DESIGN , YOGA
Unto Infinity Album Art

I recently created the cover art for this beautiful new album created by my friends Za Rah Kumara + Hansujot in collaboration with our teacher Tej of Nine Treasures Yoga. We also made a downloadable digital booklet featuring ten meditations from the archives of Yogi Bhajan – many of which had never been published before and all coordinating with tracks on the album. It was a very educational experience – and I’m really pleased with the outcome. I highly recommend the album for meditation and relaxation – Find it wherever you buy / stream music.

DESIGN , YOGA
Rogan Tay by White Sun
New Song by White Sun ~ Art by Jamila Starwater Tazewell

I’m so thrilled to share that I designed the cover for Grammy Award winning White Sun‘s new single Rogan Tay. This song is a very uplifting + powerful mantra that has the ability to re write negative programming picked up in utero. This means, you can simply listen to it and receive tremendous benefit. This mantra is for all ages but it is wonderful to play this while pregnant and for your children. Listen to this interview with Gurujas to learn more about how mantras work and read this interview for more information and inspiration on this topic.

This was a super fun project and total honor. Thank you Harijiwan, Gurujas, and Adam Berry for this opportunity !

You can download the song on itunes or wherever you buy music.

DESIGN
Creating the World
“Creating the World ”  © Jamila Tazewell 2016 – Available on Starwater Yoga

“Cross the frontal area of the grey matter so that you can see the huge multiple universe we call love… Love is the basic grit with which you can combat death, negativity, attack, it’s a vibratory effect. I want you to experience it.”  Yogi Bhajan

“In collage we take images that can never possibly co-exist, and arrange them in the same frame. Thus we train ourselves to expand our sense of what is possible.” Andre Breton

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This collage was created over the course of a few hours last friday night. The sewing lady called out to me and then the rest of the images just formed themselves around her. Sometimes you just enter the flow state and it’s the best feeling ever. I feel like creating a collage is an alchemical process that transforms me. Then sometimes the piece is doorway for the viewers psyche to enter that same space.  Imagery and symbols, like sound, send the mind automatically in a direction. I think that is the idea of all sacred art. It sends the mind into a good direction.  I think it is all so fun, but it is useful too!

DESIGN
The Creative Process
“Magical Buck” Digital Collage by Jamila Tazewell – Available in many forms on 11:11

Artists don’t have a monopoly on creativity! Everyone is creative every single day by virtue of being a human on the earth.We have co-created everything we are and everything we see, touch, taste, feel and think. It is a creative universe and we are a part of it! Each unit of the hologram contains the whole hologram. We are all creative beings whether we know it or not. Being an artist involves one thing – deciding to be an artist. ANYONE can be an artist. If you need proof of this just google Jeff Koons or Richard Prince. Creativity is a mindset.. making art work is a decision. Plus no one said it has to be good. I think it is more important to be having fun with it than to be making a living or being recognized. In fact, those 2 things can be deadly for the creative spark unless you are clever and fierce in your desire to keep it real. What is real is your flow state. You, being in your game.. losing track of time as you bang away at whatever it is you do. This applies to all mediums. The flow state is better than any drug.. you are the drug. The art is all you need to elevate your whole perspective. It is a means and an end. You just have to do it.

HOW TO TAP IN?

  1. Meditate. This can be any practice that gets you in the zone. I obviously think Kundalini yoga is the most potent and effective form available today. It is a technology to open the energy of your Soul through the body. It is something to experience, instead of just read about or “believe in”. For great online Kundalini Yoga check out RA MA TV.
  2. Start something. Just pick something and start it. You don’t need to know what it is going to be. You don’t need to know how it is going to turn out. You do need to just start. Start today.
  3. Do it everyday. And then just.. keep going. Really thats it. The work will unfold itself through you. But you have to show up. If the inspiration just stays inside your head.. you will never really understand what it could become. You will be fulfilled in direct proportion to the effort you put in. And if you don’t feel inspired anymore.. go back to step one.

Thats all there is to it. The world needs what you are carrying inside you and now is the time.

GO FOR IT !!!!!!

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“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.
Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work.”

