Self-paced course · 6 lessons
Intuitive Art Making
Color, texture and rhythm without a plan. No masterpiece required. Just materials, curiosity and permission to see what happens.
See in the shopDebby Meadows Studio
We are allowed to create lives that actually feel like our own.
One creative ecosystem from a woman who crossed her own thresholds, made for anyone standing at theirs.
JOY is a practice
START exactly where you are
CREATE before you're ready
PLAY is not frivolous
JOY is a practice
START exactly where you are
CREATE before you're ready
PLAY is not frivolous
JOY is a practice
START exactly where you are
CREATE before you're ready
PLAY is not frivolous
JOY is a practice
START exactly where you are
CREATE before you're ready
PLAY is not frivolous
THE WORK BENEATH THE WORK
Start exactly where you are.
You don't need to know what you're doing before you begin. Pick up the brush. Play the drum. Sing the song. Write the words. Creativity isn't something you earn by becoming good enough. Creating is one of the ways we come alive! But how do you actually do that? Start where you are. Choose a door. Step inside!
Art & Prints
Original paintings, limited edition prints and photography created at the edge of thresholds and the heart.
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Music
Original songs and albums, written after seventeen years of creative burnout and silence.
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The Book
Tell Me Something True: The Perry Parallax. A memoir of rural Kentucky roots, cages, leaving and returning.
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Courses
Workshops, guided audio and resources for making things without needing permission OR skill.
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Programs
Group experiences for reclaiming your worth, your creativity, and building a life full of joy, peace, and freedom.
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Money Drums
Hand-painted djembes, original and commissioned, built to be played.
Step InThe studio
A multidisciplinary creative studio
My work lives at the intersection of art, music, storytelling and transformation. I create original art and photography, write books and music, develop courses and creative resources, and facilitate experiences designed to help people reclaim their own voice, worth, joy and freedom.
A painting, a song, a book, a course or even a conversation can shift something. It can wake up curiosity, bring you back to joy, or help you see yourself and your life a little differently. Creativity has a way of opening doors we didn't even know were there!
You don't have to know where the door leads to open it.
Meet Debby
Artist, musician, author, lifelong creative.
Music found me when I was seven years old in Kentucky, quite by accident. Or perhaps it was simply time for my gift to bloom. Music quickly became my lifeblood, my solace, and later, a cage. Yet, creativity has been the main thread running through my life, even during the years when I lost my connection to it.
I spent 33 years as a musician, singer, and leader before making the choice to walk away from music entirely. That choice wasn't popular and came at a high price. I was disowned by family members. I lost my entire social construct. I was alone. What followed was 17 years away from music and a long, deep journey into myself. I left the high-control religious world in which I was raised. I questioned beliefs and identities. I raised three daughters, returned to college, earned two degrees, and began a career as a visual arts educator. It was not a popular decision. But for the first time in my life, I chose ME. And I emerged changed.
I stayed away from music for 17 years. And then we found each other again.
Today, I create across mediums: visual art, photography, music, writing, teaching, and transformational experiences. I bring an intuitive, deeply human approach to everything I create, including spaces and experiences that help people cross their own thresholds and create lives that feel more true, more joyful, and more fully their own.
My work isn't about becoming a better version of who someone else thinks you should be. It's about uncovering what is already you: your voice, your creativity, your worth, and your right to take up space in the world. And, perhaps most importantly, your capacity to choose your own path.
I don't believe we are here simply to endure our lives. I believe we are here to inhabit them fully. With joy. With peace. With flow. And with the freedom to say: This life is mine, and I love it!
The shop
Things made by hand, and things to travel with you.
Original artwork, prints and photography, one-of-a-kind and commissioned Money Djembe Drums, music, guided audio, journals and courses. Some are made to live on your walls. Others are meant to be played, heard, written in, made a mess with and explored. Everything here was created with the same invitation: start where you are, get curious, play, and see what happens!
No products found
Music
Songs written on the way back.
Original music written after seventeen years of silence. I write songs of freedom, reclamation, joy, longing, grief, and themes of choosing your own life. I came back to music when I could finally separate the gift from why I chose to walk away from it. That's when my love for music and the sheer joy I felt playing, singing, composing, listening came back!
Forthcoming memoir
Tell Me Something True:
The Perry Parallax
Part memoir, part creative reckoning, Tell Me Something True: The Perry Parallax is a story about music, belief, burnout, longing, freedom, and the strange ways another person's story can illuminate our own.
