Living Our Dreams

New classes in collaboration with Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities!

Visual Journaling 101
Saturday, February 14 and Sunday February 15
Time: 9-4pm
In collaboration with Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities!  

Give yourself a Valentine! Sheri Gaynor, author of Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art, will show you simple tools and techniques to create a beautiful art journal. Visual journaling is an entryway into our heart and mind.  You will use creative writing, paint, and collage to move beyond the written word and take the idea of journaling to new places. Take part in a journey of the imagination in a safe, supportive environment where there are no rules and anything goes. As with all Sheri's classes...no previous creative or artistic experience required, only a willingness to experiment and explore. Registration and a materials list are available through CCAH @ 970-963-1680.

 

Visual Journaling Beyond the Basics
Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26th
Time: 9-4pm
In collaboration with Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities!  

Sheri Gaynor, author of Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art, will take you beyond the basics. You will learn new ways of layering the pages of your journal, using transparent glazes, personal photographs, photo transfers and other fun techniques.   Take part in a journey of the imagination in a safe, supportive environment where there are no rules and anything goes. As with all Sheri's classes...no previous creative or artistic experience required, only a willingness to experiment and explore. Registration and a materials list are available through CCAH @ 970-963-1680.

 

Relics and Reliquaries: An Exploration in Mixed Media and Plaster 
Sat, May 5, 2012, 9am – Sun, May 6, 2012, 4pm
Time: 9-4pm
In collaboration with Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities! 

Join artist/author Sheri Gaynor, for a weekend of mixed media exploration. Using plaster, photo transfers, acrylic paint and other mediums, you will create a unique personal art piece, in the fashion of an ancient relic or reliquary (shrine). ake part in a journey of the imagination in a safe, supportive environment where there are no rules and anything goes. As with all Sheri's classes...no previous creative or artistic experience required, only a willingness to experiment and explore. Registration and a materials list are available through CCAH @ 970-963-1680

 

Guest Author Donna Druchunas: My Art of Intention

Happy New Year, everyone! I finally finished my December Art of Intention and it turns out it was more about new beginnings than about finishing and endings. However, it is still my intention to finish the things I'm working on before I lose myself in the new beginnings. It was very interesting to see my "art" confirm my thoughts that the reason I need to finish things now is so I can move on into a new and uncluttered, unfettered future.

All of the images of wings and birds and trees (for building nests) represent freedom and new flight to me, and the butterflies are especially evocative of the idea of a new birth or a transformation. I photographed my piece and put it on the computer and framed it in the film borders as a way of showing that I'm finishing with a purpose, just as Kodachrome film saw it's final day at the end of 2010, but photography is completely open to a new world of unknown technologies in the future, so I am finishing up the projects I've been working on for the last few years without knowing what I will be working on next. It's exciting and frightening at the same time.

I put "art" in quotes because I don't think my piece is really worthy of the name, but as Sheri said in the beginning of her book, you don't have to be an artist to use visualization to help you set your intentions and imagine your future successes. It was only when I reminded myself of that and the fact that I'm not trying to impress anyone with my (lack of) artistic talent with this piece, that I was able to finish it and post it here. I hope you will enjoy seeing the intention of my piece, rather than focus on my lack as a visual artist. I'm a writer and a knitwear designer and although I love playing with doodling and collage, I can't draw or paint at all. And that doesn't matter.

I enjoyed this process immensely and I plan to repeat it monthly throughout 2011. I hope many of you will join me in setting monthly intentions and watching as you grow creatively all year.

Sheri, thank you so much for letting me share my thoughts and experience with you and your readers this month. I had a wonderful time.

-Donna

Happy New Year!

Thank you for another phenomenal year.

To those of you who have purchased my book Creative Awakenings, worked with me one on one, taken classes or crossed my path in any way...I am truly grateful for the honor to have shared the journey...

May 2011 bring all your dreams to fruition.

Best wishes...Sheri

Guest Author Donna Druchunas: Gypsy Spirit Day

Please allow me to share my Creative Awakenings thought process as I continue to explore my intention for December.

Sometimes it's hard for me to take time this year to sit still and envision my future because I'm so busy wrapping up the past. The finishing part of my intention is filling my days and the beginning part of the intention is simmering on a back burner. I was feeling anxious about this, after all I'd declared my intention to be about finishing and beginning, about a type of metamorphosis, moving from one year to the next. Ironically, this anxiety has been stopping me from finishing my Art of Intention. (That anxiety plus fear of creating something so hideously ugly that I am embarrassed to post a picture here!) 

Since I want to make setting and following my intentions a priority in my life, to ensure that I don't squander my days just crossing things off my to do lists for the sake of feeling productive at the cost of being creative, I decided I needed to pull out one of the Transformation Deck cards and see how it might inspire me. 

