Interview with Intuitive Artist: Julie Hoyle

Julie Hoyle, is an intuitive artist, author, educator and transformation coach. She offers a wide range of healing, creative and spiritual development modalities via her website. Over the last ten years she has written articles for Mind Body Spirit magazines in the US, Canada and Europe. She also offers personal development courses in conjunction with Daily Om. And, she offers intuitive art courses (for people of any age or skill level) on the CourseCraft platform.

How long have you been creating art? Was there a defining moment that you realized a creative life was the path for you?

Julie: I have been creating art for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would use art as a way of trying to make sense of my world. The same was with writing. I always knew that a creative life was the only kind of life I wanted.

Most people we know simply call themselves an artist, but you’re an intuitive artist, why is it so?

Julie: In January 1989, I had a profound and life-changing spiritual awakening. It was so radical and unexpected, I had no frame of reference with which to assimilate it. There were very few books on the subject, and there were only a few people I could talk to about what was going on.

In those days, I focused on painting on silk. I exhibited extensively and several years on, I switched to painting on canvas, using acrylics and mixed media. Around that time, I had an epiphany, “Spiritual and creative energy are one and the same.” It seems laughable now that I had not understood that initially.

With such a huge opening up of Consciousness, my creative energy had simply been following suite. And, although I explored a wide range of styles and approaches, I finally realized I had to work intuitively.

In other words, I follow an impulse to lay down certain colors using whatever tools are at hand. Those tools might be sticks, old credit cards or my fingers. Then once the first layers are dry, I take a close look for images formed from the mark-making. Once I see what I see, I go from there. By trusting the process, something magical always happens.

 

Can you talk to our audience about how you came to realize that you could create art that would promote healing and peace? Was there a clear turning point in your development as an artist that brought you to a space of healing through art?

Julie: Yes fifteen years ago, I was working on preliminary layers for a painting I later titled, ‘Shaman Woman.’ A neighbor walked into my studio. She gasped when she saw the painting and asked if I would sell it to her. She said, “This painting makes me feel really calm. At the same time, it made me feel very strong. How is that possible?”

Since then, buyers have responded in a similar vein many times over. I meditate and pray before I start a new project. The work comes out of silence, and I know that viewers can feel the power of that silence.

What does your creative work offer, in a larger sense, to your life?

Julie: When I draw, paint and create I connect into a state we often call Source, Presence, Awareness or Spirit. This is the same place I go to in meditation and it is the same place I enter when I write or create content for classes and online courses. As a consequence, it affects every area of my life. There is no part that is not touched by the practice of going into that silence.

 

Does coaching others help you in your personal art practice?

Julie: Yes. It has helped me extract the most essential and important nuggets in the creative, art-making process. One point I try to get across, is the importance of integrity and being true to you. And the second nugget is, having the courage to trust the ‘not knowing’ and let it inform where to go next.

 

What challenges have you faced in your creative work?

Julie: The biggest challenge has been related to living and working in the Bahamas. The cost of living is 3x times higher than in the US or Europe. Art materials are very expensive and there is only a limited choice, compared to what you would have in the U.S. If we have materials shipped in, we have to pay VAT on the items as well as on shipping (which usually amounts to the same as in the local store, 3x the cost) On top of that, when I make an international sale, to ship paintings out via FedEx or DHL is a shocker. For example, a 17 x 20” painting I recently sent to Florida (which is only 50 or so miles away) cost me $95.

Do you do anything in particular to seal your art?

Julie: I usually add a top layer or two of varnish to protect the colors. Since the Bahamas is so bright and sunny, adding varnish is a necessity.

What are your plans moving forward?

Julie: I have created several art courses on the CourseCraft platform and I intend to add others throughout the year. These courses (‘Honoring Your Soul Contract’ and ‘Meeting the Goddess’) link to the healing and intuitive development modalities I have been offering for the last ten years, via my website: juliehoyle.org

In addition, I have recently created classes for a ‘Global Healing Summit’ and those classes are available on You Tube under the Buddhist Biohacker profile. I am also well underway with another E-book, which I am writing as a follow up to, ‘An Awakened Life- A Journey of Transformation.’

How can people follow your news?

Julie: They can find me at: juliehoyle.org

And, for daily updates, I am on