It begins in Kentucky, inside a world where faith, music, identity and belonging became almost impossible to separate. It follows what happened when I walked away from all of it, and what I discovered during seventeen years of silence.
Woven through the story is an unexpected parallel with Steve Perry, whose own departure from music and eventual return became a kind of parallax: two lives viewed from different distances, revealing something neither story could show alone. It isn't a story about celebrity or fandom. It's about recognition between fellow travelers, creative exile, and what can happen when another person's courage gives us permission to look differently at our own lives. At its heart, this is a story about what it costs to choose your own life, what can be lost in the leaving, and what might still be waiting when, and if, you are ready to return.
Courses & resources
Permission, in practical form.
You don't need to be an artist, a musician, a writer, or even think of yourself as creative. These are places to try things, make a mess, follow your curiosity, and discover what happens when getting it “right” is no longer the point.
Downloadable PDF + audio
Reflection Journals & Guides
Places to think on paper. Prompts, questions and guided practices for getting curious about your life, your creativity and what you might want next.
See in the shop
Live online workshop
Permission to Make Noise!
Drumming, rhythm and sound as play. No musical training required. No perfect timing required. Pick up the drum and begin!
See in the shopRead the blog
True Threshold
I write about creativity, music, leaving, beginning again, joy, identity, and what happens when we stop living by rules we never chose. Sometimes thoughtful. Sometimes irreverent. Sometimes I swear. Welcome to True Threshold.
PROGRAMS & EXPERIENCES
Crossing the threshold with company.
Some thresholds take longer to cross. These are deeper, small-group experiences for people ready to spend time with the work: reclaiming creativity, questioning old expectations, making different choices, and creating a life that feels more fully their own. These programs open only at select times throughout the year.
Group program · 8 weeks
The Threshold Experience
You don't need to become someone new. An 8-week live experience for people who have spent so long performing, pleasing, producing, and giving that they've lost touch with what they actually want. Through conversation, creative practice, body awareness, and honest self-inquiry, you'll begin recognizing your patterns and your own signals again. You'll begin to build a life that reflects who you actually are.
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Group program · 6 weeks
Creative Reclamation Circle
For people who used to make things, want to make things, or are convinced they “aren't creative.” We begin exactly where we are and make something beautiful anyway!
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One-to-one · 60 minutes
Private Experiences
Occasional one-to-one or custom experiences for people who want to go deeper into the work. Availability is limited and varies throughout the year.
EnquireQuestions
Before you ask.
And if what you want to know isn't here, the contact form is open and answered personally.
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Originals and hand-painted djembes ship insured across the United States, and can be delivered in person in North County San Diego. Prints and photographs are produced and drop-shipped by the studio print partner, usually within 5–7 business days.
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Music, guided audio, journals, guides and course access are delivered by email immediately after checkout. Files are yours to keep, with unlimited downloads.
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Yes. Both paintings and Money Djembe Drums may be commissioned. Each is created individually, so we'll begin with a conversation about what you're drawn to and what you'd like the piece to hold or express. Send a note through the contact form and I'll reply personally.
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Tell Me Something True: The Perry Parallax is forthcoming. Join the studio list for release news, early excerpts, reading dates, and other updates along the way.
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No. You don't need experience, special skills, or to know what you're doing before you begin. Some offerings teach specific skills along the way, but you are never expected to arrive already knowing how. Start exactly where you are. That's the whole point!
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I bring more than five decades of creative practice as a musician, singer, artist and educator. I hold a bachelor's degree in Studio Arts/Art Education from Northern Kentucky University and a Master of Education in Teacher Leadership with an endorsement in Gifted Education from Eastern Kentucky University. I currently teach fine arts and music for Arizona State University. I also bring the lived experience of spending 33 years as a musician, including years as a music minister, praise band front person, pianist and composer, before walking away from music entirely. Seventeen years later, I found my way back to creativity and eventually to music itself. My courses and programs are educational and experiential. They are not therapy or mental health treatment, and I don't diagnose or treat. I teach, facilitate, create, ask good questions, and make room for people to explore what they discover for themselves.
Say hello
Start a conversation
Whether it's a painting, a commission, a course, a program or a question you haven't quite finished forming yet...you're always welcome to write!
- info@debbymeadows.com
- Oceanside, CA
Thank you
Your note is on its way! I will reply personally, usually within a few days.