Lilla has used affirmations as a powerful tool for her entire career, and now, as a gift to you as we move towards the start of a whole new year, we want to give you a free affirmation to download and put somewhere prominent to help guide your own career and art practice.
Why affirmations? Affirmations are a great way to program your beliefs so that you move in the direction you want your life to go. By repeating a key phrase, you reframe your beliefs in a subtle, but powerful way. Print out the one we give you here or create your own, then pin them in key places around your house or workspace.
Lilla says, “My morning mirror is covered with sticky notes of affirmations I’ve written for my own life raising teenagers, getting through bumpy career points, or working toward goals I want to achieve. Somehow, repeating a very positive – and spot on – phrase reprograms your consciousness, and out of that, your actions fall into place. Then the universe supports you and pulls like energy to you.”
Here’s your free affirmation. Click here to download your own copy, then print it out and put it somewhere where you’ll see it every day.
Why “Respect your own brain”?
Lilla explains: “In my 20s, I read and studied so many different things, and learned from such a lot of different people – for example, I studied Japanese poetry in Boulder, Colorado with a Buddhist, I took a tarot class on the Upper East Side. I met a lot of fringe and alternative people – radical feminists, proponents of the LGBTQ+ community before the acronym existed, people who were into mysticism. I think it’s important to be open to different ideas: you don’t have to believe everything but it’s vital to be able to enjoy fresh ways of thinking.”
She continues: “Of course, art schools have always been a place for progressive thinking. I studied at art school in Oakland, California, right next to Berkeley at age 19, and it was a hotbed of radicalism. I couldn’t get enough of it. I remember when I arrived thinking, ‘Wow, I don’t feel weird here, I just blend right in.’ There were lots of anti-war protests, early feminism, these hippie women with flowers and flowing hair: it was like nirvana to me.”
Watch below for a video of Lilla doing her fab brush lettering.
“I took a class at Berkeley Art Museum, and you got a course credit if you gave guided tours of the museum to children. The director at the time was Bonnie Baskin, who was a bad-ass visionary. I told her that I wasn’t sure about the difference between the Chinese and Japanese art when I was doing the tours, and I’ll never forget what she told me.”
“She said, “Just look, see how they contrast, observe the difference between the style of the clouds and mountains and trust your brain.” It was so transformative to me, to be told that I had the ability to make discernments and think for myself, and that I could actually trust my own voice; that I could see what was there and analyze, and respect my own thoughts. I carried that with me my whole life.”
“So that’s the gift I want to give to you today, as we prepare to move into a new year, and a new decade. I want to give you the permission to have the strength to believe in your own brain. Trust your voice. And don’t be afraid to try new or cutting edge things.”
Happy new year – we can’t wait to see what you’re going to do in 2020!
Lots of love,
Lilla and the Make Art That Sells team xxx
