A Journey from Closet Artist to Spirit Artist: TeZa Lord's Creative Life Adventures

FOR EPISODE LINKS & MORE INFO VISIT: https://samhorton.co/blog/ep130

In this episode of Soul-led Creative Women, I'm joined by TeZa Lord, author, artist, lifelong yogi and self-described spirit artist. TeZa grew up in a family where creativity had to wait until the chores were done. She taught herself to draw in secret, then broke away to art school and built a life of botanical illustration, silversmithing, film work, portrait drawing across the Caribbean and six books. We explore the delicate relationship between skill and surrender. We also talk about how her creativity changed when she chose sobriety and love over fear, and why she believes creativity is how we discover we are spiritual beings.

Three reasons to listen

• If you've ever worried that learning technique might squeeze the soul out of your work, TeZa offers a beautiful reframe: skill is what allows you to let go.
• You'll hear a small, moving story about a fish appearing out of a single pastel stroke, and what it reveals about trusting the process.
• It's an invitation to notice what your creativity is carrying, and to choose to create from love rather than fear.

Key takeaways

• Why learning the fundamentals of anatomy, colour and materials can be the path to creative freedom rather than a constraint
• How the balance of control and letting go sits at the heart of both creativity and spirituality
• Creating through addiction and recovery, and releasing old work that no longer reflects who you are
• Choosing love over fear as a creative and spiritual practice
• The yogic view of creativity as the second energy centre, and what happens when it goes unexpressed
• How training your eye expands perception and builds creative confidence
• Setting an intention before you begin, and how your thoughts shape colour, form and energy
• Creativity beyond art, in how you dress, cook, garden and choose to live

Reflection question
Where in your creative life are you gripping so tightly to getting it right that there's no room for something unexpected to come through?

FOR EPISODE LINKS & MORE INFO VISIT: https://samhorton.co/blog/ep130

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Transcript

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 Ep 130 Teza Lord

[00:00:00] So today I have Teza Lord with me.

Teza is an author, artist, lifelong yoga and meditation practitioner, and passionate advocate for love, nature, and conscious living. Her own journey through addiction and recovery has shaped her belief that healing ourselves is part of how we heal the world. Through her books, art, and podcast, Teza encourages others to find the sacred in everyday life and live by her motto, "Love is the weapon of mass illumination."

So welcome, Teza. Oh, thanks so much, Samantha. Hello to everybody. It's wonderful to be here. So let's just start with your story. Tell us about your journey and, you know, your relationship with creativity woven into that. Yeah. I came from a family that said, "No, no, no." Yeah. "You can't be creative until all your chores are done," and, and, and as you grow up, you, the bills are paid and blah, blah, blah.

So I was not encouraged to be a creative person, and I was talking about this yesterday with a friend who, [00:01:00] who is the same age of mine. She's always been a corporate person, and she really, really wants to feel what it's like to be creative, so I gave her, like, a little lesson I guess you would say, and during the course of the lesson, I was reliving my own introduction to it, and I basically had to sneak it, 'cause it was a no-no.

And, and I found myself copying books, you know, getting in trouble at school, copying and pressing too hard while you're tracing the little birds and things like that, and, and finding magazines. I, I learned how to draw myself, but I basically was a closet artist, a closet creative, until I just broke away from my parents' restrictions and I just said, "I'm going for it."

Mm. And, and when I got accepted, uh, at, um, the art school that I applied to, which happened to be right next to the university that I went to, thinking I was going to be a lawyer, because those were the only choices I was given by my [00:02:00] parents. "You're either going to be a teacher or a lawyer." And, um, so I was next to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which is just a magnificent museum, and I just fell in love with art.

I said, "This is who I am." And it was a wide open new planet for me, so lucky people who are brought up with art in their life by their parents taking them to museums or, or just showing them that it's, it's okay to be creative as a c- as a child, so I basically had to be a, a renegade to be an artist. A rebel.

