Welcome to Expression & Beyond

Friends, family, and community — new and old — you are welcome here. It is a tremendous gift to have a new space to celebrate and share expression!

My simple goal is to have a conversation with your heart through my art. He(art)talk. I will bring you into my truthful process with expression, steps along the way, and the moments in-between. If you are also a creative, a changemaker, a spiritual seeker, and a human being — there is a good chance something here will spark, and perhaps serve, some of your own journey with expression.

The About Ali page shares the at-a-glance of where I am in this journey. This post welcomes you to my commitments with this website, the guiding values that feel necessary in sharing my artwork, and ideas for how we can share in the joys of this space for the benefit of all.

My he(art) wishes to speak with yours and figure out what our journeys through expression are meant to serve for humanity.

I feel that we all have a commitment to the expression that lives within us… To get to know, to appreciate, and to care for whatever that expression brings… To say “yes” to expressing ourselves because it is the thing that the life within us yearns to do. 

Opening up to pathways of expression can be daunting. Most lifelong experiences are! The formats for expression that feel right to us on one day might change the next and require something new or different. One any given day we might feel drawn to a format of expression that feels wildly far away from us, yet we know we need to explore it… Our expression might even draw us to the darker or more hidden, shadowy parts of us that we haven’t even gotten to know or understand yet…

Our expression is imperfect, and it must be. The things that bring truth into our lives are worth showing up for in all of their imperfection or uncertainty.

I have found that no level of resistance can keep a truthful experience of expression away. If it needs to come out, it will find a way. In my experience of navigating and embracing my expression, I need to listen to it and receive it in whatever form it needs to be the most alive possible. I have grown to love and adore this process that was once more compartmentalized, more confused, and more complex in its earliest stages. When we let expression flow, we have to trust that the gifts it gives to our clarity and to the quality of our being far outweighs the energy and time it takes to cultivate that expression in the first place. Expression can be a gift that shows up again and again and again and might eventually become your superpower to connect with the life within, and around, you. 

My expression is taking all shapes and sizes right now. It always has. The significant thing I’m paying attention to right now is that the current variety and density of expressions’ gifts are more than I’ve ever experienced before. As I write this I am in a period of awe-inspired, goosebump-producing, swirling and swiveling artistic expression… Life expression… Me-to-you-to-all expression. 

I am currently in a very deep commitment to these formats of expression. I touch each on a weekly basis at minimum, and some close to daily.

In approximate order of frequency/presence in my life:

Conversation and connection as art… Painting watercolor… Writing poetry… Journaling insights and reflections… Dancing with silk fans (this butterfly found her wings after years of searching!)… Recently returning to my clarinet… A soon-to-be return to tap dancing (hold me accountable, friends!)

The list goes on and changes, too. Whatever I encounter on a given day might look entirely different from the above list — I am not bound to it, despite my deepest commitment. I am open to whatever opportunities for expression life brings, for it must! I aim to tune into and receive fully whatever expression wants to live from and outside of me. 

Since late 2018 there has been a surge in this journey that I wish to share. I do not want to share here to impress you or to have my journey feel distant or unachievable for you. Your expression should be done in your own way, your own style. I wish to invite you into my process, my reflections, and my work that continues to emerge, because that is truly how humans connect and create good things for the world on a new level.

I wish to celebrate your expression as much as I’m cherishing the expression that is flowing from me.

I wish to uplift your expression as much as I trust your presence will uplift mine.

I wish for your heart to open and be acknowledged in a way that every human being deserves. 

As you peruse the site and things here evolve, I want to keep my goals simple: 

•  I will share art that you are welcome to view, purchase, or comment on.  Let’s not transact, but truly exchange, the things that speak to our hearts, our emotions, our experiences, and on… 

• I will put my fully committed energy, presence, and realness into every piece of art. Nothing is halfway done or bullshitted. Only something that feels real and laden with truth will be shared.

• I will thoughtfully bundle and express insights, reflections, and practical tips as I get to know them through my own experience.

• I will support and uplift your expression however I am able. I will strive to build community and give shout-outs to other forms of expression that resonate with me.

• I will commit to donating 10% of all profits (and when I’m able to, a higher percentage) to organizations doing exceptional, vetted, impact-driven work in spaces critical to our collective society. I will do my due-diligence and thorough research into any philanthropic decision (this is my work for 8+ years, after all!)

• I will dedicate myself to evolving. This is all a practice. This is life-long work.

• I will be open to your feedback, your requests for custom art, and anything in-between. I will honor my boundaries when I have too many requests and will communicate clearly towards a next-best solution.

• I will openly share about my experience with deepening expression as a practice. I will be fearless in my vulnerability, my challenges, and my joy.

And like all good things that are at their starting line, all warmed up, and ready to get moving and grooving…

Let’s begin!!!

In looking forward, I deeply appreciate you and feel grateful for your presence here. It will not be taken for granted. If you know me already, I encourage you to share this website and journey with your community — please let them know they are welcome here.

As something I create, write, or share here speaks to you, to your mind, to your heart… Let me know, I’m listening.

I hope that pieces of my he(art) will end up in your homes, your sacred spaces, your offices, and the spaces of those who matter to you.

Let us embrace the gifts, the experiences, and the insight that a life filled with expression can offer. I wish it for you as much as I wish it for myself!