Apr 5 2012

Brandon Tutman: Trust Your Instincts

In 2011, Brandon Tutman turned to fashion after beginning his career in architecture. He now heads the Neiman Marcus, Atlanta Ralph Lauren boutique, as a fashion consultant. He utilizes the many labels within Neiman Marcus to style his clients.

 “I’ve learned to trust my instincts. If I hadn’t taken that chance of moving from architecture to fashion, I wouldn’t have grown. I would have been living life to someone else’s expectations and I wouldn’t have known what I was fully capable of.” ~Brandon Tutman

Listen to Brandon’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Brandon was educated at Southern Polytechnic in Architecture. After briefly practicing architecture, he took the opportunity from a downward economy to leave his first love and embrace what has been his guilty pleasure of all pleasures; Fashion! Brandon’s foundation in architecture helps him understand each client’s physical structure and dress them for any occasion.

Brandon says, “If architecture is the art in which we dwell, then clothing is the art in which we function.”

He goes on to say, “When you get dressed, your clothing is a representation of you. The right outfit can help you feel relaxed and confident throughout your day. Let your clothing choices help you put your best foot forward.”

Brandon’s latest platform to merge the arts is through his lifestyle blog to be launched in late 2012 named, S.T.O.C.C. Seasonal Trends on Classic Collections. Contact Brandon through the Ralph Lauren boutique at Neiman Marcus in Atlanta, GA.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 28 2012

Pat Fiorello: When You’re Creating, You’re Alive

Pat Fiorello is a professional artist who especially enjoys capturing the beauty and energy of nature in her vibrant oil and watercolor paintings. She is known for her impressionistic paintings of landscapes, gardens and florals.

Pat’s family name “Fiorello” comes from an Italian lineage meaning “one who lives near a wall of flowers,” so it’s no accident that she is drawn to painting flowers and scenes which capture the essence and beauty of nature.

“When you’re creating, you’re alive. It doesn’t matter what you are creating. You could be creating a piece of music or a dance or a spreadsheet or a casserole. When you’re in the experience of taking nothing and creating something, there’s nothing more enlivening. The creation itself is an amazing process and gets you out of your own self – out of your own ego and the voices in your head. You are present in the moment.” ~Pat Fiorello

Listen to Pat’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Pat has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and worked in corporate marketing for 20 years including positions as Vice President, Marketing at Nabisco and Coca-Cola.

Self taught at first, Pat later studied with noted artists to develop her talents and skills. In 2002, she left her corporate marketing position to pursue her passion for art and concentrate on painting full time. Now she teaches others to paint at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta and other places in the U. S., Caribbean and Europe. While she is helping people build skills in art, her broader intention is to provide enrichment experiences for adults.

She says, “I really believe that you can never stop learning in art. I share with my students a quote I have in my studio that says, ‘I am still learning.’ That was a quote by Michelangelo when he was 87. You can start learning at any age and art is something that will last a lifetime.”

Pat has served as President of the Georgia Watercolor Society and Chairman of the Atlanta Artists Center. Given her unique blend of business and art skills, she also works as a coach with artists and arts organizations to help them be more successful.

With all that Pat juggles as an artist, teacher, coach and business owner, she says, “At the end of the day, it’s just a great day if I’ve had the opportunity to paint, learn or inspire someone to grow or get one step closer to their dreams.”

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 21 2012

Stanton Lanier: Life is an Adventure to Live

Pianist-composer Stanton Lanier offers a unique concert experience, combining signature melodies, inspiring life stories and audience interaction. Before pursuing music full-time, he was a chemist and financial planner.

“For a long time I took life too seriously. I thought life was more of a problem to solve. Now I know that life is an adventure to live. God has inspired all this music through me and He keeps showing me that he’s bigger than I think.” ~Stanton Lanier

Listen to Stanton’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Four of Stanton’s seven albums were produced by William Ackerman, Grammy winning Founder of Windham Hill Records, including Christianity Today’s 2011 Notable Sacred Music (A Thousand Years) and ZMR Awards 2009 Best Holiday Album (December Peace). His music can be heard on The Weather Channel, Sirius-XM Spa, Music Choice Soundscapes and many other outlets.