And then I was ac- yeah, I was accepted at art school, and that was mind-blowing. I'd never had an art lesson in my life. I just said, "I'm gonna do it." 'Cause I had been, you know, on the sly learning how to be an artist as a kid. So when I got accepted, I thought, "Wow, this is now a responsibility." It's not just, like, a gift, but I, I felt like I...

almost like chosen. So I've- Mm-hmm ... I've always felt really [00:03:00] blessed. And I do feel in today's world that we creatives are almost like modern-day martyrs, you know, like the old-fashioned martyrs who had burned at the stake, because we really have to sacrifice a lot to be creative. Mm-hmm. At least here in the States, it's not really encouraged.

You know- Yeah ... it's not taught in the schools too much. Hmm. So do you think that that- Finding creativity then was sort of like a d- part of a divine calling for you. You know, is that, you know- Absolutely ... is it tied to your spirituality and your kind of growth as a human? Is that kind of where you sit with that?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I call myself today a spirit author, artist, activist. That's my role. I consider it my role, but of course, to get to that place where I call myself a spirit artist, I had to do a lot of groundwork. I had to learn all my trade, my craft, and I've, I explored many different areas of creativity.

[00:04:00] Like just in school, for instance, you learn to draw and you learn how to paint and you learn how to make etchings, and not too much about how to sell art. Nothing about, okay, what do we do with this wonderful talent? That's really something that they must include with art, um, education. And then once I left school, I, um, was a botanical illustrator.

That's the real official thing that I explored for many years, and I was also a jeweler, silversmith, a goldsmith, and, and I, I love doing carpentry. I love doing film. I've worked on, I worked on Jaws. Oh my gosh, I've, I've had a lot of really interesting work. Uh, I call... It's, it's kind of like being a gypsy artist, 'cause I've traveled a lot also.

I, I'm, I'm also as much addicted to adventuring as I am to creativity. Mm-hmm. So I left the States and I went sailing in the Caribbean and, and just [00:05:00] making my living, uh, out of my wits. Sometimes I would sit in a hotel lobby and draw portraits- Mm-hmm ... for cash. Mm-hmm. And that was great, very lucrative, wonderful way to make, um, a, a living as a traveling artist if you know how to draw really well, and fast.

Mm-hmm. Mm. There's a lot of trust involved in that kind of path, though, you know, in, in terms of just trusting that you're gonna find the next thing, you know? Yeah. Tell us a bit about your, you know, your journey of learning to trust yourself and your creativity as part of that, um- Right ... adventure. Well, I, well, I think that's the spiritual side of being a creative.

Now, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a creative to trust that it's okay to just- Fly with the wind and, and go off on adventure. I wanted to adventure when I was a young person. I didn't wanna wait until I was an older person, 'cause a lot of people do that. They have a career, they have a family, and then they get [00:06:00] old and then they say, "Okay, now is the time for adventure."

Well, where's the fun in that? Because you're creaky and, and ill a lot of times too. So I w- I purposely wanted to do the opposite of what everybody else was doing. That was a conscious decision of mine. I came out of, uh, my schooling, and instead of saying, "Oh yeah, ready for the career, ready for the family," I just said, "No, I'm ready for the adventure."

So to trust, yes, that comes along with it, but when you're a creative person, that's what the creative valve is all about, when you open yourself up to this energy and you trust that there's going to be a really wonderful purpose for it and a wonderful idea and execution and all those things. Like, even if you're talking about a, a work of art, to trust your instincts that you know when it's finished so you don't [00:07:00] muddy it up.

Mm. That's a really big thing. Mm. 'Cause a lot of people just take the work too far, too far, and m- and muck it up. Mm, mm. And what you, you s- sort of touched on, um, it before, so, you know, obviously developing skills is one thing, but there's a d- very delicate balance between kind of skills and soul, right? Um, how do you kind of manage that balance and, you know, how do you see that?

Skills and soul. Could you clarify that a little bit more? So you're talking about, um, you know, like you're saying that creativity is a spiritual, you know, experience for you, and it's part of how you're, you know, um, moving through the world. And, you know, obviously expressing that, you know, say on the canvas or however y- you know, whichever creative outlet you're using.

