SACRED ART-PLAY

Workshops

The workshop can have a theme or each person can create their own theme. Before we meet I will provide a booklet that will help you prepare. In it there are suggestions about how to feed your inner muse, ideas about what you might want to bring to decorate your shrine, suggestions about where to find things, and a list of books and websites to provide inspiration.

The Body's Gift

    

Dream Box

    

Love Nicho

    

Recuerdo

Roots and Wings

   

Jamboree 

Descanso 

Gratia Nicho            

Some Possible Themes for a Workshop

There are infinite possibilities - anything that speaks to you, delights you, reminds you of a situation or a person. Root around in your attic, catch-all drawer, or closet. Check out your photo albums. Go to a flea market or thrift shop. Here are some things you might find:

Two Trees Pocket Shrine

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,

The holy tree is growing there;

From joy the holy branches start,

And all the trembling flowers they bear.

The changing colours of its fruit

Have dowered the stars with merry light;

The surety of its hidden root

Has planted quiet in the night;

the shaking of its leafy head

Has given the waves their melody,

And made my lips the music wed,

Murmuring a wizard song for thee.

There the Loves a circle go,

The flaming circle of our days,

Gyring, spiring to and fro

In those great ignorant leafy ways;

Remembering all that shaken hair

And how the winged sandals dart,

Thine eyes grow full of tender care:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

The Altoid tin was prepared by wrapping it in rice paper and painting it with in blues and some black (acrylic paint). The paper gives some texture and also makes it possible for the paint to adhere to the surface. I used air-drying clay to form two trees: one grey and withered, the other alive with color and fruit. A painted clay heart is centered on the blossoming tree. I used green glitter for leaves and two colors of seed beads for fruit and flowers. In the center of the dying tree is a small mirror framed by tube beads. I used the two phrases from the poem to make two little banners: "Gaze not in the bitter glass" and "Beloved, gaze in thine own heart." The contrast between the two trees is a reminder to me about what results from these two ways of looking. My choice can either wither my spirit or it can nourish me so that I can blossom and grow.

Working in a group can add richness to the experience of shrine-making. It is inspiring to see the creative ideas of others and hear the stories of their shrines. My studio can accommodate up to 8 people or I can come to a location of your choice within the greater Portland/Vancouver area. The workshop can be tailored to your needs. A pocket-shrine workshop would be a minimum of two and a half hours. Workshops with larger shrines can be done in a half-day or a series of meetings. I will provide paint, scraps of fabric, magazines, glue, brushes, some fun stuff (glitter, miscellaneous knick knacks, beads, sequins, etc.).

Accepting and loving the body, celebrating the gift of the body, being at home in one's body ...

Envisioning hopes, dreams, and desires

Loving oneself, celebrating a love relationship

Honoring a loss

Connecting to one's spiritual, cultural, or ancestral roots

Celebrating an accomplishment

Laying something to rest, letting something go

Expressing gratitude

As I worked on the shrine over time I noticed many moments during the day when I was "looking in the bitter glass". I might catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and see an unwelcome bulge, a double chin, a new wrinkle, or bags under my eyes. At these times I would picture this shrine in my mind's eye;  it symbolized my pact with myself to choose another way of looking.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass

The demons, with their subtle guile,

Lift up before us when they pass,

Or only gaze a little while;

For there the fatal image grows

That the stormy night receives,

Roots half hidden under snows,

Broken boughs and blackened leaves.

For all things turn to barrenness

In the dim glass the demons hold,

the glass of outer weariness,

Made when God slept in times of old.

There, through the broken branches, go

The ravens of unresting thought;

Flying, crying, to and fro,

Cruel claw and hungry throat,

Or else they stand and sniff the wind,

And shake their ragged wings; alas!

Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:

Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

W.B.Yeats

The Two Trees

This shrine was prompted by the need to make a choice about how I look at myself - with love or with judgment. I wanted to make a shrine that would capture that choice. 

The first thing that came to mind was a phrase from a favorite poem by Yeats called The Two Trees. There's a line in the poem that says: Gaze not in the bitter glass". Another line offers another choice: "Beloved, gaze in thine own heart".

Conditions for creativity are: to be puzzled, to concentrate, to accept conflict and tension, to be born everyday, to feel a sense of self.   Erich Fromm