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Moorea Seal | Artist + Author + Designer

@mooreaseal

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I like to make 🎶, write ✍🏼, build🛠️, create🎨, design💻 + do cool/fun stuff🌈
📖 Published: @52lists @everylittlethingtarot
🫣Ft in “Unmasking Autism” book

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I have been avoiding making a video like this for a few… years? I’m getting vulnerable. I’m embarrassed. I’m nervous. I’m feeling insecure. And SO I am being awkward and brave :) I’m sharing where I am at and using the resources I’ve got to start again. Maybe some of you can relate. Maybe some of you will not. Maybe this will start a new wave of online hate or a wave of online love, maybe it no one will see this and none of it really matters. What matters to me is that I am not hiding away in fear, I’m greeting my fear with kindness, and I’m seeking self-expression again after years of letting anxiety cloud my vision.

Recovery from abuse isn’t easy. I still hear the words once yelled in my face. But I’m working on making my own voice louder. Getting older, learning what you need, paying the bills, finding purpose, it’s all a wild little rollercoaster of human existence. And I’m on it, learning to coast through the lows, smile through the highs, and remember, I’m never alone on this janky ass rickety ride.

It would mean a lot to hear from anyone who watches this, whether I’m a new face in your orbit or I’m a worn version of a shiny face you once knew. To risk being brave, to risk putting myself out there after going through things that make me want to hide, it’s kinda the whole point of being alive, I think. To keep going, to keep making, to keep loving, to keep learning and growing. Ok fine, I guess ye ol’ “live laugh love” is a good mantra, even for a worn out sea hag like myself. 😘

#reclaimingself #mooreaseal #startingoverat40 #52listsproject #everylittlethingtarot

Ps, shout out to a bunch of people who have made the last 6 years of my life lovely amidst grief. @vasass @goshcallie the one and only SPJ @bug_woman @iamsouk awe inspiring Beard Taylor @caitlyn.edson @ryan.tiszai the giggliest Ashleigh Elizabeth @tyoung730 @technelogos and the other worldly Erin. And so many others. I love you. taken in Bainbridge Island, Washington by @mooreaseal

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2 months ago

When things get tense, many of us default to what we were taught was “care.” Sometimes, that looks like urgency, control, and hyper vigilance dressed up as love.

This week’s tarot reading is an invitation to notice that reflex without shame and to choose something truer in its place.

Taking action out of love does not equal panic. Nor does it need to be perfect. Care can be spacious. Mutual aid is magic. And taking care of yourself before jumping into action to support others is the most sustainable act.

If you’ve been feeling activated, tender, or unsure how to show up for others without abandoning yourself, this one’s for you.
 Visit the in bio to read the full tarot reading on Substack. And find more resources for building healthy and happy community there. Lots of love, compassion and care to you, sweet soul.

Xo @mooreaseal by @mooreaseal

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9 months ago

Have you ever tried batch painting? It was a really good challenge for my internal negative self talk to have 4 tiny paintings to work on all at once. Getting my paint brush onto a canvas is always the hardest part of the act of painting. The internal narrative, the anxiety that it might not be good enough, the avoidance and overthinking… it all leads to a lot of time wasted DOING nothing. And that is the challenge I need most right now: just do it. lol, thanks Nike.

Let’s get really vulnerable:
I admire artists who make totally different art than me. I love seeing a queer artist’s queerness shine through their chosen subject matter. I love the absurd and wacky. I love artists who inject humor and silliness into their art. I admire their playfulness, their genuine self expression, not worrying about if a piece is sellable or whether they have an audience for it. I love seeing artists creating works that surprise and feel like play.

And in my admiration of others, I look at what I paint and think: god, it’s so boring. It’s so palatable. It’s generic. It doesn’t challenge anyone or anything. It’s basic. Anyone could do this. What about me even comes through to viewers when they see my art? What is special about the work I produce? Or is it just filler art. IKEA art made by hand.

That inner critic is so loud. My insecurities have really been at an all time high. I trust I paint more traditional style landscapes because it soothes me and actually shuts up that inner critique WHILE I’m in the flow of painting. I am just having fun while I paint! So why critique myself before and after? How is that self criticism serving something within me?