Mm-hmm. Um, but then there's also kind of this serious side of cultivating skills, you know? Um- Mm-hmm ... whether that's learning [00:08:00] to draw or learning different techniques or whatever. So there's kind of like almost like they contradict each other a little bit. So- Mm-hmm ... um, you know, how do you balance- I see

those two things out? I see. I understand now. Okay. I, I don't think they contradict each other. I think that you have to learn skills, uh, in order to be free. Yeah. And I know when, as a child, I really wanted to draw like a ballerina, let's say, a, a dancer, because I loved to dance. So I would think, "Oh, I wanna draw what I love."

But I didn't know b- how the bones worked. I didn't know how the muscles worked. I didn't know the articulations of all the joints, so I had to study anatomy. Mm. And, and that was, um, you know, the control part. You have to sit there with a book and look at, you know, the way that the figure is. And, and, um, the anatomy books are wonderful.

They, they go right down to the bones and put [00:09:00] muscles on. And s- sometimes I would have a, an exam in, in school when I was studying anatomy, 'cause I couldn't do it on my own. I, I needed guidance. 

 So, so that's specifically why I went to art school, to learn how to articulate my imagination so I could fulfill on paper or canvas or walls or whatever, whatever surface, so I could put an idea on a surface that was in my imagination.

And so in order to do that, that's a skill, and I had to learn how to apply paint. I had to learn about using watercolors and oils and charcoal and, and drawing the human body, and then studying anatomy. So one of the challenges were to really understand the bones, 'cause you can't really understand the, the outside of the body until you understand the inside, how the, all, all the bones come together.

And so we actually had a [00:10:00] skeleton of a woman who was my size. I'm rather large. I'm, I was six foot, and I've shrunk a little bit, but still, the, to, to see the, the size bones on this skeleton, I said, "Oh my God." It's like I was drawing myself. So we would learn about the bones from the, a real skeleton. It wasn't a plastic skeleton.

And then we had exams w- w- to do things like using our mind, because we didn't have a, a skeleton model in front of us, our imagination, because we learned the bones so well, that we could draw a skeleton riding a bicycle from three-quarters rear view, and that's really tricky. Yeah, yeah. To get, to get all that perspective- Yeah

and with, just totally from your, from your memory. So that's a skill. Yeah. And, and then when you use that skill, 'cause now I'm thinking, "Okay, I could put the bones in the body of the ballerina," and then of course I learn about the [00:11:00] muscles on top of the bones and the- and where they attach so they look real.

Mm-hmm. They don't look, like, deformed. Mm-hmm. 'Cause a lot of people, they don't study anatomy. It's not that they have to be realistic. Yeah. They can be very stylistic and very much of their own whimsical way of depicting it, but if they're putting the muscles in the wrong place, it looks deformed. Yeah. So that's a skill, and in order to, uh, to be free, whether you're a fashion or a, an illustrator or you're just, uh, you're putting in a figure every now and then to, to ground our humanity in some kind of a spatial abstract thing, doesn't matter, but as long as you're using- real things, you have to know to make them look real.

Mm-hmm. So to me, it's a, it's a perfect marriage of- Mm ... interconnectedness of skill and, and letting go. It's like the control and letting go of control. Yeah. And that to me is the definition of spirituality, [00:12:00] by the way. Yeah, okay. People who don't, don't get spirituality, they're, they're controlling. Mm. They want things to be the way they are.

But if they're willing to just let go of what they think things need to be- Yeah ... then they're tapping their spirituality. Mm. Yeah, I call it like, um, it's presence before pressure. But actually- Uh-huh ... the two are, you know, it's like a yin, yin-yang balance, right? It's kind of- Mm ... you know, they support each other.

Um- Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah Yeah. Beautiful. Right. And, and some people have one without the other. Mm-hmm. And that's okay. Like, uh, during the era of conceptual art, for instance, I hated it. You know, these isms that come and go. But the conceptual artists who just... I mean, I didn't get it. I mean, I would look at something and I would scratch my head, and I said, "Okay, what is this supposed to do?

