The Hikers Way is complete.

I spent the last three months writing my own, totally new version of the artists way, and now you can finally experience it.

photo my partner took of me hiking to Lake Helen off the PCT last summer. Hiking is the way I found my creativity and expression again after losing it along the way.

Hello! I have been looking forward to writing this email for the last three months, and I’m excited to announce that The Hikers Way is finally here!

What started with the idea of facilitating The Artists Way to a group of students I taught in the fall, became an all consuming obsession, building a brand new, updated alternative, tracing my own steps to return to creativity after abandoning it when I burnt out in the art world. Every step of the way in developing the curriculum for this self-paced retreat, I asked not only what would I need, but what would younger me need fresh out of art school? What would a version of me with different abilities and time resources need?

This led me to have the following components in the experience:

• 16 podcast-style episodes you can download to listen to while you make art at home and sit out in nature. These lessons are designed to compassionately guide you back to the curious creative within.

  • I share my own stories, struggles and ways of navigating each of the topics I bring up, from inner critics, to external shoulds, we get into a lot of creative healing work together.

• A secret (password protected) website for each week with:

  • simple, clear notes on each episode

  • a list of all mentioned journaling prompts for each episode

  • & a recap of all tasks to complete (to make it way easier for folks of all neurotypes to keep track of the learning outcomes)

• An instant-download PDF Guidebook on how to access the lessons, with links to optional Zoom sessions, and support to adapt the lessons to your unique schedule

• Community support through a soon-to-be-secret channel on Discord

• Three Monthly LIVE Zoom Sessions facilitated by me, throughout the fall, inspired by the questions that come up in the community.

To celebrate, I’m offering a small discount on the price of the experience. The Hikers Way will be $120 Through Monday night as a way to kick off your fall and make the price a bit more accessible for those who need it.

The thing about this experience that will make it really unique, is that this is going to be the core philosophy guiding many of my YouTube videos this fall. I plan to use The Hikers Way myself to reignite my music practice, a creative habit that I gave up over the last few decades, picked up again, and gave up again. I have my synth and acoustic guitar setup in my studio, ready to start using next week. There is a thrill in the notion of giving myself permission to pursue this practice again.

I hope to find persistence alongside all of you, sharing our struggles as a collective and building the solidarity to find joy in listening to our own intuitions, connecting with nature, and finding ways to bloom creatively in these incredibly chaotic times.

painting at the Wedding Rock trailhead at Sue-Meg State Park in Humboldt County, California

I also want to share here, that the experience of building this retreat, with no AI and all on my own, typing feverishly for months in my studio, has been wild! Originally, I was going to teach this live in June but with my back injury, it evolved to be a podcast with occasional drop in live sessions and truly, this is some of my BEST work as an educator. I am beyond excited for you to drop in and experience it.

As I was designing The Hikers Way I kept thinking to myself, how can I also make this about community. Rather than focusing only on ourselves, how can I help everyone who joins this experience connect with one another?

Too often I find that I’ll sign up for downloadable courses like this and do nothing with them, or watch two episodes and then leave them semi-dormant on my harddrive waiting to be watched. My plan to combat this is in three phases:

1. The first is Discord. I absolutely adore my Discord Server, the people who show up there regularly are amazing, and want to help it grow. By sourcing support from this space I have spent the last several years building, I know it will help me avoid getting overwhelmed! And it will help you get inspired by all the rad people persisting and sharing really cool human reccomendations daily.

2. The next way is with a silly Google Slides project. Each Hikers Way participant is invited to make their own slide with the reasons they signed up and share their social handles, and ways they want to connect with others.

3. Lastly, there are three LIVE Sessions I will be hosting each month through the fall to give short lectures on common questions that come up, and hold space for the budding community to share what they have been working on together. These are probably what I am looking forward to most.

my example slide for the community sharing vulnerably why I want to make music again. I have been spending too many hours watching TikTok and need to reconnect with my inner knowing.

This month in lieu of creative prompts, I want to encourage you to make time for your art. Write it on your schedule and enjoy the last bit of summer. Just go out with your creative materials in nature and see what speaks to you. I deeply hope that you will join me on The Hikers Way and find ways to deepen into that practice together.

Until next time, stay creative and find your own ways to persistently bloom. 🌸