The Art of Healing Through Intentional Sketching with Sheila Darcey, Founder of SketchPoetic

Jennifer Norman:
What if healing didn't start with words, but with a line, a shape, a moment of quiet listening to your own body? Today's guest invites us into that softer, wiser doorway. Sheila Darcey is an artist, author and the founder of Sketch Poetic, a creative healing practice rooted in embodied expression. Her work lives at the intersection of art, wellness and consciousness, guiding people to access their inner landscapes through intuitive sketching, storytelling and presence. Rather than asking us to figure it out, Sheila gently reminds us that wisdom is already living inside us, waiting to be felt, drawn and witnessed. Sheila is also the founder of Living Canvas Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing healing, connection and social impact through creativity through books, workshops, immersive installations and community based programs. She champions art not as decoration, but as medicine, as a bridge, as a language that helps us metabolize grief, reclaim joy, and build emotional resilience both individually and collectively. In this conversation, we explore how creativity becomes a nervous system ally why embodiment matters when more than perfection, and how simple, intuitive practices can reconnect us to discover ourselves in a world that constantly pulls us outward. You'll learn how art can support mental and emotional well being, how to access creativity, even if you don't think that you're an artist, and why healing doesn't always need to be heavy to be profound.

Jennifer Norman:
If you have ever been craving a gentler way back to yourself, this episode is your invitation to pick up the pen, quiet the noise, and listen to what's already alive within you. Come on in and join us. Welcome Sheila. How are you today?

Sheila Darcey:
Oh my gosh, what a beautiful introduction. My whole body feels so alive. Thank you for witnessing me in the way that you just did. What a joy. What a gift.

Jennifer Norman:
And I had the grand opportunity to witness you in person by attending one of your workshops at a retreat that we attended recently, the Entwine Retreat, hosted by the amazing Linda Yoon and Su Jin Lee. We're both Asian, and this particular retreat that they had is a wonderful opportunity for Asians across Los Angeles and Southern California to come together for healing modalities. And you were there representing yourself and Sketch Poetic, doing these wonderful, wonderful clinics where we were able to get together and experience what you do. So I would love for the audience today to learn a little bit about you and to learn about Sketch Poetic. So feel free to tell us about how you started and what your healing journey was through sketching, through art, and through poetry.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, it's so interesting that we did meet at the Entwine event, which was dedicated. Everyone was invited, but it was dedicated to the AAPI community. And. And that is part of my story. I grew up in a very Filipino household. I'm half Filipino, half Chinese. And we just never talked about our mental health. It wasn't something that we spoke about, although we're very expressive people.

Sheila Darcey:
So it's not a question of expression, but I do believe certain emotions are judged good or bad, depending on what it is. And so growing up, I was the good girl. It's a very typical Asian upbringing. Be humble, stay quiet, just be seen, not heard. And very performance driven, very like academic driven. And basically at the peak of my career, which was in my early 40s, I achieved everything I ever wanted. Jennifer. I got everything I wanted.

Sheila Darcey:
I got the title, prestige, all of the external rewards. But internally, I was so disconnected and discombobulated. I hit every wall you can think of. Emotional, physical, spiritual. I was having a crisis of faith. And ironically, I didn't go to address my mental health. I went to address my fear of flying. And in addressing my fear of flying, that is when it uncovered that I was having a mental health crisis, which was debilitating.

Sheila Darcey:
Anxiety. Yeah. And addressing my anxiety, one of the conversations we had was, did I have a healthy way to express my emotions? And I told her, the woman I was seeing, her name is Linda Mallerstein. She said, do you have a healthy way to express your emotions? And I said, as a kid, I used to draw, but I used to draw to disconnect. And she said, such an innocent comment. She said, have you ever thought to draw, to connect? And I went, no, I never did. So I remember walking out of that office and I just remember that comment sticking with me. And six months later, I left that high stress job and I started another job that was more nine to five, more work, life, balance.

Sheila Darcey:
And then I decided to start sketching every day to allow myself to feel and express what was inside of me. What I did not expect was that I would find my purpose. I would start to feel and acknowledge that I had all these emotions that I had been suppressing. And the most important thing is I became embodied. I didn't realize how much of my body I had been disconnected from. I really didn't understand. And I was one of those shallow breathers. I don't know if, if you could relate to that, but I would go up these stairs, and by the time I got to the top of those stairs, I was out of breath and I didn't understand it.

Sheila Darcey:
And now that I am an embodied person, I understood that I was so unaware and disconnected, so Sketch Poetic is my, basically my methodology of daily sketching. And it's also my pseudonym as an artist. I'm a visionary artist. So that's a little bit about me and my backstory.

Jennifer Norman:
Beautiful, beautiful. I've had so many podcasts where I do talk about that API experience and I have done mental health work with Yellow Chair Collective, which is Soo Jin and Linda. Where it's true, a lot of times in the AAPI community, mental health is just something you do not talk about. There's so much stigma and so much shame, particularly among Japanese and we were finding among the Korean population, which I am Korean. However, it is pretty much one of those traits where it's something that is seen as very shameful. And so I think with the culture also it is about achievement, it is about performance. And that is where a lot of disconnects can happen between our inner children who love to play and explore and do all of these creative things. And then getting regimented and feeling that you have to check boxes as you're going along life and getting those brass rings, getting those accolades, getting the high paying job, the title, all of those outward achievements which signifies success to a material world.

