How Artist Maria Gerke Creates Living Watercolor Portals for Your Dreams | Sacred Business Stories

We are live. Welcome to Sacred Business Stories. This is our weekly substack series where we have an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about what it looks like to build a business that's aligned with your deepest truth. And, yeah. Today we're joined by artist Maria Guerke. We will share more about her here in a minute, but we'll just take a few moments to let people join and. Yeah, welcome. Janine. Michael. Greg.

Nice.

Some names I haven't seen before, so maybe some Maria fans in the house. I don't know.

Yeah.

Welcome, everyone.

Yeah, this is a very special moment. Who was just saying that? How this is, like, his favorite moment of the week. And really, we created this space so people doing cool stuff can inspire us and can also inspire you. Yes, Maria, Go. Hello.

Yes.

Yes. This is basically our intention to bring inspiration forward so you can see in others and see that you're capable of bringing all of who you are forward. And if you have the intention, it doesn't need to be your business. It could be a project. There's, like, many ways that you can share that with people. So, yeah, I'm very excited because Maria's work is very, very special. Very, very unique. I was lucky enough to experience that. So I'm very excited for her to share her story here. Yeah.

Yeah. So a little bit about Maria for those of you that haven't had a chance to experience her work. She is a watercolor artist, I believe, from Milwaukee, originally from Germany. And, yeah, she's doing some very cool work around how she is using art in a live format to help people anchor their visions. Yeah, their visions on an individual level as well as on a collective level. So some of you may have seen. I know we've shared with it. Shared it here on Substack. She actually came for the Sacred Business Network, I guess it would have been last month. Yeah. In March. And did this process for our broader community. And it was absolutely amazing. Like, it was such a. Yeah, it was very calming, but at the same time, like, inspiring experience just to kind of see kind of our vision for the community coming to life, but also the collective vision of everyone that was there live and how she was able to weave all of that together into really beautiful art. So, yeah, we're really excited to have her here with us today. And, yeah, I guess I will turn it over to you, Maria, just to kind of share a little bit more about yourself. Yeah. Your story and what you're creating in the world.

Okay. Yeah. So a little bit about my past, I would call it kind of like a passive integration, not in the way of making everything the same, but integrating all the different pieces. So I kind of started out, I guess, as a child. I didn't really have a problem with integration. Children are usually very integrated and well that way. But in my career after high school, I kind of focused on the very analytical, technical, left brain side of things. I went into it corporate, which I still do, but I neglected kind of my creative side and anything else around that. So then a few years back, just after my daughter was born, I started getting back into my creative side of my art and, like, really focusing on making art and trying to create a business out of that as well. So connecting with my right brain, with my creativity and getting that kind of combined again. And I also started a mindfulness journey with my friend. We have a podcast called Becoming Mindful where we really. It's like our exploration of mindfulness and different teachings and how it affects the world. And so that kind of started the integration with, I would say, the body, right? So you have, like, the whole body and expanding that then out to community and the world. So this is kind of the integration level of how I'm expanding in my life. And at this point, I also weave that into my art. I mean, it naturally flows into my art. Right. And what I do and how I live and how I do business, I guess.

Just a question, Maria. Sorry. Was watercolor always your thing? Like, how like, the passion for painting was always since you were like, a child or how, like.