What is it supposed to make us feel?" So a lot of conceptual things I [00:13:00] just didn't get. Yeah. And that's all right. Mm. We're not supposed to understand everything. Yeah, that's it. That's it. So if love is the weapon, going back to, so your bio, if love is the weapon, you know, how specifically has creativity helped you to access more love, you know, both self-love and love, you know, for others- Mm

and, and the rest of the world? Well, in my early years, I had not realized that yet- Okay ... l- that love is really the essence of consciousness. Mm-hmm. So therefore, it can be a weapon- Mm ... because if you just use we- use love for whatever circumstances are, are happening, even if they're terrible, even if there's, you know, aggressive, uh, and, and violence and everything.

I mean, it doesn't- Mm ... uh, uh, there is no gun called a, a, a love gun, but it comes from our heart and it comes from our consciousness. And so I had to learn that [00:14:00] myself. And my early art was angst r- ridden. Okay. It was not pretty stuff. Okay. And there was a time in my life when I, I had to get rid of it because I had stepped into another phase of my life.

Mm. Actually, when I became a sober person, I put down addiction and I said, "I'm, I'm going to dedicate my life to being in the light of love." And so I did not want that work to be in existence. I've always photographed my work. I have photographs of it. Yeah. And I took fragments of the old things, if there were bits and pieces that were really cool, and I incorporated it in newer work- Mm-hmm

even sometimes sewing it in or pasting it in and, you know, making collages of... But the angst stuff, the stuff that was morbid or you could see that there was a troubled soul- Yeah ... coming through the [00:15:00] energy of whether it was the image or ugly colors- Yeah ... I had no need for that. I mean, I don't think the world has any more need for ugly stuff.

We have enough of that. Yeah, yeah. Is that, is that- Responding with love? Is that what that is? So no matter- Well- ... what's happening, what you're processing, what you're moving through, even if it's bad, it's choosing a response from a place of love. Is that...? Well, if we look at the opposite of love, it's fear.

Okay. To me, that's very basic. Yep. So I choose not to live in fear. Okay. I know what that's like to live in fear. I had a lot of fear as a young person. Mm-hmm. I had to go through whatever I have to, mostly through meditation. Mm-hmm. And, uh, not s- not too much, like, an- analysis and talking stuff, but meditation, just allowing this energy to come through me and to release- Yep

and not to hold onto it, and certainly not to [00:16:00] blame, you know, like, for things that happened in our childhood. Those are just, people just do the best they can, really- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm ... with what they've got. Mm. But when I realized that there was a choice between living in fear and living in love, well, that was a no-brainer for me.

Yeah. And of course there was a transition period where you, you have slips. You think, "But," you know, you get scared. Life is tough and, but once you have tasted living in love- Mm-hmm ... in the light of consciousness, there's no going back because it's so fulfilling- Mm ... and it's so expansive, and it just keeps g- getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider and more exciting.

So I, I just basically don't go with the fear thing at all. Like for instance, politics right now. Sure. I don't do p- I don't do politics. No. I vote. Yeah. I have, uh, and when that's ... But I do not, like, consider that to be something that's going to save [00:17:00] humanity. No. I think love and- Mm ... compassion, and compassion at higher consciousness is going to really evolve our human race, not politics.

Yeah. Yeah, so good. So do you believe then that, um, creativity is kind of how we find, you know, our true authentic inner power, our intuition, our inspiration? Is the creative path how we, you know, we cultivate, um, those things? Well, I think it's such a basic, like, survival tool Yeah ... that for people who haven't tapped it, it's like they, they haven't really experienced their true humanity.

Right. Because, okay, so I'm a yogi, so I, I can understand consciousness and the evolution of consciousness through the, the ex- the example of the chakras. And the very first chakra that we talk about, that comes from scriptures, the yogic scriptures, that's to survive. Mm-hmm. Whatever we [00:18:00] can do to survive.

We eat, we, we get out of the rain, uh, we don't allow ourselves to, to get burned, you know, things like that. Mm-hmm. That's survival. Mm-hmm. The very next level of consciousness is creativity or procreativity. Mm-hmm. So it's your sexual energy and it's your creative energy, and those two energies come from the same source.

Yeah. So that happens right away when we're in puberty. Those energy centers awaken, and if they're not cultivated, they, they basically go into the sexual, the cr- and the, not so much the creative. Yeah. That's what happened to me. I got really confused with, you know, 'cause I wasn't allowed to be creative, so I, I got r- very confused about sexuality and stuff like that.

Right. And so when, when we really understand that the creative force is our spiritual force, then we can go with it. I me- and it could be something as [00:19:00] simple as being creative with a garden or the way our house is. Yeah. Or what we eat. Mm-hmm. Or what we choose to do with our spare time. It, it doesn't have to be that you have to be a Picasso or, um, or, you know, a filmmaker.

Yeah. You know, being creative just means that you don't have to go along with the masses just because that's what they present to you. Mm-hmm. Like the way we dress. The way we dress I think is really a, a wonderful way to be creative. Mm-hmm. And I, and I, I hate it when I see that everybody just gets into like, oh, the designer thing and

But, but that's what kids do. I mean, we've raised, I've, I've raised my husband's two kids, and they, everybody gets into that phase where they have to look like everybody else or they- Yeah ... feel odd. Yeah. But that's because they haven't yet owned their own power, and that comes also with the evolution of their consciousness.

So to make your answer a little more [00:20:00] simple, yes, I think that anybody who has not explored their creativity, they haven't yet really understood their, that they are a spiritual being. Mm. And that's how they're gonna find out- Yeah. That's so cool ... through their creative force. Love that. 

So we touched on this earlier, but you do have a diverse range of creative expressions that you're kind of actively pursuing. So how important is that diversity to you, and do you have a favorite? Well, so all my life, since a young person, I always wanted to be a writer and an artist. And that's almost like two different sides of the brain, right?

Mm. So I now have become a both a writer and an artist, so I'm finishing up my sixth book. So currently, of course, because, uh, the writing process is so in depth, way more in depth, unless somebody was going to be building the Eiffel [00:21:00] Tower from scratch, because a, a book is just such a long, involved process.

So I'm just finishing up my sixth. So today, the writing process is my favorite, but I always do illustrations for my books. So then comes- Yeah ... it, it, sometimes it's, uh, the illustrations I, I can use from my archives, but there's always 12 black and white illustrations in my book. So now I'm in the process of illustrating this latest one, and the ideas are already profuse, and I've already gotten a few of the illustrations underway, and they're- Mm

very simple ones. So but I also look forward to, really look forward to doing some sculptures, um, using my hands, because my hands were injured for a while. I had to take a break from re- doing strong, manipulative things with my hands. Mm-hmm. I had, uh, something called tenosynovitis, which is an affliction of the ligaments, and I had to do a lot [00:22:00] of acupuncture- Mm-hmm

to heal my hands. That got me into the time that I could do my writing- Mm ... while my hands were healing. Okay. And now I look forward to making creatures. I, I recycle creatures out of old bones and skulls and- Okay ... crystals and organic things- Mm ... stones and beads. I love that. Mm. So do you think the themes, then, in your writing, do they inform, uh, your other creative expression, you know, the sculpture and the art?

D- are they informed by the themes that you're kind of exploring as you're writing, do you think? Absolutely, yes, because most of my characters are pretty wacky and creative. They're not normal people. Okay. And they could be just creatives because of the life that they've decided to live- Yeah ... and not just go and, and do what is expected of everybody in society.

So to be a creative also could just mean to do something where you're [00:23:00] following your heart instead of what everybody expects of you. Yeah. Like for me, for instance, I was expected to be a certain type of professional, and that just didn't... I, I would've been crushed to do what my parents wanted me to do.

Mm. And so I defied them. I was a rebel, and it wasn't pleasant, uh, in the home life, but I had to do it. So my, all my work comes together. Mm-hmm. It all adds up. Like, I do-- I really believe every skill that you learn comes to, to be used- Mm-hmm ... and every bit of knowledge that we acquire comes in handy somehow or other.

