"this is why we journey: to retrieve our lost intimacy with the world."
                                                                                            christine valters paintner

About art + soul

​art + soul is an incubator for expanding spiritual imagination, nurturing inner hospitality and practices of soulful creativity.  At its heart, art + soul is about listening  for and giving voice to our deepest life-giving stories.  These are the stories that illuminate and disrupt, expand and transform. The creative process—artmaking, writing, community reflection and ritual—is the vessel from which these stories emerge.

art + soul workshops, groups, events and retreats come in many forms: at The Nest Space, off site and on line. Each is a waystation for weaving together spiritual imagination, inner hospitality and creative expression, and are shaped by one or more of these touchstones:

homecoming: pathways of discovery and healing for inner hospitality
curiosity:  avenues for inquiry and deepening the well
wisdom:  ways of knowing and being, and giving voice to feminine perspectives
creativity as spiritual practice:  creative process as encounter
edge conversations: courageous engagement with dying, death, change, loss and grief

A word about the words “art” and “spirituality”...
Our understanding of “art” and artmaking is often diminished by some assumptions: that "art" is the creation of a beautiful thing that someone will want to buy, "artists" are uniquely gifted people with special talents, "artmaking" is a tame activity that children do.  I invite you to imagine the creative process as a form of prayer, of spiritual practice…exploration, encounter and engagement with materials that help you tell an inner story that needs or wants to be given voice.
 
The word “spirituality” is also burdened by assumptions: that "spirituality" is about belief, it is synonymous with "religion", and "God" is always part of this conversation. The invitation here is one of expanding spiritual imagination, nurturing new ways of seeing and recognizing the sacred in the most ordinary of things.

​join me at the edges of art, spirit, community and possibility