Workshop:

Letters Beyond Language

Art-making belongs to all people. It is a tool for discovery in the conversations we have with ourselves, and the stories we tell ourselves and live by. Each tool has its possibilities and limitations, both of which are useful, and if we change the tool, we change the frame. This can lead to new views, connections and understandings of our stories. This workshop offers some visual tools to allow this frame-shift so that each person can touch on an idea that is important to them in new ways.

What to expect?

* In this 2 hour workshop we begin with by discovering and playing with new tools and then, working individually and together, use these tools to draw out our own stories and to reflect on them.

* At the end of the workshop, you will have a momento, a manifestation of this visual journey to reflect on, and a reminder that these tools are yours and always open to you. Although each person creates their own work we also accompany one another and I am always amazed at what is created all together as a body of work.

* We will work with visual tools, ink and paper, but there is no need for experience with making artwork as we will develop our own visual language during the workshop. It’s about play and discovery, finding your own relationship with these tools. Using exploration not explanation to explore your own story.

Making is far too important to be left to professionals.
Art is narrative, communicative and therapeutic, private as well as public,
it is not only product but process, a tool for living,
and it belongs to all of us.

Responses from people who attended this workshop:

“Refreshing and liberating”

“Incredibly cathartic”

“It’s a way to release the mind and see what comes out”

“A tactile and gentle process, unburdening and helpful, it is a message i was never able to send”

“The mapping allowed me to shorten my letter to the most important ‘words’.”

“The end result was strong and to the point. It was fun, and a challenge to myself”

“It was effective in creating an order to things, simplifying and getting some clarity”

“I am now overwhelmed by the desire to send my ‘letter’”

Below are some photographs from various letter-workshops with both adults and children:

Letter workshop with secondary school children 2014: