Art is the antidote

Today's prescription: a dose of music, an injection of art, a compress of beauty

My fellow dreamer,

May this letter from me to you find you well and thriving.

It’s been a while since I last posted here. It’s certainly not from a lack of having things to share here with you. I’ve been busy working away on my art and my Self.

Streamlining.

Shedding.

Synchronizing.

(*is it just me or are you noticing synchronicities ramping up lately?)

Since I last wrote to you, I’ve taken nine flights across many miles to summer with family, was a guest on two podcasts, have written two new songs & played a gig, narrated an audiobook, and have laid the foundational floor, tile by tile, of the art empire I’m building.

Really, it’s just a dance-floor and you’re invited to please come dance with me.

“I’m a ‘don’t you dare control me freak’

a rebel with applause

dancing on my own feet, and the floor belongs to us

so come dance your dance with me

eyes entwined, we’ll be

notes to chords, we’ll be

melody to harmony”

~ chorus of new song

These days I’m reeeeeally enjoying how I’ve got things, aka my attention and momentum, balanced. After years of striving for and only hoping to attain (this much) peace inside the moment and away from the endless cycle of ‘needing to know’, I’m happy to say I’ve arrived.

The crazier the world gets, the more peaceful I feel.

Why?

I have a purpose. I have art.

One such synchronicity I’ve been enjoying lately is my discovery of a Substack called Who, what, where Am I? and the leap into connection with the author of the work, Mark Davey, aka my new goosebump-dealer. His life’s work & writing is a mirror for my decades long process of inner alchemy, and of my ‘musical art as a portal for trance-formational trance-ending’.

In our own way, we’ve discovered the code that is the key for true sovereignty:

observe Self with awareness —> notice patterns —> interrupt automatic behaviour

—> break pattern by choosing a new choice —> open door of possibilities to —>

A Whole New Life.

Not only do I live this code, but it’s also the message I write about over and over again in my songs.

As someone who self-soothes by way of singing, I write lyrical incantations as reminders for myself that, though there are challenges that arise in this game called Life, I have agency as a creative being. I can defy what I’ve been programmed to be, and replace my habitual automatic nervous system protection mechanism with the installation of a new operating system- one that runs on curiosity, choice, imagination, and dreaming.

In this hall of mirrors, we’ve been trained to normalize yelling at the reflection. At the projection on the wall. It’s a trap of futility, a symptom of amnesia. The mirror is simply a message. We forget that we are the thing the mirror sees and is simply reflecting back. As within, so without.

We’ve forgotten that when we shift, the image in the mirror changes, too.

Inside this game of projection, what we reflect matters.

As below, so above.

This is the impetus for my transition away from post-post-moderning into more dancing and more dreaming.

From this piece of Mark’s that I recommend you read, his declaration says it all:

“The Artists are the frontline of the Perception Revolution.”

I could not agree more.

We are story-telling magical sensory beings. Creative. Empathic. Potent.

We have a response-ability to interrupt the re-action. We become what we focus on. We are what we absorb. We reflect what we are. And we get what we reflect.

Entrain or be entrained.

The math is simple.

I focus on beauty. I become coherence. I reflect resonance.

Embodied as resonance, I dance into song. into conversations. into connection.

“Musicians, songwriters, poets: you are not just entertainers. You are operators of resonance. Your work becomes the subconscious script of entire generations.

The question is not “will your song be a spell?” The question is “which kind?”

~Mark Davey

Great question, Mark.

As an Operator of Resonance, I take my role as spell-caster seriously and with honour. Here are the kind of spells I am weaving inside Dancing in a Dream:

music

As ever, I am intent on making music and heart-based art that inspires frequency upgrades and invites coherence to settle in as the default state for the listener. Signal over noise. My YouTube channel is the home-base. If you wish to feed the dream, please subscribe to me there and be part of the dance.

life

I am (finally) taking the leap into vlogging about my artistic process.

As vulnerable as it will feel to invite viewers into my private world, I know this is the next step for me to take. Heading into autumn, and with The Nest ready to hold me for hours of creative focus, I am finally embarking on a project I’ve long dreamed about:

I am recording an album comprised of my most nourishing songs, and I’ll be capturing it all on camera.

My plan is to upload a weekly video of the journey, a true ‘behind the scenes’ window into my life as a creative. Videos will most likely comprise of footage of tea-making and drinking, song-writing and performing, retakes and redo’s, attempts and misses, attempts and nailing it, the ups, downs and in betweens. Real, raw, life being lived by one who- above all- wants to make the world just a little more beautiful and kind.

If this is something you think you’d be into witnessing, I warmly welcome you to join me.

conversation

I can’t say enough about how much I loved hosting my Post Post Podcast and meeting the writers behind the words. And I’m eager to get back to it.

It’s a simple truth that nothing beats the magic that unfolds when hearts and minds connect and entwine through mirrored vulnerability, authenticity, and resonance.

We Are Human is the name for the conversations I’ll be having with fellow artists about being human and with fellow humans about being Artists.

My intention is unity.

My offering is an alternative to what the distractions on the world stage want us to believe- that our differences make us incompatible. And that our incompatibilities warrant the building of walls.

I am here to make art that serves as a bridge.

In a demoralized world, where the map’s upside down, making art becomes a compass leading us home. A place to land when our feet leave the ground.

Making heart-based art keeps us human.

Thank you for reading, my kindred soul.

With love,

Jacqueline

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Speaking of human, here’s….

some art

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inspiration

I don’t watch TV or movies- I watch other artists do their thing and then feel them stoke the fire within me to do the same. Here are some artists I’ve been falling in love with, both for the art they create, and also for the fact that they keep offering up their insides out. In my view, they make the world more beautiful.

Thalia Stanton

I am absolutely in love with Thalia’s art. And her vlog style has given me TONS of inspiration.

The Unexpected Gypsy

This woman is adorable. I love her art. She is also teaching me how to do an art vlog that can be artful and expressive in and of itself.

Florian Gadsby

I have never made pottery but I sure do love to buy it. I’m obsessed with bowls and mugs that are the perfect shape, size, colour. It’s an art-form that showcases alchemy at its finest, combining clay and water and fire with magical hands to produce something both utilitarian and beautiful.

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