Be your own Artist and Designer!
It's fun and simple!
Playful, unconventional Methods. Stunning Results.
Your online Studio where you create freely and with lots of joy in these categories:
Happy (often hand painted) Clothing - Digital Art - Collage - Mixed Media.
For curious beginners to advanced creatives who love "to do different".
A plethora of research shows that:
1.) engaging creatively and
2.) wearing happy clothes is beneficial for
overall health and well-being.
Here's why:
What you wear affects how you feel and think.
When you wear clothes that light you up from inside, your voice is stronger, your eyes shine, you stand taller, you smile and you are happy.
You feel beautiful, confident and strong from your core.
Instead of getting frustrated or rattled with daily challenges you can be confident, stay focused and come up with creative solutions.
Creating with the hands also affects how you feel and think.
When you create with the hands, the brain switches into the pleasure giving centers.
You can then intentionally cultivate delicious inner joy, satisfaction and calm.
Whether you are an advanced creative or you have never created freely - YAY!
It's great you are here!
Let that inner Creative roar with joy.
"Your concept is so simple! It's brilliant!"
"I always thought that your art must be complicated and involved.
But your concept is so simple!
It's brilliant!"
Michelle B. - artist and national art instructor
It's all about
Fun - Fabulous - Fast.
- Fun methods.
They are simple and playful. Total mood boosters. - Fabulous, high-end looking results.
So you can feel happy, in charge and radiant in everyday life. - Fast results.
The methods and patterns are faster than traditional ones. - Super simple patterns for flattering styles.
You can make them in your sleep.
But - oh my - do they put a swing into your step!
The unconventional, fast painting methods and super flattering patterns are not available anywhere else.
Who is this Studio for?
People who want to boost and solidify their inner joy and calm - the fun and playful way.
Creatives who want fresh methods to spark up more creativity.
Professionals who want playful ways to relax and recharge.
Those who are aching to set their inner creative free - but don't know where to start.
Retirees who are yearning to play, have fun and create to their heart's delight.
Those who tried meditation - but it makes them feel even more restless.
Creating with the hands might just be your fun ticket for sweet inner peace and joy.
"It is quite liberating!"
"Monika, what you are offering is something so special. I haven't seen anything like it.
I must say I quite enjoy the freedom to splash paint freely.
It took me out of my comfort zone.
It is quite liberating."
Lindsay Cash, artist, retiree
Come in, play and create:
Online Courses - fee and free.
Plus Digital Downloads for your collages and mixed media.
Customized Private Studio Days with Monika
In person at Monika's Studio in Austin, Texas, USA
It's a fabulous way to celebrate yourself!
Or celebrate milestone.
Alone or with a friend(s).
You create long lasting joy-filled memories with friends or family. Whilst also creating exquisite pieces to wear that keep you happy and inspired for years to come.
If you are a beginner, the "Private Studio Days" set you up for creating fabulous pieces on your own with confidence and delight.
If you have already taken the Signature Course Program "Hand Painted Art Tops, Happiness and Joy", if you are an advanced creative, or are a designer, the Private Studio Day fast tracks you on adding exciting new techniques and styles to your repertoire.
Available for individuals and for 2-3 friends at the same time.
P.S.: Think GIFTS:
Mother's Day gift - Special birthday gift - Special friend gift.
Hello there, I am Monika Astara, your guide on this fabulous journey.
"You have no creative bone in your body!
God must have been asleep when He created you!"
That's what my art teacher told me for 6 years.
Yet - I have been a successful full time wearable art designer since 1987.
I have created and sold well over 20 000 pieces of artful clothing, happy jewelry and art.
I have dressed women - and a few men - for Presidential Inaugurations, Music Awards and Hollywood Award Shows.
The Monika Astara creations are designed to make women feel happy, confident and radiant in everyday life.
They have been selling in:
high-end boutiques, galleries, retreats, in person at my studio, online and for 13 years also in my own boutique at the Hot Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
From the very beginning I have always come up with my own unconventional methods.
