cancer
Harvest Despacho Giveaway Contest
What is a harvest despacho? Despacho is an Andean amulet-making ceremony, in which the despacho-maker brings various elements into an object and then ritually sends it off. They are traditionally made by Andean shamans for a variety of (often transitional) occasions, from birth rituals to rituals honoring the dead. In a sense, a harvest despacho…
Read MoreMindful Mandalas: A Self-Paced eCourse
Mindful Mandalas: an Eight week Self-Paced eCourse is a visual drawing practice that calms and anchors you into quiet stillness. Who doesn’t need a little bit of that? By getting lost in the process of mindful mandala-making, your stress and worries melt away. We use very simple materials. All you need is some quiet time…
Read MoreArt as Healing eCourse: Behind the Scenes
In January, it was a glimmer of an idea: Art as Healing: Beginning an eCourse. Creating an art as healing eCourse was an overwhelmingly daunting experience for me but with the help of some talented people, the process was actually invigorating. I want you to meet some of the ones who bolstered my confidence and encouraged this…
Read MoreA Different Kind of Portrait: SCETV’s Original SC
Creating a 5 minute video portrait that sums up an artist’s work is not an easy task! On Thursday February 3rd, this aired on SCETV’s Palmetto Scene. The creator of the SCETV series Original SC, Tabitha Safdi, does an extraordinary job. I received an email from Tabitha the very first day of December.…
Read MoreArt as Healing Communities of Hope – A 20th Anniversary Exhibit
A Tribute to Creating Hope To mark our 20th art as healing anniversary, I wanted to create something significant, something filled with celebratory hope. Lots of ideas floated around our board of directors meetings. It was a stressful time filled with the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth. First of all, we knew wanted…
Read MoreTravel Inspiration: Stumbling Upon the Tibetan Sacred Arts in India
Finding Inspiration Outside My Comfort Zone… One of the things I have learned from my love of travel is that you never know what profound inspiration awaits around the next corner. I love that feeling, that rush, that force of inspiration that breathes a palpable life-force into my spirit. To be infused with that spark of creative…
Read MoreOur Creativity Manifesto: Rules to Live By
“Care of the soul is quite different in scope from modern notions of psychology and psychotherapy. It isn’t about curing, fixing, changing, adjusting or making healthy, and it isn’t about some idea of perfection or even improvement. It doesn’t look to the future for an ideal, trouble-free existence. Rather it remains patiently in the present,…
Read MoreFear No Art: Trust & Blind Contour Drawing
Many times, it is plain, old-fashioned fear that keeps survivors from signing up for our offerings – not the fear that comes with a cancer diagnosis, but the terror associated with the words creativity and art: “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly. I do not have a single creative bone in my body.” We believe that everyone has creative bones;…
Read MoreTranquility Practice: Creating Radiant Mandalas
There is a wonderful strangeness about meeting in a classic business boardroom for our Lunch and Learn series. A very large, stately, dark mahogany table fills the room. Two of the four walls are almost floor-to-ceiling glass. It is an elegant space that holds us well. This boardroom is transformed when we meet the first…
Read MoreFinding a New Whole: Self-Portraits
Each spring, I like to dig a little bit deeper into who I am, face some fears, uncover a long-forgotten aspect of who I truly am and hopefully move one step closer towards my personal quest for wholeness. In Jungian psychology, this journey is referred to as the path of individuation, a process where we learn and…
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