Updates

Personal growth and creativity workshops. Instruction in collage with guided visualization. Flexible format:
2 hours $50
3 hours $60
4 hours $75
5 hours $85
All materials included. By appointment

The theme for the winter workshops is: Connections

Spring schedule for workshops in Europe pending.

Connect with me via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandra-Shuman-Creativity-Coach-and-Artist/168405576573698

CLICK HERE to read about Sandra's experience at the international artists' residency program (DFEWA) in Mallnitz, Austria, Oct. 2011. Read artists's statements and view photos of Sandra's and her colleagues work

Creative Flash:

Deep Joy and Satisfaction
Sandra Shuman, Ph.D.

My first art show was a turning point. It was exciting, bringing me together with many old students, friends and interesting strangers. It was great to feel support, hear impressions, even to sell a few pieces. I wished the event could have taken place earlier! But, I am glad it didn't, because I might not have been ready for the change it precipitated! Before that, come rain or shine, I counted on making art as a constant source of deep joy and satisfaction. Being in my studio was, in the words of Joseph Campbell, to "follow [my] bliss." Like a meditative practice, it refreshed me.

Putting my work in the public eye caused me to start looking at my paintings through different eyes. Like children they suddenly had taken on a life of their own! I felt like a worried parent and no longer quite as close to them. I wondered, "Did I do a good enough job? Can I really be proud of them? Are they going to make it on their own?" These were questions I had never had to ask myself before. The sheer joy of "nurturing" them had been enough. Letting go of and critically evaluating them from an "outside" perspective turned out to be as jarring as it was liberating.

I had crossed a threshold and discovered that to identify myself as a professional artist was going to come at a price. No longer just a source of personal pleasure, my work was becoming a product. I could already sense that thinking about how salable it was could outweigh how much joy producing it brought me. I needed to take a little time out to sort things out, gain perspective and put my priorities in order. In my heart, art as process will always take first place, art as product, second. For it is while making it that I experience the deepest joy and spiritual satisfaction; it gives me a sense of connecting to something larger than myself, something timeless, expansive and uplifting. I welcome reimbursement but thrive on what provides me with sustenance for the soul.