

“The Innernet” is an invitation: to more fully connect to your life offline (Innernet) by making a regular habit of disconnecting from your life online (Internet). Through her internationally-known daily painting practice and blog, Oprah-featured artist Abbey Ryan cultivates a fulfilling life offline while at the same time embracing all that makes the digital world remarkable. In this 2-part series, Abbey hosts two live 60-minute group lecture/Q&A/mentoring/coaching calls about the Innernet/Internet balance that we need—whether you’re a maker, thinker, improver, planner, or producer. During the live calls with Abbey, you’ll see that maintaining a mindful balance that suits you is possible. You’ll do your own version of a digital detox, equipped with an inspiring course packet which you can download and print before you unplug. The Innernet goal: make time for the things you “wish you had more time” for.
Unplug and participate in “The Innernet” at a time that works for you. Listen to the live calls, deepen your experience, and discover how to cultivate a fulfilling life offline while also embracing all that makes technology remarkable. Your registration includes access to the course materials and two live calls for a period of time afterwards. Explore this on your own schedule, and listen to the calls when you have the time.
It took me about a year to create this course. As an artist and teacher, it is something I am passionate about. My “wish I had more time for that” list consists of spending time with loved ones, being in nature, resting, wandering around museums, and painting. Painting is on my list even though I have painted almost 1,000 still life paintings as part of my daily painting practice.
Since 2007, I’ve spent thousands of hours offline at my easel, as well as hundreds of hours online sharing my painting work on my blog. I’ve also spent many hours not painting because we all experience life challenges and digital provocations that distract and pull us away from doing what we love. I see all of these hours as valuable and meaningful in our lives.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’
then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
~Vincent Van Gogh
The Internet is a concept that relies on a massive, complex, computer/technology network of networks of networks—all of which make it possible to access and share information on the World Wide Web. The Innernet is a metaphor for what it is that connects us to each other and to ourselves—the Ground of our being—and to Being itself.
After I solidified the idea for this course, my dad shared his term “Innernet” with me. In 2001, he spoke about the concept at a WCCM conference in Texas after he had started up their Web presence. He said they first thought it was a typo. I searched the term online and surprisingly found only a few random hits. One needs to be shared: A spoken word poem video from 2012 entitled “The Inner Net – Are We Moving towards a Hyper Connected or Disconnected World?” by the talented spoken word poet David Bowden. David poignantly describes the Inner Net in some unexpected ways. It’s worth watching at least twice.
Yes. As a painter, the contrast between my Innernet (life offline) and my Internet (life online) is immense. I frequently reflect on this contrast and often speak about it in my workshops, private instruction sessions, and during my travels. I’m not suggesting we demonize the Internet in any way. But I hear from so many of you who feel pulled in different directions, distracted by what is digitally at your fingertips, or just wishing you had more time to do what you love.
We honor, accept, and acknowledge life’s challenges and the challenging aspects of digital life without judgment when we mindfully set aside a few minutes, or an hour, or a day to do more of what makes us feel most alive. I’m not alone in thinking that it’s a good idea to periodically unplug and explore our own Innernet in order to be our balanced, creative, grounded, productive, peaceful selves. Yet this peace is not static; it is an ongoing and cyclical process. If you feel drawn to this, create your own Innernet practice and movement.
As you can see in the 2010 video below that accompanies Seth Godin’s bestselling book Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, Seth describes how the Internet has worked for me to share my work all over the world. Seth refers to me as a “linchpin,” however, I could not do the work I do without a purposeful and mindful balance between life online and life offline.
This course is for everyone. Invite friends to join you. If you have colleagues or friends who’d be curious about this, having a community and sharing the experience is more fun. Just as you can’t force someone to eat right or exercise, you can’t make someone care about this. As John Main said “Peace is not induced. It is entered. It is released. It is not commanded but received…. The peace we want to see spreading in the world cannot be imposed by force. You can’t force anyone to be peaceful.” But you can invite them, just as I am inviting you.
Your only requirement is to be curious about the nature of life in a digital world, and to have a willingness to just see what happens when you unplug.
I hope you do. At the same time, every time I teach a workshop, I see and feel the collective, positive, rush of inspiration and peace that participants experience being offline in the studio together. If we unplug together and share our experiences in this course, our collective consciousness—the nöosphere—will feel a similar rush of inspiration and peace. This is an ongoing and cyclical process, my hope is for folks to create their own Innernet practice.
