Happy New Year! In preparing to write this year-end note to you, I looked back over 2022 at everything we created together – all the beauty we added to the world over this past year. And I was surprised to learn that we gathered for twenty-one workshops, seventeen here in The Down to Earth Studio, and four offsite (the Art Department Supply Store, Newport Paper and Book Arts Festival, Breitenbush, and the Alton Collins Retreat Center). With an average of eight people in each workshop, that’s a total of 168 (probably more like over 200 when you consider that people often make more than one thing at a gathering) paintings, collages, SoulCollage® cards, shrines, goddess banners, eco-dyed pieces, and Kintsugi bowls.

Wow. Let me say that again: Together, in 2022, we added somewhere around 200 new items of beauty into the world. Yay us!

So, does what we create make any difference? “You bet your sweet bippy” (Laugh In, ca. 1968) it does! I recently read a conversation in Orion Magazine between Kathleen Dean Moore (writer, philosopher, Earth advocate) and Bob Haverluck (artist, storyteller) that brought me to tears because it expressed so well how art can help defend the natural world. In fact, that’s the title of the interview, “How Art Can Help Defend the Natural World.” Here are three of my favorite quotes from their conversation:

“…art is the master of the logic of imagination, of uncertainty, of possibility, of storytelling. Lord knows, we need some new imagining.” Kathleen Dean Moore

“The arts are elaborations of the body’s ways of saying, feeling, and knowing. They can especially be the heart’s ways of knowing and saying. This matters because we have seen that knowledge alone does not move people to action.” Bob Haverluck

“We assumed that in the throes of this [environmental] emergency, the long-standing notion of creating art-for-art's-sake was long past its expiration date. In the vortex of a cosmic crisis so dangerous, so, tragic, so unfair – and so full of possibilities for redemption – everybody’s got to throw everything they’ve got at it. And if what we’ve got is art, then that’s what we’re going to put in our slingshots.” Kathleen Dean Moore

I can only pray that 2023 brings more social, political, and environmental stability, and that we will each do our best to turn the events in our lives into opportunities for growth and connection. To that end, I truly hope The Down to Earth Studio will provide you with an outlet for personal creative expression and healing. I have some fun things planned for 2023 and hope you’ll join me for some of what’s in store, including my book launch in September -- more to come soon!

Thank you for reading my newsletters and for gracing me with your presence at my workshops in 2022. Thank you for having the courage to take your joyful broken heart and turn it into art!

Art and SoulCollage^® Gatherings at the Down to Earth Studio

SoulCollage^® Gatherings

If a sessions is full, you can email GG to get on the wait list.

January 20, 2023 - Beginning Again: Welcoming a New Year

Morning session: Space available

Afternoon session: Full

February 17 - Paradigm Shift to Community

Morning session: Space available

Afternoon session: Full

March 17 - All Things Green!

Morning session: Space available

Afternoon session: Full

Those new to SoulCollage® can come one hour early for an overview. Newcomer Fee for the one-hour introductory overview + all supplies + three-hour gathering is $65. 

Email GG to register.

SoulCollage^® Card Reading Gathering

Ever wondered what else you can do with your SoulCollage® cards? Come join me for a session devoted to different ways to read our cards, for example: Full-Deck Reading, Four Directions Reading, and Group Card Reading. Readings we use will depend on the number of participants. By optional donation (no fee). Email GG to register.

Possible May SoulCollage^® Retreat at Breitenbush Hot Springs

This retreat is on hold while Brietenbush works through some financial and technological issues.

There is a tentative date set for May 18-21, 2023

I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

I'm so excited to announce that The Down to Earth Studio is teaming up with The Art Department Supply Store for an art show, "Earth Shrines and Banners for Hope and Healing," just in time for Earth Day!

Come to the studio and make a shrine or a banner in honor of our Earth, sweet Earth. Your shrine/banner will be part of an art show in the Concrete Gallery (back of the Art Department Supply Store in downtown Salem) from April 7th to 28th. (Your piece can be for sale or marked not for sale.)

Earth Shrines and Banners for Hope and Healing Workshop opportunities:

Saturday, March 11, 2023 9:30 am to 4:00 pm

Sunday, March 19, 2023 9:30 am to 4:00 pm (with Vernal Equinox celebration)

Workshop fee: $55.00 Workshop fee includes all supplies and instruction. Half of the fee will go to 1,000 Friends of Oregon for habitat restoration.

Your finished piece will grace planet Earth with love and healing power. A perfect way to celebrate Earth Day and the beginning of Spring! Register with GG here.

I'm beyond thrilled to announce that my book, Solo Passage: 13 Quests, 13 Questions, is finished, edited, has a cover design (see left), and will be headed to print this coming Spring. Getting the cover design finalized makes it all so real...I actually wrote a book!

I can't wait to get my wilderness questing stories out into the world. Stay tuned throughout this year for more information including promotions, book tours, and giveaways...oh, and where you can purchase my book, too! : )

Yes, that's right. The Studio now has a scholarship fund with dollars donated by kind and thoughtful individuals who support the arts! If you are under financial hardship and not able to afford a workshop fee, please contact GG to apply.

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