Introducing myself and my journal: Shiloh Sophia

About Me:
I am called the Minister of Sacred Arts or the Art Doctor, or Chief
Laughing Cloud

BIO:

Shiloh Sophia McCloud - Visionary Artist Teacher and Publisher.

Shiloh Sophia McCloud has dedicated the past sixteen years of her life to
the study and practice of art as a spiritual discipline as well as to
helping equip women with the tools and understanding to develop their own
creative potential.

Shiloh's artwork is committed to providing healing images and teachings
about women and family. Shiloh lives and teaches a philosophy that all art
forms are tools for individual, social and spiritual transformation.
Thousands of women have deepened in their creative practice through
Shiloh's illustrated Color of Woman journals and her workshops.

Shiloh is the founder of Cosmic Cowgirls Ink LLC, a woman and girl owned
publishing company that produces collaborative tools for transformation.
Shiloh's paintings are internationally collected and her product line is
represented at galleries and fine shops throughout the Unites States.
http://www.cosmiccowgirls.com

Shiloh teaches at several colleges throughout the Bay Area in California,
as well as in her own classroom. The focus of her teachings is intentional
creativity and visionary life work.

\"The work of a woman visionary is to the know the past, dream the future,
and take powerful action in the present.\"

A little more info...

I encourage all women to be creative and reminding us that every bone in
our body is a creative bone.

I work with women who have not painted sometimes in 40 years - and have
felt repressed all that time. Through accessing her own internal wisdom
regarding her creative self, healing occurs.

I believe that it is through our creativity that we are able to unviel the
self that we most wish to be and the gifts that accompany that self.
Creativity gives VOICE to the soul. And so...I put my energy into inviting
women to create.

As a full time artist and teacher everything I create is a prayer for our
possibility. I have been representing the work of women artists in prime
retail locations for over ten years - as well as publishing the word and
images of women authors and illustrators.

I also create Rights of Passage experiences with young girls that include
painting, journaling and ritual making.

Through our publishing company, Cosmic Cowgirls Ink, LLC we work to create
a venue, platform and community in which women have an opportunity to
share their work. Our books and cards are represented
in venues across the United States and Canada.

I am passionate about giving voice to the work of women and girls. In my
lifetime I am committed to working together with others to change the way
women and girls are viewed in the media. One of the ways I do that is to
publish alternative media so that there are options for us to choose that
represent more of who we experience ourselves to be. I am also VERY
passionate about the practice of intentional creativity and making that
available to others.

Yet another angle...

Confessions of a Punk Rock Princess when asked about her art experience
and resume:

“I am rebel. And a woman in process. So all of my projects, from my books
and paintings to my resume are rebellious works of love and outrageousness
in process. One of my gifts is that I am not a perfectionist. I don't try
to get it right. I just share what I have and I hope it reaches someone in
a way that they need to be met. I don't fit into fill in the blank spaces,
and most folks don't. When we try, we end up looking and feeling crunched.
I did not have traditional art training and I had to leave art college to
save my own creativity from the depths of conformity. So when folks ask
where I got my training, I just say, my family. Because I did. My mom
taught me, encouraged me, to be as different and unique as I felt like
being. I stopped trying to fit in at about age 14, and not a moment too
soon. I was done with all that. I became a punk rocker without the anger.
And I was proud of it. But how can you put punk rock princess on your
resume? Where is the space for writing, 'I have been drawing all my life'
on a resume? Or, 'I am the one my friends turn to when they are in need'
or 'I am inventing my own legend' or 'I have written 100 poems\".

We create our own legends...

My Passions:
creating art, teaching art, visionary business

My Challenges:
getting the word out, having enough staff, technology

My Vision for the Future:
A world where images and stories of women and girls is always positive and empowering. If this is the case - the whole world will actually be different.

My Areas of Expertise:
visionary business, art for non-artists, graphic design, changing our perspective, teaching workshops, making sacred space