Stanton is also the Founder of Music to Light the World, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with a vision to offer God’s “peace and rest in a hurried world.” Their Get Music Give Hope℠ has led to 20,000 CDs being donated to cancer centers and hospitals offering hope and healing to patients.

He says, “There’s a Bible verse about how God’s ways are higher than our ways. He is unconventional. He can bypass the whole system if he wants to and do it His way. It will blow your mind. There’s an inner affirmation of following our heart and then there’s outer affirmation as people respond. It can be good to not know how everything is supposed to work.” 

Find out more about Stanton and his music at www.stantonlanier.com. Send your family and friends a free music sample with an e-card.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 15 2012

Carrie Newcomer: There’s a Spiritual Current in My Work

Carrie Newcomer is a rare breed of singer/songwriter: the kind who illuminates life with startling depth, humor and clarity. Her ability for sharp observation of the world lead the Dallas Morning News to rave, “She’s the kind of artist whose music makes you stop, think and then say, ‘that is so true’.” She has been described as “a soaring songstress” by Billboard, a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Globe, and Rolling Stone has said that she “asks all the right questions.”

“There’s a spiritual current in my work because there’s a spiritual current in my life.” ~Carrie Newcomer

Listen to Carrie’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “When someone creates a work of art or when we hear a song and a person has put their finger right on the open palm of something true, it shakes the world just a little bit.”   

In the fall of 2011 Carrie released her fifteenth album, Everything is Everywhere, as a special benefit project for the Interfaith Hunger Initiative on Available Light Records. The Interfaith Hunger Initiative is an organization including faith leaders and laity Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh congregations, dedicated to the common cause of providing for those most vulnerable in our communities. Carrie says, “In a time when we are encouraged to fear difference or diversity, Everything is Everywhere was created as an alternative to fear and an affirmation of creative and compassionate engagement. I am one of a growing number of people who are choosing to not put the Sacred in such a small container.” 

She says, “We live in a world of distractions and it’s easy to not be present in our own lives. But when I’m here, when I am present in attention, I start to see miracles and I sense the sacred everywhere. At the center of what I am doing is an artistic practice but it’s also a spiritual practice. It’s to be here and to be open — to what’s right here, right now in front of me — and then write about it.”

Carrie internationally facilitates workshops and presents keynotes on the topics of songwriting, spirituality and vocation at colleges, universities, and spiritual communities, retreat centers. Newcomer, a Quaker, cuts across secular and spiritual boundaries. In recent years, she has emerged as a respected and recognized artistic voice for the progressive spiritual community.

Find out more about Carrie and listen to free samples of her songs at www.carrienewcomer.com. Click on the link titled Messages from Carrie to read her poems and articles. I wonder if Carrie’s poem titled “The Dare” will offer as much encouragement to you as much as it has to me?

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 9 2012

Chuck Cogliandro: Drumming Brings So Much Joy

Chuck Cogliandro is a drummer, teacher, healing practitioner and Director of Kumandi Drums & Healing. Since 1992, Chuck’s path has included bringing people together in the shared joy of West African drumming.  He is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and is completing his second year of studies in Family Constellations work with Peter and Jamy Faust.

“Drumming brings so much joy. It gets people out of their minds and out of their anxieties – out of the mental level of worrying. It raises their energetic level of vibration into the spiritual level. That’s where healing comes through the music and the drums.” ~Chuck Cogliandro

Listen to Chuck’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Chuck annually hosts and organizes the Kumandi African Drum & Dance Camp near Asheville.  He has directed performing community and professional drumming groups, helped organize and performed with the 100-member drum tribe in the Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Games, and has made CD, commercial and soundtrack recordings.

