Retreat to Create

Last weekend Hobby and I held our first Dare to Create Retreat in beautiful Weems, Virginia.  Our program was about designing a new life theme through creativity.  We began with food, cocktails, and art projects as everyone painted glasses and illustrated scarves.  After dinner we then explored our stories with an exercise to discover our core values.

Saturday began with a meditation and some yoga on the dock.  It was a beautiful morning as the light sparkled on the water with fish jumping and birds singing.  Even the most timid and inexperienced participants felt the release as we opened our minds and stretched our bodies.

Then it was time for some art play.  We printed, painted, stamped and drew as new techniques and materials were explored.  At times the materials were overwhelming, but with laughter and collaboration everyone was inspired.

After lunch we began to pull everything together as we introduced visual journaling.  Each page can represent a different ideas in designing a new life theme.  Values, love, songs, dreams and selfportraits were some of ideas participants focused on.

And the results are beautiful!

 I would share all of their pages but some are very personal.  A life theme journal can be share or just remain private.  Visual journaling is more about the process than the product.  Let go of your old stories and write a new one!


Our last project was to create Artist Trading Cards.  These "mini-masterpieces" are little creative doodles we made using watercolors, pens, stamps and collages.  I'll share these images in a future blog post!

I hope this weekend was as rewarding for all the participants as it was for me.  I learned so much from these amazing women and can't wait to continue our creative collaboration!!