About - Art By Adie McDermott

Living Life
By Design!

Finding freedom, joy, self-acceptance, love and confidence through the creative process

I believe different is beautiful, not flawed and that authenticity is true beauty. I don’t have a 9-5 job, or a conventional life. I choose to live life my way, true to myself. A way that incorporates my strengths, superpowers and passions, but also allows me to live in a way that suits my health, the fact that I am a highly sensitive person, an empath and of course work around my family.

I have achieved these things by accepting myself (the good the bad and the ugly), freeing my creativity and my self-expression, listening to and trusting myself, constantly learning and clearing the limited beliefs and shame I have been carrying around about myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t always been like this. I have spent most of my life disconnected from myself and others, living as a version of myself that made other people happy and desperately gaining self-worth from pleasing, helping or rescuing others.

I have learnt that if you truly feel loved, worthy, safe and connected, and you free your creative thinking you can achieve or get through anything in life.

When I decided I wanted to live as an artist 6 years ago, free my creativity and create in a unique, authentic way to me, I learnt very quickly that stuckness in life is reflected in the creative process and that it is not that easy to become more self-expressive and create authentically when everything you have learnt, all your old patterns/beliefs etc say it is not ok (or not safe) to let go of control, be brave, take risks and trust yourself, express yourself, be seen, or be yourself…whoever the heck that may be!

As I made the conscious effort to pay more attention to what was going on, I discovered a clear connection between creativity, (the act of making something completely new) and our sense of self, how we see and treat ourselves.

Over and over again that the practice of creativity mirrored my life in soooo many ways, and therefore can, not only be used as a tool to make pretty pictures to hang on your wall……it can be used as a tool for self-awareness, transformation, connection, to heal shame, attract more loving relationships, to imagine and design a life you love, to feel so much more joy and to bring more meaning and aliveness back into your life.

What students have been saying:

“I have previously done courses at art schools where I always felt like the untalented one in the class, however I have never felt like that in Adie’s classes. She structures her courses in a way that people at all levels can follow and learn and be challenged. Thanks Adie for giving me the confidence that I’ve never previously had and for making made the entire process really enjoyable” – Ann W

“I have gone from hiding my creativity to having the confidence and freedom to believe I have an inner artist within me. Thanks so much Adie, I have wanted to do this all my life and now I am.’ – Patricia D.

“Adie has “unleashed” my creativity, which has been stifled for so long. I now just want to create every day. Even if I can’t make it to my shed that day, I’m thinking about it, and hey, if the result is not what I wanted – it doesn’t matter! With the knowledge I have learnt from Adie, I know I can transform it with “CONFIDENCE” with the processes I have learnt.’. – Leanne D.

Questioning my own creative stuckness (also watching the same thing happen in ALL my art students for many years) my life long unhappiness, my co-dependency, my chronic RA pain and migraines has lead me to study neuroscience, thought leaders old and new, and try out all sorts of holistic healing modalities from around the world. To explore further and explain how the stories we tell ourselves live in the back of our minds and in our body, and how we act them out (even when creating something) every day.

I now combine these with my art practice.

To free my creativity, I needed to learn how (and that is was ok to) express myself. I developed many ways to shut down my inner critic and work past limiting beliefs and shame I was carrying around about myself, and easy art techniques that tricked my self-doubt and my control freak, perfectionist brain to feel safe, to let go, take risks and get things wrong so I could play and explore and find my missing voice. My authentic self that always just wanted to be seen/heard and to be free to be herself.

Then I developed a whole new artistic approach! An approach that allows true creativity to come out, allows people that try it to feel freedom and joy in the spontaneous and playful process and where the most beautiful, unique, authentic and meaningful art is made. And…..within its philosophies so much life healing can also be found.

I call my process ‘Creative Synthesis’, it is form of combinational creativity. I combine, mixed media art techniques, learnt skills and intuition with my unique experiences and story to make something super unique to me. Something that no-one else in the world could come up with.

It is a simple process, but you must let go of controlling everything, the ‘knowing’ and go with and accept whatever happens, and….you must trust yourself and bring little pieces of yourself into the art. Needless to say, I haven’t taught an adult yet that agrees that this is easy to do. This is where the LIFE changing benefits begin.

Creativity is one of our natural states (not just a skill used by professional artists) and so anyone of any ability can do this. Right now, however, if you are reading this you might be thinking, I like the sound of all this but, I haven’t done any art before, I don’t have know what I like to use, let alone know any techniques or art skills?

The best part about this is you don’t have to be a skilled artist to do this work, make beautfiul art and reap the life benefits. I combine
easy technique and skill development in all sorts of different mediums, when I teach anyone to work in this way, be it through art classes, workshops or online courses and I have now taught this to people of all skill levels and ages all over the world

LEARN MORE about my online courses