Sure. It does, and so even, uh, uh... The, the book previous to the one I'm working on right now is a, is a novel, the, uh, the only novel I've written. All the other ones are nonfiction narratives. Mm-hmm. And the novel's called The Bridge Tender, and that was about a character who was not me, it's not autobiographical, but it could be [00:24:00] me, because she's an artist.

Uh, but sh- things happened to her that did not happen to me. Mm-hmm. And I'm just intrigued by the creatives that I meet. Mm-hmm. They're my favorite people. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I don't mean just artists. I mean, I think scientists can be creatives. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, you know, even dentists and, you know- Yeah

people who are, you don't think of as being creatives, and they, they c- they do their art very creatively. Yeah. Like dentistry is, uh, it w- in the early days, it was a form of, of being a, a silversmith. Right. In the early days of America here, Paul Revere, he was a famous person in the American Revolution. He was both a silversmith and, 

 doing dentistry. 

 So how do you think creativity has helped you discover kind of your life purpose, and how you can be in service, um, and claim, your power, so to speak, um, as you're kind of evolving through life? Well, I could [00:25:00] take an example of, of, of my sharing with my friend yesterday.

She's having very bad health problems. Mm-hmm. She's had a very successful and very lucrative life as a, as a corporate success in corporate America. She's a woman of color, and she's never once ever felt that she had the right or could even be a creative person. And so I wanted to show to her that it was not only possible, but it was waiting for her.

And, and w- after our time together yesterday, she was so absolutely blown away. She said she was in shock. She absolutely had put herself in a box that she could not be a creative person. Mm-hmm. And it was, it was like having a rebirth for her. Mm-hmm. It was just such a blessing for me to share that, and that's one of the things I love about creative people.

They love to share- [00:26:00] Mm-hmm ... the joy of being a creative person in whatever field they are, dance, music, poetry. Uh, just the, just the energy that exudes, because some people, they're so hesitant to believe that joy is possible- Mm-hmm ... so they don't even want to try. Mm-hmm. I don't know why. It's fear. It's fear.

Mm-hmm. Mm. That's what it is. And so th- the, when I started with my friend yesterday, we started with a, a, a quiet meditation. She's also a yogi- Mm-hmm ... and a very religious person, too. Not th- you know, so many cross, uh, belief peoples these days. You can be a- Yeah ... hardcore religious person and also be a yogi.

I love that. And, and so we were, we're tapping into the energy that is not from thinking- Yeah ... not from logical thought. So there it goes back to what you said earlier, how a skill can be, uh, not counter of, of, of letting [00:27:00] go and be creative, but can be intertwined. It can be- Yeah ... interconnected with it. Yeah.

And so we started off with just relaxing, just relaxing the mind so that we don't think, "Oh, I can't do this. Oh, my God, it's a, it's a waste of time. Oh, I got the bills." Yeah. "I got the dishes. I got the k-" You know, you just have to let all that go. Yeah. And I know myself, uh, I have a studio that's separate from my house.

Now, if I was in my house and I saw the dishes were dirty and the bed wasn't made, I would have a hard time creating- Mm. Mm ... because I have to have that separation- Mm ... 'cause I like a nice house. But yet, the creative energy, it precludes. You have to let go of thinking other things, like- Mm ... you know, I need to do the dishes and I need to mow the lawn and wah, wah, wah.

Mm. And you have to just absolutely release that and be free and become a channel. Mm. Yeah. A channel of, of spirit. [00:28:00] And then you don't know what's gonna come through you, but once you've learned your skills, you might have a, a little idea. Like for instance, I might say, "Okay, I'd really like to do a beautiful homage to nature."

Mm. So I have the skills of knowing how to draw a flower. I know how to put colors together, so I don't have to worry about how am I gonna start. Yeah. So that's why it's important to have those skills down. And then once I get to that place where I say I want to do an homage to nature, I can just open my mind, you know, that inner metaphysical thing that we have that connects us to spirit, and just be a blank slate and just let something come through.