Chuck’s company name, Kumandi, is from the Malinke language spoken in West Africa. He says, “Kumandi means to call or to invite or to sound. So that’s the purpose of the drums – to call people together and to invite them to make sound.” Chuck adds, “Drumming is powerful. It creates vibration that affects you on all levels. On the physical level, your body feels the music and the vibration coming from the drum. Your spirit is touched from the people creating this vibration collectively. Especially with African drumming, drumming is used to bring the community together to celebrate.” 

His longing is to co-create communities for transformation, using expressive elements of drumming, music, voice and movement. Chuck is also an enrichment instructor at Atlanta’s Orion School, drumming with children diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

Find out more about Chuck at www.Kumandi.com.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Mar 1 2012

Patricia Hayes: We Are Collectively Changing the World

Patricia Hayes is an international lecturer, teacher, author and artist. She is the author of five books and has been a pioneer in intuitive and spiritual development for over 45 years.

Patricia and her husband Marshall Smith are the founders of Delphi University in McCaysville, GA. Patricia developed the extensive career-oriented certification and degree programs offered through the University. Patricia worked with the well-known medium Arthur Ford in the 60’s and 70’s, and after his death, in 1974 founded the Arthur Ford International Academy of Mediumship. Today, graduates of the school from 42 different counties use their spiritual abilities for the purpose of channeling, guidance, and healing. In the early eighties, Patricia founded The RoHun Institute which offers an extensive study program in Spiritual Psychotherapy and Transpersonal Psychology for aspiring therapists. Patricia is the founder of selfenlighten.com; a Self Enlightenment correspondence study program.

Patricia is also an artist that works in soft pastels. She has developed a technique of channeling art that she has named Entura Art. Patricia has used this method of art throughout her career to establish a relationship with Spirit. Of all her accomplishments, her favorite thing to do is channeling art and teaching aspiring artists this unique technique.

“What you worship in life and what you value in life does matter. Everyone of us is creating this world. Every single one of us matters. I think that’s the biggest thing that people are awakening to. I matter. How can I, just a little me, matter? But we do. Because we are all collectively changing the world, positively all the time.” ~Patricia Hayes

Listen to Patricia’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “I’ve always loved the mystical. It is the mystical that keeps me moving and inspired, growing and expanding.”

Patricia teaches others how to channel energy and to create Entura Art. She says, “When I create my art, I never know what I’m going to draw before I do it. I am channeling an energy and each energy is totally unique. This kind of art is actually easier to teach someone that has never drawn anything than to teach an artist.” Full details about the next Entura Art intensive are available here. www.delphiu.com/entura.htm

Patricia has appeared on numerous television programs including Current Affairs, Unsolved Mysteries, Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Universe.  The producer and crew spent time at Delphi University filming Patricia for the Japanese version of 20/20 in Tokyo. Her work has been written about in over thirty books over the last thirty years. She is the author of four previous books: Intuitive and Spiritual Development, Know Yourself, The Gatekeeper and The Extension of Life that she co-authored with her husband, Marshall Smith. Her latest book, Prince Abba and Magi Patiput has just been published.

Find out more about Patricia at www.PatriciaHayesArt.com or at www.DelphiU.com.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Feb 22 2012

Jill Felts: I Draw Out My Prayers

Jill Felts is Founder, C.E.O., and lead designer of Atlanta-based Compelling Creations, Inc.

As a faith-based, party plan direct selling company, the name Compelling Creations has become synonymous to marketplace ministry as the inspirational jewelry is passed from one woman to another by independent sales Consultants.

“Some people write out their prayers and I kind of draw them out.” ~Jill Felts

Listen to Jill’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “I let ideas bake. I come up with a new jewelry line by paying attention to what keeps reappearing in my life throughout the year. I just doodle and doodle the same design over and over and over again.”

Jill finds that listening and being still are important to her creative process. She says, “I feel like God already knows everything about us and what our heart’s desire is and so a lot of it is being still and letting go and just letting the flow happen.”

Since 1996, Jill has channeled her entrepreneurial drive into a passion to share her beliefs through messages and symbols inscribed on jewelry. Selling the jewelry through a team of independent sales Consultants has touched lives nationwide.

