Tell me if you have had moments in your life where your hands, your heart, or your lips itch to express what you felt, but fear stopped you cold?
Fear of judgment. Fear of being seen. Fear of standing for something.
I’ve been feeling that itch lately.
There are so many things that I want to say, but I stay quiet.
Doubt creeps in, and I wonder if it’s my place to speak?
That is when my fingers start itching to express what I can’t get myself to say out loud.
I see pencil lines forming on the page. I know it’s a woman I’m drawing, but I don’t see her clearly. She’s blurry, unfinished. I think about adding color. Blue for freedom, maybe.
Should I draw her sad or scared? This is when I realize that I don’t want to keep repeating the same story of the past.
Dr. Joe Dispenza teaches us to “believe in your future more than your past.” Neville Goddard reminds us to “focus on the feeling of the end result.”
That reminds me to make a different choice.
To draw her head tilted up. A pose to show she is proud and powerful, even if she carries pain. Maybe her eyes are half-closed, with a tear on her cheek. But not a tear of pain, a tear of relief, a release, from knowing the worst is over.
This is what art does.
It doesn’t just give us an outlet to dump our emotions. It gives us the power to choose which emotions we want to cultivate.
It lets us create from the future we want, not the past we’ve lived.
That’s why I created the Future Self-Portrait program.
It’s a 7-week journey for women who are ready to step into who they’re becoming, not just process who they’ve been. To paint the story they want to live, instead of rehearsing the one they want to leave behind.
I’m refining it right now, pouring everything I’ve learned into making it even more transformative. I’ll share more when it’s ready, but if this resonates, stay tuned.
Here’s what I’ve learned: even when I can’t perfectly draw the image in my mind, the very act of envisioning it changes me. The decision to focus on freedom instead of fear, on hope instead of helplessness—that’s where transformation begins.
And if you’re feeling that itch to create right now?
My 5-week drawing course begins on October 25th at 3:00 p.m.
This isn’t about becoming a perfect artist. It’s about reconnecting with your creativity and using art as a tool for self-expression. A space where you can explore what wants to come through you—without judgment, without needing it to be anything other than honest.
If you’ve been waiting for permission to express yourself, consider this.
And right now, I feel the world needs people who choose hope.
As I watch what’s happening in Gaza, I feel that itch more than ever to express what I feel.
I can’t change what’s happening with a drawing. But I can choose where to place my attention: on the future I want to help create. One where every person has their basic rights. Their dignity. Their freedom.
Some might say that’s naive. That art doesn’t change the world.
Maybe. Maybe not. But here’s what I believe: when we create from hope instead of fear, when we focus on the feeling of what we want to create (like Dispenza and Goddard teach), we shift something in ourselves first. And that shift ripples outward.
That’s where change lives,
not in what we can control out there, but in what we choose to create in here.
I don’t know if my art will change the world. But I know it’s already changing me. And maybe that’s where all change starts, from within.
If we haven’t met yet, I’m Claudia Marulanda. I’m a portrait artist and Health Practitioner who helps women use art to reconnect with themselves and step into who they’re becoming. Because sometimes our hands know how to express what our voices can’t.
