Join The
Braving Creativity
Movement!
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New Book Release | July 2023
MY STORY OF
COURAGE AND CREATIVITY
On my wedding day, my father shared in his speech of “Naomi’s beginning of new ventures.” He reflected on how he remembered me as being, he said, “a child who was very frightened by a new adventure.” I grew up with that story about myself. That story cast a lifetime of ripples where I avoided change or sought to control it in order to mitigate my fear.
After my husband died from symptoms related to his addiction to alcohol at the age of 44, I was finally able to feel the full extent of what I feared the most. There have been so many new ventures in the time in-between his death and where I am now. But the most significant by far is the one that has lead me to tell my story and the story of other brave creative women.
HOW "BRAVING CREATIVITY" WAS BORN
Using Creativity to Navigate Big-life Change forced me write a new narrative for myself other than the one I had been living. That journey has helped me face what I had spent a life time not wanting to see, feel our touch.
As a a creative human and as a lifelong champion of women in the arts, I became so curious about how artists approach and navigate this kind of big-change and the transitions that follow.
About a year after my husband died, I took to the stage three times to tell stories of the most confusing and messy experiences of my own process of healing and transformation. I grew up in the theater and have spent my professional career in the arts. There was a point in my journey where the stage was one of the spaces where I could express the most honest and raw parts of the experiences that I couldn’t share in words even with my best friends or my therapist. That got me curious.
Questions I asked
How do artists brave creativity in response to big-change in their lives? Do artists, who use disruption as material for their creativity, who have a facility with moments of uncertainty that are embedded in the process of creativity itself, how do they navigate the uncertainty that remains when everything in life changes?
I wondered:
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Are artists more courageous with personal change than most?
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What strategies do artists use to process big-life change?
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Can we learn something from each other about how to move through change and transition in life by hearing the stories of artists who have made brave choices in the face of big-change?
How the book is structured
In Braving Creativity, I talk to artists who are just like you. They are in mid-career and later and create work in visual art, performance art, dance, film, music, performance, playwriting and screenwriting. They are also mothers and daughters, partners and friends. They all have a perspective on change that has been sewn from a lifetime of grappling with the hardest most honest truths of our journey here on earth.
Each section begins with a story from me and teachings around the the topic that encapsulates the themes of the stories that follow.
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Grief
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Disruption
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Choice
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Opportunity
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Deserving
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Synergy
The Artist Stories in the Book
Although each story has aspects of all the others, the overarching goal is to illustrate the kind of devotion it takes to navigate the uncertainty inherent in any transformational process. Whether we experience a crisis or we make a radical choice to change, the women who share their stories are expert at braving creativity in order to continue to grow. They shared their stories with me so that other people might be inspired to brave their creativity too.
Like actress and writer Maddie Corman, who published and performed her first solo-play “Accidentally Brave” to share the private story of her personal experience of recovery in the aftermath of her husband’s public arrest and how it led her to explore her love of writing for the first time since college; Dancer and scholar Cynthia Oliver’s story demonstrates how an invitation and a collaboration can create the alchemy that makes it possible to brave the painful examination of the beliefs that she challenges in her multi-media dance theater piece Boom! about her cancer diagnosis and recovery journey; painter Antoinette Wysocki, takes us through the how the dismantling of her armor led to the kind of vulnerability that made it possible for her to approach a canvas again with her injured painting hand, which was shattered when a truck hit her car head on.
WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
What Gets in the way of our Growth
What gets in the way of our growth as artists and as humans is rarely a lack of creativity. What gets in the way are old fears and the stories we tell ourselves about our own limitations. Those stories obstruct our ability to nurture our desires, to listen to our hearts, and to take risks that would change the trajectory of our lives.
My goal is to make this book a must read for
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Anyone who is afraid of change or wants to control it.
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For anyone who has experienced a crisis or opportunity that changed everything.
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For anyone who has come to a place in her life where she has made a decision to make a change, but feels unsure about the path ahead.
My hope for this book is to change the narrative around change.
The stories in this book are meant to accompany you in your process and champion your heart’s desire so that you too may engage with new ventures and become inspired make choices that open up new fields of possibilities in your life.
You’ll love this book if you are
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an artist, or if you are passionate about your own growth, like me.
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looking for ways to get unstuck, to create something different, to feel less afraid.
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a student looking at your life ahead and wondering what next.
My hope is that whoever reads this book becomes more willing to engage with the uncertainty inherent in any transformational process because they now know what there is to gain from trying.
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS BOOK!
Sharing with your community is such a great way to help get this book from the computer to the page!
Here is how you can do that:
Follow me on social media
Share the news of my book and other news with your friends and colleagues.
Connect me with folks who would be interested in supporting this book and these stories!
If you are not on my email list, sign up below!
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If you already on the list, share my links with your network!
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Keep your eyes open for both virtual and in-person launch events in Spring 2023.
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My social media outlet and email list are the best way to stay up to date.
Braving Creativity
Artists that Turn the Scary, Thrilling, Messy Path of Change into Courageous Transformation!
SUBSCRIBE AND BECOME PART OF #BRAVINGCREATIVITY MOVEMENT
GET ACCESS!
Early Book Release
Insider Events
plus additional resources that accompany the book!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Because you didn’t get enough already, right?
I’m Naomi Vladeck. I am passionate about personal growth and also about creative expression! I’ve dedicated my life to bringing those two passions together in my coaching work, artist advocacy and leadership work, and in this book. I have a Masters in Performance Studies from NYU, am a certified coach with the Creativity Coaching Association. I hold a certification in conscious leadership practice from MindfulNYU’s Inner MBA program created by Tami Simon/Sounds True. I have been working with and around independent artists for 30 years as an academic, as a fundraiser, as a performer, as a coach and eventually as a non-profit founder.
I am also a single mom of two teenagers and widow who just cannot keep up with the mountain of recycling that accumulates in my garage. I love spooning nightly with my dog and learning to communicate better with the people in my life. My M.O. is to continue to learn how to show up more true in my life every single day and to walk with my fear to greater personal heights!
Thank you for your support,
Naomi