I'd been hoping to pull a card that prominently featured wings and birds and flight - the imagery that I've been collecting for my Art of Intention. When I turned over the card I selected, I was disappointed to see it had pictures from the past, photos of someone's mother or grandmother in the 1950s, dark imagery, a picture of home. Why was I pulling a picture of home when in my mind I was dreaming of flying over the rainbow?

The truth is, I pulled the perfect card. When I flipped in my Creative Awakenings book to page 117, I found out that the card I pulled is called "Gypsy Spirit Day" and lurking quietly in the background image is a bird sitting at the top of a tree. The combination of looking to the past while thinking about the future, being grounded by family and memories while dreaming of flying, the idea of being a gypsy while being in love with home: all of this reflects what has happened to me in 2010. Let me explain.

1. Being a gypsy. Gypsies might be known for not having roots, but that's not really true. The Roma people (what the European Gypsy's are properly called) are a very tight-knit group with close families and strong traditions. They are just not tied to a specific piece of land. I love this idea because I love studying historical traditions while at the same time being free to move around physically and mentally, getting to know new ways of doing things at the same time. It's hard because I don't bring all of the people I love with me on each new journey, but the internet has helped me keep in touch more recently than I ever was able to in the past.

2. Loving home. This time last year, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep my house, or even continue living in Colorado or the United States. But after spending four months sort-of vagabonding around Europe, I have come to appreciate the comfort of home much more. Again, it's my friends I miss when I return to my nest, but I am completely thrilled to be back in my comfort zone where I can totally relax for the time being. It's true, the cliche, "absence makes the heart grow fonder, and also, "familiarity breeds contempt."

3. Grounded by the past. Just like the Roma, I have to remember that I am made up of my past. My mind is filled with thoughts and feelings about things I've learned on this journey, and my cells are filled with the DNA that's been passed down to me from my parents and grandparents and their parents before them. We can't know anything about the future, so it's only by looking at the past that we can gain any sense of continuity or progress and change. I love my past and even though I have some regrets, I don't let them hold me back. If I've learned one thing it's that I will most likely regret NOT trying something new, NOT opening myself up, NOT going through the next door, rather than holding back.

4. Preparing for flight. And that leads me to the final part of my intention for December, taking flight and moving on to something new. I won't be able to engage in that fully until sometime in the new year, but I don't want to keep looking backwards. While I am finishing up so many projects that I've been working on for the last weeks, months, and even years, I am remembering to muse about the future and keep an open mind about where I will find myself this time next year.

Home: Travel

Past: Future

Ground: Flight

Finishing: Beginning

All of these opposites are just like the two sides of the coin that is my life. Another cliche, but also true.

I love how all these images tie together, even if it's "just" my mind, my brain, my attention that makes it work. Coincidence? I don't think so. Setting my intention and giving myself time to muse over it is helping me form a better view of my future. Now I just hope that this weekend I am brave enough to pull all the materials I've collected together and finish my Art of Intention!

Guest Author: Donna Druchunas - My December Intention

My intention for December is FINISHING.

I knew that immediately. But at the same time, my intention is getting ready to start anew in January. I knew I wanted to focus on finishing things this December before I stumbled onto Creative Awakenings in the bookstore, but I thought it was only about finishing, just so I could cross things off my list. But as I've been musing over things and reading through Creative Awakenings I've realized that it's also to release myself so I can feel free to turn off of the current path and follow new interests, to explore the forest.

Where do I really want to go moving forward into 2011 and beyond? Are the projects I've planned the ones that are really the desires of my heart? Am I doing an planning things because I feel I should or because I have a true passion drawing me?

I want to follow my heart more and not over think everything. The writing, it doesn't help so much with that. I've done morning pages and free writing and even mind mapping, but it's always based on words and logic. This visual experiment with Creative Awakenings will help me to trust the faeries to show me the way. Like listening to music or just letting my soul float free. Where will the winds of my soul and my heart and my feelings take me? What does FATE have in store for me if I let go?

Before, I was THINKING of my work as making meaning - there it is again, that word "thinking"! - I found I forced myself to attach some mission, some social value and political direction - to my work. Here's what I wrote as a "mission statement" for 2006:

My purpose will be to help make the world safer and more comfortable for women and minorities. How will I accomplish this?

• By creating things that provide comfort, such as hand-knit items to donate to charity and knitting books that allow others to create comfort, and by continuing to provide free knitting patterns and charity knitting information on this blog.

• By using my writing to advance reason and enlightenment and to oppose fundamentalism and the beliefs that breed hatred, violence, intolerance, and ignorance.

• By valuing--and encouraging others to value--the ideas, creativity, and contributions of women.