Jennifer Norman:
But then when you think about your inner soul, what's happening? Are we abandoning ourselves there and how to get back to that. It's was lovely that you were able to find a path. However, a lot of times the path back to your own self is always. It's always. It's like a doodle. Right?

Sheila Darcey:
Exactly. I love that you, you said that.

Jennifer Norman:
Yes, it's like a doodle and then it, it comes back and then lands and something clicks. Something potentially is able to break through like a little crack in that ice to be able to say, oh, that was that what was there along. This is what I was missing. This is where I used to have some sort of joy or where I might be able to find joy in these that were so different and perhaps more me than what I was trying to do all of these years of my life. And that's not to say all these years of your life is wasted. I never think that anything is wasted. A lot of times this is the journey to come back to self. It is that hero's journey, right. To get back to self.

Jennifer Norman:
But it's lovely that I think that when it comes to art, when it comes to expression, there can be healthy ways to do it and then perhaps not so healthy ways. And so I'd love to share with you, with the audience how you. What your process is. I know you said you were determined to sketch one time a day. But it did turn into something deeper, and it did turn into a spiritual practice. More than a motivation or a goal per se, it did become your purpose. So tell me about the journey of finding your purpose through this experience.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, you touched on a few things that I'm going to circle back on, because it really is an important part of the journey, which is the artist self. And it started when I first started sketching daily. What I was doing with the intention in which I was doing it was to release and express emotion. So intention, for me is a big part of the reason it was healing is if I saw it as an art form, I would be focused on the perfectionism, the judgment, the critic that says, this is art. And that's the other part of the. Yeah, that's the other part of being an Asian upbringing. And it's. It's actually quite common that if you look at certain cultures, perfectionism and things have to be perfect in order to be regarded as valued.

Sheila Darcey:
And that was part of it. So whenever I used to draw when I was a kid, it was very photorealistic. Like, the more it looked like what I saw, the more beautiful I thought it was. And what ended up happening is because I was expressing the unseen, which is emotions. It's unseen. I didn't have an attachment of what it could look like. If anything, I was curious. Like, how do you sketch anxiety? How do you sketch anger? How do you sketch shame? So you talk about shame.

Sheila Darcey:
The reason I believe it became such a profound act for me is I started to face emotions that I didn't even know I was feeling. But I did it in the act of play. And when I work with kids, I work with children now, and I think about play as a channel for wisdom. Oftentimes we think of wisdom as we have these visuals of elders and people sitting on a mountain with their meditation.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Sheila Darcey:
Exactly. But when you're with children and they're in the act of play, there's a wisdom in that act, which is freedom. There's no expectation, no rules. And they're in the moment. It's the presence. And so all the things I'm talking about in terms of witnessing how children are naturally wired, we end up adulting ourselves and kind of conditioning ourselves out of that. But when I'm sketching and when I'm creating, I tune back into that childhood self, that inner child that you were talking about.

Sheila Darcey:
And what's happening is, I'm curious again. I'm playing. I'm not attaching myself to what it looks like and what ends up happening is I notice my body starts to tune into itself and starts to feel again because I'm not disconnecting. And if anything, I'm connecting back to my essence, who I've always been. And that's one of my mantras, is that there's nothing happening on paper that isn't showing up in my life. And so because I started to play and because I started to have fun and because I started to be curious about the marks that I was making, I looked up and everything looked different. The world looked different. I started seeing.

Sheila Darcey:
And this is why my nonprofit's called the Living Canvas. Because I started seeing everyone as a work of art. I started seeing everyone. Every accident that happened, every detour, every serendipitous thing is like a mark on the page where you don't really understand why your hand's jumping from one place to another. And I just started really tuning into that. And then the final thing I will say is because it was a mental health practice and I was facing traumas or things, challenging things, and darkness that I had experienced as a child, I became very hyper vigilant as a child, and hyper vigilance actually made me quite a successful businesswoman because it allowed me to tune in and really read body language and voice tones, because hyper vigilance is a survival mechanism. But what I did not expect, and this is something that I hope I impart to your audience, is that I used hyper vigilance, vigilance to survive. Now I use it to thrive.

Sheila Darcey:
I look at my sketches the way I used to look at people. I look at my sketches now and I read into everything and it bring and it speaks to me in a way that I never expected it to speak to me before.

Jennifer Norman:
Wow. To be able to see something and then connect and then utilize your intuition to look deeper and ask questions instead of making a statement about a sketch and saying that is because that's a judgment, of course, and there is a time and a place for that, I suppose. But being able to ask and get curious about it, and that's the thing about children, is that there's this constant curiosity in that freedom. It's the exploration. It's the digging a little deeper and asking more in a kind and compassionate way rather than a critical way.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, well, I always say curiosity kills judgment. Curiosity kills the critic. Curiosity and judgment and critic cannot even sit in the same plane. The moment you become curious, everything fades away. Which is exactly what happened, is I was very judgmental, not only with myself, but with my art. It had to be perfect all the time.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh. For sure.

Sheila Darcey:
Exactly.

Jennifer Norman:
And I was one who. In my education years, I actually did study art. I. Yeah, I. I started to really formalize my training in high school. And then in college, I actually went to university as an art major, which is interesting, but I can recall even as early on as high school, if something. If your perspective was slightly off, the teacher would take your piece, she would take your paper, she would show it to the entire class and say, if this perspective is wrong, then it doesn't exist. And she'd tear it up in front of everybody.

