20 Questions Interview with Kadira Jennings

Artist, Art Teacher, Art School Studio Owner

1. What's your name?

Kadira Jennings.

2. Where are you from?

I was born in New Zealand and currently reside in Australia.

3. Who are you today?

Today I run a successful Art School on the Central Coast of Australia teaching watercolours, acrylics, oils, pastels, mixed media and drawing.

4. What do you do? (Elevator speech)

My passion is fostering spiritually creative growth in others — unfolding creativity, so others can share their unique creative gifts with the world.

5. What's your story (how did you get here)?

I have reached a stage as a painting artist, where a work is no longer about simply representing an image on canvas. The evolutionary journey has been one of peeling back the layers of self and plumbing the depths of spirit. This process was essential in leading me to the point of matching emotional and spiritual development to technical skills, thus enabling me to get out of my own way and allow the paintings, to flow through me onto the external reality of the canvas.

6. Why is creativity important to you?

Because I believe that creativity can change the world and in fact that if we wish to survive as a race, we need to all develop that side of ourselves to a much higher level. I believe we are all creative, and that we 'create' our own reality through our minds and emotions as an on going process throughout our lives. Creating art is an extension of who we are and how we interact with the world.

7. When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?

When I was 14 I remember painting a watercolour pine tree one day and that was when I first became fascinated with colour, shape and form.

8. How did you embrace it?

I Went to art school for 3 years after I left school.

9. How did that feel?

It was an exhilarating journey. Of course there were frustrations and hiccups along the way — but they all taught me more about my self, which was in turn reflected back into the world.

10. Where has your journey taken you?

From Art School, to learning with professional artists, exhibiting with groups and having one woman shows till today where I am running my own art school.

11. What challenges have you faced?

Currently my biggest challenge is finding the time to paint myself.

12. What worked for you?

My best paintings were ones I painted, which were reflections of my emotional states.

13. What didn't work for you?

Trying to "Paint for Money." This caused me incredible anxiety, and made me focus on lack and poverty consciousness. I kept worrying about not painting the right subjects, and not being able to sell my work and of course that became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

14. What three tips can you share to help others starting on a similar path?

1. Paint what you love and know best.
2. Focus on what you want, NOT what you don't want — i.e. what kind of studio do you want. What gallery would you love to represent you, etc.
3. Don't be afraid to ASK for help. Get a mentor — and art is a business — you must realize this and treat it as such if you want to make money from your art.

15. What are you working on now?

I am enjoying a journey with vibrant water colours.

16. What's coming up for you in the next year?

I am doing a corporate workshop for Westpac Bank, some workshops on colour mixing and canvas stretching and beginning to do ground work for a series of childrens books that I would like to write and illustrate.

17. What else do you desire/dream to do?

I would love to spend more time just travelling and creating.

18. How will you make that happen?

I will visualize what I want and wait for the universe to flow it to me while I get on with the business of feeling wonderful. This is the best way to create anything. You don't have to figure out the how, just the what. Be emotionally connected to it and remain in a vibrationally high state in the meantime. When you think about it, you must come from a place of positive anticipation.

19. What one question would you like to answer that hasn't been asked?

What do you think is the biggest challenge people face in developing their creative abilities?

It is fear. This is what always stops us. So we need to FEEL the fear and then do it anyway. What is the fear REALLY about — because more often than not, it is not about the surface thing that we think it is. Many times it will go back to childhood issues that we haven't dealt with.

20. What's your Web site and/or blog address?

• artclassescentralcoast.com
• unfoldingcreativity.com

Updated 12/18/13