I grew up really conservative. Younger, good girl Christian straight little Moorea would be shocked I’m divorced, tattooed, agnostic/atheist, in love with a woman who identifies as agender, I myself a she/they non-binary 39 year old with no children of my own. I’ve grown into my authentic self and am living it, AND it’s time to integrate the authentic of now with the authentic of the past. I need Acceptance that, yeah dude, you were and are kinda basic. And who cares, you like to paint what you like to paint! It’s all ok :) taken in Bainbridge Island, Washington by @mooreaseal

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a year ago

Part two of my recap on @renegadecraft, by the numbers.
Swipe for a breakdown of the top 5 products that earned the most money at my booth last weekend. I share this stuff because when I was starting out, nobody showed me what selling in person actually looks like. And now that I am returning to small biz after 6 years away, I need to new data to direct where I should go with my variety of creative works!

Sterling silver jewelry was my # 1 earner, and I’m not even producing it anymore. I discounted the last of my inventory 50% and sold 22 pieces. Now I’m wondering if I should get back into jewelry design… I first got into jewelry design in 2010. I was an artist’s assistant to a large scale sculptor and I thought, hmm how can I afford to make art? My solution was: jewelry is like tiny sculpture-practical art, it’s affordable to ship, and it won’t take up a lot of space in my home. At the time, I was a live in nanny for a family of 5 in a 3 bedroom apartment. I had very little room to store anything I made. But I built a biz from that tiny room, and now I have a lot more room to make things I love! Anyway, back to the data ;)

The Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic deck and workbook were #2 and #3. We’ve sold 50,000+ copies and haven’t earned royalties yet, (welcome to publishing) so selling them as a retailer at wholesale markup is how I am able to make money on my own books until we make it to earning royalties. Comment if you want me to share more about how publishing really works.

# 4 My mini landscape paintings got TONS of sweet comments and only 4 sales. I think they’d do better at a show where I’m just focusing on fine art and not everything I do. What do you think?

# 5 Ornaments! I sold a few. It’s not holiday season quite yet, but I thought I’d give them a try. They sold like CRAZY when I offered them for sale in Instagram stories last holiday season. So this was my first time selling them in person and I think they got lost amidst all my other products.

Were you surprised by anything above? I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Let me know if you’d like more data, I’m happy to share! taken in Seattle, Washington by @mooreaseal

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2 days ago

This is the info I wish more small businesses shared: the actual sales data, the money. SWIPE for the numbers!

Some background: I started in small biz in 2009, straight out of a Studio Art degree, selling paper goods and handmade jewelry on Etsy. My jewelry ended up in 50+ stores worldwide. In 2013 I launched one of the first online shops focused on curating handmade, ethically sourced, small-batch goods, and in 2014 I opened my first storefront in Seattle and wrote my first book with @sasquatchbooks. @52lists took off, was sold in 500+ stores at its peak, and led to five more journals in the series. I achieved some wild things between 2013-2020. It was incredible and TOO MUCH.

In 2020 I closed the store, ended a toxic business partnership, ended a marriage, and went into hermitage at 34. Three of the wisest, healthiest choices I’ve ever made, no matter how it looked from the outside.

Since then my career has pivoted toward fine art + a tarot deck and workbook for mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, made 50/50 with my sweet pal @goshcallie over three years and published with @clarksonpotter. Earlier this year we released an audiobook version that pairs every card with its own meditative soundscape.

I’m an artist and a caregiver at heart. Returning to craft fairs, wholesale, and retail now is far more heart-centered than it ever was AND more mindful of the $ data I once avoided. Back then I ran myself into the ground to create MORE while neglecting my own financial compensation. Now I know my limits, choose carefully, and create to reveal what matters most: art, self care, compassion, and resource sharing. Everything you do is magic, if you choose it to be. Whether you’re new here or have been with me through every iteration, I’m so grateful you’re in my world.

As I rebuild the practical side of being a part woowoo part skeptic witchy socialist maker in a capitalist world, I want to share as much as I can. Send me your questions, and let’s rebuild together in my era of “what’s next?” taken in Seattle, Washington by @mooreaseal

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3 days ago

Two years ago, we released Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic, our tarot deck and interactive workbook centered around self-care and building a sacred ritual for reflection and healing. Today, we’ve sold 61.7k copies worldwide, and a few months ago we got to narrate our very own audiobook of a whole new version of the book made rich with intentionality and immersive elements with everyone—including folks who are blind—in mind. Because shouldn’t absolutely everyone have access to the magic of tarot? That’s why the entire book features fonts which are easily read regardless of a person’s word processing abilities—it’s completely dyslexia-friendly. And gender? Nah. Not for tarot. We’ve included a section explaining why we decided our queer-made tarot deck didn’t need queens and kings, and why it court system has been renamed Apprentice, Champion, Oracle, and Elder instead.

