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Tai Kojro-Badziak

@tkb.studio

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Meditative painting inspiring calm 💖
Magical adventures exploring the beauty of the world in watercolor & mixed media 🎨✨
Chicago based, Global soul

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There’s a field of research called neuroaesthetics - the study of what happens in the brain when we encounter beauty — or make it. It merges all my passions: creativity, psychology, human behavior, art, architecture - the whole human experience.

And here’s what the science says is happening:

When we make something with our hands, our brains release dopamine. The same reward circuitry that lights up for food and music, pleasure and safety. At the same time, the default mode network, the loop responsible for rumination, for replaying the conversation you wish you’d handled differently, for the 3am worries, goes quiet. You literally feel good, and focus.

It’s not calm because the problems are solved, but because your hands are moving and your attention is held by something gentle and present and real.

We are wired for this. Not metaphorically. Biologically. The act of making is something our nervous systems need to feel good.

I’m teaching an in person workshop this Saturday at the Milwaukee Zen Center - come join me live!
#my new course Let it Flow - meditative watercolor for Calm is live - link in bio

Let me know if you want my favoite supplies list - I’ll send you a link 💖🎨

#neuroaesthetics #letitflow #milwaukeezencenter #zenart taken in Milwaukee Zen Center by @tkb.studio

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4 months ago

Sunday morning in Rome

The bells

The gulls

The quiet before the chairs

Do you every get up for the sunrise ? taken in Foro Romano by @tkb.studio

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2 days ago

I spent a wonderful afternoon with @stefania_dei_rossi in her lovely workshop in Campo Santa Maria Nova in Venice, learning gold leaf. I’ve taken online workshops and played with gold leaf 🍃 ver the years but I love learning hands on - especially when the teacher is so lovely and personable!!

She showed me that I already knew quite a bit, which gave me the confidence to keep going - and she taught me quite a few tricks too 💖✨

I’ve brought some new ideas to my sketchbooks and can’t wait to see them unfold some more!

#goldleaf #practicemakespresence #exploreart #getyourguide taken in Campo Santa Maria Nova by @tkb.studio

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5 days ago

Finding a moment of wild nature and ancient history in this modern moment at the foot of Tiber island

#spqr #sketchbookstories #practicemakespresence taken in Isola Tiberina, Roma by @tkb.studio

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8 days ago

Living beautifully is all about learning to see, and bringing magic into your everyday life ….

I’ve spent the last week immersed in Italy and I’m not done yet. Talking to artisans and craft folks, chefs and vintners, dreaming up a few beautiful adventures to share with like minded souls 💖✨

2027 retreats are taking shape - time to let your senses take in all the beauty around you: feeding your eyes, your soul and your body.

Want know more? DM and you’ll be the first to hear details.

Andiamo 💖🇮🇹✨

#artisanretreat #feedyoursoul #adventuresinbeauty taken in Fiordo Di Furore, Amalfi Coast, Italy by @tkb.studio

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18 days ago

Some years, today is just a lovely morning. Some years the shadow weighs heavy.

My daughter woke at midnight, sobbing. A dream. I comforted her back to sleep, and then remembered - a quarter century has passed. And all the mis-steps and losses that have come since weigh me down more.

I woke to a clear blue sky today, like so many years ago.

#365daysofpainting #365daysofskies #practicemakespresence #neverforget taken in World Trade Center by @tkb.studio

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25 days ago

Sound up for painting ASMR!

It’s September 1, and that means that I am 14 days away 365 daily paintings. A little opportunity each day to start with observation, a little gesture of pleasure and presence..

We’re under a heat dome again here in Chicago, and this morning the air felt thick. The golden sunrise bloomed out across the blue sky. I love the shifting seasons of September, some mornings still rich with summer, but soon transitioning into crisper evening this morning was one of those beautiful summer moments

My friend @nicklinheap sent me a purse of the month prayer, Reddit, rabbit, rabbit, and I thought that was exactly what was missing from this little moment.

I hope you take a moment to embrace whatever small moment of beauty is around you and celebrate the friends that share that with you

#virgoseason #practicemakespresence #rabbitrabbitrabbit by @tkb.studio

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a month ago

“Late August angst, and a pointless night
Ooh, and the feeling of being alive
For the first time, in a long time”
….

I drove through sunset fields windows down wind in my hair and spilling miles between memory and Monday, between lives past and lives future

This shoulder shift between summer and fall gets me every year. This year, maybe a little bit more than most.

It’s August 31, and I am about 15 days away from a full year of daily paintings capturing the moment, capturing the energy, capturing the essence of a day, every day.

I nearly gave up so many times. But looking back and looking forward, I’m so glad that I did not.

That’s a reflection of the making of the art - and the hanging on itself.

I hope your last moments of August fill you with possibility.

#practicemakespresence #meditativepainting #endofaugust taken in South Haven, Michigan by @tkb.studio

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a month ago

Tape Pull ASMR (sound up!) and the satisfaction of a crisp edge…..

@katiewhiteartist suggested this new-to-me paper recently and I love it - it’s a glued pad, so it’s like a calendar a day pull off piece of art!

What do you think?

Xxo

#asmrart #practicemakespresence #tapepull by @tkb.studio

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a month ago

Sound on for ASMR

A moment this morning

Late August, brilliant skies, heavy clouds thick with humidity, the heat settling in, summer evenings cooling down…. We still hold that expansive feeling, even as we settle back into routines….

Of all things, I’ve been reading a kitchen and bath trade publication this week, and it’s had a few articles about wellness, and specifically the role of water in wellness; the power of water to soothe and heal. It’s not a design trend, but a documented human habit for millennia.

It got me thinking about the throughline in all my work. In the design studio, I’m shaping rooms so a body can exhale in them , creating sanctuary, welcome and gathering places with sightlines, materials, light. In the studio at home, I’m doing the same thing with a brush and a few ounces of water on paper, most mornings, before the day gets its hands on me.

Different scales. Same question: what does it take for a space, whether it’s a room, a page, a person, to feel like sanctuary?

Neither one is the escape. Both are the practice.

#practicemakespresence #SanctuaryArt #letitflow by @tkb.studio

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a month ago

The magic is inside you. There ain’t no crystal ball.” —Dolly Parton

I’m not going to pretend Dolly was a huge influence on me as a kid, but as I grew older and kept seeing her show up in her joyful, abundant, sparkling majesty, I started paying attention.

Not to the wig or the rhinestones. To the woman underneath, who kept building things out of almost nothing and calling it enough. To a woman whose very presence brought joy.

This sky was painted before the news, but I realize it’s an ongoing tribute - showing up, letting the moment be. Just water, pigment, and presence.

#practicemakespresence #ArtAsWitness #tendwonder #letitflow #SanctuaryArt by @tkb.studio

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a month ago

Go sit in the sun

#listen to the world around you

And enjoy the start of Virgo session ✨🦋✨🦋✨ by @tkb.studio

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a month ago