Before interpreting a student’s hesitation, understand the whole child. Vesper’s eight months at Wicked Rae’s offer a personal perspective on creative expression, confidence, and consistency.

What if intelligence is far larger than IQ, grades, productivity, or traditional measures of success? Building upon neurodiversity, Howard Gardner's work, and emerging insights from learning science, this article explores the human intelligences that may still exist outside our current frameworks and what that means for education, leadership, and society.

Three friends entered a cave outside Sedona with sleeping bags, little firewood, and no idea what awaited them. What we experienced that night changed how I understood awe, protection, and the unseen world around us.

By Jules McVey What happens when a woman's inner life is pressed so hard into survival that there is no room left for softness, desire, or dreaming? What happens when men are taught to equate strength with suppression, then wonder why fear of lack, fear of reject, or fear of being fully seen shows up in the body as tension, disconnection, or performance pressure? What happens to the body when expression is chronically postponed? Last year, when I had an emergency hysterectom

After surviving domestic violence, a false arrest, and years of rebuilding safety for herself and her daughter, Jules McVey learned what it means to rise anyway. This chapter of her life shaped part of the mission behind Wicked Rae’s - the one where they create a space where women own their stories, their businesses, and their futures.

By Oakley Rae As women, our bodies are always moving through cycles, changes, and seasons. From hormone shifts to energy dips to the way stress shows up in the body, what we eat can make a big difference in how we feel. Nourishing foods should do more than fill us up - they should support our bodies and minds in a way that feels steady, comforting, and sustainable. That is especially true for women living with PCOS (PMOS). Research shows that diets rich in fiber, plant protei

After serving more than 3,000 people through art, creativity, family programs, team building, and community experiences, Wicked Rae's is exploring what comes next. Discover why we're building more than a larger space and why communities need more places designed for connection, belonging, creativity, and human flourishing.

When you change the sensory environment—heat, movement, sound, color - you see how people truly respond to change. Adaptation, curiosity, regulation, irritation, withdrawal, leadership. Wicked Rae’s experiences reveal real‑time human behavior and team dynamics that traditional workshops never touch.

By Jules McVey Yesterday morning, putting our sign on the sidewalk, a woman in her 70s abruptly stopped and looked at me and said, "It's so good to see a face for this place - thank you for all the color you're putting into the world." Her words immediately warmed my heart. I told her thank you and that she should come and paint. She looked down and said she's too old now, but maybe she'd book a session for her grandkids but they're teenagers so they'd probably complain. Told

We often think of play as something we leave behind in childhood. Research and experience suggest otherwise. Play may be one of the most important drivers of creativity, innovation, connection, resilience, and collective intelligence in modern organizations. Explore why Human Experience Design begins with understanding how humans naturally learn, connect, and create.

Explore how to strengthen teams by reconnecting with core human abilities for improved trust, communication, and creativity.

Community art isn’t valuable because of the final product - it’s valuable because of the connection it creates. Research shows that shared creativity fosters transcendence, belonging, and well‑being. This post explores why making things together strengthens us individually and collectively.

In the sleep lab, I learned the nervous system is a better historian than the mind. Electrodes don't lie - even when patients say they're fine, their bodies whisper otherwise. Fast forward: swap EEG leads for paint buckets. The truth remains: your body needs completion, not cognition. When you combine motion, creation, and consciousness, you don't just regulate - you reclaim. Sometimes peace isn't stillness. Sometimes it's the sound of a body remembering how to breathe - in c

Expressive art helps people release emotion, reconnect with themselves, and heal - without needing words. At Wicked Rae’s, night-shift nurses, veterans, teams, and families find catharsis through motion and color. Whether it’s paint, clay, or collage, the process reveals what the body has been holding. This isn’t therapy - it’s soul work. And for many, it’s the first time they’ve felt seen.

Traditional journaling has long been recognized for its therapeutic benefits, but what happens when we set aside the pen and pick up paintbrushes, colored pencils, and markers instead? Visual journaling - the practice of expressing thoughts and emotions through art rather than words - offers a profound pathway to mental wellness that speaks directly to our brain's most fundamental processing systems.