Since March 19th, I have been getting up Monday - Thursday mornings at 6 am.

I pull on my robe, grab my phone & headphones, turn on a podcast and listen as I let the hot water boil for my coffee or tea.
I light a candle, sit down with my warm drink, switch from podcast to music and write.

So far, during these write mornings over the past three weeks, I have edited and arranged 21 pages of a project I am passionate about & drafted up half of a short film.

Some mornings it comes easy.

Falling out of my fingers like a waterfall.

Other mornings

I stare at the window beside my desk and seek the light that comes brighter every minute.
I have learned that there are some moments in these sessions that I should listen to my antsy body.
One of those times, I made myself sit through the two hours with cramps distracting me.
I should have taken my laptop, tea and settled on the couch. I should not have worried about the potential of being found out by my four-year-old and just embrace what needed to happen that morning.
Another time, up at all hours with a fevered child, I told my spirit that today was not the day to wake up at 6 am and force it.

Sometimes, you have to appreciate what your body, mind and soul are saying.
The skipping is about protecting creativity, not abandoning it.

Find something equally challenging and exciting for you & show up for it.

“In every job that must be done,
there is an element of fun.
You find the fun and Snap!
The job’s a game.” - Mary Poppins

I didn’t realize that as we introduced our almost five-year-old to the musical Mary Poppins that the songs would become something of a little lesson to our hearts. Finding our lives restricted and altered by a death in the family and COVID-19 pandemic shutting our provinces and cities down on unprecedented levels.

There is an air of unknowns and worries. There are also many things that I am doing to further my work.

I have made a few commitments this spring to help me with the honouring of and getting a handle on specific projects I have on the go.

Getting up at six am four mornings a week and writing for two hours.
Learning how to use a Sony A77.
Learning how to use Final Cut Pro editing software.
Setting aside time for the creative muscle to be challenged differently: daily walks, ukulele and piano practice, weekly baking.

If there were an overarching intention for this new season of Spring 2020, it would be to embrace my love for creativity. To renew how I interact with it in all, it’s forms. In all it’s expressions.

“The honey bee that fetch the nectar
from the flowers to the comb
Never tire of ever buzzing to and fro
Because they take a little nip
From every flower that they sip
And hence
They find
Their task is not a grind.” - Mary Poppins

Aren Morris

Fine Arts Specialist, Facilitator, Writer, Mom & Wife

Aren can be found working with schools to create space for students to explore fine arts, facilitating the 'Creating Space' retreats, while also embracing her role as a wife of fifteen years and mother to two young boys.

Aren is wholehearted about channelling creativity in all that she does as an arts specialist, writer, and especially as a mother where she takes great care and energy in helping to create an atmosphere for her children to grow and discover who they are.

She also happens to carry a fantastic ability to ground herself in the present moment and find words and concepts to share that bring awareness, creative ideas and insight to the surface of all that she does and to everyone she interacts with.

MORE AREN

WEBSITES

https://sites.google.com/gnspes.ca/fineartspecialists-halifaxwest/

https://www.facebook.com/creatingspaceretreats/

INSTAGRAM

https://www.instagram.com/finearts_haliwestfos/

Women in Film & Television Atlantics ‘Women Making Waves’ Conference sets the bar

for what it means to connect, find solidarity and hone in on one’s own personal and professional directive.

Every single woman (and man) who attends this conference brings their own unique skills and experience to the table. To witness this communing and celebrating what each of us brings is something I continue to be amazed by. This year was no different.

Highlights of the Conference

Friday Workshops

This is the first year I have been able to attend the add on workshops that kick start the conference. I had so many personal and professional takeaways from my time in the sessions I attended.

Really I’d Never Considered That! A Career Strategy Session with Sharon McGowan

Sharon approaches the industry in a unique and relaxed way. She is passionate about the work and also practical in her thinking about it. She does have an immense amount of experience behind her, which I believe is also why she can approach the journey with insight as well as a healthy dose of practicality. My take away’s from Sharon is the tenacity and how she doesn’t approach the industry with a clad iron fist of ‘now or never’ but with consistency, love for the work and showing up to continue pushing boundaries that have come against women for decades.

How to Create a Binge-Worthy Show in the Era Of Global Streaming with Amy Cameron

Having the opportunity to interview Amy Cameron for the Tidings a month before her coming allowed me the knowledge of what this woman brings to the table. Insight, discernment and a passion for the creative drive. You can see that with all the work she has done in the past and all the work she is pushing forward now lines up with her values and determination to create projects and storytelling that gives a hearty edgy wink while also making us think deeper than the mere surface.

