About

Mark Art, Not War

At Cre8-Space, I explore creative processes and spaces where artists, writers and regular people design their own unique environment in which they can express themselves creatively through their medium(s) of choice. 

Joseph Campbell advised us to “follow our bliss,” which we can find in any activity that takes us out of ourselves and out of time, like a deep meditation. 

Creating can be blissful.

What inspires/compels each of us to choose our medium, choose our subjects and follow our bliss? That’s what I try to find out with each creative person I get to know.

I love collage, crochet, quilting/sewing, painting walls, interior design… just using my hands to create things. Also, my desire to write has always been strong. As a second grader, I wrote a chapter book about an angel getting her wings. And it wasn’t even a school assignment! 

My entire life has been about writing… mostly studying it to be a better writer while trying to find my niche. And voice. 

I studied journalism at Kennesaw State University while working as a writer, music and restaurant critic, and photographer at the hudspeth report, an Atlanta monthly entertainment newspaper. Oh, I also wrote a column titled Atlantans on Wheels featuring someone who had completely restored the car (or cars) of their dreams. Writing for the hudspeth report was a fabulous gig putting me at the center of Buckhead and greater Atlanta events and restaurants from the late 80s through the 90s. Boy, did Buckhead and Atlanta grow up fast during that time, and some of the best live music venues and entertainment spots were popping up all over and getting hot, ripe for telling their origin stories. (And, Man, could I tell some stories about what our team at the paper witnessed back then!)

After earning my Bachelor of Arts degree at Kennesaw State, I got my Master’s of Art in Communications at Georgia State University in 1998 and spent the next 20+ years in corporate marketing and communications for The Coca-Cola Company, Experian and Nationwide Insurance. You can’t imagine how creative you can get when writing about companies and their products, producing sleek magazines and putting together client conferences. I’m not kidding. Writing marketing and executive communications is a great way to exercise those writing muscles and get paid well. Corporate writing is not the great American novel, but for me it eased that constant urge to write. Like anything we’re compelled to do, if I don’t write regularly, I get grumpy. 

I’m proud of my corporate career. It has afforded me to retire, renovate an 1895 house in a tiny Georgia town and write to my heart’s content about creative people. My hope is that each creative person is buoyed by what I write and they find many benefits in sharing their article with their circle.

Looking back over five decades, I see how following my dream to write did, in fact, help me get my wings and soar (though I’m no angel!). I’ve met amazing people along the way, some famous, some influential and some natural leaders and mentors. (And unfortunately I’ve encountered the occasional a$$ who stomps on people in pursuit of power, but that’s a whole other website!)

Writing has taken me places I might not have dreamed of as a little girl, and it’s still taking me places, both internally and externally, even as a retiree… as I follow my bliss in spotlighting creative people and their creative spaces… and am uplifted in the process. I hope you’re uplifted, too.