COVID-19 Collection | FREE!
Art and Soul Sessions:
Creative Expression & Mindful Play
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“Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable” —CARL JUNG
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Sundays, 9:30am Pacific (12:30pm Eastern)
Attend via ZOOM Meeting ID: 356 443 569
Go to Calendar entries for complete call-in details.
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JUST BECAUSE WE’RE CONFINED TO HOME doesn’t mean imagination and creativity can’t soar! Art is a powerful tool for enhancing well-being and activating the power of the psyche to heal and restore balance. Research shows that, regardless of skill level, making art reduces stress and anxiety, and supports the default network in the brain by bringing us into a state of “wakeful rest”. Creating art allows us to vent difficult feelings, and open to vision and possibility even in the most difficult of times.
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Also—doing art in a group is FUN!
Unleash your creativity, joy, and freedom of expression through this mindful play. Each Sunday we’ll feature an artistic activity lead by a different community member.
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April 12th: Joyful Coloring, with Kristina
”Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” — JOSEPH CAMPBELL
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We will focus on JOY as a theme. No experience necessary, just come to play and have fun. Please bring paper, markers, cray pas, crayons, colored pens and/or pencils, watercolors, paints. Whatever you have on hand.
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April 19th: Love Mandala, with Tomoko
Mandala is the Sanskrit for “circle” or “completion”. The mandala is a symbol for the universe and gives us a sense of belonging as we examine our own connection within it. It is used for insight, healing and self-expression in a circular design, reflecting the wholeness of the person creating it. Creating a mandala can open a window for exploring one’s inner self. Let’s restore our sense of well-being by creating a mandala with the things that we love.​
Materials:
• Paper with a circle pre-traced onto it or cut into a circle. A plate is a good for tracing.
• Color Pencils, color crayon, paint, any drawing materials or paints you have.
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April 26th: Healing Through the Art of Our Dreams,
with Priscilla
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“Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about… say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” — RUMI
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Carl Jung saw both dreams and art as expressions of our unconscious. Dreams and art speak the same language—not a language we need to translate and decode concretely, but one we can hold softly and understand in our soul.
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Sitting in a virtual circle together, lightly holding our dreams, we will open to the images that yearn to come through into our creations.
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Materials: Any of your favorite art supplies on hand will do—paper, paints, pastels, crayons, or pencils. Didn’t stock up on art supplies before Staying at Home? Here's how to make your own art supplies from items in your pantry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IQTLVWA6YM.
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May 3rd: Acrylic Pour Painting—
Tapping into flow, with Adrienne
In this joyful alchemical practice, we mindfully create a container, prepare ingredients, pour colors and let go. The magical transformation unfolds before us and within us. Paint flows across the surface, colors mix, gentle tilting creates new shapes and designs. First timers can create beautiful images using this fun and forgiving process. The result is a surprise every time.
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THE STEPS
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FLIP CUP. Layers of different colored paint are poured into the same cup and then flipped upside down on a surface. Pause, lift the cup, tilt the surface, behold the magic.
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SWIPE. Colors are poured on a surface with black or white paint on one side. Using a damp paper towel, card stock or paint scraper, the black or white is gently pulled over the other colors, which bubble up to the surface
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MATERIALS You will only need ONE from each category
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PAINT
Acrylic paint – preferred (3 or more colors) • Latex house paint • Tempera paint
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FLOW ENHANCER
Floetrol • Pouring Medium • Elmer’s Glue All (or school glue) • Optional: rubbing alcohol, silicone oil, OGX Coconut Oil Hair serum (or anything with dimethicone)
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SURFACE (Easiest to work 10 x 12" or smaller to start)
Canvas, canvas panel–preferred • Tile–preferred • Glass • Wood • Thick gauge paper • Press board
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ALSO water container, 5-8 small plastic or paper cups, stirring sticks, latex gloves, apron or old clothes, something to perch your canvas on and a pizza box or tray to catch the paint. (see below)
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May 10th: Free Form Colorful Art with John
“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.”
—RAINER MARIA RILKE
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All you need is sketch paper, color pencils or paint, or the oil pastels given to you during Pathways workshops.During this hour we’ll explore free form expression allowing yourself the freedom to draw whatever shapes appeal to you. This is perfect for those of you who fear you “aren’t good artists”. Join me in an experience of joy in the freedom of expression.
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May 17th: This and That Collaging, with Dori
“Play is the work of children; it’s very serious stuff.” —BOB KEESHAN (AKA CAPTAIN KANGAROO)
Through collaging, we will playfully explore various ways of seeing and experiencing the same event, relationship or situation. By stepping into different perspectives around topics, issues or words of our own choosing, we will become more aware of the “this & that” of all things and open ourselves up to greater self-expression, expansion and joy.
We will be making three small collages, one representing “this” and the other representing “that;” the third will emerge from the work with this and that. In the process of assembling various bits and pieces, we will create a new whole, a greater sense of inner calm and a deeper connection with what is in front of us and wants our attention right now.
Suggested supplies include: 8x11 paper any color, tissue paper, magazines, sundry decorative items like mini mirrors, glitter, ribbon…sand or salt…whatever you have lying around the house. Glue or glue sticks, scissors, markers, pens and/or pencils.
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May 24th: Reflections of the Self, with Denise
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe to match your nature with Nature.”
―JOSEPH CAMPBELL
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Finding and connecting to images that speak to us can illuminate parts of ourselves, showing us our own peace, joy, contemplation, yearning. This time will be spent creating a collage of these images, compiling a reflection of ourselves
Recommended materials:
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• Images (previously completed drawings or artwork, magazines with pictures, images printed from online)
• Scissors
• Adhesive (glue/glue stick/tape)
• Large background on which to create the collage (flip chart paper, 4-8x11's taped together, cardboard)
Some online sources of inspiration:
https://www.louvre.fr/en/moteur-de-recherche-oeuvres…
beautiful solar system pictures
https://www.pexels.com/search/natural/
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May 31st: Come As You Art: A Found-Media Collage Session, with Cassie
Let’s celebrate where we are in the present, and the resources we’re surrounded by all the time, by coming with what we have on hand and creating from there. Have you been cleaning out and finding old papers, clippings, manuals, photos that you’re just going to recycle? Old encyclopedias, atlases, or other reference books you can’t donate and were just going to throw out anyway? Piles of papers, text, images, that on their own don’t seem like much, but together might be something great? Anything you can think to bring to play with, bring It! Let’s let our creativity fly and see what lands!
MATERIALS:
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• Posterboard (or construction paper, or cardstock, or cut open a brown paper grocery bag, or cut the side of a cardboard box!)
• Papers from various sources to cut/rip: (newspapers, circulars, junk mail, magazines, outdated reference books, pamphlets, etc.)
• Glue or glue stick (or tape!)
• Scissors
• Anything colorful (or not colorful, your choice!) to write with: Pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, sharpies, crayons, craypas / oil pastels
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Attend via ZOOM​ Meeting ID: 356 443 569
Go to Calendar entries for complete call-in details.
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