New Creativity & Courage Workshop: The Hero's Path

Creativity & Courage

I am delighted to invite you to join me November 16th in Hudson, NY for the beginning of the Hero's Path, a new Creativity & Courage workshop series.

In a letter to her son, who was departing to France on a sail ship with her husband John Adams, Abigail Adams wrote:

"These are times in which a genius would wish to live.  It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.  The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.  Great necessities call out great virtues.  When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake in to life and form the character of the hero."

It should be noted that the name of their voyage ship was 'Sensible". (Really! ) It departed November 15th.( Really! ) 234 years ago. The illustration above is a drawing from John Quincy Adam's diary aboard the 'Sensible'.  He was 9 years old at the time.

I believe that following your hearts direction is truly the sensible choice for your life.  Your heart's path is your hero's path.  The path of the hero is not without peril and great courage is needed.  The word courage stems from from Latin cor "heart".  It is in the heart that you will find your courage and it is in our Creativity & Courage workshop that you will be encouraged to follow your heart and to discover your vast spring of creativity that is a tool, a vessel and a guide to your Hero's Path.  This workshop will raise the mind and animate the heart, it will ignite those qualities that may otherwise lay dormant, it will awaken the creative hero within you.  This workshop will be your voyage ship, we depart November. 16th!

I encourage you to be sensible.

I encourage you to dare to believe in the infinite power and possibility of your creative vision.

I encourage you to follow your heart.

xxDawn
PS.  As always please feel free to reach out to me for anything or any questions you may have.

Workshop Begins: November 16, 2013
New C&C Workshop Series!!! Courageous Creators, The Hero's Path.
A new advanced Creativity & Courage workshop series designed for the creative being who has the desire and willingness to courageously advance towards their potential and purpose.  This workshop serves as a beacon, illuminating the path of the hero.  The hero is one who dares to be their full and authentic self, to boldly express their creativity in this precious life.  Through exposure to a variety of hands-on creative exercises, readings and peer support this workshop series will deepen your ability to express thoughts and feelings. Through your innate creativity you will discover new ways to problem solve, communicate and connect with both yourself and others. This series is for each of you that want to explore your unique creativity in a supported and mindful environment, to be challenged to experience and examine your relationship to your existing thoughts and perceptions, and allow new ideas to emerge in surprisingly delightful ways!
"Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"-Mary Oliver 
This series will be held in a new beautiful space inside the Solaris building, in downtown Hudson, NY one Saturday a month, (November-May) from 2-5pm
Dates:  11/16, 12/14, 1/11, 2/15, 3/15, 4/19, 5/17
Cost: $475 Full series, individual workshops are $100. Each class is limited in size to 10 participants. For questions and to register email dawnbreezepaintings@gmail.com or call #917-622-5141.

2013 The Art of Encouragement

Photo by Dawn Breeze

I am so elated to be exactly where I am and to be exactly who I am right now.  This very second on this first day of a new year!  I feel grateful, deeply grateful for the many new artistic opportunities that became possible in 2012.  Without question the highlight of the year was beginning my workshop series Creativity & Courage, the gift of my new beautiful art studio and the wonderful solo show at Mcdaris Fine Art in Hudson, NY. 

Leading my workshops is truly an indescribable joy.  I do not have words to describe the feelings I feel.  When I complete my classes I am "high" with love, excitement, joy and compassion towards all my students and their creative potential.  I feel quivery all over.  I have been trying to understand what this is?  What is happening in my classes?  What is happening to both me and my students?  I know my students feel similarly because they all keep signing up again and again.  In the rehab I have had two separate situations where people have extended their stay one extra day in order to be able to take my class one more time before discharge.  These people who love my class are not in any way stereotypical creative types.  In fact at the rehab my most enthusiastic students are also the most "brute" artistically.  So what is this?  I have an idea.....

Last week my class was on Courage and the Hero.  In preparation for class I was researching the definition of courage and the definition that most struck me was #2.

cour·age

[kur-ij, kuhr-] Show IPA

noun

1.

the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

2.

Obsolete . the heart as the source of emotion.

  

What I was most taken with was that definition #2 was an original definition of "Courage" and has now been deemed "Obsolete".  I disagree with it being obsolete.  I believe that courage is following the heart.  When I asked my students about their hero's many of them spoke of people who loved them, who they felt supported by....and then it struck me!  Their hero's had "encouraged" them!!!   The word "encouraged" became so large and powerful to me in this moment-"encourage" to fill someone with courage, ie. to love and help fufill someones hearts purpose.  I realized that is what is happening in my classes.  Me and my students are mutually encouraging our hearts purpose, which is simply to to be our authentic creative selves.  So my New Years resolution is "Encourage" in every possible way and my motto is the photo above. "With You I Can".   I love you all!  xoxoxoxoDawn

 

Possibility this Summer: A Creative Adventure

I have been daydreaming about offering a creativity, relaxation and discovery retreat in Sicily this Summer...this looks like a nice work table.

Leading a creative path..

 Two weeks ago I lay here, up on the mountain under the apple tree, I painted and wrote in preparation for my first plein air creativity workshop....

 Under the apple tree I saw that in order to "teach" creativity I will always need to be actively creative, which means I will always need to be constantly engaged in my fear, in vulnerability and imperfection. Curiosity and Courage lead me forever onwards. (That is my prayer)

 My students beautiful work....

My first plein air creativity group participating in the workshop titled "The courage to be".  It was truly beyond anything I could have imagined or hoped for-rippling deeply for us all.

 Me taking a day to rejuvenate in between...and then the amazing germantown artist studio tour I organized!!!!

