Expressive vs. Intuitive Art: What Happens When Your Art Speaks Back

“Are you teaching expressive art?”

A friend asked me that recently. It was one of those soul-rich conversations that left me thinking for days. She’d taken one of my workshops and wanted to understand what, exactly, was happening in the process.

She asked good questions—the kind that gently tug at the edges of how you think about your own work:

• What’s the difference between expressing something and receiving something through art?

• Where does intuition come in?

• How do you know when you’ve “heard” something meaningful in your art?

And I’ve been asking myself more:

• What deeper transformation becomes possible when our art evolves into dialogue and energetic insight?

• When does creative play become a spiritual tool? A vibrational tool? A technology for tuning into a deeper awareness than what we normally access?

These are not easy things to pin down. I think I struggle with the words because this kind of intuitive interaction and art-making has been part of my life since I was a kid. It’s like trying to explain how you breathe.

When I was 30, I would have done everything I could to make it make sense to you. Now, at 61, I know better.

A technical explanation? That’s probably not going to help you much. What I can offer is a way for you to feel what it’s like when the creative process shifts—when it stops being something you're directing, and starts becoming something that’s speaking to you… even telling you something just on the other side of what you know.

That’s the heart of my work.

Here’s the thing: I’m not teaching people to make “better” art. I’m guiding them into a quiet conversation with what lives just beyond view. Art just happens to be the way in.

Those conversations happen in liminal space, and that’s not the kind of space we enter lightly. But, here’s a true confession, I have a love affair with liminal spaces, those foggy, in-between places that feel more like thresholds than destinations.

And whenever I can, I want to help you enter that space.

Not to uproot you, but to give you the chance to explore its vast richness through intuitive play, energetic listening, and symbolic noticing—where insight comes not from effort, but from attunement.

So, back to my coffee chat with my friend. I started to wonder if the words have arrived after all:

Expressive art invites us to feel and express what lives within us.
My process invites us to enter a conversation with what lives beyond us—
the subtle, the unseen, the vibrational field of wisdom we’re already part of.

It’s not just expression—it’s energetic listening.
It’s not just meaning-making—it’s meaning-receiving.

I’d love to hear what this brings up for you.

Whether you work with art or not, what role does listening play in your life right now?

And if you’re curious to experience the kind of playful, intuitive creative work I’m talking about—Portals is open. It’s an online workshop that asks: What if your collage knew something you didn’t? Hmmm.

👉 Explore the Portals Workshop

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The Feisty Crone is a quiet corner of the internet for soul-rich reflection, intuitive creativity, and the art of becoming. If this resonated, consider subscribing to receive new posts and supporting my work if you’re able.

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