Yeah, I was always very passionate for painting. I did a lot of painting as a child and teenager. As a teenager, I worked mostly with oil, though. I've kind of gone away from that because oil is just really messy and stinky and can't really do it inside without, like, passing out, I guess. But I've done other medium. I've done acrylics. I've done. You know, I also do things with crocheting, for example, and sewing. And so there's other creative things that I do. But for my art, I mainly focus on watercolor. Just because. Well, there's two things to it. One is it's very environmentally friendly. There's not so much that's leaving a trace, I would guess. I would say so waste or materials that need to be used. And also I really love the unpredictability of it because the flow of it, which makes it also really hard. But it's very. It's the combination of easy accessibility and this kind of very unpredictable flow that makes it so fascinating to Me because there's always little surprises and how it turns out. And that, like, really resonates with me and my art and how I do art and why I do art. So. Yeah. And that kind of led me last November, joining you guys and really, like, really honing in on this, you know, making the art, this sacred thing and narrowing down of how I can, as an artist, contribute to the world and also sustain myself, or at least on the path of trying to do this as my main business and still being aligned with everything I value and the integration also to my life and everything. So that's how I found this new offering, which I'm doing, which is the embodied vision portal of really connecting to the energies and the essence and visions and, you know, how people see the future and want to. What future they want to bring about. Like, how do they see themselves evolving and doing that with groups as well to really get this, how we're all connected. Right. That this essence of when you're doing work in this group and you work towards a better future or for yourself, you know, like, through healing and integrating and also for everyone else. Right. If you are, you know, like a coach, how you really bring up this better future for someone else in serving the community and serving the world, for example, and then connecting that all and bringing that in through kind of the mindfulness side of meditation and energy, connecting the energies and then channeling that into the art. So, I mean, artists is generally very energetic or generally very spiritual in nature. Even a lot of artists might not think about it that way, but it really is because it connects to your soul and to your creative, creative creativity and, you know, and to your spirituality in, you know, whatever ways you do art. And so, yeah, doing that in this way where the art really is kind of this energetic anchor of the vision and in this way being kind of like. I was reminded of, like, bards, you know, like bards doing bardic inspiration. I don't know. This, like, brings out my nerdy side. Sorry, you caught me. I'm like, love stuff like D and D and stuff like that, you know, so like a bard being this person of inspiration with their word. And so for me, as being, like, the visual bard, so with my art and, like, inspiring the people and then with that, helping them do their meaningful work in the world. Right?

Yeah. I'm gonna go off script here a little bit and just ask you a question because, you know, we were so. It was such a privilege to experience you doing this live process for us. And, you know, it was like Roughly an hour, maybe a little bit longer of you kind of doing the mindfulness work with us, you know, capturing everyone's kind of essence and, like, what they were looking to bring forward with their vision. And then you. And then you just kind of went into your own creative process, and we got to kind of witnesses you were bringing that forward. And I remember as we were starting the process, I was just, like, kind of looking at the canvas, and I was like, what does she see here? Like, what is this? Like, where is this going? And it was, like, really not that clear to me. And I'm just curious around your creative process. And, like, also, like, I think there's a connection here. Point to this idea of, like, trust. Like, for me, like, that was. That's really, like a, you know, a process of putting yourself out there. And, like. Like, so I'd love to hear about how you kind of brought that all together, but, like, how you trust and guide yourself, like, to this place of, you know.

Yes.

Self trust that you're going to end up with this. What ended up being, like, this beautiful creation.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's clear what I'm asking, but I just feel like it takes a lot of courage and trust to kind of put yourself out there artistically. Like, it's one thing to be doing that in your studio, and then it's like, okay, I'm going to share this when I have this beautiful thing, but to be doing it live and especially in such an intimate way where it's connected to everyone's dreams that are there. Like.

Yeah.

I'm just curious to hear how you. How you relate to that and what your. Your internal process is a little bit around that, if you're willing to share.

Yeah, yeah. And I absolutely agree. It's. It's something probably a couple years ago or three years ago I would not have done because it takes a process of. I think that you first have to go through internally of kind of working with the fear of being seen. And that's a big thing with artists anyways, especially artists that are trying to sell online. Like, they're always trying to hide behind the art. And it's. It's a process that I've worked on with another group that was specifically for artists and then with you guys. Right. Getting that trust in yourself and really allowing the imperfection, that takes a long time. So I would say the only way I got there was with, you know, working in the mindfulness, you know, doing the mindfulness journey and, you know, working with Groups like you to help me really, you know, do this. You know, the embodiment sessions, for example, that Carolina does amazing for that. And then you essentially go through this process of trusting the outcome because, you know, you've done this before, you've evidence. Right. And you trust that all the little things in the past where people said, yes, your art is great, and I love your art. And even just yourself doing this before and be like, okay, I really love the outcome. But that's the interesting thing, and I think that applies to more than just art, is where you start with this blank page and you have this vision and you start to put it in, you start to create it. And then there is this long time, which in art they call the ugly phase, where everything just looks ugly. Like there's nothing you can see. It's just like. Doesn't have real form yet. And it's just like a lot of people get stuck there where they're like, okay, this is ugly. This is not going to turn out. This is it. Right. And it takes a while to really get. It's like internal processing. It's just something you have to do within yourself to get to the point where you're like, okay, it's gonna look ugly for a while and that's okay. Right? It's just how it is. That's just how life is. Everything's gonna look ugly for a while, and then in the end, there's gonna be a beautiful outcome. And then like this trying to let go of, you know, what it's going to be at the end. So perfectionism. Right. Like, trying to, like, to control it. So kind of letting go of that control, it's really hard.

