In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I interview Lauren Oland of Mezame Designs who is a sustainable textile artist and zero waste weaver based in Austin, Texas. Lauren is passionate about sustainability and runs a zero waste studio where she uses only remnant fibers and fibers made or grown by small farms and artists. She creates wearable, functional weavings including bandana cowls, jean jackets with her weaving put into the back, shawls, tops, coasters, patches and mending kits...
Feb 05, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this week's episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I talk about my obsession with color and how I love to tell color stories in my art. I share my strong feelings and opinions about colors that goes back to my childhood as a sassy little kid. I share the techniques I use currently in my art practice, how I play with colors across different mediums and what I do to continue to expand my color horizons. I love to tell color stories in my art and thinking about them as stories makes it real...
Jan 24, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I share how I discovered slow stitching, how I create my fabric meditation books full of stitches out of repurposed fabrics and textiles including dish towels, sweaters, shirts, shower curtains, napkins and curtains. In addition to stitching, I add textile and fiber collage to the book pages. I find inspiration in Japanese Boro textiles and Indian Kantha blankets, the hidden layers within stitches and textiles that I wonder about and how healin...
Jan 09, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Today on the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I share reflections on all of the ways that my art practice and I shifted throughout 2020 and how I am thinking about this year, what I am carrying forward with me and what I am leaving behind. ----- Emma Freeman is an artist, writer, poet, Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practitioner. She teaches online creative classes at www.deep-rooted-healing.com. She is a sober and a highly sensitive person. She lives in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Online creative ...
Jan 08, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Today on the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I am sharing a beautiful poem I read this morning at my art table after a night of dreams full of worry and anxiety. When I read it to myself, I cried and something released. I thought I would read it to you and see if it releases something within you too. I am finding so much solace in poetry during this pandemic and find myself seeking it out to be a light and give me some guidance and hope in different moments. "A Morning Offering" by John O'Donohue f...
Dec 16, 2020•6 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In this interview, I talk with the amazing human and environmental artist, Natalie Koffman. Natalie Koffman is a wise, deep, contemplative dreamer. In this conversation, we talk about Natalie’s incredible project, 1 Seed 1,000 Dreams: The Artist Woods, a dream to buy land in the UK where she lives and plant trees to create a woodland that would be protected forever. She imagines having artists of all kinds participating in this project and dreams of creating artist residency opportunities on the...
Dec 13, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 15
In this episode, I share how circles have been showing up in my art practice, on my body as a tattoo and in my spiritual practice. I talk about enso practices in Zen Buddhism and Zen Philosophy, some of the many meanings of circles, how I have been exploring them spiritually and reflections I am having on them lately. I share two wonderful books, Enso: Zen Cirlces of Enlightment by Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Zen and the Art of Photography: A Guide to Mindfulness in Creativity by Douglas Beasley. I a...
Dec 09, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this episode, I read two poems by John O'Donohue called "For the Time of Necessary Decision" and "For Courage" from his amazing book, To Bless the Space Between Us. I also share some reflections on some difficult things that have happened to me during the pandemic and what shifts and openings have emerged in my life and art practice. I share two artists who are inspiring me right now: Amy T. Won, an amazing painter and soulful, spiritual human who made a deck of meditation cards called "A Dec...
Nov 22, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In this episode, I open up and share my experiences with having an obsessive compulsive mind throughout my life, the damage it has done in different parts of my life and the gifts it has given me within my art making and teaching practice. I talk about struggling through an eating disorder, my relationship with alcohol, how this obsessive compulsive energy has shown up in relationships and how it has helped me to delve deeply into so many different artistic mediums and creative realms throughout...
Nov 14, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Today, I am reading one of my favorite poems by Mary Oliver called, "Sleeping in the Forest" and sharing some reflections on my connection to poetry during the pandemic and how nature is grounding me in my art practice. Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver, written in 1978 I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of th...
Nov 06, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In this episode, I read John O'Donohue's beautiful poem called, "For Light" from his book, To Bless the Space Between Us . on the eve of the presidential election in the United States, which has the air feeling so tense, anxious, full of fear and worry about what will happen. This poem is some medicine for me tonight so I wanted to share it with you. I read it by candlelight while sitting at my little art table. John O'Dononue was an Irish poet, philosopher and spiritual leader. "For Light" by J...
Nov 03, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this episode I share how I developed my sketchbook practices and how they help me develop my drawing, collage and mixed media skills and style within each of those mediums. I talk about taking Lisa Congdon's drawing classes on Creative Bug which really helped expand my drawing practice and skills within my sketchbooks. You can find all of her classes here: https://lisacongdon.com/pages/classes . ---- Emma Freeman is an artist, writer, poet, Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practitioner. S...
Oct 27, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this episode, I talk about the power of encouragement in my art practice and how it opens up new possibilities and deeper creative energy within me. Encouragement is such a powerful force that can energize and motivate us to keep exploring and discovering new creative ways of expressing ourselves. So many of us have had painful experiences of being criticized for what we create or we just feel unsure about our creative abilities and those tender places within us can be soothed and healed thro...
Oct 22, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this episode, I share my reflections on my own discovery of art being a meditation practice, what shifts happened in my life to kick off that new practice, and what I have noticed that I need to enter that state of being at my art table. I make connections to Zen philosophy, spirituality and art making and share some of my favorite quotes about meditation that connect to art making and creativity including an excerpt from the book by John Daido Loori called, The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating...
Oct 16, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode, I talk about how I explore texture in my mixed media art work, being a very tactile human, suggestions and ideas for expanding your experiences with texture and ways I gather texture inspiration and surround myself with those objects and images to nourish me creatively. ---- Emma Freeman is an artist, writer, poet, Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practitioner. She teaches online art and writing classes at www.deep-rooted-healing.com. She is a sober and a highly sensitive pe...
Oct 06, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, I read a beautiful poem by John O'Donohue called, "For a New Beginning" from his book, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. I also share why this poem is meaningful and healing for me in my art practice and my life. John O'Donohue was an Irish poet, philosopher and spiritual teacher. For a New Beginning By John O'Donohue In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were...
Sep 25, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I share how I discovered the world of mixed media art making, what materials and tools I love using now in my mixed media work, and the incredible freedom I am discovering within the world of mixed media art making. I share books, classes and artists who have helped me learn mixed media techniques. ---- Emma Freeman is an artist, writer, poet, Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practitioner. She teaches online art and writing classes at www.d...
Sep 22, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I share a beautiful poem by the poet and writer, John O'Donohue. It is called, "For the Artist at the Start of Day" from his book, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. I discovered this poem recently and absolutely love it. It gives me encouragement and connection while I sit at my art table and reminds me that artists have a calling and deeper need to create. John O'Dononue was an Irish poet, writer, philosopher and spiritual te...
Sep 18, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I talk about the artistic languages I communicate in, how I built and continue to build my creative toolbox through art classes, online art tutorials, and art and craft books. “The more colors you have on your palette, the more you can work with, and the more you can aspire to.” Donald McKayle, dancer and choreographer, first black man to direct and choreograph a Broadway musical. I think of each artistic medium as a different creative language...
Sep 16, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I share how I became a mixed media artist and a teaching artist. This episode was recorded in September of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when I started this podcast project as an experiment to connect with people while in isolation. I share one of my favorite quotes by John Updike, "What are offers is space, a certain breathing room for the spirit." ----- Emma Freeman is an artist, writer, poet, Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practiti...
Sep 15, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 1