Sheila Darcey:
Oh, my gosh. That's exactly my point.

Jennifer Norman:
And yes. Yeah. And you feel like a failure. You feel humiliated. You feel all of these things because you've created something. And rather than saying, okay, this is a stepping stone to learn something where you can get to a better place, it was just like, let me just tear you to shreds, because this is trash.

Sheila Darcey:
No, it's big. And that is the reason.

Jennifer Norman:
That from our upbringing and all of that, it just teaches you, okay, if I'm not perfect, then I'm nothing. It's either all or nothing.

Sheila Darcey:
Yes, the all or nothing is interesting, Jennifer, because I will say, in my healing journey that I've observed, in addition to hypervigilance, the other thing I noticed is because I was very disconnected from my body throughout my life, I had to feel everything in extremes. So I would push myself so hard to point a burnout, or I had to be very extreme in my life socially. Like, I was very, very outgoing, like a social butterfly. And I didn't understand that. I wasn't conscious of what was. What I was doing. It was very unconscious. But what I was really saying to the world is in order for me to feel, it must be extreme.

Sheila Darcey:
It must be all in or I'm all out. And what sketching did for me, and the reason I call it sketching versus drawing, is drawing has an outcome. When you draw something, you have a goal in mind. Sketching. And I'm very purposeful about the word. The word sketching is. Sketching is fast and loose. And in retrospectives of famous artists, sketching was always the sketches you never saw get to the masterpiece.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Sheila Darcey:
And I believe that's such a beautiful metaphor of my practice. And it's really about how do I create from a place of no expectations, no attachment to the outcome. And honestly, in the more healing and emotional part of it is enough being enough. It's worthy of just being in the moment of it. And that's the message that I keep on trying to instill, not only with myself but with people in the world, is that when did the world and when did we decide it's more important that we decided that being in the act of creating is not enough. When did we decide that the outcome weighs more and is valued more than the process of the act of creation? And that to me is why it's been so healing, is that. And we talked about this in a little bit earlier, before we started, is that it isn't even about all the external validations and the things we've achieved. Being in the present moment with our family, with our relationships with life feels so much more joyful.

Sheila Darcey:
And because we're present in it, being is hard. Just being is hard. I don't think people realize the act of being is a brave act. It's a very brave act.

Jennifer Norman:
It really is.

Sheila Darcey:
There's no place to hide. You only have that moment.

Jennifer Norman:
Right? Right. So many of us have become humans doing and not humans being. I often will think about even when I was young and I started doing dance when I was 4 years old and all of the practice that goes into a performance, a recital, a lot of people look at that as the pinnacle. It's. We've become such a performance based society. We think about the measures and the metrics and we see the big splash and then we compare our journey to what somebody's years and years and years of practice has ultimately become. And we forget that there is enjoyment and there is pleasure among the being and the becoming as you're getting to that place of continuous learning and growing and evolving. And so I almost think that if we can not necessarily eradicate, but if we can think of the performance as just yet another stepping stone on the journey rather than okay, this is it, I'm done, or, and the whole...

Jennifer Norman:
I used to feel like I would hold my breath, like life was holding breath that 9 to 5 or what it was more like 9 to 9 or 7, 7 to 7 to 5. You know, it was like your life just became like, okay, I'm going to hold my breath and I'm going to get through this. And then maybe on the weekends I'll be able to exhale or relax or wait until that vacation. And then when you're on vacation, you're never really relaxing anyway because you don't know how. You don't know how to turn it off. And there is so much unlearning that is beautiful in the concept of sketching, in the concept of the. Like, getting to those places and enjoying it along the way and noticing.

Jennifer Norman:
It's just that. That real being able to connect with this stopping point. This stopping point. Oh, that's fascinating. What did this mean? What did this do? How did my hand feel? How did my body feel? How did I react? Did I feel soothed? Did I feel tight? What does this all mean? And really being able to express and identify, see something visually with something that you're creating on a canvas or on a piece of paper, whatever medium you choose to use, and see it as almost like a snapshot of a moment in time and recognizing how that connects with that feeling or that emotion when you're going through it.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah. I love the snapshot metaphor because even I remember doing this one sketch, and it was a Polaroid, actually. It's a cover of my book, interestingly enough. And it has this organic movement within it. And one of the things that I will say where I am in my healing journey right now, and you asked about my. How did it become a spiritual practice?

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Sheila Darcey:
Is it started off with just the curiosity about what was happening with my body. So I did research and I realized, oh, what was happening was my subconscious and unconscious was coming to the conscious field. So Carl Jung talks a lot about this. And obviously neurology and physiology, there's a lot of science behind this. But what also was happening is I was listening to my higher self. And Michael Singer talks about this. I was so caught up in my thoughts and the way my mental mind controlled everything. Right.

Sheila Darcey:
I was always in my head. I think a lot of us are in our heads. But what ended up. What I did not realize is I never allowed for any separation from my mind beyond that. What I didn't realize is I was always listening to all those thoughts. But I thought I was the thoughts. I thought I was the judgment. I thought I was the critic.

Sheila Darcey:
I thought I was the person that couldn't sit still because my mind couldn't sit still. But then I. When I was sketching, I found that moment of stillness. And I looked down on the paper and I started to step above it, and I noticed my hand moving, and I could hear the thoughts happening. I went, hang on. I'm not my thoughts, and I'm not the thing moving. I'm the soul listening above it. And that's when I got to experience the more soulful part of my work.