Yeah, I think it's. Sorry, go ahead.

No, I'm just saying I'm not 100% there yet either. So, you know, every time I do this, I still have to. I still have to work with that resistance. Right. And that uncertainty.

Yeah. I just feel that it's such the correlation and it's not art for me. What you're sharing is about life. And then I have other friends who are artists and often they talk about, oh, I start painting this and it never ends because they always go back and there's something else that they want to make it better that they see that should be done in a different way. And then they never really publish or they never really sell it, and they never really, like, put it out there because there is always something else. And the framework you created for yourself, you have a timeline. You know, like, even though after, you know, like you have this like 30, ish 40 minutes or so that you have, like, I need to get this done and maybe like you're going to do the adjustments after and that's one thing, but you can change completely the vision. So like, you need to get it right. Right. In that, you know, 30 minutes that you decided for yourself. And I feel that, like going with the messiness and like not trying to be perfect and like, hey, I have 30 minutes to do this and whatever I get done in 30 minutes, that's the final thing and I'm going to put out there. It's such a powerful way to approach and not being stuck. And it's like, it can always be better. It can always be better. Yeah, that's. That's such like a relation with life.

Yeah. Now I do have to add that. I did add a little bit of some finishing touches after the meeting, but I even there I gave myself a timeline. Right. Because I wanted to send it out the same day and scan it and send it out to you guys. Right. So it's not like I'm working on this another week or something like that. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, get another. Because half hour is pretty short, but it is enough to get like an idea, right? To get kind of like a glimpse. And I know a lot of people enjoy watching art videos, like painting. Right. But you know, watching someone paint for a long time, not sped up is probably a little. At some point it gets a little boring. But yeah. And what you just said reminded me of something else that, that I was talking about with my podcast partner because she also had this perfectionism and trying to get the editing right and everything like that. And somewhere in some book, and I don't remember what it was, I read something that really resonated with me. The quote was, publish your shitty draft. And I don't remember, but it's like, so that was such a great thing. And then I talked with her about it and we made this deal. We said, okay, we're gonna say 70% is enough. 70% is enough. And it really helped us, like, just do it. Like just, you know, do something. Just do it. That reminds me of shuttle buff.

Yeah, I agree with you. And the other thing I want to, like, I would love to hear more of, like, what you think about that because you did a beautiful connection between art and energy. And the more I'm getting to understand, like, I've seen it, like, that's my perspective. It's been like a while that art is a form of elevating people's vibration most of the time, because there's like, art that's like, heavy too, and it brings, like, different energies, but it could work as, like, uplifting. So I see the work that you do, like an energy work, you know, it is artists, but it's like. And even if you talk about, like, mindfulness and all of that, but it's.

Like.

The way I see that image, like, every time I see that, it's me connecting to how I want to feel and then with my vision. Right. But then I can feel it right now. And there's like, many things about, like, the vibration of the piece itself. So, like, how do you relate? Like, you know, like. And I don't know if people realize that, like, if you enter like a beautiful room with, like a nice painting that was actually, like, printing is one thing, and then when it's like, handmade and it's the original is another thing, and they carry, like, different vibrations. And if you get something, like an object, for example, that's made of plastic and then has a vibration, and if you get something that's made of wood, it has a different vibration. So all of that contributes to elevate the frequency of the place that you are. And the more you pay attention and the more sensitive you are to those things, the more you go for, like, the things that makes you feel in a certain way or they will remind you about a certain thing. So how do you like, yeah, like, I just want to hear your perspective more about that and how that influences your. Your life and then how you see that, you know, how. How art in general can help people to, you know, elevate their frequencies to reach their goals, for example, because it's. It's not disconnected, right?