Hello Fellow Fabulouso G-Town Artists!!!
Here it is our official Art Studio Tour schedule 

Prism Women Series, Cell 2 by Dana Gentile

2012

Collage
13" x 8.75

So here is the lowdown take two:
JULY 14th
1pm we meet here at my house(228 main st) and drop off our Potluck BBQ Booty & Drinks, and then we jump into wheels and cruise to our first Artist Studio-reminder this event is only open to invited studio artists(you) and your art buddy's of choice, in other words this isn't public(yet).  Please note that the schedule is not the same as the first tentative one, I adjusted it according to the actual studio address's for our ease and comfort:)  Also please note that the studio visits will be brief in order for us to all be accommodated in one glorious afternoon!

1:15 Dana Gentile 
2:00 Steven Renolds & Pamela Wallace 
3:00  Lyndsey Brown 
3:45 Melora Kuhn
4:30 Michael Eudy
5:15 Dawn Breeze 
6:00Julie Carino  
7:00 PARTY

Studio 1-Dana Gentile

Studio 2: Pamela Wallace & Steve Renolds

Pam & Steve, who built their entire studio themselves!!!

Studio 3: Lindsey Brown

Studio 4: Melora Kuhn

On route...

Studio 5: Michale Eudy (He won the award for smallest studio-amazing!!)

Michale and his wife have created an apothecary herb farm from seed!!!

Studio 6: Dawn Breeze

Studio 7: Julie Carino ( I am so sad I do not have an outbuilding picture-at this point in the tour we all practically had heat stroke-so I will have to go get a picture to fill in!)

Here we are!

Yesterday I took my darling Sunny on an adventure....

 I will be participating next week in another studio tour at the Henry Hudson Studio's which will be an event alongside and promoted with NADA Hudson....

D.I.Y. the art of discovering "I am"

Here goes a thought tangent....
This morning had a "Oh, maybe that's it!" moment.
Recently I contacted an Adult Residence Program for people living with Mental Illness. I contacted them because I want to be of service in some artistic way. I strongly believe that we can learn to connect with each other in deeper ways through the creative language, (Visual art, fiction, theater, music, etc) I also believe that this may be the portal to hold hands with someone who is experiencing a psychotic break, and if it is; then we can use it as a meeting ground to comfort each other when people are simultaneously experiencing extremely different realities. Which would then lesson the fear and isolation between people. In any case the facility responded that they are potentially interested, and would like me to propose something. Which is terribly exciting but it brings up the question "What can I teach or offer"? I am not an expert in anything!!!!!!!!!
I realized what I most want is to help others develop the courage to deepen self acceptance-which struck me as interesting because that's what I want most for myself and what I need supportive help in...and then I thought maybe that's just it!!!! We cannot teach each other this, we must D.I.Y. We must discover our own way-our own remedies, and along the way we need loving support and compassion-the kind of support that's not teaching "right or wrong" the kind of support that is as much teacher as it is student.
Which then made me think maybe I can just introduce a creative path towards self-discovery, with some of the regular tools I use.....and this morning I wrote another 'manifesto' which totally needs editing, etc. but anyways with all its imperfection and overused words here it is:
The process of creativity leads us to the artistry of our lives, not to becoming museum artists
(sometimes it does!). It strengthens and deepens our understanding of our self and others. Its through creative thinking and acting that we discover truth and beauty. Its the path to a divine or soul connection. Truth is not always joyful, it is also sorrowful-but truth is what sets us free, free to be ourselves, free to accept others as they are. The truth is not perfect in a dictionary sense, its perfect in its imperfection. Our souls know truth and we respond to it, its the guidepost in decision making. Once we know and accept our truths we can make decisions that are right for us. When we choose to be authentic we help others to do the same. Truth is love and love is what we live for. Love fulfills our heart. Our pain and searching is always about fulfilling our hearts. We can fulfill ourselves by loving ourselves but in order to love ourselves we must first know and accept ourselves. As soon as we are born we are taught methods of living based on right and wrong. We begin to immediately move farther and farther away from ourselves, because we don't want to identify with "wrong". We reach a point where we don't trust ourselves, like ourselves or even know ourselves. I think our recovery of self begins when we breakdown. How we are living in our life becomes so completely unsustainable because we are so far away from ourselves that in essence we are dead. It is then that we begin the D.I.Y process of recovering the "I Am". I think this is where creative process begins. The creative process is not about learning whats right or wrong. Its a process of sifting through ideas, actions, examples and finding your own way, your own path. It is a D.I.Y creative path. It flourishes in a non-judgmental supportive environment and it struggles in an academic critical environment. It is not about how much you do, or how well you do it, it is about the willingness to try. The willingness to constantly touch the fear, to constantly be a beginner, to constantly meet yourself where you are, which is always changing. So its the willingness to try new things all the time, to always be a beginner. If you think about flowers-you plant a packet of poppies, each one will grow in to a poppy, but not one the same. They all need similar conditions to grow. Some grow tall and some short, they are all beautiful. Some of the seeds are sick or more sensitive then others. Some need more shade or more water. We too are that way. When we are aware of who we are and accept our conditions for growing into our highest potential, we can nurture ourselves and attend to ourselves. This includes asking for loving help in areas we can not do alone. It means standing as we are clearly and unashamed for who that is.

Oh man-wouldn't it be nice if there was a "courage" pill!

I also want to thank all of you who are with me, reading this blog and occasionally sending me notes. You are the most encouraging audience-watching me try new things, blunder and be silly. Its so awkward and scary sometimes. I'm always afraid I won't be liked or my work won't be liked....but somehow I still want to climb up the ladder and jump over and over again...maybe sooner then later I will learn to dive gracefully and swim with confidence and won't just keep belly flopping and doggy paddling....I definitely think that part of the reason I keep trying new things is because every time I flop you laugh and applaud with me:) Thank you!!!!!!!