A Life You Make (Friday or Saturday) - Starts October 16/17

A Life You Make

A Five-Week Creative Studio Experience for Adults 

Stop consuming. Start creating.

Upon registration, participants will be asked whether they are planning to attend on Friday or Saturday. We understand that this is a busy time of year which is why you can select a different option each week. We just ask that once the sessions start, that you stick to the dates you picked.

So much of our life is spent taking things in—news, advertising, social media, entertainment, other people's opinions and other people's stories. 

A Life You Make is an opportunity to turn that around for a few hours each week: to slow down, pay attention, and see what happens when you learn something new, explore an idea, or simply just take time to be creative.

This is a relaxed five-week creative studio workshop for people who would like to make art, and combines practical instruction with plenty of freedom to work on whatever interests you, alongside other people doing the same. 

You don't need to think of yourself as an artist. You don't need to arrive with an idea. And you certainly don't need to make anything profound.

You just need a little curiosity—and a willingness to see what might emerge when the ideas, images and stories are yours.

Is This for You?

Perhaps you've always wanted to learn to draw or paint. Maybe you already make art and would enjoy having some dedicated time and encouragement. 

You might have a project of your own you'd like to work on, an old photograph you've always wanted to do something with, or simply the feeling that it would be fun to try something different.

Do your own project. Work on a landscape, a portrait, something abstract, work digitally, bring an outside project, or experiment with a range of artist materials and mediums to choose from until you discover what interests you. There is no expectation that everyone will work on the same thing.

What Will We Do?

Each session begins with approximately an hour of practical instruction in drawing, painting, color, composition and visual storytelling. These aren't meant to be rules about how art should look. They're simply meant as tools that can give you more confidence and more freedom to make what you want to make.

The next two hours are open studio time. Continue work on the day's idea, something from the previous week, work off still lives set-up for each session, or bring a completely different project of your own. I'll be available throughout to demonstrate techniques, answer questions, and help you work through ideas. The room will also be set up an away that allows for discussion away from the focused work area.

The schedule is intentionally flexible. If the instructional hour isn't what you need, you don't have to attend it and are welcome to do independent work during the first hour. Also, if you've had enough after an hour or two, you don't have to stay for the entire studio time. 

This is your creative time.

We begin breaking down the studio at the end of our time together, although the conversation has a habit of continuing for a little while afterward.

Why Make Art?

Research into creative activity increasingly suggests that making art can support wellbeing, engagement and cognitive stimulation. Art-making has been associated with improving a persons mood and research on arts participation later in life has found promising connections with cognitive function, quality of life, social connection and a sense of wellbeing.

What Might You Make?

Anything you like.

But if you're wondering where to begin, here's one question we might play with:

What would you like your children or grandchildren to know about you?

Perhaps there is a place you remember, a person who mattered, an object with a story, a family photograph, a journey, something that fills you with joy, or a moment from your life that you would like to capture.

You could even begin a kind of visual autobiography—not necessarily the story of your whole life, but a collection of images that says something about who you are and what has mattered to you.

Or you can just have fun learning to paint a bowl of pears, or puffy clouds. Both are completely legitimate reasons to make art. Truly, our goal is to meet you wherever you are on your artistic journey.

A Little Room to Discover

One of the pleasures of making something is that you don't always know where it will lead.

You begin with a blank surface and make one choice, then another. Eventually there is something in front of you that wasn't there before—and it couldn't have been made in quite the same way by anyone else.

Sometimes that's simply satisfying. Sometimes it's fun. And sometimes making an image brings back a memory, tells a story or helps us notice something we hadn't thought about for a long time.

There's no requirement for any of that to happen.

We're simply making room for the possibility.

Why a Church, and why is cost so low?

The price is so low for this workshop because we believe creativity, connection and a sense of wonder are part of living a full and healthy life. Making art can bring us into a state of flow—that wonderful experience of being completely present and absorbed in what we're doing—and for many people there is something quietly spiritual about creating something that has never existed before. You don't need to be religious to experience that, and no particular religious position is expected or required here. If there is a guiding principle, it is simply “love your neighbour as yourself.” Our hope is to provide a welcoming place to create, learn, connect with others and explore whatever gives your life meaning.

Five Weeks. Small Groups. Only $35. (supplies included.)

If you're able and would like to contribute more, you're welcome to do so, and it will help make programs like this available to others. But there is absolutely no expectation.

(stipends available for those who need support)

Come as you are. Bring an idea if you have one. If you don't, we'll find somewhere to begin.