Sheila Darcey:
And the reason I describe myself as a visionary artist is there was a point in time, and I can't pinpoint it specifically because it happened so organically, is that I started to hear, feel, taste all the senses that weren't mine. Like, I heard a thought or I saw a vision, and I'm like, that's not mine. I just felt it. I knew it. And I'm like, oh, that might be something in the collective consciousness or the collective unconscious conscious. So I've been doing a lot of studying around consciousness, and that's when my body and spirit felt called to do my beach walks. And I started to connect with Mother Earth in a way that I'd never connected with her before.

Sheila Darcey:
Like, I'm an avid camper. I've been camping since I was a little girl. I was a Girl Scout. I've always loved the outdoors, always. But again, similar to how I connected with my body, I wasn't really connecting with her. I was just outside and I was outdoors, but I wasn't connecting with her. I was just being outside. Now when I'm walking my dog or if I'm walking on the beach or if I'm in the middle of the urban city, I feel her speaking to me in the sense like she's holding us constantly. She is the ultimate teacher as a mother is she's like, you are enough just by being who you are.

Sheila Darcey:
And it's so beautifully. I mean, makes me want to cry because how often do we feel that sense of unconditional love? She just always, ever present. And I say that in God, in spirit, in Mother Earth, in everything. She's omnipresent. And that's the reason it changed my life. Because I truly believe we are all living canvases. And I truly believe that we are all in some way shape or form in the art and we are the artist at the same time. So we can look at people.

Sheila Darcey:
And they are, to me, they're just beautiful works of art just walking around. I just wish people saw the world more that way. Can you imagine if we did, to see each other's works of art? And some works of art are like stark and make you go, okay, that something is happening here within me. And some just. You just sit and you just want to stare at that work of art. That's what's happening in the world.

Jennifer Norman:
Some of the first words on the Human Beauty Movement website, aside from "Beauty for Humankind", is "We are all works of art." And so I think that we share. Yes, I think that we share. We share so much. But I think that we share that thought. And I, too, I can't tell when exactly it happened, but I remember I was driving my car down my... Down the road where I live, and all of a sudden I saw this beautiful tree that actually sitting on one of my neighbor's corners. And I see it every day, but all of a sudden it was as if that tree was undulating and speaking to me.

Jennifer Norman:
And every time I see that tree, I say, hello, tree. Thank you for looking after us. Thank you for giving shade. Thank you for the beauty that you have. And I go out into my backyard and I have a conversation with the bushes and with the flowers. And I just feel like there is this connection now after being able to just slow down. Gosh, our lives have been filled with so much rushing and so much doing and so much freneticism because we feel like if we're productive, then we are worthy. If we're productive and if we're accomplishing and we're achieving, then, oh, this is a worthwhile life.

Jennifer Norman:
But I found just the opposite. I found, like, the less that I do, the more I'm able to attune into myself and to the energies around me and to the beauty of nature, the fascination and the glorious of nature. I saw a meme, and it was, if you want to see the world as depressing, then turn on the news. But if you want to see how extraordinary the world is, tune into nature. It's really such a difference in your perspective and where your attention goes, your energy flows. So I truly believe that being intentional, as you were saying, is such an important aspect of being able to ground your unconscious with your conscious and be able to manifest the life that you truly want, want to. And to be able to recognize all of these signs and all of these really interesting synchronicities that are going on around us.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah. One of the important parts of our conversation that we're having is if you look at the world today, you ask yourself, why isn't it happening? Why aren't we connecting to Earth and Mother Earth and Nature? And this is the part that's really compassionate. It's just so is a part of me that is so intrinsically. It's just I feel so much compassion for humanity right now because I genuinely believe how can we dare connect with the world if we can't even connect with our inner world, with ourselves and. Right. And the reason I'm so passionate about my practice, I'm so passionate about art and its power to heal, is the invitation is with ourselves.

Sheila Darcey:
Because, listen. There are so many incredible people being social activists, leaders and pioneers in their industries, changing the world through ecology and. And through activism. But I sit in this little corner pocket of the world, and I teach people how to sketch every day to connect with their inner world. And I know in my heart that is equally as powerful of healing as somebody that is marching with a million people. And I say that with true humility, because that's part of my upbringing, is we have this perception of activism and making an impact, looking a certain way. We think it has to be this Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, just all these things. And I have reverence for those individuals. But then what it does is it puts us in a position.

Sheila Darcey:
And this is that competitiveness that you're talking about, this feeling like it's so far away, making an impact feel so big, and that I can feel the emotion rising as I'm talking about this is the part, I think, part of the healing for me, of why Sketch Poetic became such a profound purpose, is I thought, do... Not only do people know art can heal, but did you know you can change people's lives just by healing yourself? Because I look at the evolution of who I am and the impacts that I've made in the people and communities that I've made, made it with. That was never part of a plan. It was never part of the reason why I did it. I actually did it to heal myself. And in doing so, the world benefited from it. And I know that definitively. And it's not about numbers, as you said.

Sheila Darcey:
It's not about the metrics that are attached to it. It is a felt experience. And I will say just real quickly, because it's coming up for me, is I remember when we were at our workshop, I watched and observed you, Jennifer. You were so in the moment. You were so present. And I just want people to know that are listening. You embody the very thing you speak about, and that's really an important message to the world, is that there's one. There's a part of us that feels performative at times.