Spotlight Conversation with Meredith MacNeill: Playing the Game While Changing the Game

Meredith made us laugh and she also made us think. I was most surprised and elated by her because admittedly I am behind in watching her sketch comedy and previous work. Her story is a story that although we might not all have, we can all relate to it. To hear her carve out space for the many elements of her life both personal and professional is refreshing and something we all need to hear again and again. It makes me less ashamed to have put my young daughter a focus the past few years and celebrate that by honouring my desire and need to be her primary caregiver I will also be able to grow into the professional and woman I need to be.

Musical Chairs Networking Lunch

This is the second year of the musical chairs networking lunch, (where everyone is given two numbers on two different coloured papers, sits at one table that corresponds to one number for the first twenty minutes of lunch and then a second table the last twenty mins.) Although I was hosting a table this year, I still gained the benefits of it. I would never have met the women and man who sat at my table if not for this unique way of getting us talking, connecting and celebrating the work we do.

The IOM Media Ventures Wave Awards Celebration Dinner

Ending the night with friends and, new connections with food drink and celebrating the work of others is all apart of creating a healthy and dynamic growing industry. A lot of exhaling was happening around the table I sat at & I was so thankful for that time.

THANK-YOU

To have something in the Maritimes with this amount of accessibility is phenomenal. From the New Waves program which introduced me to the industry, to writing for the Tidings here and there, joining the board, finding my way and connecting with women who want to see me grow and be challenged has been life-changing. We have so much to thank the founding members for spearheading this WIFT chapter form the very beginning. If anything, I hope to lift up and celebrate as many women as they continue to do.

Erica Meus-Saunders

Creator / Storyteller / Founder of Storybook-Entertainment

Erica can be found working at Screen Nova Scotia as their membership coordinator, while also running and growing her recently launched platform, ‘Storybook-Entertainment.’

Erica is passionate about the large format and possibilities in storytelling and is continually finding new ways to bring various communities, cultures and creative mediums together.

She also happens to bring a sense of thankfulness and appreciation for the collaborations she is apart of and seeks to uplift and celebrate others in every corner of her work.

MORE ERICA

Story-book Entertainment Platform

https://story-book.ca

Story-Book Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/storybook.ca/

Erica’s Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/ericameuss/

For my interest and light professional development, I took up ‘The Beautiful No’ by Sheri Salata, Executive Producer of the Oprah Show, for five years.

Entering into my journey in the film and television industry the last four years as a writer and producer have me interested in taking in the stories of others who have journeyed into the film industry later, rather than straight from university.

Sheri comes into her experience as a producer after an eclectic series of professional roles and choices.

What I learned from this book:

• Everyone hits moments where they are entering a new chapter of their life and need to re-evaluate. No matter how successful.

• Making the next right choice matters over worrying about what you haven’t done yet.

• If something is telling you that you want something, it’s probably not wrong; it just may not be the right time yet.

• Welcome the no’s and keep going.

Rachel Bruch

Songwriter, Performer, Music Educator / Therapist & Visual Artist

Rachel Bruch can be found using her vast musical skills in a broad spectrum of platforms and is learning to adjust and balance, raising her one-year-old daughter amidst it all.

Rachel seeks to remain grounded in her creative entrepreneurship and aims to find connections with others through the projects she pursues.

She also happens to carry a genuine and peaceful presence with her that enters into her conversations with others and the music she creates.

MORE RACHEL

Website

https://bluelobelia.bandcamp.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/bluelobeliamusic/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pg/bluelobeliamusic/posts/?ref=page_internal

Women in Film and Television Atlantic's Women Making Waves conference is fast approaching.

Not only does the conference land on the weekend leading up to International Women's Day, but it's also the association's tenth anniversary.

Women Making Waves is special to me.

WMW. 2019. photo: Claire Fraser Photo video

It's where I saw, felt and heard that writing for the film and television industry is possible. I have started describing my experience with WIFT-AT akin to an open door. I wasn't aware that it was there, but when I found it and attempted to step in, there was an instant acceptance and making room for the new. This conference also does this. It brings top-level professionals to the Maritimes and seeks to create unity, growth and conversation to the women who work here. For me, it succeeds every time.

In the lead up to this conference, everyone has been busy at work to prepare.

Especially the WIFT-AT executive board members. For myself, I have been advance interviewing a handful of the women flying in to give talks and workshops, seeking out silent auction donations, and committing to 'hosting/facilitating' different sessions.