Steven Pressfield The War of Art

 

DESIGN
Creative Blocks + Solutions
“Magical Zebra” © Digital Collage by Jamila Tazewell – Available on 11:11

It is ironic that my favorite thing to do in the whole world — create stuff — is also something I avoid quite expertly. The resistance to jumping in to the creative flow is real! I have successfully avoided writing this blog post for over a month two months and have been thinking about it all day before finally making myself sit here as the summer light fades through the window. Sure it is writers block – but I also experience this same dance with everything I make. I love collaging so much that I have made an 11 year career out of it, yet I still feel like hiding out before almost every creative session. There is a fear that if I sit down this time, nothing will come, the magic won’t happen. The creative flow is something I can summon but not control. Real creativity is always a co-creation with the universe. When I am “in the flow” I am tapped into something greater than myself that is literally flowing through me. It is a sensitive, very meditative process. It is you showing up for You! A spark really happens when we just show up. So thats why you just have to start.

Just starting sounds easy enough. Deadlines are great for this but sometimes you don’t have that luxury. So what then? Here are some of the ways I go about opening up the inspiration flow. The first two suggestions are universal and the last three may be the most relevant to visual artists and specifically collage art.

1. Create the space

Depending on your location and resources, this can mean many things. But most important and first – turn off social media, email and your cell phone, and don’t turn them back on until you have logged some time with your art. Then figure out where your ‘power spot’ is in your studio, home or wherever you are. This is as simple as just realizing that you really like a certain chair next to a certain window – that you feel good there. Then figure out what you need to feel really solid and ready. If it is too dark where you are, get some more light. If its too messy, clean it up (within reason! Don’t delay your art making to chase after perfection!) This is about creating a space that supports your creativity, and it is not about being rigid.  So figure it out to the best of your ability and do it fast! You have art to make and there is always room for more improvements later!

2. Sound

We have explored here how sound is a physical force that moves energy. Well it can also move you into the “zone” ! I have always been a lover of all kinds of music, but it is in the last 8 or so years that I have really started to understand how different music creates different energy states in the body and mind. This is a fun area to experiment in. Let what you are trying to express dictate what kind of music you play. For me it’s all about the mantra music these days. I love the pure high vibration of mantra – I feel like the intelligence that is carried in that sound current really opens up the flow in the most beautiful way. Just go with what works for you- what excites you – what music makes you feel alive? Play that.

3. List making

Ok so you have a space and you have some music. Now you have a lot of thoughts in your head to face. My solution is to make lists. I make a list of topics that inspire me and I also have my work / errands lists close by too. I write down the work related stuff as it comes in to my head, to be dealt with later. I love writing lists of what inspires me because I get to remind myself of all the elements I can then put in to my work.

4. Image gathering

Once I have my lists, I then go on imagery hunts. I look for old and obscure images as these are usually copyright free and I love them the most, so win win. My favorite places to look for imagery are thrift stores – old encyclopedias are the best – and the picture file sections of public libraries. Online I like to look at Wikipedia and The Commons section of Flickr. I like to search with words that are even remotely related to my topics of interest. I find that I get pulled down many rabbit holes but as long as I am finding images that excite me, it is worth the time. I save all the images in a folder I usually name for the season and year it is. Thats the best way I’ve found to remember where to find it later but if someone has a better way to organize imagery archives, please let me know!

5. Letting colors lead

Once I have a good amount of raw materials to work with I like to look at all of my inspiration in the folders at once. I then open those files that I am most excited about, and I start putting images and elements together that speak to each other. For me this means that the colors go well together and sometimes the meanings of the images do too. I very much let the colors lead me, especially in the beginning of creating a collage. At this point I am usually in the zone and the ideas are popping like popcorn. I love this part so much! I hate even stopping to eat when I am in the flow like this and I really love to eat …

 

So there you have it. I hope these suggestions help you to just. do. it. already. I am convinced that starting is the hardest part. So just go jump in, you’ll be so glad you did. HAVE FUN. Let me know how it goes.

“Magical Elephant 2” © Jamila Tazewell – Available on 11:11
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