Mm. So beautiful. You know? So beautiful. And it's a lovely, um, feeling, isn't it? I feel like it's that feeling that that's why we keep coming back. It's not necessarily what we make. Um- Yeah ... yeah, it's that feeling. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. It gets you as [00:29:00] high. Yeah. I, I- Yeah ... really it's, it's, it's, it's ecstasy- Yeah

uh, when you are in the creative mode. For instance, okay, when you're really... You've got your skills and you're not worried about, oh, am I gonna mess this up? Mm-hmm. And you have confidence. Well, then you immerse yourself into an idea, and next thing you know, four hours have gone by- Yeah ... and you forgot to eat.

Yeah. That's the kind of ecstasy that the creative life brings to us. Yeah. And you just, that word confidence, I think that's really important. I th- feel like that's where p- a lot of people g- get frustrated, when they've got art in their heart, when they have a, a desire to be creative.

You know- Mm-hmm ... it's that confidence that can really let people down. Because when you have that confidence and that inner belief and that trust, and you, um, you know, anything's possible, right? Mm-hmm. It's kind of limitless, and that's the exciting part, I think. Well, I think that that's really why the skill part comes [00:30:00] in.

Mm. And so, like for instance yesterday, I'm g- keep going back to my experience yesterday, uh, my friend had, uh, dared to, to do a little preparatory drawing before I arrived, 'cause I b- gave her some materials. And I said- Yeah ... "Just try to do something." So she tried to do a feather, and she did. She did a feather.

And so by the, by the end of our lesson though, we were self-critiquing each other, and we could look at what we have done, and we could say, "Oh, this piece needs a little more contrast to make it interesting," or- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm ... "This piece needs a little more definition." And so we looked at the feather, and I said, "You know what you did, right?

And you drew the inside of the feather, but you forgot to define its boundaries, its silhouette." Mm. And she didn't see that. And so really, this, the confidence comes with training your eye- Mm-hmm ... how you see, and that's perception, and that's awareness. Mm. And so by the, by the end [00:31:00] of our session, she's, she said, "Wow, I guess I just never saw that."

I said, "Yeah, that's what, that's what the creative life is about." Mm. We expand our perceptions- Mm ... and we expand our way of seeing. Mm. And do you think that's also, like, an openness to it? You know, I, I talk about sort of being a witness to your work, and how, you know- Mm ... staying open, you know, to what sort of the, the messages or the, the direction of the, the piece or whatever, you know, listening to the art rather than always directing it.

Do you know, do you understand what I mean? Staying open- Oh, yeah ... to that. Mm. Um, I feel like that's a big part of, you know, what you're describing there, is that o- that sense of openness. Um, would you agree with that? Well, in particular, I'm thinking right now about paint. Mm-hmm. Like, I love, I love all sorts of mediums, but when you really feel like you're working with paint and you're confident you're not gonna [00:32:00] mess it up- Yeah

and you know about the colors, so you're not gonna just have mud. Mm-hmm. And so what, uh, what I love is when I let the paint paint itself, and, and all of a sudden the paint does stuff where it's merging- Mm ... and it's making patterns, and it's just amazing what happens. It's almost like a miracle. Mm. Because w- it, it happened yesterday with our friend.

Okay, she wanted to make, uh, a fish. She had it in her mind, a fish. So she wasn't using paint, she was using pastels. I brought all different kinds of material. So she was using pastels, and she was just just doodling away and thinking fish, fish, fish. And, and I, and I said, "Wow, you know, we're getting something here."

And I said, "Right in this area here, we need a little something like, I don't know, it needs some, a little more drama." I call it d- contrast. Yeah. So she made it just a strike like that, and what happened was almost a miracle. Like, [00:33:00] in, in an abstract way- The face of a fish appeared. Yeah. It had lips, it had-

eyes, it had a fin. And it was not there before she did that- Yeah ... one streak, because the buildup of the texture of the pastels had created, um, almost like a finny type, uh, you know, with fins- Mm-hmm ... on the body. But it was very abstract, but still you could see it was definitely a fish. Yeah. And it was almost a miracle.

Yeah. Because in her subconscious she was thinking fish. Yeah. But she doesn't even know how to draw, so of course she's not... She can't draw a fish. And so I just said, "Just trust it. Just trust the process and just put down stuff and let's see what the paint does." Yeah. The paint being the pastel, the material.