During one of my recent interviews, it was pointed out to me how miraculous WIFT-AT is as an association. With only one paid staff, spanning and providing opportunities for four provinces, a yearly conference, a five-week crash course on the industry, and so much else, all for women in the film and television industry.

I have to admit,

I am proud to be serving on the board. To have a chance to find my place in the association, meet and interview the women who make our industry thrive and to learn as I go. It's an honour to be alongside these women who serve on the board, have created WIFT-AT to be what it is today and to continue to find my place in it.

Jenna Oosterholt

Entrepreneur

Jenna can be found running the Ville Caffeine Bar in downtown Halifax, N.S., while also harnessing her passion for people by working to bring an element of entertainment to those who frequent her establishment.

Jenna is enthusiastic about bringing others a unique take on coffee, community and foodservice and remains grounded by working on her entrepreneurial goals by reminding herself of her core values in creativity and people.

She also happens to carry unique energy that brings her closer to others and continues to propel her forward in all that she does.

MORE JENNA

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/thevillecaffeinebar/

Website

https://www.thevillecaffeinebar.com

Characters.

They are my catnip in the story world.

One of my goals this year is to better delve into the world of character development. It seems like a natural part of the writing world, but it is also one of those intricate parts that have no end. Only they, the characters, can reveal to you who they are and what motivates them. Just like people, this takes longer than a short chat. One needs time and a refreshing beverage between them.

In the real world, people are in constant motion.

They have their ways, and they're why's. I find that as I watch them at a distance, I can see the glimmer of childhood pain that sits there behind their own eyes. See the way they tug at their collar with a self-conscious tick. A small gesture becomes something that informs the world on a subconscious level who they are.

Characters are reflections of who we are.

They should be more than just two dimensional. What makes a character succeed outside of one single scene and into multiple scenes is how multi-faceted they are. When we treat our characters as if they are real and vulnerable people, we create not just better plots, but a platform for real and raw human quality work.

Currently, I am practicing taking my characters and working on holding them with a new reverence and understanding. I am asking them the tough questions and working to hear them differently. New. Characters, just like people, have so much they aren't telling you.

Depending on who you are, you might need to pour another cup and listen awhile longer.

Jasmine Alexander

Artist & Musician

Jasmine Alexander can be found using her passion for art and creativity in her work as an event coordinator for a downtown business improvement association, while also maintaining her studio practice as an oil, watercolor and gouache painter.

Jasmine is a strong believer in creativity being fuel for personal identity and expression and brings that value system into how she approaches her studio practice and community work.

She also happens to find humor in life easy and holds space for others tenderly while also encouraging them in their personal and creative lives.

MORE JASMINE

Website

http://jasminealexanderart.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/jasminealexanderart/

Lifelines Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/thelifelines/

This week marks a year if running Brilliansea.

A year of seeking to create space for the voices of women. Women who are charting their paths, finding creativity in the corners of their lives, starting new ideas and businesses and creating brilliance where ever they go. 

A year of Brilliansea existing and telling us what it wants to be.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED SO FAR…

We work best when we honour the core values of Brilliansea. Creating space and a platform for the voices of women locally and beyond. It has been a year of many changes and events in our personal and professional lives. Learning to honour each other through these stages, while also running Brilliansea together has grown us and brought us back to the values of Brilliansea.

WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON NOW

Entering into this new year, Claire and I will be focusing on continuing to curate and craft the spotlight interviews. We are working on making the group of women we gather for each interview filming session to be diverse, varied in age, mediums and life experience. We want to work on reflecting the immense sea of women we know to be out there. We are also honing in on the right next steps for creating our documentary project based on our short documentary. Along with those two big projects, we are excited to continue connecting with local creative and innovative women by hosting and creating space for socials.

With clarity and a reminder of everything that has created Brilliansea into being, we move onward.

Chelsea Rose

Paramedic & Social Media Figure

Chelsea Rose can be found embracing all aspects of creativity and collaboration through her social media platforms ‘Rose on the Coast’, while also balancing her career as a paramedic and working towards finishing her business degree.

Chelsea is passionate about local and worldwide collaboration, cultivating her creativity with everything she touches and using her platforms for sharing her most honest and authentic self.

She also happens to bring a beautiful sense of celebration and fun into everything that she does and at the same time isn’t afraid to address more serious topics when the need arises.

She is Brilliant

MORE CHELSEA ROSE

Website

https://roseonthecoast.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/roseonthecoasthfx/

The days ticked by in December.

I still hadn’t identified my one word for 2020.

