Creating your healing
Among the offerings at Desert Reiki, tucked away in the services page, is a new kind of workshop designed with healing in mind. For now, I’ve labeled it Intuitive Art Workshops. I’m workshopping (ha! see what I did there?) ideas for a more original and evocative title. The offering is a class-type set up where participants create an original art piece intuitively designed for their personal healing.
The idea of art as a healing therapy is not new. A quick google search will render myriad explanations, options for inquiry, and classes or therapists local to you that you might find interesting. I should pause here to say that I am not an art therapist. I do not hold any certification in counseling, social work, or psychology. I am also not an accomplished artist. I have no fine art skills to speak of, but what I do have is a passion for the craft and a belief that moving deep within us is the insight and knowledge to actualize healing through doing art.
Doing art. It’s that simple. The idea behind my intuitive art workshops is the invitation to come and DO. Get your hands messy with paint. Get sticky with glue. Tear paper. Cut shapes. Lay out design without thinking too hard—just allowing your intuition to guide you as you create.
I have long been an art project facilitator. That’s a really fancy way of saying I spent most of my career teaching preschool. And while there are many joys in working with tiny humans, one of the greatest for me is watching little ones create art. There is a beauty in their inhibition as they paint (with full body motion) , or squeeze out an entire bottle of glue onto the page and then stick nothing in it. A preschooler doesn’t need fine art skills to produce masterpieces as they express what’s on their mind and in their heart through art. I often expressed a level of envy watching the wild abandon of my students over the years as they created. With little ones, their art can often be misunderstood. Sometimes, adults see only a scribbled line or a mass of paint and think it’s nothing special, yet for the child that scribbled line is an entire narrative and the blob of paint a pouring out of deep emotion as they work to understand themselves and the world around them.
Oh, that we all could embrace and hold that inhibition of childhood.
Intuitive art is an attempt to find the way back to that for grown-ups.
I recently held my first intuitive art workshop with some friends at my home. I meticulously set up my dining room table as an art creation station and opened my plethora of art and crafting supplies to encourage inquiry as each participant perused and gathered what they found interesting.
Armed with items they might use in their art pieces, we all set out to create together. We set the intention collectively to let the process flow without self-judgment (let ego and personality step aside) and trust our instincts and the intuition as it spoke into our hearts and minds.
What came from this first workshop was a delight—I have to say it was just as rewarding watching grown-ups make art as it was observing preschoolers. What joy to watch it all unfold!
As these artists created, I was struck by how beautiful our individuality is. No two pieces were even remotely similar. No two journeys to completion the same. The focus on the work brought a lovely rhythm to the gathering and we found ourselves conversing and laughing and relaxing into the experience. I felt so honored to be the facilitator and a witness to the process. The overarching feeling of the day was pride in the community of artists and what they accomplished—not on the canvas, but in their heart, mind, and soul.
Letting go and letting art happen proves to be a healing experience.
*see the Services page at Desert Reiki for workshop dates and come join me in creating your own healing!
