Once More with Feeling!

Group #12 has started with five participants in attendance and another joining us next week. This week our theme is

Igniting a Sense of Wonder

and we are using Julia Cameron’s newest book called, ‘ It’s Never Too Late; Creative Adventures in Midlife and Beyond.

Besides the three ongong artist way tools of morning pages, artist dates and walks Julia is asking us to excavate our personal histories by dividing our age by 12. This week we discussed what our earliest personal memories might be and we spent some time writing about these very early memories using our new Bic disposible fountain pens. We also got our swag bags with a folder for handouts and a DIY binding kit. 

We went over the three Artist Way tools and discussed the addition of memoir writing.  The following questions were read and written about.

Age ____

Where did you live?

Who took care of you?

What’s your earliest memory?

What was your favorite book and toy?

Describe a smell that you remember from this stage of your life.

What was your favorite food?

Describe a sound from this part of your life.

Describe a location from this part of your life.

What other memories occur to you from this period. Perhaps they could be incorporated into an upcoming Artist Date.

Task

Never Too Late

Take pen in hand and finish the following 1 to 5.

1.  If it werent too late I’d …

2.  If it werent too late I’d…

3.  If it werent too late I’d…

4.  If it werent too late I’d…

5.  If it were’nt too late I’d…

In our check in on session two we will also talk about our inner critic. Julia Cameron calls her’s Nigel!

One section of the chapter is entitled, Shrink Your Critic.

Do YOU have an inner crictic or sensor? Does he/she/it have a name?

Return to Salt Spring Island?

At Large Workshops – Salt Spring arts Council

http://ssartscouncil.com/at-large-workshops

I was an Airbnb manager last summer on Salt Spring Island so I’m going to keep posting artistic opportunities both near and a bit farther away. The picturesque SSI as well as the slightly closer Gabriola are now on my Artist Way ‘radar’. I post then strictly for FYI purposes. I’m not advertising or endorsing any particular artist; just bringing to your attention some upcoming wonderful classes and workshops scheduled at various working artist’s studios.

The May 25th start for the 12th, yes 12th Artist Way creative cluster is a ‘go’! I started facilitating groups originally in the dining room of my character house in downtown Penticton. My friends said that I had the biggest dining room AND a table with two leaves to expand the table to accommodate twelve participants so I was the other-appointed, not self appointed leader!

We collectively journeyed through the 12 themes of the first book which led to the second, ‘ Walking in the World’ book which almost led to the third book ‘ Finding Water, the Art of Perseverance but alas the momentum was sadly lost over the Christmas, season not to be picked up until a few years later. 

When I sold my home shortly after I retired to move to Nanaimo I contacted the Unity Church of Nanaimo to see if they’d like to sponsor an Artist Way group in their building on East Wellington Road.

They did! So I conducted a number of successful sessions which led me to seek off site locations. I remember vividly that I strongly felt that I wanted to be near or overlooking the ocean because I felt drawn to facilitate Julia Cameron’s book ‘ Finding Water.’

And it came to pass better than I could have possibly imagined because a penthouse condo was offered to us as a location for all twelve weeks! So we were both near AND overlooking the ocean and the Nanaimo Yacht Club right in the heart of the city.

Because I was a snowbird in Mexico for half a year I have also led groups in Mexico. The first group was right in my living room in Centro Ajijic and for the second group I pulled out all the stops and booked space in the Wellspring Retreat Centre in Centro San Miquel de Allende. In both Mexican grupos we even attracted one lone male in each group!

So that’s the basic time line which leads up to this exact moment in time where we are once more on the brink of stepping on that magic carpet ride. 25th of May; a new moon, no less! 

Miracles/ milagros guaranteed.

Seriously.  Of course, this was also my reaction to Julia Cameron’s book jacket with her perhaps twenty year old picture.

Seriously?

Nanaimo Artist Way Group Continues in May

It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again | Julia Cameron Live

http://juliacameronlive.com/books-by-julia/its-never-too-late-to-begin-again/

This is the book we will be using in

Session One:  May 25th to June 29th

and/or  July 13th to August 17th

150. plus 20. materials fee  OR

80. plus 10. materials fee

Contact ramblingrrl@gmail.com for more information. And do check out the rest of the blog! Our next Artist Way session starts in a month. Please spread the word!

