We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristin Clark. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristin below.

Kristin, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I always knew I had to pursue an artistic path. I read a lot of Joseph Campbell in my later twenties and his advice to “follow your bliss” and that if you follow your bliss, “doors would open for you where there were no doors before” made a lot of sense to my dreamer mentality. But the art form I studied in college was not where my heart truly was and it took me many years to figure out where my heart was taking me. I had graduated with a BFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University. I was given an award for having great potential in that field and had a bunch of success initially but when I moved to NYC I fell apart, shut down, closed off, sabotaged every awesome opportunity and was completely consumed by fear, doubt and the deepest feelings of unworthiness and shame. This fear based paralysis mingled with spiritual crisis and I totally disconnected from life, from joy, from love. Drugs numbed the pain briefly but always made it so much worse. I judged my problems as being petty compared to others and so never sought help. I walked in that darkness for years not understanding that, like most of us, I was carrying deeply held trauma which had been activated and until I healed I couldn’t move forward. I didn’t know that all that wondering lost, that longing for soul, that longing for my own wild nature, the desire to move beyond ego and offer myself somehow to the world was the soil for everything I would eventually create. There was a defining moment, an evening in my apartment in NYC, when I made a choice that began to shift everything. I was in a habit of laying in bed every night and beating myself up internally until I fell asleep. I was about to do that but, by some grace, I paused. In my apartment I had a box of oil paints and a guitar. I didn’t know how to use either of them but that night, instead of beating myself up, I picked up the paints. The next night I picked up the guitar. I began to play with creating in these ways. It was an act of real kindness to self and as I allowed myself to create, I began to heal. I had drawn when I was little and I had sung until college but had shut that down hard at CMU with all those incredibly gifted kids. I had no idea how to write songs or how to paint but songs came and so did paintings. My dreams, which had been really disturbing for years were suddenly filled with faery music and song lyrics. Painting and writing songs felt like entering a sanctuary, a secret room or an enchanted realm filled with the lore of my own soul and I could wander around in there discovering who I was, who was with me and what stories I held. It was a place of love and healing and magick. Then the doors that Joe Campbell promised would appear began opening. The exact ones I was ready for. I let myself dream of professional success and it began to come, first with the art and later with the music. I began to understand that what I had created to bring myself joy and connection and healing could bring that to others as well. That really and truly lit me up. And it still does as much as any part of it. The world is struggling. We need more soul in our lives, in our communities and our creations. And I think that is why my art and music may resonate with people. We are all so deeply connected. Even though it feels like I am revealing my own unique soulscape in a song or a painting, I find that often this serves as a portal to the listener or viewer that may weave them through the secret passageways of their own souls, maybe bringing them some wonder or remembrance. The more I understand the power in these art forms the more committed I am to letting all the doors keep opening that allow me to share them.

Kristin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

One of my most present and potent guides is my inner child. She loves to sing and paint and imagine things into being. She is my heart. She is why I paint and sing. I did turn my back on her for a time, tried to grow up and leave her behind. I told her that we weren’t good enough to do the things we loved and tried to live without her. I think most of us do this at some point. But she kept coming to me in dreams, sometimes she was in an oak tree learning the song of the moon. In another dream she was taken by the Faeries and I couldn’t find her. Lots of dreams of her disappearing in the mist. These are all dreams of soul loss in the Shamanic tradition though I didn’t know that then. When I started painting and singing and writing songs, it began to call her back. But I needed to really make amends with that part of me in a deep way and let her know I was a safe and fun home for her now. And then one of my favorite songs on the record came through called, “Will You Mend”. It’s a healing journey in the magical woods of childhood and I feel it really can call back our little lost one, if we let it. Most of the songs I write are journey songs, songs of healing or of calling lost soul parts home. I believe they can guide the listener to other worlds, to the in-between places, much like dreaming, that are no less real and where real healing can happen. One of the most astounding and wondrous parts of writing and sharing the songs has been realizing that they were very much coming from a certain wisdom tradition but not one that I knew a lot about. It is the tradition of my ancestors, the Celts, though none of their stories were taught to me growing up. But that specific flavor of Celtic Mythology and Mystical Shamanism was coming through over and over. I had started reading a lot of books on dreaming, mostly by New York Times best selling author, Robert Moss. There was so much in his work and in his deep knowledge of the different Dreaming and Shamanic cultures that seemed to be in resonance with the way the songs came through. I was inspired to send him a few songs off the record which was not released yet. He responded quickly and wrote the most glowing testimony of the songs. He asked me to come to the mountain where a group of dreamers, writers and teachers gather every year and to sing them. By this point I had been a professional painter for many years but venturing forth with the music was still terrifying. But I said yes anyway. I learned tapping and got some CBD patches because I’m not kidding when I say I was terrified. I didn’t know if I could do it with any grace but I said yes anyway and that literally changed everything. One of the things I am most proud of are these moments of saying yes, these moments of courage. These are the moments when the magic doors open. And they did.
I love to share this story because what I know is that no matter how scared someone is of stepping out, no matter how deeply they have bowed to the inner critic and have shut down their heart’s desire, the world needs their unique soul expression and if they honor the greater agenda of heart and soul, the doors will appear, the guides will show up, there will be magic and there will be those other souls who recognize them as anam cara(soul friend) and are healed and uplifted by their offering in ways only they could bring.

I have since become a certified Dream Coach with Robert Moss and co facilitate gatherings with heart-centered, creative women around the country combining dream work, song transmissions, art, Shamanic journeying and Celtic ceremonies.I hold concerts with my husband who is a professional musician and producer of my album, River of Mist. I am a Signature member of the American Impressionist Society and sell my work through my private studio. I do all this because of my husbands love and support and because of my growing soul tribe who lifts me up and inspires me by their courage and brilliance and heart of service every day.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society has to get out of their homes and become active in community, even empathic introverts. We really need to be less isolated from one another.. We need to get out and build safe, soulful communities, dreaming communities, creative communities. I am able to share my creations because of the work of women in Nashville who are already doing this. The mission of these brilliant women has been to create safe space for connecting, for healing and rising into authentic power, widening the love circle so that we can support and cry with each other when needed and dance and paint and sing with each other often. We need to support other artists gatherings and events, download their music, buy their crafts and art and creations.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I do love selling my paintings and my records. It’s fun and fulfilling. I love when the paintings and the songs find the people who will cherish them. But an equal or even more rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is how in the process of trying to bring forth the art and music from within me and to share it with the world somehow, I have found my soul family, my mentors, my sisters and brothers, my partners, my beloveds, my community, my tribe.

Contact Info:

• Website: kristinclarkmusic.com kristinclarkartist.com
• Instagram: @kristinclarkmusic
• Facebook: Kristin Sentman Clark Kristin Clark
• Youtube: River of Mist Kristin Clark
• Other: Kristin Clark River of Mist on iTunes and Spotify