Mission of Creative Wellness Services

Creative Wellness Services provides unique, creative and experiential wellness programs for individuals and groups, such as your work place environment. Services are facilitated to include the use of art, creativity and self-reflection to promote enhanced teamwork and individual wellness.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

The Cycles of our lives, our history and our future….Samsara the Wheel of Life….



I've just spent the last two days (+) preparing and facilitating a creative process art play shop…..called "The Samsara Project" - A Creative Shrine Play Shop.  

Samsara being the 'Wheel of Life that we create'…. the patterns of our lives, that are created, that show up, arise and pass, the constant changes, transitions, of joy and suffering.

What do we do with what arises? With the suffering, loss and grief that show up?  How do we react to the pain, as well as the joys, the accomplishments, the gains?

On so may levels of our lives this cycle, this samsara can be seen…not only in our daily lives, as well as over the generations, in the historical, political and social patterns of our world.  This is perhaps where the saying "History has a tendency to repeat itself" comes from.

How do we react and address what shows up?  Can we create meaning in our world about what happens, be it love, loss, death, grief, sadness, loneliness, winnings and fallings, beginnings and endings?

That is what The Samsara Project is for me?  Coming to an awareness about the moments we create? or that are created out of our control?  Ways to find peace in those moments, in our daily lives and in our historical patterns?  Do we learn form it?  Or are we going to come back to it time and time again addressing the same patterns. Instead we could lean into the discomfort…the suffering, the pain, the desire, the wanting, the discontentment.  Perhaps doing so will give rise to the opposite, the ease, the joy, the satiation, contentment, etc.

All the while remembering these will pass, the wisdom of impermanence.

What are the patterns in your own life that are cycling? showing up?  What is the most relevant to your own liberation?  Where can you become unstuck?

The places we are broken and cracked is most definitely where we can find love and light, peace and joy….even as it is temporary ---- The cycle can expand us,  through the ebbs and flow, change is certain.  How are you going to act now?

To quote from Rebecca Solnit  Hope in Dark Times, Resisting the Defeatism of Easy Despair, and What Victory Really Means for Movements of Social Change….

"This is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen.  It is also a nightmarish time..Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both …Power comes from the shadows and the margins, that our hope is the dark around the edges..not the limelight centre stage….

Also from Rebecca Solnit, "You row forward looking back, and feeling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future.  We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war chant of our victories.  The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future".  

Thanks again to Brain Pickings for some insightful reading and speaking from the heart that helps other hearts grow and make sense of powerful emotional and transformative times.


Monday, March 14, 2016

Another post on how creativity is good for our wellness and health….

Have you ever felt that sense of flow, that sense of being so full when creating art, getting lost in the process and not worrying about the outcome?…That is the magic moment…the place where we are creating wellness in our lives.

I have felt this flow when I take the time to just play, to let go of outcome, embrace those happy mistakes and create just for the sake of creating.  I have decided that I am going to take this year to do that…after my May art show commitments, I have taken a conscious moment to decide to create only for my own wellness and growth.

I think this is how I can expand and take time to push my artistic edges.  So after 10 years of being on the Elora-Fergus studio tour, I am going to take a sabbatical from it this year and any other art shows.

I will continue to embrace not only my own artwork in this way, as well, I will offer opportunities for others to do the same, creativity for the sake of wellness.   Here's to embracing getting lost in this new transition.

Here is a link to some other thoughts on how creativity serves our own health and wellness.  Enjoy your own creativity, creating for your own sake.



Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Transformations- An Altered Book Arts Exhibit - Call for Submissions and New Program in April


Call for Artists Submissions
Transformation: An Exhibition of Altered Books

Artists are invited to submit altered book works for an exhibition at the Town of Halton Hills Helson Gallery from September 14 to November 27, 2016. The exhibition is open to Ontario artists at emerging, mid-career and established levels.

Transformation is an exhibit about the evolving nature of books and our lives. Everyday changes abound, politically, socially and psychologically, we as human beings are transforming. This is an invitation for artists to work with this theme of transformation in ways that intrigue the artist, viewer and community, to engage in the concept of change and evolution, using the book as the medium.

The exhibition celebrates the book as object and submitted works should clearly incorporate the physical elements of a book or books, ie. pages; covers; spine.

Each artist may submit up to three works. Works should not exceed 48 inches in any dimension. Works may be two or three dimensional, ie. suitable for wall mounting or display on a shelf or plinth. Works may combine various media and should be created within the last two years.

Artists should submit digital images in jpeg format not exceeding 1 MB in size. Each work may be represented by a maximum of two images (ie. one overview and one detail). Please include a description of your work with title; media; dimensions, date along with a short statement and CV.

Transportation and in-transit insurance to and from the Helson Gallery will be the responsibility of the artist. COD shipments will not be accepted. Submission Deadline: May 15, 2016
http://www.haltonhills.ca/gallery/CallToArtists.php

Exhibition Jurors:
Supria Karmakar, Artist and Curator
Judy Daley, Helson Gallery Curator

For additional information and to submit please contact:
Judy Daley, Helson Gallery Curator
judyd@haltonhills.ca
905-873-2601 ext 2536


Also at the Helson Gallery: Altered Book Workshop with Supria Karmakar
Using mixed media, collage techniques and the vintage layers of a book, participants will have an opportunity to create a new structure from an old hard covered book. Join us for this five week workshop April 2 – May 7 (note: no class will be held on April 23) led by noted altered book artist Supria Karmakar. Fee: $200 plus $60 materials charge owed to the instructor at the first session (cash or cheque only please). For details and to register contact Judy Daley, Helson Gallery Curator

The Helson Gallery is located in the Town of Halton Hills Cultural Centre in downtown Georgetown.
9 Church Street, Georgetown, Ontario L7G 2A3
For further information: 905-873-2601 ext 2536
www.haltonhills.ca/gallery


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