Prior to forming Compelling Creations, Inc., Jill was a project manager and account executive with several target marketing companies in Washington, DC, New York, and Chicago. Jill holds a B.A. in Rhetoric and Communications and a B.A. in French from the University of Virginia.

Jill and her husband have two adult daughters who grew up in the business.

See Compelling Creations jewelry line and contact Jill at www.Compelling-Creations.com. 

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Feb 17 2012

Flora Rosefsky: Artists Need Time to Reflect and Daydream

Flora Rosefsky is a spiritual collage and mixed media artist who draws with scissors. She directs her favorite long-pointed scissors as they glide through painted paper, fabric, or ephemera. “With an intuitive sense of color and composition, like Henri Matisse, I thrive on the freedom to ‘draw with scissors,’ in a spirit of spontaneity that is so much a part of each new work.”

 “I am a big believer in finding sanctuary in your life. You need some quiet space. Time to think. As an artist you need reflection and you need ideas and you need time to think or even daydream.” ~Flora Rosefsky

Listen to Flora’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “Art is no longer something that I just do — it is so much a part of what I am. It took a while for me to realize that.”

ALeta’s Ketubbah

Flora encourages others to explore their creativity. She says, “Art is also for the non-artist. For those of you who may not think of yourself as an artist, try it. It makes you feel good. It’s joyful. It can be exciting. You can be any age to create art, from a child up to a senior citizen. Don’t be afraid. The materials don’t have to be expensive. Just enjoy. Go look at art, go to studios, go to openings and make art a part of your life.”

Personal Sanctuary

Contact Flora and see a full gallery of her art at www.florageart.com.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Feb 9 2012

Kim Oberheu: The Creative Process Forces You to Address Your Spiritual Side

Kim Oberheu holds the reins at Plants Forever, Inc. ensuring that her team stays current on innovation and trends. With a strong background in business and as an artist, she leverages her creativity to daily inspire staff members and clients alike.

“As an artist going through the creative process, you’re almost forced to address the spiritual side of things. There is something about the experience of creating that puts you up against that. It’s bringing something into existence that didn’t exist. In that process of going from nothing to something, you realize it’s something bigger than yourself.” ~Kim Oberheu

Listen to Kim’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

She says, “I think it’s good to constantly go back to God and say I would like your help in this process. Especially to seek God’s wisdom when you’re coming up against something that you can’t solve.”

Prior to taking on PFI, Kim worked at Ernst and Young in their Accelerator Solutions Environments, Sprint PCS and Healthnet, as a leading sales professional. In the entertainment industry, Kim has aided in Disney Studios Feature Animation: Home on the Range with Cuba Gooding Jr., Meg Tilley and Roseanne Barr, The Academy Awards as well as several theatre and commercial projects. Kim’s design work can be seen at Phipps Plaza, Duke Properties, Doubletree Hotel, World of Coke and Coca-Cola Corporate.

When not working, Kim loves spending time with her dog “Pink” or in the drive-thru at the Krispy Kreme. Contact her through the PFI website. www.PFIBrandItGrowIt.com

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.

Jan 31 2012

Connie Quill Bowers: I’m Enthralled and Enraptured in Nature

Connie Quill Bowers is an artist, a poet and a photographer. She travels all around hiking and writing and capturing moments of immense beauty and sometimes terror with her camera and an eclectic use of her imagination.

Listen to Connie’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

“A book featuring my poetry and photography was recently published and is titled Lyrical Space. The word lyrical means rapturously. When I’m in nature, I’m enthralled and enraptured. Stories and poems flow to me and I just get into the flow.” ~Connie Bowers

She says, “When you’re hiking, you don’t know what you’re going to find. You just follow this path. I think that’s the way it is in life. You just follow this path.  Maybe that’s the spiritual aspect for me — that life is a journey. You don’t know what’s going to come up next.”

Purchase her book on Amazon, along with others by C. Quill Bowers.

Learn more about show host Vanessa Lowry at www.vanessalowrycreative.com.