors so visitors could enjoy their art-gazing more. I carried a large canvas around the city that said CREATE CHANGE and invited people to paint on it. I designed a banner for the Women for Women Foundation to march across the Brooklyn Bridge for International Women’s Day, and then painted on it with the President of Ireland, Naomi Campbell and Tim Gunn. I made it happen.
I was committed to inspiring as many people as possible, especially those who would tell me “I can’t even draw a straight line,” to pick up a paint brush, overcome their fear of…
…making a mistake,
…not being good enough,
…being rejected or teased SO THAT those same fears would not hold them back again from creating their own dreams come true.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://whitneyfreya.com
- Instagram: @WhitneyFreya
- Facebook: @WhitneyFreyaCanvas
- Twitter: @WhitneyFreya
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/whitneyfreyallc