Getting to write half of this project and illustrate the cards while @mooreaseal wrote the other half and collaged it all together was such a dream come true. Every part of this project has been my favorite thing I’ve done professionally, and I am profoundly grateful for the warm reception from you all.

If you haven’t gotten a copy yet and you’re in Seattle, my neighborhood bookshop @thirdplacebooks has plenty, and our pals at @charliesqueerbooks keep it stocked, too! While it’s available in most major bookstores, I encourage you to shop small and support independent booksellers. They are one of our greatest hubs for knowledge and SUCH a magnet for good people. Go hang out at bookstores! Buy books! Be nice to workers! And read some tarot ✨

Photo from a book signing we were thrilled to do for @compassroseshop in Tacoma in 2024. They also have a phenomenal Olympia location! Give them a visit if you’re in those cities ❤️ by @mooreaseal

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4 days ago

Press down on your screen to pull a tarot card for the day. 🔮

I feel so lucky I got to create the tarot deck of my dreams with my incredible co-author and co-artist @goshcallie! 2 years of testing visions, techniques, and ideas, then 2 more years of writing, drawing, collaging (and editing, and editing) with @clarksonpotter to bring it to life.

Now @everylittlethingtarot has a new way to be experienced: our audiobook is live on all streaming platforms, with a unique soundscape for every card to help you feel into its energy. 🎧

More exciting news:
I’ll be at @renegadecraft in Seattle on Oct 10 & 11 at the @seattlecenter exhibition hall — with the tarot deck, workbook, and more of my magical wares in person.

If we haven’t met, I’m @mooreaseal. I might be the most multi-hyphenated maker you know:

📚 8 books to help you care for you
🔮 1 tarot deck
🖼️ miniature landscape paintings + prints
💍 a celestial jewelry line
🖊️ desk jewelry (aka desktop products)
🥄 hand-carved wooden spoons

I make things because creating keeps me alive and well, and I share them to invite you into that too. I make because I care, and I care through what I make. Find it all at Mooreaseal.com, or come touch and feel the magic in person at Renegade and a few more Fall/Winter events this year in the PNW.

#selfcare #tarot #everylittlethingtarot #everylittlethingyoudoismagic #renegadecraftfair taken in Seattle, Washington by @mooreaseal

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a month ago

It’s Fall ya. Time to make a list of all the coziest, uplifting songs that wrap you up like a warm blanket. #52listsproject

Where are all my list lovers? This weekly guided journal is the most comforting companion through every season. Find 52 Lists Project wherever books are sold. And visit the @mooreaseal booth at Renegade Craft Fair at the Seattle Center on Oct 10 + 11th to meet the author! It’s me ;)

#Listlover #lists #selfcare #guidedjournal

Some musicians whose music I find most uplifting:
@thedangelo
@missjillscott
@yebbasmith
@misshannahcohen
@iamyolaofficial
@jamiethedrake
@tirzahmusic
@musiqsoulchild
@michaelkiwanuka
@lauraveirs
@nickdrakeofficial
@janetjackson
@louval
@jamesblake
@realwashedout
@allenstone
@common
@minnieripperton
@steviewonderlegacy taken in Seattle, Washington by @mooreaseal

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20 days ago

Prompting to stop scrolling and use some pen and paper to care for yourself again. List prompt from @52lists for Bravery, tarot deck and workbook from @everylittlethingtarot.

#everylittlethingyoudoismagic #selfcare #52listsproject #startingoverat40 #witchythings taken in Seattle, Washington by @mooreaseal

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23 days ago

I had a marketing reel draft due to @fultonandroark today, reviewing some of their genuinely delicious scents… and I could not make the content I needed to.

I have 15 years of influencer experience, and it was so much easier when I was a more repressed person who shoved my trauma down deep enough to forget it was there.

15 years of therapy later, I have real healing and real coping skills. I am the truest version of myself; the Demi/pan/bisexual, Gemini/Cancer/Sag, self-accepting, sweet and tender, ferocious and funny, dark humored and loving me that I am at 40. But recovery doesn’t mean triggers stop happening — it DOES means I have better self awareness and tools for when they do.

Today, the C-PTSD + autism combo meant I couldn’t make eye contact with the camera or communicate clearly enough to record something usable for one of my gigs. “Push through, fake it till you make it” doesn’t really work when your nervous system has other plans.