• By supporting secular organizations that help women and the glbt community.

• By speaking out whenever I can in private and in public to point out injustice and to defy the censorship that silences those with no political power.

In each of these areas, I will volunteer, work for pay, and develop personal projects. As the new year begins, I hope you will join with me in evaluating your own purpose in life and choosing a path that brings comfort and joy to the world. 

Sounds great, doesn't it? But when I work on my art, when I write an article or knit a hat or play with beads and paints, I don't FEEL a mission. I feel only the love of what I am writing or knitting or painting. I feel the satisfaction of simply creating, and it frees me.

Why do I feel I must have a mission? Because books say I should? Because so many other artists seem to have political motives or causes infusing their work? If that's not me, and it is SO not me, why should I feel pressure to conform to some imagined ideal? I have always said "I will not let my happiness be in someone else's head," but I don't always succeed at achieving that goal. I do things because I think other people want me to. It's OK on a personal level, to do things for friends and loved ones. But on an artistic level, I must allow myself to follow the dandelion seeds floating on the air. Just see where they land, where they want to grow.

A couple of weeks ago, I made an excursion to Michael's and bought a pile of art supplies so I can start my December imagery! In my mind's eye I see:

• Wings
• Nest
• Wool
• Eggs
• Dandelions (weeds or flowers?)

I don't want to forget these images, but I want to process it visually, not with words. So next time I stop by here to give you an update, I should have a dream image to share with you. Here's a collection of materials I've assembled getting ready to visually represent my intention for this month.

Guest Author: Donna Druchunas - Creative Awakenings

Thanks Sheri, for inviting me to share my journey through Creative Awakenings on your blog!

Hi everyone! My name is Donna Druchunas. I'm a fiber artist, knitwear designer, author, world traveler, and blogger. Every year in November and December I take time for a creative recharge. This year it may seem like I shouldn't need it because I spent four months filling the well in Europe. But this is a different type of rejuvenation. It's a quiet, at home, meditative time and I can definitely use that right now!

During this time, I like to read a book on creativity. In the past I've read books like The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, A Writer's Paris by Eric Maisel, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Succulent Wild Woman by SARK, and Embracing Your Power Woman by Barbara Wilder.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a gorgeous book called Creative Awakenings by Sheri Gaynor at Borders while I was looking for books on beading. Someday I want to make a gorgeous book like this. The imagery and design are as important as the words. My books have all been designed beautifully, but they are not art books. This book is a work of art, on top of being full of good information to read. The subtitle is what really hooked me: 

 

 

Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art

For several years I've been wanting to do more artistic work and I think it's finally time for me to be able to do that. I'm wrapping up the big book I've been working on for four years, I haven't signed a contract for another knitting book, I have help with my business, and I actually know what kind of art I want to explore. At least at first. Who knows where this adventure will lead? When I first read The Artist's Way, I was hoping it would help me overcome being blocked as a writer. Instead, it opened up my creativity in knitting and design.

I'll be using this book for the rest of the year and blogging about the experience. It's really a year-long program but I want to play with it a bit before I commit to a year. On first perusal, it seems wonderful and not too terribly time consuming so as to be impractical for the long term.

What you are supposed to do (and this is a grossly simplified overview based on my quick skim of the book), is spend some time at the beginning of each month thinking about your intention for that month, your focus and direction, more than a specific goal. After the meditation, you make a collage or drawing in your journal that captures the essence of your ideas and feelings, then you write about it. During the month, you come back to this periodically. You can change or add to your art, you can write more, or you can just give yourself time to focus your mind. It's all about being in touch with your muse and listening to your inner voice. This year I've been trying to listen to my feelings and not over-rationalize so much but I've failed miserably. Maybe using more visual art forms will help me in my quest.

There's a lot more to it than that, and I hope you'll follow along as I share my insights with you as I work through the chapters in the coming weeks. And as I read through the book, I'm becoming more and more ready to sign a contract with myself for the whole coming year!

I'm a Tranquilista!

© 2009 Sheri Gaynor, All Rights Reserved North Light Books, 2009. "Possibilities" From the Creative Awakenings Deck of Transformation, Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art

Seeking a little inspiration for your week? Listen to an interview about my book Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art.

Check it out! http://blog.kimberlywilson.com/2010/05/tranquility-du-jour-184-creativity.html

For more inspiring interviews you can tune into my podcast series: Living Our Dreams Radio!

Off to the construction site. It's drywall day! 

Thank you to Dick Marsh, construction God and Dick Hunter, Electrical Wizard for your incredible work and support! 

It's DreamTime Monday!

Dream...Create...Leap...Fly!

 It works!!

My April Art of intention...Play....

