Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Authenticity and Dignity

Last night was the final gathering of my Walking in This World 10-week Creative Cluster. We did our usual check-ins, then took time to share a pot of Stone Soup (yep, there really is a stone in the pot), a tradition I learned from my Artist's Way mentor, Gretchin Lair of Scarlet Star Studios in Portland.





After a bowl of amazingly delicious vegetable soup (and some hearty Great Harvest Dakota bread), it was time for the women to share their Omega Projects, another tradition from Gretchin. The Omega Project serves as a capstone to our ten weeks together, a final artistic project created by each woman.

Kathleen made a mobile using the ATC cards we created a couple of weeks ago.

Katherine created a collage using images from her Walking in This World experience and then made up individual cards for each of us!


Jill did mini collages on four glass tiles . . . .


Dawn made two sno-globes! Fanciful and funky they were.




Destree shared her work in progress, a People Web, which was inspired by a dew-covered spider web she saw last fall. She has woven fishing line back and forth across a large frame and will later attach different sized little round mirrors to emulate the dew on a web.



Shelby is a photographer and shared some self-portraits she did for her Omega Project.



One of the ladies shared her Walking in This World experience in this way:

In the dreary and depression soaked days of winter and joblessness, I took a step to come out of my self and spend extraordinary and exotic time with a group of women who value the creative soul within us all. My soul was ecstatic. In our too short time together, I have re-committed myself to art, bought a condo, and begun a journey with a man who seems to be my life partner. He and I are good together and I am uplifted every day with hope, vitality, playfulness, and an honoring of who I am. There are no coincidences. Thank you, dear sisters for your presence in this life.

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Camaraderie

Colorful wool roving was the focus of our Tuesday night Walking in This World session. I thought it would be fun for the ladies to learn how to felt soap, something I learned last October when I attended the Portland Art Collective's fall retreat. The technique had been taught by Tory Brokenshire (who is now my friend!) and I thought for sure I had taken notes (I'm sure I did, I just can't find them). So as I was preparing for Tuesday's class, I frantically got in touch with Tory asking for her guidance and a refresher course on the process of felting wool. Tory to the rescue -- and by the end of Tuesday's group, we had each made a lovely bar of felted soap! Here's our colorful journey:

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Resiliency

For my weekly Walking in This World class on Tuesday night, I thought it would be fun to make Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs as they are known (ATCs are 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch cards of original art.) For our little swap, we each made seven cards (I even played along, usually I don't join in for the evening's creative project, but I wanted to have something made by each of my ladies).

Here are their hands, beautiful hands, making art.






After making our seven cards each, we got to swap so that we each ended up with seven different little masterpieces of art!

Here's my personal set of traded ATCs!

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Discernment

Last night was week seven of our 10-week journey through Julia Cameron's Walking in This World. After checking in and doing a gratitude list, our creative project for the evening was the creation of a Gratitude Garland. I learned of this project back in April of 2006, when I took a course through Artella: The Waltz of Words Art Spirit. Here are the garlands in process, not yet linked together . . .









What are you grateful for?

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Momentum

Tuesday evening means Walking in This World. Two of my women were absent last night (one was sick and one was out of town on business), but we soldiered on, lingering a little during our sharing time. For our creative project, The ladies each created two magical necklaces using glass tiles and whimiscal images. They were lovely!