Art & Consciousness Workshop
Expanding Perception / Strengthening the Intuitive

Drawing from life requires the individual to focus. Learned drawing skills (and they are skills, not gifts one is born with) allow an individual to move from a left brain, time oriented, self absorbed, active, beta brain state to one more receptive, inclusive, and slower in frequency. There are biofeedback programs for youth with Attention Deficit Disorder that help children with this syndrome to recognize when they are performing in a lower frequency brain state. Drawing is a skill that addresses ATTENTION, strengthening the Intuitive.

Art & Consciousness Workshop
Synthesizing information / Association of Meanings

Image making involves an individual with the total self. It reflects all aspects of the individual’s knowledge, intellectual and emotional, learned and inherent, conscious and unconscious. When knowledge is combined with new information, associations are expanded and understanding is broadened.

Art & Consciousness Workshop
Going Inward / Opening and Acceptance / Strengthening

Scientific studies of the brain have proven that the same parts of the brain that are actively involved in recognition of a place or person are also active whether the individual is mentally visualizing the image of the person or place or actually seeing the person or place. Seeing with the mind’s eye can be encouraged and improved through art experiences. Seeing with the mind’s eye strengthens commitment that improves confidence of expression.

Art & Consciousness Workshop
Eight Aspects of a Creative Individual / Creativity Test

Creativity is the act of moving beyond the already established into new realms. Creativity can take an individual into areas of awareness totally new to a society or extend an individual’s understanding, preparing him/her for productive change. Participants in this section of the workshop will take a creativity test and evaluate themselves in terms of eight aspects of the creative individual.

Art & Consciousness Workshop
Finding your Expressive Self through Self Awareness

In the artistic process, the act of creative decision to making requires self to awareness. Self to awareness leads to self to discovery. Each completed work of art can lead to an idea for another work. Eventually, the very endeavor of working creatively leads to having an intention prior to beginning the piece. If an individual can recognize and complete an intention in their art, they can transfer that concept to life. Thus, an individual can learn to live with intention.

Art & Consciousness Workshop
Tools for Change / Evaluation on a Transformative Level

When an individual begins to recognize and resolve artistic issues on paper, it will naturally follow that one will be able to recognize and solve problems in life. Successful problem solving strengthens confidence in one’s ability to make changes on a transformational level. Scientific studies of the frontal lobal area of the brain have lead to the conclusion that this section of the brain is involved in the ability of persons to see consequences of their actions. To be able to see consequences of one’s actions is a result of successful problem solving. New studies have shown that this area of the brain is activated through meditation, giving a sense of peace and compassion. It is my belief that this is also the area of the brain that is involved in psychic intuitive knowledge. Further studies have revealed that this area of the brain increases in gray matter at several stages of an individual’s life. One of those stages of increased gray matter is during adolescence. However, if the increased gray matter is not used, it decreases again in size. The artistic process strengthens all of the frontal lobal capacities.