You are so gifted and full of heart

Sharing our Quiet Life Community Art Project!

Doma Cafe, NYC, circa 2006: Doma is the legendary cafe full of creative spirits, in which I gave birth to QUIET. Here I am, with the IBM laptop I’d inherited from my corporate law firm, studying Elaine Aron’s seminal work on highly sensitive children.

Dear You,

A few weeks ago, I shared a photo, from the days when I’d just made the switch from lawyering to writing.

And I opened up a chat, just for Quiet Life community members, inviting you to share *your* creative work.

I already knew that a few of you were artists, writers, journalers, scrapbookers, etc. — so I thought we’d hear back from those few.

Nope. We heard from COUNTLESS NUMBERS of you. You sent your paintings, your poems, your madeleines, your knitted hats. You sent your journal entries, your drawings, your photography.

You sent your talent. You sent your heart.

And you confirmed what we already knew: that this is no ordinary community.

This is a collection of inspired souls.

*

Truly, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My husband Ken and I exclaimed over your offerings for weeks. Many of you commented that you felt the same way.

Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out how best to shine a light on your gifts. And I’m so excited to showcase a selection of them today. (There were so many extraordinary offerings that it was very difficult to choose the below - so please don’t feel badly if you don’t see yours here! Also - we love seeing ALL your work, regardless of how “technically skilled” you are.)

Please look out for future opportunities for Quiet Life members to share your work with the community - and watch for future posts like this, where we’ll showcase your offerings!

(And, if you’re not yet a member, and would like to be, you can subscribe here, or reach out to us if you need a scholarship subscription.)

And now - here you are - our Quiet Life members - in all your glory. (To see the art in a “prettier” way, you can read this post here.)

*

Jen Zeman

shared her latest watercolor painting. “I LOVE old structures,” said Jen, “of all kinds. Not sure where this is located, but I found it enchanting. It took me forever to complete because I painted with stolen moments here and there. No longer being active on Instagram (and feeling the need to share something all the time, and also comparing myself to the perceived productivity of other artists), this painting in my sketchbook was actually fun!”

Christiane Neukirch

shared this soulful drawing: “I think what always helped me,” she said, “was drawing portraits of friends and people who inspired me most; it is a very meditative way to connect on a different level than the direct contact. This here is a portrait I made of a dear friend of mine whom I‘ve known for 33 years. He is now back in Ukraine (since 2022) to care for his mother. And I haven’t heard from him for a while after emailing every month. This way I try to connect on a spiritual level. Of course, he is older now - this is from a 30-year-old photo, but it reminds me of those happier times and gives me hope!”

Cassandra Leigh

shared her perfectly sculpted madeleines - a lovely, Proustian touch.

Jennifer Tse

spoke of yin and yang: “The delicate, the bold; the pretty and the grunge; light and dark; soft and hard; nature and human creation - my mixed media works are studies in contrast of the things I love. We can appreciate all things when we juxtapose them.”

Wendi cross

may have given us the biggest gift of all - the truth of her heart. She says that the below is “not art, or beautiful” - but I believe that it is infinitely so. Do you agree?

Here’s Wendi: “My son died. The only way I can survive it is to completely bypass words/my intellect. And what's 'normal'... nothing is normal any more. So I started ripping paper to express the pain I can't get rid of. (The gray sections are places where we've spread his ashes. There are other pieces of him, our shared life, throughout.). It's not art. Or beautiful. I know that. But sharing with this group because of the prompt that helped me so much.”

Carolyn K

shared this evocative “abstract landscape” that she painted a few months ago:

Todd Cherches

offered his book, "Visual Leadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life". This book, he shared, “has been my most proud creative accomplishment. (Btw, Susan's book, "Quiet," is listed in the appendix as of the top 40 books that have had the greatest influence on my work and my life!)”

@Jeanne, who describes herself as “an artist who makes miniature shrines and altars,” and as a lover of solitude who’d “"like to connect with like-minded souls,” gave us this “portable altar/shrine…dedicated to the Feminine Energies and to the Great Cosmic Egg. I love the idea of encountering the guardians at the gate in order to discover what is inside.”

Martha Colbert

“started painting at age 63. This is my 4 year old granddaughter and her Grandpa. “Last Visit with Boppa” - isn’t this wonderful?

I love this street scene from

Julie Hickman

, who describes herself as an “artist with a proclivity for philosophy, music and literature”. This is Julie’s “painting titled Peaceful Scenery 36”w by 27”h. I wonder if you can see all the sweet creatures in it😊”. (Can you?)

And last but not least, my husband Ken’s brilliant photography. Ken is a lifelong traveler who effortlessly learns languages and befriends new people. This photo, of “Families at Church,” is from our recent trip to Cartagena, Colombia.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first installment of the Quiet Life Community Art Project! So excited to see how this evolves.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I’m sure our artists would, too. So please leave a comment below! (For today, the comments are open to all, even if you’re not yet a Quiet Life member.)