On this page I will be adding some wonderful freebies —
Art Ceremonies and Expressive Art Experiences you can try at home with simple materials! Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have!
Expressive Art ceremony #1
“Beautiful Words”: an expressive arts “spell” for troubled times
Expressive Art activities are something I use on a daily basis to help me in so many ways from finding a calm centered place to diving into the depths of the unknown to facing my shadow. This particular activity has given me hours of comfort in the last week while practicing social distancing at home and I hope it will help you or a friend or family member too.
P.S. I think some kiddos might like it too, PLUS in this activity they will be spelling and reading some poetry too!
There is a video at the end of the page here that will give you an overview.
Supplies:
A candle and some music that makes you feel great and relaxed! Click here for a link to one of the playlists I made on Spotify of calming music that I like to play in my Expressive Arts sessions.
Blank paper (could be anything from copy paper to watercolor paper but if you don’t have blank just use lined paper!) I used a heavy drawing paper from my art journal.
A brush, any brush will do + Watercolor paints (preferred), or cray-pas or acrylic paint. I used water soluble pastels (cray-pas) but had a hard time writing over it where the pastel was thick on the page. If you use acrylic paint apply it very thin —try scraping the paint on the page with an old credit card.
Pens or markers, crayons or sharpies even colored pencils will work!
Books of poetry OR some favorite inspired novels, essays or short stories.
Steps:
This is the most important step: light a candle and take some deep breathes, let yourself come to a calm and centered place, then let yourself imagine what you want for the world. What is the energy you would like to see enveloping and circling the whole wide world? What colors do you see in your mind’s eye that represent that energy?
Let those colors dance across your paper and cover the whole field of the paper in a wash of color or swirls or flows, or blending of shades… let this be relaxing and fun! Take as long as you want…
Now let yourself think of positive, healthy, magnificent words — the actions, feelings, moods and things you want in the world. Let those words come onto the page. Try different fonts, try different types of pens or pencils, try different colors. I tried some of the words in many different fonts or colors and chose the one I liked best to keep.
When you start running out of words from your own brain (it can happen!), turn to whatever books of poetry you could find or maybe you have a most cherished novel or book of pop-psychology you love. Open to random pages and skim until you find a word you a LOVE — a word that resonates as something you want to see more of in the world and write that word on the page…Keep doing this until you have filled the page or are ready to move on
Now is the time to begin tearing or cutting out the words from the background. I loved the way the torn edges look so I carefully tore my words from the page…. and, I wound up then having a bunch of background with no words already torn our so I went back to the poetry books and found more words to write on the torn pieces!
After all your words are torn out, if you are a curator like me, arrange your words on a contrasting background. This, to me, is where the activity takes on a very magical quality — you can arrange the words so they create a visually beautiful spell for our world!
If you do that will you please send me a picture of your Beautiful Words for the World?! elise@juicycreatives.com
The next step if you choose to do it would be to create an envelope or altoid tin to hold your BEAUTIFUL WORDS — use your imagination here by painting papers, collaging from magazines, wasi tape or duct tape! Have fun!! check back here later for the next step activities with your Beautiful Words!
Video below illustrates the steps of the ceremony — Enjoy!
Expressive Arts Ceremony #2 —”Scribble! For self discovery!”
this can be used as a daily practice or a one time experience. Attention Art Educators, home schoolers, and parents suddenly having your kids at home all day this creative experience can be easily adapted for kids of all ages — give it a try!
Expressive Art ceremony #3
“self-isolation accordion books”: a book of days
In this video you can see the Accordion fold book I am making as a record of my life, feelings and processes during this time of disruption and social distancing. I invite you to make one as well and there is a tutorial on the next video below!
Here is a tutorial and a few examples of accordion fold books to try at home!
I hope you love this practice as much as I do! I will be scheduling a zoom meeting soon to ask questions and share your accordion book!
contemplative practice: Shrine and altar building
In honor of George Floyd
A simple shrine created from a kitchen match box and a “landscape” background. DIY instructions below
“We memorialize to preserve lives after death, to share stories and to collectively or privately work through grief. “
--Anonymous
The process of creating a memorial shrine or altar has many purposes:
o Allows quiet reflective time for the maker to consider the life and death of the person being memorialized
o Using the hands to craft a memorial shrine or a sacred altar space can help soothe and transform the grief, anger and rumination of the maker and channels these emotional states into something constructive.
o Having a physical object and/or sacred space that holds your memory and emotion of the person gives your psyche a place to focus and come back to again and again as you move through the layers of grief and metabolize your experience.
Questions to ask in creating your shrine -- reflect/write:
o Who do you want to memorialize
o What is their life story?
o What is their death story?
o What is your relationship to the person?
o How does their life fit into a larger pattern or story?
o What words, symbols, colors, objects come up for you when you reflect on their life and death?
o What do you wish for the person you are memorializing and for their family and for the larger culture they are part of?
o What is the overall story you want to tell or convey in your memorial shrine?
This DIY video gives you all the step by step instructions to turn a kitchen matchbox into a memorial shrine:
Materials to gather:
Kitchen Match box, jumbo or small (can find in the grocery aisle with household goods)
Candle(s)
Scissors, glue stick, hot glue (optional)
Foam core, cereal box cardboard or corrugated cardboard
Magazine, junk mail, tissue paper and/or scrapbook paper for collage images
Photo of the person you wish to honor (print out from computer, or find in newspaper or from your personal photos)
Paint, pens and/or markers — whatever you have
Sequins, old jewelry, glitter, ribbon etc. any embellishments you might have around
How to:
Follow the steps in the video above.
Get creative!
A helpful quote to keep in mind: “Art making is a way of dwelling in whatever is before us that needs our attention. There is a universal tendency to turn away from the difficult. Image making allows for staying with something while making that staying bearable through the pleasure in the use of materials.” --Pat B. Allen
If you need any help with the instructions or need some basic supplies to make this happen don’t hesitate to reach out! I
Here is a Spotify Playlist of songs I created that I find helpful in easing me into a contemplative, sacred space for shrine making:
Sharing your shrine with others:
o A memorial shrine has healing and restorative benefits for the viewer as well as providing a point of reflection, often invoking a sense of the preciousness of the deceased, and also a sense of community.
o You might choose to photograph your shrine or altar and share it with individuals or groups who are connected to the person, event or memory you are memorializing.
o By sharing your memorial or shrine on Social Media platforms you may help others tap into their own feelings (a picture is worth a thousand words). Grief, when shared, can help heal and create bonds of community far beyond the people you may have actually met or know personally.
o In sharing your shrine or memorial consider your own feelings – ask yourself “Am I ready to share this and deal with the reactions of others?
Elise Crohn, Juicy Creatives Studio 2020