A year that looks and feels like something special. 100 years ago, women in North America and beyond were beginning to modernize and break out of the molds that had been set for them. It seems fitting that we are entering a new decade where #metoo, cultural sensitivity and gender parity are topics on the table. Ten years ago I graduated as an American Sign Language English Interpreter, got engaged to my now partner in crime and started my first career-focused job interpreting at a high school. I was attempting to fit the mold I believed was what I was made for. Part of it was learned, part of it was my own interpretation of what was expected of me, and part of it was fear of not having a place in this world. So I made it myself.

I didn’t ask permission then, and thankfully I don’t ask permission now.

It was seeing a simple posting from a professional entity on social media mid-December that moved me into 2020. A simple post about an opportunity. So I clicked. I clicked through many links and read through all the information and then it dawned on me.

This is my next BOLD right move.

Bold

bold | bəʊld | adjective 1 (of a person, action, or idea) showing a willingness to take risks; confident and courageous

It’s wasn’t the certainty that I could get something that made me sense the rightness of it. It was the realization that I had come to a place, somehow in the past 365-day journey where I could click through all of these links and recognize that who I am matched what was being asked for. That I could step up, raise my hand and ask “How about me?” and do that with a nervous heartbeat, but one that was assured, confident and ready to step out and welcome the risks.

I am ready.

2019 was, in many respects, a difficult year. It was also a year of growth and seeing that growth made me realize that it is time to be making moves.

Not rushed and unsure moves.

Just simple, patient and the next bold right move.

I started 2019 off by choosing a word to focus on for the year both personally and professionally.

Curate
verb: select, organize, and present (content, merchandise, information…)
typically using professional or expert knowledge

Personally

It is comedic to look back and realize that I chose this word not knowing that we would have to fully gut and renovate our kitchen. The early weeks of 2019 were full of anxiety, discomfort, and unknowns as we trial and errored to fix a serious house problem which led us directly into the very raw and real experience of having to strip what we had down to the bare bones and begin to build back and choose carefully how we would put a new kitchen in (as well as manage our house better to avoid this problem re-occurring). It forced us to naturally curate as we went. For that I am thankful. The journey was harsh, but now, as we use our renovated kitchen, host our friends and make goals for the new year, it is obvious that the work we put in over the months have carefully and naturally curated what we have (physically and metaphorically) into valued and treasured elements of our lives.

Professionally

I went into the year wanting to align myself with projects and people that created empowering and insightful content. Using those values as a guide I have been able to see first hand how taking one’s time, carefully choosing the next right yes and discerning carefully along the way creates strong long-lasting work. Launching Brilliansea with Claire Fraser gave me hands-on experience with seeing film and media projects go from conception to reality. While managing a new platform and personal home renovations I also was able to honor my writing sessions to put ideas to paper and begin creating drafts of various new projects for pitching, applications, etc. Staying true to who I am has led me to create strong connections with many women including those on the board of ‘Women in Film and Television Atlantic’. Being welcomed on the board has been an honor and a joy.

As I begin to close the chapter on this year’s word “Curation” I feel proud and excited to see what is to come in 2020.

Autumn came with a beautiful gust of change.

Beginning with the release of Brilliansea’s short film ‘Her Business Your Story Our Calling’, moving through with the a completed outline of a one-woman show and it’s final rewrites to create it’s full first draft, a word goal completion for a personal project, continuing to curate and interview women for the spotlight series and getting immersed into what it means to be on the Board of Women in Film and Television.

This season has been full, enrapturing and exciting.

What I have learned

Enjoy the Process

With hard work put in both personally and professionally, I felt the instinct to let go of the expectations of others, myself and even the outside world. To simply enjoy the work before me. Board meetings, writing sessions, rewriting sessions, they all are apart of the process and have allowed me to sink deep into where the projects and work are asking for me to go.

Be Okay Going it Alone

I have realized that although I value and desire to lift others and bring them to where they need to be, I also am worthy of that cause myself. My work has weight and merit too. I can’t remain demure, simply because I enjoy the collaborative process. I can be both a team player and an advocate for my own independent projects.

As Autumn has been fading the past few weeks

I sense an exciting ripple effect beginning as I plan to release new projects, concepts and work into the air in 2020. I hope that as I continue to cultivate, curate and breathe life into existing and new projects, that I continue to honor the integrity and core of them as each new stage reveals itself.

Hannah Hicks

Artist

Hannah can be found selling and representing her art in various art shows, events and fundraisers, while also investing in her family and taking deep joy in her new role as ‘Auntie’.