“Jump right in, or wade in slowly.
Advantage to one, it’s over quickly.
Advantage to the other, it isn’t.”
~Hurry Up and Wait, Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler’s new children’s book for grownups
If you’re new to my work, here’s what my collectors say about it:
I love teaching and I believe we all learn from each other all the time. Here are a few comments from those who have studied with me:
“I was going to say something more about hurrying, but why take up your time?
You have things to do. You can flip through this and go on
to what it is that’s waiting for you, the next thing.
And by THIS I mean everything.”
~Hurry Up and Wait, Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler’s new children’s book for grownups
“The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it, too.
The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it.”
~Excerpt is a conversation between Siddhartha & Vasudeva,
pp. 105-7, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, 1922
The first step is to register.
A few days before it begins, you will receive an email with the official course packet (PDF download) so you can print it out for yourself. The course packet is something I worked on for about a year. It includes everything that helps me unplug: activities I’ve created, questions to ponder, book excerpts, poems, concepts (e.g. Dunbar’s number), tasks, quotes, and more. It’s hefty and fun. There are no requirements, but the packet is there for you if you’re ever at a loss for something to do.
On Day 1, I will host a live 60-minute lecture/Q&A/mentoring/coaching call to lay the groundwork for the Innernet experience. You may submit questions in advance and call in to talk with me live. (Call access details will be provided by email and calls will be recorded in case you can’t make it live.)
Day 2 is a preparation day to get things in order so that you can unplug however it works for you. Notify friends about your plan.
Days 3 and 4 are set aside for your #DigitalDetox. You get to define what #digitaldetox means to you. This is your “break” from the Internet. Unplugging entirely can seem impossible. How you unplug is up to you. You could start by turning off mail and social media notifications on your phone/computer. You could choose to put your phone in airplane mode for a few hours each day. You might want the computer App Freedom or the Smartphone App Offtime. If you need to receive text messages and phone calls depending on your situation or profession, you’ll do that. Going offline isn’t always simple, so you do what you can. During your time offline, there is no goal to be reached. You are free to just be and do those things you wish you had more time for……
…The course packet you will have already printed out has no required assignments. But it is there for you as a prompt if you desire a more directed time offline.
On DAY 5, I will host another live 60-minute lecture/Q&A/mentoring/coaching call to share my Innernet experience, hear from you about your time offline, answer questions, and talk about what comes next. You may submit questions in advance and call in to talk with me live. (Call access details will be provided by email and calls will be recorded in case you can’t make it live.)
I hope you will join me.
All my best,
P.S. If it’s helpful, in this video I talk about my approach to teaching painting:
Abbey Ryan is an artist’s artist, known for her inspiring, illuminating, and supportive teaching approach. Abbey believes that life in a digital world means balancing a fulfilling life offline while at the same time embracing all that makes technology remarkable.
Inspired by the “A Painting a Day” movement, Abbey started making daily paintings for her blog on 9/23/07. Since then, Abbey’s blog has had over a million visitors from over one hundred countries. More importantly, painting has become part of her mindfulness practice and daily meditative time. Making a painting a day speaks to her interest in ritual, practice, classical still life and trompe l’oeil painting, in relation to the complexities of Internet globalization. Abbey’s paintings are in over 1,200 private and public collections all over the world. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe.
Abbey’s paintings have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Seth Godin’s bestseller, Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, Brainard Carey’s Making It In the Art World, FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, American Art Collector, Plein Air magazine, and BoingBoing, among countless others. Abbey was recently recognized as #5 on the list of “49 Creative Geniuses Who Use Blogging to Promote Their Art” by BoostBlogTraffic.
Abbey studied with David A. Leffel at the Art Students League of New York. She also completed undergraduate work in both science and art at Arcadia University (BA & BFA, 2003); and post-graduate work at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hunter College/CUNY (MFA, 2007). She was born and raised in New Jersey, USA. Abbey teaches painting workshops, offers private painting instruction/mentoring online, and is an assistant professor of art at Arcadia University. She lives and works in Philadelphia.
For direct access to her paintings, visit Abbey’s site and daily painting blog.