Featured Artist / Client: Hannah Freitag
“The pursuit of career success and emotional fulfillment
has led me here, and I can't wait to see what is going to come of it.”
-Hannah Freitag
Meet my client, collage artist Hannah Frietag
(I am amazed at the talented people
I’m fortunate enough to work with.)
Hannah is a collage artist who lives south of Seattle. When she started coaching with me, she wanted to make a shift from teaching art classes to work on her mindset, set goals, and focus on a big project - a tarot deck.
Hannah came to me after Googling “artist coach” - (can you believe it?). She felt stuck on her artistic path, and wanted to shift the way she thought about things, and felt like coaching could help her move forward.
We worked together for several months - and she did the hard work to transform her mindset, create a vision, and set her goals - but mostly just learn how to believe she could accomplish what she wants to do.
About a year later, she has launched a Kickstarter campaign for her first unique and beautiful deck called - The Mythic Mashup Tarot. It hasn’t always been easy - but Hannah is focusing on what works, and continuing to forge ahead. If you want to support a young, talented artist, and receive a great new tarot deck (plus other cool prizes like a jigsaw puzzle, a reading, and a digital deck) - this is a great way to do it.
I’m amazed at this deck - such beautiful connections between all the images. A Tarot deck has 78 cards - so creating a deck is no small feat! She uses images from her collection of vintage magazines all the way back to the 1940s, up to contemporary images of today. Hannah combines the images in fascinating ways to tell stories and create archetypal images in the cards, so people can create meaning from the images to guide them on their own personal path - and she is a “product of her product,” too, having used the cards - and coaching - to set goals and do the uncomfortable work of actually accomplishing them.
Here is what Hannah says about her process of starting to create the cards, how the cards helped her on her creative journey:
I really try to combine the vintage and modern together to drive home the fact that tarot transcends time and place. This concept comes through experientially too, I've found that in order to really create an end product I'm happy with, I need to step into the energy of the card I'm creating.
Death was the first card I created, at a time when I didn't know which direction to move in and everything was crumbling around me. Death symbolizes endings and destruction, sure, but it also symbolizes rebirth, transformation, new beginnings coming from the decay of the old. I didn't know it at the time, but the end of an old job and sense of direction was making way for something new and beautiful to take it's place.
And now I'm here, experiencing the depth of meaning of each symbol, one card at a time. Truly, sometimes I feel like the artist, and sometimes I feel like the art, a channel for some creative force outside of me to mold and gently, purposefully guide towards a beautiful, meaningful experience, the full picture of what has happened not really coming through until it's done and I can step back and look at what's been created.
The Mythic Mashup Tarot, by Hannah Freitag
It's been a long journey to get to the creation of this deck. Collage is a medium that I've loved since I was a kid, flipping through old Martha Stewart Living magazines and making vision boards and scrapbooks with my family. It feels like a dream that I'm at the point in my life where I can fully embrace both my love of collage and my passion for tarot.
Frankly, it has never felt like a possibility that I could make a living cutting up paper and gluing it back together. But through trial and error, unexpected twists and turns in my career path, and lots and lots of inner work, I've come to a place where I don't really care whether it seems possible to anybody else (or even myself on the bad days), I've got this artwork inside of me and it's coming out into the world one way or another.
Great job, Hannah - you are an inspiration to other artists - and to your coach!
There will be ups and downs, but when we focus on believing in ourselves, and setting step-by-step goals, we artists WILL get there!
The Major Arcana of the Tarot
The Fool
The High Priestess
The Empress
The Emperor
The Hierophant
The Lovers
The Chariot
Justice
The Hermit
The Wheel of Fortune
Strength
The Hanged Man
Death
Temperance
The Devil
The Tower
The Star
The Moon
The Sun
Judgment
The World
Every artist must embark on their own Hero’s Journey:
In her book, Awakening the Heroes Within, Carol S. Pearson says that the 12 archetypes represent different “selves” or stages on the path of the Hero’s Journey. Just like the different characters and stages in the Tarot deck. So therefore, we are ALL of them - just at different times or stages in our lives and in our creative processes. So we can use this as a tool to say - ok, where am I now? What is my next step? How can I be my own hero in the hard times?
In the Native American Animal Medicine Cards, each animal has a different “medicine” or message for the person who encounters it on how to view the world, what to focus on, how to get past obstacles, how to relate with others, etc. The Whale is the Record-keeper, for instance, reminding us to listen within to the song of our ancestors and nature, in order to create our own, original song.
Support Hannah’s Kickstarter Campaign!
Click the image to visit the campaign.
The Tarot is similar to the Jungian concept of archetypes. Depending on where you are on our creative journey, you can draw from the magic or message of a different archetype. The Tarot draws from these same archetypes.
All of these concepts are what I call “Generating Systems” that help us find new, expansive ideas about our own creative process and new ways to create art that connects with ourselves and others.
How does this relate to the business side of art?
It’s not just the “how” of business that matters,
but the process of learning to believe in your dreams
that really makes the difference.
Why I became an artist
and a coach
As artists, we tend to work in isolation.
When I decided to start making art seriously, I was 50 years old.
I saved my pennies (literally), quit my job, and entered a one-year program at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle - that became two years when I continued on in the Trowbridge Atelier.
That whole time, my mind was tossing out a parade of conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, my brain kept screaming:
You’re so bad at this!
What are you thinking, giving up a good job for this pipe dream?
Will anyone ever like this stuff I make - let alone buy it?
And on the other hand, I was in complete bliss:
Learning about color and value, light and shadow.
Exploring form, shape and composition
Finally free to accept myself as an artist and just be open to new ideas.
It was truly amazing.
My mentors, teachers and friends were so helpful - encouraging me in my goals; I was part of a community of artists all working towards our dreams.
But I had some serious work to do on my thought patterns that I knew were holding me back.
Have you ever heard this quote? It makes SO much sense to me”
“My mind is like a BAD neighborhood.
Don’t go in there alone!”
Learning how to think differently is the BIGGEST THING that will help make your dreams happen.
Learn how to believe in yourself in a way that can weather the storms of the ups and downs of living the life of an artist.
I can help you.
What I do as a coach
I meet one-on-one with artists in person or on Zoom, and work through whatever issues that each client needs. I have created a program of courses that help artists in many different areas, but also just talk about whatever is the biggest need at the moment.
I help artists look at their mindset around so many areas:
The Practical Side:
Creating a Vision for what you are doing in your business and art
Money Mindset
Charging what you are worth - creating a Pricing System that works for you
Setting up Business Systems
Bookkeeping, taxes, finances
Marketing Strategy based on Values
Social media
Sales
The Magic:
Self-concept as an artist or creative entrepreneur
Relationships with ourselves, with our art, with our families and friends.
Shame and People Pleasing
Giving ourselves permission - owning our own power and dreams
Creative Process - listening to ourselves as artists, getting past blocks and out of our own way
and more.
If you’d like to talk, book a free Consultation Call - we’ll go there and find out if coaching is right for you.
Even if it isn’t my program isn’t a good fit for you - I can offer suggestions for your next steps.