Hannah is highly passionate and finds deep meaning in coming alongside others by connecting, fundraising and bolstering others through her abstract art.

She also happens to carry a joy for creativity that her passion and enthusiasm for it not only leaks out in her work, but right into every interaction she has with those around her.

MORE HANNAH

Website

https://www.hannahhicksart.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/HannahHicksArt/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/hannahhicks.art/

We like to think that something that was made has been crafted out of genius, ease and good ol’ fashioned hard work. Often times, we view our favourite works of art, be them paintings, films, plays, broadway musicals, songs etc as something mystic, gifted and heaven sent. We view their existence in our space as something we have acquired because we are owed to have it and it should come easily into our presence. We view those who created these things as someone who works hard at their craft and sacrificed all their time and energy to make it. We also in the same token, view them as someone who chose creativity over hard work.

All of these things are true.

None of these things are true.

The truth is,

the flow of creativity comes both easy and hard. It can feel as if it’s all come out of you at once and it can also feel as if it is like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. Utterly possible and impossible at the same time.

In every creative project that I find myself in, I also find myself at war with everything else.
It’s almost laughable at how time and time again this happens.

Right now, it’s as simple as needing nine separate writing sessions to re-write a draft.
All I am wanting is nine days to do it. I could even make it work in five days if I had to.
Yet those five to nine days, of days without a child in my care, allude me and a few scant hours here and there are not the way to put forth your best work. (any true writer / creative knows, you simply can’t perform your best work the moment a countdown begins. You need, as all athletes need to do before they do anything, a warm up.)

So here I am, showing up at my desk early on a Monday morning and doing my best to fit at least one of the nine sessions in while my husband takes vacation hours to get the ‘little’ to and from pre school and hope upon hope that when he returns I will have succeeded, at least, with one of the nine sessions and that I don’t waste the precious time that we are sacrificing to honour the creative call.

Truth be told,

if I didn’t care, if I didn’t have any real desire to create good work, I wouldn’t be here. I would just say “to hell with it” and leave the ideas as ideas on the cutting room floor of my mind.

The real work is in battling the real life that tries to come against starting anything. Doing anything from noting.
The timing is never right.

So it’s do or don’t do.

And I guess I am too stubborn and intrigued to not do.

So I do.

Rebecca Thomas

Poet & Activist

Rebecca can be found focusing on trying to improve the lives of others by using her words in forms such as poetry, children’s books, advising, strategy development, and diversity inclusion practices, while also staying present in her own identity as a Mi’kmaq person.

Rebecca gives incredible insight on taking account of ones own bias, privilege and world view and is able to marry that eye opening insight with an incredible amount of wisdom in how to harness it for growth and connection with others.

She also happens to maintain a rooted presence that allows for tenderness and grace to be present as she carefully discerns her words and the words of others.

More Rebecca

Twitter
@beccaleat

Facebook

Rebecca Lea Thomas

Artists In Residence

Rebecca Thomas - Matoax

Picture of Joan Francis Goodday Lugar in Canadian Women’s Army Corps uniform.

Finishing up the roughest of the rough draft

on this one woman show on my grandmother has me a bit shaky.

Rough drafts are exactly that. Just a ‘draft’ of what something could be and nothing smooth or connected about it. I sense the holes in the story and the places that need more refining. Yet I can also sense that it’s time to put this in the hands of those I trust most with my unedited words, concepts and a re telling on my grandmother.

Thankfully, I know that there can be joy in the sharing of the roughest of rough drafts. It’s a bit like a conversation. You pass the precious story on to hands and eyes that will tenderly yet firmly sift through the ideas, concept, movements and point out the golden threads and the rough edges that either need to be cut out, sanded or just explained better.

Humility.

This is where I let my ego take a back sit and listen.

The more I have written on my paternal grandmother, the deeper my respect goes for her and the more saddened I am not to have her in this stage of my life. What would I have learned about her now if I had known her as this version of myself? I want to kneel down by her as I used to and lean my head in close in a way that always baffled her and made her chuckle. Pat her hand and feel the well worn skin as she talked about some adventure she had as a younger woman and how ‘devilish’ she was.

She had a way of telling a story that was physical, composed and in real time. As if the memory was so close she could touch it.

It is still early days for this project but as I let go of my first draft and welcome feedback, I recognize that it’s time to loosen up the reigns and do my best to be that younger version of myself who listened to her voice, took in all her facial expressions and asked the leading questions to get the story to unfold deeper.