Sheila Darcey:
We say the things we say, we do the things we do when we hope that people hear it. But I will tell you as somebody that to witness you, and you were such a vessel of not only curiosity, but you were such a vessel of this person that's coming into my life, has something to show me and to teach me, and I want to hear it. And I want you to know, as a receiver of that it is equally as powerful to be healed in the presence of somebody that receives. And that's the last thing I will say is we, as women, we as mothers, we have a hard time receiving.

Jennifer Norman:
Yes.

Sheila Darcey:
And you received that day. And that was so healing to witness.

Jennifer Norman:
And I'm crying because that was very sweet. Thank you so much for seeing me.

Sheila Darcey:
And I watched you. I observed you. I really did.

Jennifer Norman:
Well I observed the magic that you were bestowing upon the group that day. And I do want to share one of your exercises because it was so powerful and it moved everyone to tears. And you know which one I'm talking about. It was the... You could probably describe it better.

Sheila Darcey:
No, no, go ahead. No, I'd rather hear it from you.

Jennifer Norman:
Lovely Sheila had us all with a blank piece of paper and a pen, and we all closed our eyes. We were filling the paper as much as we could, and it just felt like when your eyes are closed and you feel like you're just scribbling over this entire sheet of paper, and then you open your eyes and you realize your scribble was really this big compared to the sheet of paper, which is very, very big. And Sheila said, a lot of times we think we're taking up space, but we are keeping ourselves small. And we all just went, ah. we started to cry because it was so poignant. It was so poignant.

Jennifer Norman:
There was a girl, actually, she was so brave. She held up her sheet of paper and she said, I thought that my sketch was huge. I thought I was doing this big. But look, look, it's. It's so small. And then Sheila came up with that profound statement, and it just drove us all to tears and blubbering.

Sheila Darcey:
Well, you know, it's something. I love that you brought that up because that. The essence of sketch poetic. That is the essence of how art heals. Because whether we're conscious of it or not, I love that you... Thank you for sharing that. It is much better that you shared the story, is that you said it earlier. It's so simple.

Sheila Darcey:
The thing about healing is that it is so simple. Breath is simple. The complexity is. Is all the ways we are so avoidant of deep breathing deeply because of the fear and certainly the emotions that come up from breathing deeply. I don't believe. Like, one of the things I...that I noticed about as I'm reflecting on watching people do what I do and have being in the act of it. What I noticed is that people are exuding and emoting in the unseen realms, meaning that they're not.

Sheila Darcey:
They're expressing all of the things that are within them, whether or not they're conscious of it or not. So when we're sketching, like you're saying, and we're not taking up space, you think it's a physical. Like, oh, that's just a physical expression. But I believe, fundamentally, your unconscious wanted you to see that. I believe your unconscious wanted you to reflect that. Because we are. To me, the piece of paper is a mirror. All it is is a mirror.

Sheila Darcey:
And so even the coffee and ink sketch that we did, the reason that even came up, it's a really funny story, is I was starting to get attached to my sketches. There was a few...

Jennifer Norman:
Can you share? Just so that the audience knows what your coffee and inks, what it. What that was and what that is.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah. So basically, one of the things I do in my workshop is I... To get people out of their barrier of "this is art". So I needed to have a foundation. So we pour tea and coffee on a piece of paper and create, like, a base of stains. And the stain basically becomes a foundation where we ink on top of it so that it can. It's basically something that we can use as a starting point. But it becomes a bigger metaphor because everyone...

Sheila Darcey:
It's like looking at clouds, and you see whatever you see. That's because your unconscious wants to see what it sees. So going back to that, the reason that activity or that exercise came to be is I was at my coffee shop I would go to every day, and I was starting to get really attached to my sketches because they started to be perceived as beautiful, because I started to get really in flow. And there was one sketch. I'm like, I want to frame this one. I remember vividly. I'm like, I can't wait to frame this one.

Sheila Darcey:
And as if God in the universe knew. Like, Sheila, check yourself. You are losing your way. You're starting to get too attached to the outcome. This person bumps my table. Coffee spills all over the sketch. And I went, no! My first reaction's like, no. And then I thought, thank you. Immediately, like, so quickly I said, thank you because I knew exactly what had happened.

Sheila Darcey:
So I dabbed the stain, and then I looked at it and went, oh, that's so interesting. And then I turned it over and I rotated it, and I sketched on top of it, and I remembered why I did it. It was never about the outcome. It was never about that. And it still isn't. There are sketches that, yes, I could sell as artwork, but if you can stare in front of it and feel something from it, that, to me, is the medicine and that's one of the things that I want to do with living canvas is I want.

Sheila Darcey:
One of the pillars we have is we engage with art all the time, not just in museums and galleries. We're engaging with music, we're engaging with dance. But I don't know how present we are in the things that are coming up. As healing, as an invitation to heal, as an invitation to listen to what your body wants to say, as an invitation to your soul wanting to speak to you instead. And it's okay, by the way, both are important. And one of the things that, you know, you and I are talking about is we're not saying don't be productive. We aren't saying don't be achievement oriented. We're not saying that.