You get stunning results with them that you don't see anywhere else.
Inspiring you to create in ways that light you up and boost your confidence, makes my heart sing.
You are in safe hands
Creating with the hands and teaching are Monika's lifelong passions.
She has worked with thousands of women 1:1 and in small groups for 36 years.
Her extensive German teacher training and experience* comes in handy to teach you with easy-to-follow short videos with INSTANT GRATIFICATIONS.
*Monika has taught in public schools and community colleges in Germany.
In a prison in Germany she taught all the subjects needed for a GED.
Students had no books. There were no computers, no copy machines.
Monika had to be creative in her teachings so that the inmate students could graduate.
In the USA she has taught in a community college, on an online art platform and now teaches on her own online course platform and in her studio in Austin, Texas, USA.
Client Love:
"So much happiness and joy"
"I haven't had any happiness or joy in my life for a very long time.
Your course is giving me so much happiness and joy. Thank you!"
Dale Hardy, engineer
"It's brilliant!"
"It's so simple! It's brilliant."
Priti, psychiatrist
"...even Netflix is better..."
"I swear, even Netflix is better watching it in one of my tops."
Karla, lifestyle coach
"..opening my brain and heart..."
"I am a frustrated abstract painter.
Your encouragement and sharing of ways to create joy through painting on fabric are opening doors in my brain and heart to painting in an unstructured way. I am having so much fun with your methods."
Diane Williams, photographer
"Instant joy and gratification"
"Using fabric paints with Monika's methods are a lot quicker than the dyeing procedures I usually go through.
Here you get instant joy and gratification at what you’ve created!"
Linda Thompson, wearable art designer
Linda Thompson in the Joy tunic - created with the fast, super fun, faux Shibori method
Rae Dollard in one of her first Alison tops.
Done with the Fast and Fabulous Method.
"..loving your course..."
"Been watching your videos all evening!........The videos are excellent!
I used to evaluate teachers for UT (University of Texas).
I can tell you were a teacher.
Very organized and concise.
With so many courses I feel like I wasted my time and money.
I am loving your course!"
Rae Dollard, Jeweler
"This is fantastic.."
"This is fantastic! ....
You are a natural teacher. Enthusiastic and patient.
Love it!
I also love the way you are emphasizing the joy of creating."
Lyn Belisle, artist, national art instructor
Be inspired and supported:
Join the free Creative Freedom and Joy Club.
A safe, private, free community where you can experiment, learn, be supported, be inspired and inspire others.
Regardless of where you are on your creative journey, join the private Club and reclaim, or nurture and exalt your creative expressions!
Sign up to be a VIP (Vibrant Inspired Person) - it's free.
- Get first dibs on new products and courses.
- Relax with inspiring stories and short ways to create something beautiful.
- Enjoy practical style tips that are fun and easy.
Read about inspiring transformations through the power of wearing the "right" happy Clothing and Jewelry
Keep Being Inspired
Are you curious for more on "being creative/not being creative", the "science why wearing beautiful clothes and jewelry is a necessity for well-being" and more?
Keep scrolling and reading.
Take your well-being into your own hands:
Creating with the hands calms the nervous system and cultivates joy.
A plethora of research shows that when you create with your hands and play like kids do - curious, engaged, experimenting, enjoying each moment - the chatter in your mind subsides.
You experience delicious joy, deep satisfaction and soothing calm.
For most it works faster than meditation.
That allows you to deal with daily challenges from a place of inner calm and strength.
Instead of getting frustrated, depressed or feeling isolated and alone, you can unleash and strengthen that natural inner joy.
When you create art on paper or canvas, it often gets stuffed into drawers or a closet.
When you create art that you can wear, you sprinkle joy wherever you go.
It can be as simple as dangly earrings, or a painted shawl that sparkle up your eyes.
And it can be as bold as whole outfits, where you radiate exuberance.
