"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 engaging and expanding spiritual imagination, nurturing inner hospitality and inviting 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 is embodied in many forms: virtual and in person workshops and gatherings, art installations, community conversations, pop up events, each form a waystation shaped by one or more of these touchstones:

homecoming: pathways of discovery and healing for inner hospitality
curiosity:  avenues for spiritual inquiry and deepening the well
wisdom:  ways of knowing and being that encourage flourishing
creativity as spiritual practice:  creative process as encounter
edge conversations: courageous engagement with change, loss, grief
and restoration

A word about the words “art” and “spirituality”...
Our understanding of “art” and artmaking is often diminished by  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, words, objects, ideas 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.