Sheila Darcey:
But it's important, I think, to say it, because what can happen is people swing to the other extreme and they're in the act of just being. Well, sorry, you can just be. But if you have something that you want to achieve, of course you're going to still have to do. It's the act, the balance of being in union and both of being and doing and being present in all of it is important. So, yeah, I just wanted to share that because as we were sharing the exercises, even the exercises that came in my workshops came from my own lessons of what was happening. When I'm sketching, it's just. It's always talking to me. And I mean that not in a channeled, mystical, psychic kind of way.

Sheila Darcey:
It really is with the intention that I had. I believe my art, my sketches have something to say, so I listen. And that is ultimate. If somebody asks me, what is that? One of the biggest ways you heal is to listen. We don't listen enough to each other, let alone ourselves. We don't.

Jennifer Norman:
It's so true. One of my favorite quotes is by Baba Ram Dass, and it is, I can do nothing more for you but to work on myself. You can do nothing more for me than to work on yourself.

Jennifer Norman:
And it is...It really starts from us recognizing where we might be, not listening and being disconnected, because that disconnection permeates our lives and it can permeate relationships. It permeates how we do things, how we behave and our communities. And so it all is just so much more connected than we even realize. And so you are doing the Lord's work by being able to work on yourself first. As I feel that I found my purpose when I worked on myself too, and discovered that burning myself out, trying to just look for these outward accomplishments, achievements, and granted, yes, I enjoy and appreciate and love the fact of growth and expansion. And as humans, that's what we are also about. We are about innovation. We are about dreaming and making things reality and manifesting. And so that's also really magical too.

Jennifer Norman:
But being able to sit back and start every day with gratitude and just an enjoyment and start your day with flow in that way. And then experiencing these creative outlets that give us the opportunity to connect back to our inner selves. And as you had a steering moment. Yeah. With that coffee shop moment. And then it also became a practice that you were able to share with others. I mean, how beautiful is that? How serendipitous along the way things are going to happen.

Jennifer Norman:
And if I listen enough, if I'm attuned enough to recognize this wasn't a disaster. This wasn't, oh, my gosh, how dare you. And getting mad at the person who bumped into you and letting that just destroy your day. You looked at it as a growth opportunity and as a way to step. Step up and be able to share with the world that experience and what it taught you.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
And how it does keep us humble and reminds us that it's beautiful. That was. We call it an accident, but it's beautiful. And there's beauty in every step of the way.

Sheila Darcey:
There is beauty in every step. Absolutely.

Jennifer Norman:
I want to make sure that the audience knows how to because you do offer courses and classes and instruction and one on ones and things like that. And then I would love to talk a little bit more about Living Canvas as well.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Norman:
But please share about some of your workshops and how people might be able to get involved with that.

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, I mean, listen, my ultimate. The way I describe my work is I really feel that I'm here to just help guide people to find the right modality for them. So what I mean by that is sketching is a modality, but I'm not attached to it. You can come to one of my workshops. I do individual workshops. I do groups, I do corporate. But my hope is that you walk away from my workshop knowing that there's a creative tool out there for you.

Sheila Darcey:
So let's say you decide, I want to pick up that guitar again. I want to take dance class. I want to start cooking with the intention to heal. I want to start gardening with the intention to heal. That's the ultimate message. So the workshops. And I say that because the workshops are definitely tangible. You come in and you learn how to Sketch Poetic.

Sheila Darcey:
But more importantly, it's the message underneath it that we're speaking of. The message matters as much as the expression. The message is ultimately, do you know that if you do something with the intention of going inward, do you know that if you do it with the intention to listen to something that your inner world wants to express, and you do it through many different modalities, then that's ultimately healing. So that's what I do in my workshops. And I also do intuitive art. And that's more of the visionary work that I do, which is I outline your hand and I ask what is in that person's highest good? And the way I describe it is it's not quite psychic or medium in the sense that I'm seeking answers for you. Right. It's not like I'm tuning in, asking spirit, what is Jennifer seeking? What I believe is happening is because I hold the act of what I do with such sacredness and such reverence.

Sheila Darcey:
I believe and trust that whatever is in your highest good will just show up. And I just happen to be able to visualize it. It. I believe it's a mirror to what you want to see. So there's nothing that I'm going to express or create that you don't want to see. That's the ways that you can engage with me. I work with children. Right now I'm working with kids around the ages of 8 to 11.

Sheila Darcey:
And there was a recent... I believe it was a Harvard study that said that 8 years old is the age in which we start to abandon our creative selves. It's been pinpointed. And that's because of peers. It's because of academic systems. We start to condition ourselves out of our creativity. And so that's the age that I seem to be guided, to be helping and guide to keep the magic, to keep the play. That's a little bit about my work.

Sheila Darcey:
And Sketch Poetic is the easiest way to find me.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, gorgeous. I love all of the things that you do with Sketch Poetic. That is absolutely amazing. And so let's talk about a little further about Living Canvas, because you did set out with a very important mission and your vision by establishing a nonprofit which is related but separate from Sketch Poetic. Can you tell everybody about that?

Sheila Darcey:
Yeah, I'm going to be a bit vulnerable here in the sense that I'm going to share both the tangible reason I did it, but the soulful reason I did it. So let me just say on the more tangible I believe the nonprofit Living Canvas came into my world, and it did come into my world because I met this lovely gentleman at an event and he really said, you should think about doing a non profit. And every part of me was resisting because I thought, oh, I don't know if I want to run a business. I did that, and I thought it was going to be all consuming. But I listened to Spirit and spirituality. Spirit said, this is the evolution and the reason now that I'm about four months into having founded it, what it does is it separates the individual impact that I'm making and making it more about the collective. So I'm getting out of my way. There are so many people like me that are doing the work, and we're not necessarily able to connect to each other in the way that I hope Living Canvas can create.