It was really great. Yeah, that's so cool. I love that. And I think that's the importance of working in layers as well, because, you know, those early layers, they, you know, they might get covered over, but they're still really valuable to creating that depth and, [00:34:00] you know, that movement- Absolutely ... and those miracles, like you just said, right?

'Cause you never know what you're gonna get. Yeah. And, like, layers, like Gustave Klimt. You know, most people know Gustave Klimt's work. He always has these robed figures, but they're all naked under there. Yeah. They've done x-rays of his studio once he passed, and he was very much into the human figure. Yeah.

He himself was very e- eccentric and wore robes and no doubt naked under there. Yeah. But, you know, in order to get that form that he created, he had to have those bones under there. He had to... They had to- Mm-hmm ... figures. Mm-hmm. And that was layers. Yeah. Layers are- Yeah, that's so cool ... very important. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Love that. Yeah. And it's almost like he's dressing them with all of his ornate details and stuff, so it's very cool. Yeah. Yeah, I really love that. And the gold inlay. But with watercolors, of course, for those of you who are listening who use watercolors, you can't really do layers. It gets really messed...

The beauty [00:35:00] of watercolors, I think- Mm-hmm ... is the purity- Mm-hmm ... uh, of the, of the, the sureness of the, the, the layer, the one layer that you're dealing with. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Of course, you can go in there with gouache- Yeah ... or something else. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? 

So for all the women who are curious about using creativity to cultivate more love and, you know, deeper inner power, what powerful message or question would you like to leave them with today? Ooh. Oh. Well, just, like, have the thought, hold the thought of what it is you want, like love or power or empowerment or freedom, whatever it is, just like I was talking about the fish.

Hold that in your consciousness and don't allow other thoughts to come in. Like, turn off the radio. Turn off the screens. But sometimes music helps. Mm. But music will affect strokes. And, uh, but what you [00:36:00] have in your consciousness is going to come through subliminally- Mm-hmm ... with whatever you're creating.

Yeah. The now. So cool. Now. That's creating an intention for, you know- Yeah ... and what you want it to hold. Yeah. Love that. It's beautiful. It could just be the colors, for instance, the colors, because you're thinking love, you're thinking expansion. Yeah. So your colors will be more warm and inviting and healing- Yeah

rather than if you're allowing thoughts of, "Oh, gosh, that terrible thing happened to me yesterday." So you must guard your thoughts. You must watch your thoughts. Mm-hmm. And best to have no thoughts, of course. Mm. But, uh- Mm ... that takes training, so meditation is really, goes hand-in-hand with the- Mm ... the creative life.

Mm. And it's almost like you can, you know, paint that confidence that we were talking about to life, right? When you're holding those intentions and you're, you know, holding that energy. Um, yeah, so really powerful. Yeah, especially... [00:37:00] Oh, okay, ex- so for instance, if you're working on ha- having more empowerment in your life- Yeah

it's good to try something that has more power in it, like get a, a guy or a woman with a sword, and try actually having somebody be a warrior- Yeah ... you know, with a shield or, or a warrior angel. I like, I like making, I call them 21st century angels, angels that emit love but yet fight for the, the destruction of negativity, you know?

Yeah. You have to be a warrior- Yeah ... to destroy negativity. So, uh, w- so whatever the concept is that one is working with in their creativity, it begins in your thoughts before you ever put anything together with materials. Yeah, so cool. Love it. Yeah. So how can people get to know you better, Teza, and get a real feel for the work that you're doing?

Well, I have a beautiful website with my name, T-E-Z-A- Mm-hmm ... [00:38:00] Lord. And that name also is very creative. People always ask me about my name. I said, "I made it up."

It's so, it's so great to have your own made-up name. And, uh, that website shows, I have galleries, I have my botanical work. Yeah. I have sculptures and paintings and all sorts of things, and also all my books. Yeah. And my podcast. I have a podcast, Teza Lord Podcast. Yeah. So cool. Well, thank you so much for coming and chatting with me today, Teza.

Oh, it's been delightful. Loved it. Yeah. Thank you, Samantha.