You'd love to create fun clothes and jewelry - but you think it looks too difficult?
It's just the opposite.
Here, at Monika Astara Studio, you get super easy flattering patterns.
You also get playful methods that are simple and fast.
Together they produce high-end, stunning looking clothes and jewelry - for everyday to special occasions.
Even if you are a beginner or think that you are not creative, you can feel like an accomplished designer.
Use clothes and jewelry to take charge of how you feel.
You know how, with some things that you wear, you feel blah, with others you feel neutral, with others you feel good - and with a few you totally light up from inside. You feel so happy - and you radiate it out! That is true beauty.
Imagine how liberated you feel when you express on the outside, the radiant being that you are on the inside.
The wearable art that you create and wear doesn't have to be "in your face".
You create it to suit your personality.
It can be understated, quietly artsy, casually sophisticated, bold - and anything in between.
"...so much Joy and Happiness!"
"I haven't had any joy or happiness in many years.
Your course is giving me so much joy and happiness."
Dale Hardy
Engaging creatively is not a luxury - it is a necessity.
When you create with your hands the brain builds neurological pathways for joy and calm.
The more you create, the stronger those pathways become.
Creating with the hands is one of the oldest, most natural and effective ways to counter-balance outer disturbances and keep passionate, peaceful and gentle on the inside.
Wearing fun clothes and jewelry is not indulgent or selfish.
It is essential self-care.
Everything - including your body, emotions and thoughts - vibrate on certain frequencies.*
So do the colors, shapes and textures of the clothes and jewelry that you wear.
You experience that in the way you feel in your clothes.
When you wear clothes and jewelry that dampen your frequencies (energy), you feel blah. When you wear clothes and jewelry that are the same as your current frequencies, you feel neutral.
But - when you wear clothes and jewelry that enhance and uplift your frequencies, you literally light up from the inside.
Your voice is stronger, your eyes shine, you stand taller, you smile and you are happy.**
Have fun and play with it!
Use hand painted clothes and uniquely "you" jewelry to uplift and support yourself.
* this can be measured.
**this can even be photographed with Kirlian photography
You'd love to create, but you think you are not creative?
So did Diane.
Diane (in the photo) had been wanting to create tops like I do.
But she insisted that she is not creative.
It is a useless, made-up belief that many of us have.
It often shuts down the natural need for creative expression.
We are born creative. And we NEED to create. Just watch kids play.
I am passionate about inspiring and guiding you to create to your heart's delight.
With just one of my super simple, fun techniques, Diane turned her throw-away T-shirt into a fantastic art shirt - within 5 minutes.
"Not being creative"
I can totally relate to it.
Even though I had been creating hand painted wearable art clothing and jewelry for over 30 years, was selling to high-end wearable art boutiques and galleries and had thousands of people telling me how creative I am - I never believed it.
What I do is so natural for me, that I thought any kid can do this.
It feels so easy and playful, that I never thought it qualifies for being artistic or creative.
Meanwhile I realized, that's exactly where our creative genius is:
when it is so easy and natural, that we think it's "nothing".
It's most likely the same for you.
You dismiss your creative expressions because they seem too simple.
But that's where you excel!
Don't compare - it's the killer of joy.
Just create for the sake of creating and have fun!
Real life transformations - through clothing and jewelry.
Over the last 36 years I have played with thousands of women with clothing and jewelry.
There are so many astounding transformations.
Find out how you can do it for yourself - and read some inspiring transformation stories.
Are you someone who'd love to relax, but can't sit still, and mediating makes you feel like a failure?
Then creating with the hands can easily be your ultimate way to calm and balance that rascal mind.
Research and personal experiences show that it soothes and balances the mind and nervous system - often faster than meditation.
Plus - you get some gorgeous things to wear, touch and see.
See below what Marissa says:
From "funk" to "fun".
"There's nothing better than splashing paint with Monika's methods to take myself out of a funk and into having fun."
Marissa
