Abelina Galustian says of her painting Womansword [left, detail] that she is “commenting on the absurdity of gender roles in Orientalist paintings. My attempt is to sound an alarm to women around the world and let men see a different perspective of sexist issues.” [From artist statement on her site womansword.com]
The original source painting Galustian [...]

Being self-directed and self-defined are traits of creatively talented people, but there may often be internal and external influences that compromise that autonomy.
Mary-Elaine Jacobsen [author of The Gifted Adult] notes in her article Giftedness in the Workplace that gifted adults “may fail to respect their own need for solitude, reflection, and time to daydream or [...]

David Milch - creator, writer, and producer of the HBO series “Deadwood” - commented in an interview about “trusting the process of the active imagination. It entails suppression of the Ego. I am able to develop exercises where I can suppress that quickly. I am able to get to the work faster every day.”
He adds [...]