Sheila Darcey:
So I want to connect with other artists that are using art for mental Health. I want to create with other healing arts practitioners that are using all different modalities, whether it's collage, writing, poetry, spoken word. I want us to come together and I want to fund those workshops. I want to fund those initiatives. And that's really the hope of Living Canvas is to bring the collective together and allow us to impact and create impact through all the different ways in which we're doing it. So that's one of the hopes of Living Canvas, but on a most soulful note, and this is the part that is vulnerable, is one of the wounds that I had to reckon with is my relationship with money. And I'm not going to go into it because that could be a whole nother podcast, but basically that's a big one. Yeah.

Sheila Darcey:
Coming from poverty in the Philippines to immigrating to Australia and being an immigrant to my own relationship with again, I don't want to seed too much, but there's a lot of trauma around, sexual trauma and money and all that connection around all of that. There's so much complexity around my relationship with money, and it's been a through line of my healing. And when Living Canvas came to my world this year, it was an affirmation, a confirmation of all the work that I have been doing to heal that. Because what it shows me is, Sheila, you now are able to hold money. Before, money would come in and then flow out. And now I'm being invited not only to hold money, but to hold it in a way that helps heal the collective. So I'm able to ask for money and create goodness from it. And I share that part of my story because I always associated money with bad, because I saw how money was wielded with power and authority, and I rejected money. My entire life, I rejected it.

Sheila Darcey:
But the problem is, I rejected the bad, but I also rejected the good. And Living Canvas is everything good about money. It's all the ways we can help people with money. So I'm sharing that part of my story, because there's nothing happening in my life that isn't a testament to the work that I'm doing. It is the embodiment of my work. But I am still healing in the work just by having the Living Canvas Foundation. I continue to do the work, and so that's why it's such a profound thing.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing that. And you are exactly right, because there are so many people that have really, really dysfunctional relationships with money and don't know what to do about that. And case in point, how society is, like, completely dividing itself between the haves and the have nots even further and further and further. So it just showcases that. I mean, you are definitely not alone. I think that everybody can certainly relate to that aspect of it and the idea of the nonprofit and using it as a benefit for the community in a way that also serves you in that aspect of healing and can also be a lesson for others and maybe, you know, a lighthouse for others to learn about that as well, and then also get involved in some form or fashion, whether it be through donations and whatnot. Tell us about the work that it does.

Jennifer Norman:
And then if people wanted to get involved with the foundation, specifically how they could do so.

Sheila Darcey:
I appreciate that. Well, there's a few ways to get involved. There is, obviously, the donations are always welcome and appreciated and even connections around that. But this is one of the reasons it is coming into my forefront, because we talk about money and donations, but then we talk about value and worth. I want to say to the people listening, if you want to get involved, you can get involved by being part of the community. And that the value of that. So saying, hey, Sheila, I work with this community, whether it's LGBTQ, AAPI, veterans, homeless, and I'm using art as a way to heal them. Connect with me, connect with the organization, because I want a partner.

Sheila Darcey:
Part of the ethos of Living Canvas is this idea of partnership and collaboration. Co creation and collaboration is a really big ethos of ours, because it's not about us doing the work, just us individually. It is about the collective we and how we can all amplify each other so we're not competing against each other. This scarcity mindset, like, oh, there's not enough resources available. There's actually a lot of resources available if we can come together. So that's one. The other way to support it is to amplify the work that we're doing. Right? Amplify it by talking about it.

Sheila Darcey:
Did you know art can heal? How does even the word healing is so loaded? Depending on which where you are in the country or where you are in your own healing. Emotional, mental healing. The word healing seems so heavy for a lot of people. I met someone recently that said, I don't have anything to heal heal because I wasn't traumatized. Yeah, that was their statement and they genuinely believed it. And I went, when did healing become about trauma? I said, healing is about the ability to look within and face the things that we're not ready to face. That's healing. I said, do you have anything you don't want to face? And he looked at me and goes, yes, I said that. There you go. So you have areas you could heal.

Sheila Darcey:
So yeah, I'm just sharing that because that's it. And art, again, elevating, amplifying, connecting with us as a community and yeah, donating. We're always welcome to donations and certainly connecting us with other people that are doing this work would be great.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for starting it. I have a feeling that it is really going to be an exciting moment and journey as you continue to develop it and as you continue to collaborate and find folks in the community that are benefiting from the impact that it is going to be bringing to a lot of people. Is it predominantly going to be us based? Are you starting.

Sheila Darcey:
You know, it's a really great question. And you know this as a businesswoman, legally have to keep it in the US for now just because I'm starting small. It's a small nonprofit. But of course I have big visions for global. Yeah, I definitely. I mean my community and I say my sketch poetic community is global.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Sheila Darcey:
But so I'm starting small. That's the other thing I wanted to say about starting a nonprofit.

Sheila Darcey:
It seems like a daunting act, daunting thing to build anything because you think, oh, it's just me. But I will tell you it has been ease filled and I'm full of grace because I simply say only just do the things that you are able to do and don't feel stressed out about the vision you can hold both. So I have big visions. I'm a visionary person. I see the Bigness of it with the global question. This is why it's coming up. But you don't have to start there. You can start where you are and you can hold both.

