We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathy Leader a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kathy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission is to make art as a healing tool accessible to everyone! We have created a highly successful method for wellness and team building art and painting programs for companies and organizations.

Creativity for me, is a path to mindful self discovery. Through my own personal journey, I have moved from harsh self criticism (partly due to having a judgmental artist mother!) to nurturing a deeper understanding of what supports my creative growth. I want to share that all with YOU!

Come along for the ride! I have a deep belief in the healing power of art accessible for ALL ages and stages of life. If you are just beginning to walk this path, I provide support and guidance. If you already have a creative practice, I help you to move to wherever your next stage is, whether it is learning to challenge yourself with new materials and new subject matter or developing a more powerful creative voice.

I help my participants develop creative self confidence by taking the fear out of art making. HOW? By focusing on the PROCESS rather than the final PRODUCT.

My goal is to inspire, encourage and facilitate the art process through all of what I have to offer as a fine art graduate, a mixed media artist and a lover of kindness, mindfulness and creativity.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The idea behind “The Art Process” is to nurture a love of art making as a healing form of creative expression. I have developed drawing, painting and collage exercises that are designed to open up our natural intuitive creative voice with no previous experience required.

If you are a beginner, we guide, encourage and inspire you to develop your own creative voice. If you have more experience, I help you to break through creative blocks and develop a body of work that is uniquely yours.

My mission is to make art accessible to everyone! I have programs that I have brought into the unhoused community as well as the elderly.

In addition, I have created a highly successful method for wellness and team building art and painting programs for companies and organizations. During a time where workers are feeling anxious and stressed, this creative outlet is a wonderful tool for bringing teams together to provide a respite from the pressures of work. The added benefit is that it increases productivity by allowing open ended time for creative problem solving. This works for remote workers as well as in person workers.

Meditation and mindfulness is a big part of my program. By starting off with a guided meditation, we can reduce the “noise” in our heads which says that we cannot be creative. By calming our nervous system, we are able to access out intuitive inner voice that often is buried under the layers of self criticism.

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

I grew up with a mother who was a wonderful artist! However, she was very critical and dismissive of my artwork. That made me lose any self confidence as an artist. However, I was driven to further my studies in art when I left high school. The professors at the time managed to reinforce my already weak creative confidence.

I taught in many institutions when I left college. In all of the spaces that I worked in, I learnt a different way of nurturing creativity in young students. That way was so obvious to me: Encouragement, opportunity and inspiration. I began to develop ways in which to nurture creativity in others. Gradually I applied those same techniques to my own work. That technique has a lot to do with letting go of the voices in my head, and getting into the PROCESS of creating. That way the heaviness and pressure of creating a perfect product is released. In this way, our real creative juices are allowed to flow!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to make creativity available to ANYONE who seeks to make their lives and our world a better place! This applies to any age and any stage of life. Kids already naturally gravitate towards natural creative expression. Somehow when we grow up, we are told that creativity is only for the few “talented” people. I disagree with that. It is a natural inborn desire in all of us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theart-process.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathyleaderartprocess/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtProcesswithKathyLeader
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artworkshops-theartprocess/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheArtProcesswithKathyLeader
• Yelp: http://bit.ly/TheArtProcessY