On a different day, with less anxiety, this will be easy. I’ll be funny, I’ll make eye contact, I’ll have cute and cheeky things to say about each scent. Every video has awkward outtakes that get cut in the edit. But today, only about 4% of it was salvageable. So instead of the reel I planned to create today, you get an honest, unfiltered look at what it’s actually like to be a human whose job is sometimes “influencer.”

I do genuinely love so many of Fulton & Roark’s scents, and I pride myself on being direct and honest. Autism makes me brutally honest, if anything. So a more polished review is coming in a few days, once I’ve got the grounded energy for it. But even in a high-anxiety state, I think “Devil’s Garden” and “Highway 190” are my favorite scents. And I’d take a cuddle from a masc human wearing “Sterling” any day. Lol. I’m curious what my faves will be when I don’t feel anxious.

🤡 This sensi moody clown of a human (it me!) recommends @fultonandroark for any flavor of human in any state of being. And a more professional and polished review of their perfumes will happen another day. by @mooreaseal

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a month ago

I’d like to submit my handmade (by me) spoon to the Spoon Jury of the internet. Hit me with your strong opinions, I’m ready.

• It is wood from a tree in my neighborhood, a Madrona.
• I used basic hand carving tools from @bainbridge_barn, an art education and resource space that blows my mind. Shout out to @woodenspoonfool for teaching me the essentials while supporting my audacious dreams.
• It took about 3 hours to hand carve
• Sanding by hand took exactly as long as it takes to listen to the audio recording of Walt Whitman’s “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle.”
• I then made the perhaps stupid but curious and experimental choice of using a rubber mallet and a slotted screw head to notch in a little star shape to the handle. I shall use actual carving tools to attempt more embellishments in the future. But my impulses called, and I listened.
• I roasted said spoon in the oven at 300 degrees for about 30 mins to deepen its color from a pale wood to something a lil richer.
• And last but not least, I used walnut oil to get this baby ready for actual use as a spoon and to deep the color even more.

Ps, this is the second spoon I’ve carved and completed. And alas, to try and sell them, paying myself a living wage based on an hourly rate of $40 an hour, this spoon would cost you $280 which I doubt anyone would pay for. But I’m going to keep carving spoons because I love it :) I think that’s art. Making because you need to, you want to, you love it, whether or not it’s a “sellable” object.

#spoons #autisticadult #woodcarving #spoontok #artobject taken in Bainbridge Island, Washington by @mooreaseal

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2 months ago

MAKING THINGS IN AUGUST:
Flowers pressing from little things I picked while on a road trip down the coast of WA/OR/CA.

#mutidisciplinaryartist #localart #seattleartists #makehandmade #natureart

3 hours to carve it by hand. 3 hours to sand it by hand.

The desk I type at, and sometimes paint at.

Nature’s basket weave

What I listened to while sanding a spoon. Walt is hot.

Try and guess which ones are my paintings (finished and unfinished) and which are just inspo and references

Gesso - sand - gesso - sand

Helping sweet @villanellefloral with a whimsical wedding installation. Hey, all these floral gals are really really nice. It’s rare to be dropped into a group of women I feel similarly spirited to and safe alongside. @villanellefloral, good people are drawn to your sincere sweet spirit.

Finally faced the piles in the basement and organized - trashed - recycled - thrifted what was needed.

Took the time to face every paper pile I could find.

I spent the last 3 months helping to plan and execute the first ever Dahlia Farm Music Festival on Bainbridge Island. And I played merch girl the day of along with social media manager and other odd jobs. @rollingbaymusicclub

Dead heads at @bainbridgeislandsuyematsufarms. I love the humans who make this farm what it is.

My studio/office in an “as good as it can get right now” state. It was the study/library/lounge room of the former home owners and has a bunch of built in bookcases and a daybed.

It’s always been weird being normal to yourself but either a FREAK - or - cool in the eyes of others. I didn’t get invited to birthday parties very often as a kid. And I vividly remember in 6th grade, being asked by one of my classmates to teach the kids at her bday how to draw ✍🏼 I wasn’t invited as a guest, I was to hired as entertainment.

Doing creative things outside while the weather is still nice before the great PNW darkness envelops us all again. Upon which time, I shall gather my friends indoors again to craft and create and eat soup alongside each other again.

I’m more likely to follow through on the shit I want to avoid if I doodle a little illustration next to it. Notice how I avoided, I mean, saved crea taken in Bainbridge Island, Washington by @mooreaseal

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2 months ago