Sheila Darcey:
And so that's my ultimate message today, is that holding both is so powerful. You know, holding both extremes, holding both vision, but also being present to being in the doing, all of it. I think part of the message for myself that I had to reconcile is I. I avoided the darkness and the shadows in my life, but then I started to face them. And then now I hold both the shadow and light equally in the same reverence and the same awe and the same beauty, because I know it's there to reflect something that I need to see. So I don't avoid the darkness anymore, but I certainly don't sit in just the darkness and light. I sit in both.

Jennifer Norman:
Yep. Yep. Oh, my gosh, you were speaking my language. Because I used to inhale Abraham Hicks, and it was like, well, don't... There's no point in going back doing shadow work. They're, you know. And then I was thinking to myself, well, yeah, I guess I see a point in that and remaining positive. But then it's just still there.

Jennifer Norman:
And you're dishonoring a part of you that actually there is no light without the darkness. And it's the whole yin yang of the fact that it's not that we need to be happy and joyful 100% of the time. Having breakdowns and having grief and all of that is part of the human condition as well. And it's beautiful. Like, we have to have one to enjoy the other, and they love it.

Sheila Darcey:
Well, it's also needed in this world today, Jennifer, because the world has a lot of darkness. And if we don't allow ourselves to sit in joy and light, what we're saying is, how dare we sit in that when the world is experiencing so much darkness? So it's necessary to sit in both because if we don't, we fold into one and we don't allow the other. So it's. It is actually part of, to me, a belief that it is part of the healing of the world.

Jennifer Norman:
It is.

Sheila Darcey:
Is for us to still sit in joy and light, even when the world feels dark and vice versa, even when you're, you know, you're experiencing joy and light might. Don't be so afraid to sit in the shadows of other people's lives as long as you don't be consumed by it.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I know that there's a lot of, well, how can everybody be celebrating and happy when there's so much this going on and it's like they can coexist.

Sheila Darcey:
Exactly. That's the message.

Jennifer Norman:
You shouldn't guilt other people for feeling like they can't celebrate and be joyful, even though, like. Because everywhere, all over the world, there is darkness. There is a lot of tragedy and despair and. And it's all. And it's not yes, but it's all yes and yeah, beautiful.

Jennifer Norman:
Well, Sheila, to end, I always ask my guests three constant questions which are a reminder of what does help to connect us all as beauty and humanity and the truths that we live by. So my first parting question to you is, what do you think makes you beautiful?

Sheila Darcey:
What makes me beautiful is the complete trust and surrender that every single moment is an act of creation. And to me, that is beautiful.

Jennifer Norman:
Beautiful answer. I would expect nothing less from you. What do you think that it means to be human?

Sheila Darcey:
Oh, such a... I get all the feels for that question because I sit in the world oftentimes where I feel like I'm an observer of being human. So what is human to me is the physical expression of all the unseen and the ability to be in alignment with it all. So for me, being human is the connection and alignment of our mind, body, and spirit being expressed in the world.

Jennifer Norman:
That's a great answer as well. And my last question, what is one truth you live by?

Sheila Darcey:
One. Oh, gosh. One truth that I live one.

Jennifer Norman:
You have to come up with the one. I know this is always tough.

Sheila Darcey:
I mean, it seems so simple, but sometimes the simplest answer, it is the birth of the nonprofit prophet that I am, and we are, and she is a living canvas. And that if we could see and embody and feel that we are works of art and we are the masterpiece and that is enough. And that we're always in the process of creating that. It just makes me exhale. So, yeah, that's the truth. That we are all living canvases.

Jennifer Norman:
Gorgeous responses. Beautiful humans. This is Sheila Darcey, founder of Sketch Poetic and Living Canvas Foundation. You can find more information at sketchpoetic.com and livingcanvasfoundation.org as well as @SketchPoetic and @LivingCanvasFoundation on Instagram.

Jennifer Norman:
And please do yourself a favor. If anything, if anything, my beautiful humans, if even if you don't think that you're an artist, which I kind of believe there's no such thing, and I'm kind of feeling like Sheila, that probably thinks there's no such thing, because we are the artists we are the canvas. Try this. Try this. Maybe when you're first waking up and you're doing your meditation and maybe you have a journaling practice, try just sketching. You know, just take out that pen and let it flow. Maybe close your eyes, inhale, exhale. Maybe you're on a break from work and you've got a notepad near you. Try it. Just close your eyes. Do a little bit of gratitude. Practicing and thanking yourself, thanking and honoring, and see what comes through.

Jennifer Norman:
When you open your eyes, take a look at what you've created and let it speak to you, let it say something. Maybe there's a message there from your inner self that might tell you a little bit more about what's going on. And then maybe ponder it for a little bit and maybe more and more will start to reveal itself to you. I think that this is just.

Sheila Darcey:
Oh, that's beautiful.

Jennifer Norman:
It was such a wonderful opportunity to meet Sheila and to be able to incorporate these into my daily practices and just noticing what you notice and really thinking that there are no happenstance things that occur. There's a reason and there's purpose and there's meaning if you allow it and if you take a look and you maybe open with different eyes. Do what's before you. Sheila, thank you so much for being my beautiful guest today. You certainly are a beautiful human.

Sheila Darcey:
Same mirror that right back to you.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you for listening to the Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to to follow, rate and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty Movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.