Yeah, yeah. And there's. There's multiple things here, I think. One, the energy in art. Right. So. And that doesn't. That doesn't apply only to visual art. It applies to poetry. It applies to music, especially music. I think music is a really big one. When we see art or when we hear music, there is. It affects us directly. Like, we feel a certain way. It's like it's a feeling or an energy informed that you absorb or that reflects to you and you will be affected by it. Right. And you know, that's. That's something else I've, you know, always heard is, you know, it's. The art is not just a beautiful picture. Art is kind of like a feeling in form. Right. And that's why, you know, when you're Sad. You listen to sad music. And if you listen to sad music, you might be sad or the other, you know, or uplifting music, and vice versa. So this and the other thing is too, if you look at human history, there always was art. Prehistoric times, there was art. This is like a. It's like a very core thing to our human existence is art in whatever shape or form. And the materials we work with do also matter, and they can connect us to different things. And what. Also something that I've realized, especially now with the whole discussion about AI and the energy, is you can feel that. I think you can feel that. And because there's a connection to the person that meet the art. Right. So when you purchase a piece of art or when you hang a piece of art, you're not just connecting to that feeling or the image that's on there. You're connecting to the artist. Right. So, yeah, and we know that art in spirituality is big too, like symbols, lots of symbolism and outlets of kind of the creative. The creative spirits. Right. So I think. So that's kind of on the energetic part. I think what I wanted to add about the space part is having art within your daily routines elevates them. And with music, you know, that's why we put on music when we do certain things. That's why you always, pretty much always have music. In any spiritual practice, right. In any religious practice, there is music, there's art. There is visual art as well. And for example, things like, you know, if you have a meditation area or an area where you work and you put certain art that resonates with that practice to. Will not only elevate you when you're in there, like, you can feel it that you, you know, your space is more beautiful and the energy is there, but it will also draw you back in. So it's really important, I think, also for a sustained connection to your meaningful work to create a space that. That is there for it. That's kind of the container of where you can go into and do your work and be connected to your vision and to your purpose.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah. So that's kind of my thought on art and energy. Now, one thing that you said that I wanted to add to, because you said it can uplift us. I think it's also important that we work with art that doesn't uplift us because realistically, we need to feel all the feelings, not just happy feelings. It's important to recognize the beauty in. And the importance of things like grief. Right. The grieving process. So, you know, that's why there are artists that make haunting paintings. I just remember this one painting that I was. So there's actually a couple of paintings. I think it's called Anguish. And then the other one, I don't remember exactly. It's like where these. There's like, this mother sheep with a dead lamb and, like, all these crows around, and it's just haunting. It's just. Oh, and then there's the second one where it's the opposite, where the little baby lamb is alive and the mom is dead, and it's like in a snow scene and there's these crows around. Oh, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. And it's so haunting, but it's also so beautiful because it also shows you the love. Right. That's in grief, because that's what grief is. You miss something that's not there anymore. The love that was there. Right. So I think it's just so important, and we need to. And art can really help us work through these things and experience these things and heal us.

Yeah, yeah. Like, you. You made me emotional right now because I. When I had my miscarriage, and I'm not an artist, and I don't paint. I just love it. I just like it. But I had, like, started painting something, and I would do that for, like, just, you know, random. And I remember that one point. I don't know what was the calling, but I had this canvas there, and I think my grief, you know, and it ended up being like a beautiful, like kind of like an ocean color, like a blue and turquoise and white. And I, at one point, like, I left the painting behind. But it was so important for me to go through that process and feel the feelings that I was feeling when I was doing that. And then I decided that I didn't want to hang that anywhere. Like, it wasn't to be. Put it on my house, but I just kept that for, like, many, many, many years. And it helped me to process my own emotions. And just the way you were relating, like, came the vivid memory. So I'm sorry, but. And I agree absolutely with you, like, it's all the feelings are supposed to be felt, right? But then it's kind of like, where do you choose to have them? Right? And then, like, your photo, for example, for our vision being on my, you know, like, where I do yoga environment, where I, you know, meditate, where I, you know, work. It's more connected to my vision than if I was putting something like that, for example.