Btw, Liberty at the magicalLobelia’s Lair is taking 50. deposits to hold your space.

The Artist Way beat goes on…and on…on!

Game for a 30 Day Art Jornal Challenge?

The 30 Day Journal Project – Lisa SonoraLisa Sonora

http://lisasonora.com/30-day-journal-project/

Last winter when I was in Oaxaca I had the good fortune to meet this talented mixed media artist who creatively mixes and matches old maps, stencils, sundry ephemera and acrylic paint in her funky and stylistically unique work. 

She offers a 30 Day Art Journal Challenge with daily prompts delivered right to your inbox to kickstart perhaps some latent/ dormant or hibernating creativity in the new year. You can use whatever you’ve got journal wise or art supply wise, btw. It’s really ALL about process!

Happy sketching, painting, cutting, pasting and hot glue gunning! Why be controlled and boring. Have ephemera and pockets sticking out in all directions and go through some of the weekly giveaways if you’ve attended any of the last Artist Way groups in Nanaimo, Ajijic or San Miquel de Allende. 

No Journal? White or black gesso some ordinary playing cards, punch them in the corner and put them on a binder ring.How easy is that?
There’s no time at all like the present while 2017 lies before us like a fresh white fluffy snowfall! Yeah, we know it’s gonna melt revealing litter and dogs are gonna urinate on it but right now, this very hour/ minute/ second it’s a totally blank slate for you to make your mark; any mark at all!

Get ARTing !

Soul Collage on Both Sides of the Border

A SoulCollage® Community Update – November 2012

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs107/1101361783117/archive/1111320204532.html

One thing I’ve dabbled in for quite a few years now is Soul Collage. A good friend and I took a brilliant and inspiring all day soul collage class and since then I’ve done shorter workshops in Vancouver and at the LifePath Centre in Centro San Miquel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. 

I’ve also informally held Soul Collage experiential playshops in Penticton and Nanaimo, British Columbia and in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico as part of an ongoing Artist Way group. 

Always fun; always interesting and always insightful!

I’ve been toying with the idea of taking the facillitator training course that is offered in various places all over the world for some time. Soul Collage very nicely dovetails with both The Artist Way and the Jack Canfield Train the Trainer online classes I won a scholarship for a year ago. I was recently in Kamloops, British Columbia at an all day live seminar with Canfield where I pledged to complete my TTT by 
Canfield instructs us to be very precise with our intentions and since it is the first of the month as I head towards the end of 2016 it is a good time to take stock of what did or didn’t unfold this year. 

I’ll be doing this retrospective reflection in a different locale this year. I’ll be in a city I’ve never been before; the beautiful city of Cuernavaca, about an hour out of Mexico City.

Words of wisdom from an ancient sage. Says it all, don’t you think?

Time For Some Blogging Challenges? You Bet!

The ultimate guide to blogging challenges

http://michellerafter.com/2013/07/10/new-edition-the-ultimate-guide-to-daily-blogging-challenges/

Great list that I’ll be exploring one at a time and annotating. Since the list is three years old it likely needs some updating. 

Blog Challenge #1

Go through list separating wheat from chaff, so to speak.

Interesting expression!

Time For an Artist Way Reboot!

Well, as we know, life is what happens while making other plans and viva for other plans because these ‘ accidental’ delays, detours and yes total pull overs in the breakdown lane have led to the good, the bad and the ugly…but never ever,  ever the boring!

Last winter, I was in the beautiful city of Oaxaca where I taught Intermediate English and Conversational for Oklahoma English in Centro. This was a very rewarding experience and because it was all encompassing this blog went on an inadvertent hiatus.

Well, let me announe that I’m baaaaack and have recommitted to getting back to the joys of being involvedette in the blog o sphere!

With not one but three blogs!

http://www.continuingtheanotistway.wordpress.com

http://www.snowbirdsoliloquy.wordpress.com

http://www.successprinciplesplusmore.wordpress.com

Okay, now that I’ve declared my intention; always a good first step I need to FOCUS on following through!

What’s the NEXT right step as Julia Cameron likes to say?

Stay tuned, as they say in television land!