Are you ready to CREATE YOUR LIFE? 

"This has been the best by far spiritual journey I have ever gone on...." Mindy R. 

A New Creative Awakenings  Online Expedition Begins

April 15th

Visa Applications due this Friday....Join us!

March Art of Intention

As we move into spring, my intention this month is to expand beyond the current borders of my imagination. Where are you going in March? Join us.... 

 

I Am Ready...again!

Photo from Creative Awakenings: June 1,  2007-Me on top of Red Hill overlooking Mt. Sopris

In the first blog post entry, on Page 34 in my book. I share a moment on June 1 2007, when I climbed Red Hill, which overlooks our sacred Mt. Sopris, here in Carbondale. I was waiting to hear back from the publishers and had spent the last 72 hours working like a wild woman, to give them the last pieces of the puzzle so they could make a final decision. It had been a roller coaster ride up until that point-seems like most of these BIG LIFE things go that way for me-and I needed to do something to release move the energy I was feeling inside.

I hiked up to the top and as I walked, reviewed the weekend I had just spent putting together a different perspective for the publisher. I felt confident and somewhat exhausted. What I knew in my heart was that I had done everything humanly possible in the physical sense to make the book a go, the rest was up to...well...you know... 

As I hiked, a plan began to simmer. It was time to let the WORLD know I was ready. It was also time to let the BIG U know too. When I reached the top, I walked out to the rock cropping. As I sat down on the rock, I looked back at the trail to see if anyone was behind me. I closed my eyes, said a prayer, took a deep breath and shouted from the top of my lungs to the Valley floor below, "I AM READY!!!" My biggest fear in that moment, was that someone would think I was getting ready to jump! Once my heart stopped racing, I was able to feel how incredible it felt to shout my intention for all to hear, a bold, announcement of my readiness to put myself out there in this way...as an author. WOW, I have to tell you, as I write this, I still find it hard to believe it was that long ago, as it feels like yesterday!

Fast forward to today...January 16, 2010. It has been an incredible couple of weeks stepping into this new decade. So much has transpired over the last 3 months, we are in our new space, I am learning to work in partnership, I am teaching again and LOVING IT and we have started to attract vibrant teachers to our space. A lot more was going on behind the scenes, that I have not shared. All of it good...but quite the wild ride! 

I am standing at a cross roads in my life with a BIG decision before me. It's been weeks of number crunching and putting my on my Big, Feisty, Business Woman Panties! It has been challenging to stay positive among the daily economic forecasts, a bombing attempt at Christmas while I traveled home, and now the heart breaking devastation in Haiti. Yet, I kept walking forward, working with my Venomous Toads, keeping them happy by gathering information, all the while knowing a decision was looming. 

And suddenly, the most amazing miracle that occurred. The dream space for the permanent for our studio opened up!!! AND...R U READY...wildest thing is that I DREW IT INTO MY JANUARY ART of INTENTION as it wasn't in the picture!!!!

The issue remains a fiscal one and as we are all aware right now, that is no small issue. What is so strange dear readers is that I have seen myself inside that space looking out the window all along, and I can't get it out of my minds eye!!! It won't let go, for weeks now. I see the bustling energy, I see others in the space, I hear laughter, music, drumming and so much love and healing. I FEEL the vision in the depths of my SOUL! 

What I came to today, is that in this decision it boils down to two things....staying the same... or GROWING! My tendency is to play it safe. As those of you know who have worked with me, I am an advocate of small baby steps toward your dreams. Build the foundation, then leap. And here I stand on top of the mountain and what I am realizing is that I am at a crossroads. One path that lies before me is the comfortable, and well worn path of safety. The other path is different. It's going to involve bush wacking through some very new territory and require courage to step into the unknown with faith, sweat equity a butt load of TRUST! It's going to require that lean into FEAR and uncertainty and give myself permission to expand from the contracted, warm, cocoon, and embrace the possibilities I SEE already in my minds eye. 

And so today I knew it was time to revisit the Mountain. This time I was not alone, Blue was at my side. Together we climbed Red Hill and with each step I took, I looked inside and asked myself to SEE through the illusion of fear, and to step into truth, integrity and WISDOM which feels much different. We got to the top, and once again I walked out to the outcropping. Interestingly, this time I felt much calmer inside-except for moments when my little black, billy goat was looking over the edge! 

This time there was a prayer of gratitude, recognition for what has manifested since my last visit. I then whispered a new prayer, asking for guidance, strength and releasing my ego. And then I shot this photograph. 

I don't know what decision I will make in the end, nor will I have any judgement about it, as I will trust that I've made it with all the information I need. My only desire is to make the decision from an empowered position and not from fear...

Stay tuned...I'll let you know soon, which path I am traveling....