Yeah. And. And that Actually reminds me of something that is kind of also the decision of how do you want to serve? Right. So I. Last year, I used to do workshops that were more around safe space. So it was very similar, not with live painting, but it was around kind of stepping into this inner safe space and feeling safe and relaxing. So, you know, for people that are really overwhelmed and stressed. So I started there and now kind of moved into this. Okay. I want to uplift, and I want to supercharge the people that want to make a difference in the world. Right. The change makers, the visionaries, to really bring out this beautiful vision. Because I feel that's something that we need right now in the world is, you know, not this dystopian fear everywhere. We need a beautiful vision that we can work towards in this world, and we need to uplift each other, and we need to help each other, and we need to have a community, right. Be in community to, like, really strengthen us. Because every single person can't do it by themselves. Right. And I can't do it by myself. And I. I can't do it all by myself with just art either. Especially, you know, because it's not an active thing in the way of, like, I grow food or something like that. Right. But it's something that I can add to the collective that will elevate the whole thing. Right.

I love that. Quick question, then we'll get back on script. But did you. So as you were doing that, live with us, at what point in your creative process do you really start to understand, like, what you're creating?

Like. Like when we.

When you finished going through asking everyone about their visions, like, did it kind of come to you right away, where it's like, okay, this is where I'm taking us, or was it more of, like, an unfolding? Like, I'm just, like, back to my point of, like, I couldn't see it. Like, I was just curious how we related.

Yeah.

And maybe it's always different. I don't know. But in that particular experience, I'm curious what. What that was like for you.

Yeah, I think the. The first idea of, like, a very rough outline of what is going to happen on the canvas kind of happens in that. That middle phase where we share, right. Where people talk about what they've experienced during the meditation and the feelings and the things they saw. And then when I note that down, I start kind of already, like, start putting it together in my mind. And I actually did make a little sketch, too, on that paper. So that's where it Starts, and then so I just have like the rough outline of what I want to put where and kind of that kind of thing. And then. Yeah, and then while I paint morphs into different things and things change, and then just like. Yeah, it's just kind of like falls into place during the process.

Beautiful. Yeah. And so again, it was just such. Such a gift to witness. You kind of already touched on this earlier, but kind of, you know, one of the things that we always ask guests on this. On the show is kind of. We talked about this idea that it's like, perfectly normal to have this fear and resistance. It's not something to be kind of like pushing away. And in fact, if you're experiencing this, it's probably a sign that you are kind of moving in the right direction towards your. Towards your meaningful work and what's important to you. And so as you're kind of. I know you're in transition, right? Like, you're still in your corporate role and, you know, you're bringing this beautiful new business to life as we speak. Where are areas that kind of fear and resistance are showing up for you at present? And, you know, how do you work with that? You know, and maybe how could, you know, in case that could relate to anyone else that kind of experiences something similar as they're bringing. Bringing their work to life?

Yeah, I think probably the biggest area is just the fear of, okay, so I'm working on this art business, like, at what point there needs to be, like, this transition? Right. And that's probably my main worry at this moment. It's like, you know, where can I transition this the best without causing turmoil within my family life? And, you know, that's probably the biggest one. So making that leap, I think. But one thing I'm already better at, and I think that's something that I've been working on with you quite a bit, is the. This. This resistance or this worry about connecting to people and like, direct. More direct asking people, you know, and this. More direct marketing and direct sales, because that's something that we. Previously I was focusing more on my message and then, you know, essentially waiting for people to come to me, which now I'm kind of transitioning into more of trying to find the communities that could maybe use my service and then connecting with them. And that's something that.