I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections, and the truth of imagination
John Keats
Linda Courage, the coordinator of our Art and Spirituality special interest group, is organising a day in September to explore our ‘heart’s affections’ and ‘imagination’ using the arts.
This day is for people of any faith and none; art experience is not important. A range of approaches will be used to explore what it is that makes us feel fully alive.
The day will include using collage, time lines, mandalas and labyrinths, in amongst periods of quiet, time to reflect and share thoughts. There will be a table for you to bring and share ideas and resources with each other.
Below is an explanation of the background to the workshop by Linda.
Details
Date: Saturday 19th September 2015
Time: 9.30am for 10am until 4pm prompt (it is OK to arrive a bit earlier)
Venue: Portholme Church, Portholme Road, Selby, YO8 4QH (car parking is available)
The cost for the day is £15 which includes hot and cold drinks and basic art materials. Please bring a notebook and your own lunch.
Space is limited to about twelve people. Payment on the day by cash or a cheque to “St James’s Church” where funds are allocated to LivingSpirituality.
To book please contact Linda on 01757 709667 or Lp2work@talktalk.net. For more information about using art in this way and Linda, please visit our Art and Spirituality special interest group at www.livingspirit.org.uk/art-and-spirituality-group.
A pdf of the poster for the event can be found at www.livingspirit.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/art-event.pdf.
Why I am offering the workshop
by Linda Courage
I have known for a while that I would like to offer people art and spirituality workshops through the LivingSpirituality special interest group. I used to run them when I worked as a Development worker at St Bede’s Pastoral Centre in York. Now I have the head and heart space to offer the workshop in September and to offer it in Selby in North Yorkshire because there aren’t many events of this nature offered locally.
Using art to express ourselves is something I stumbled upon about 17 years ago. I was having sub-fertility treatment at the time (I really dislike the term infertility). I had felt quite sick for a couple of weeks and had hoped that I might be pregnant. When that turned out not to be the case, I had myself checked out at the GP surgery to make sure nothing organic was wrong. Then a wise friend suggested that if I was otherwise well, the sickness might be about my needing to rid myself of something. I came home, picked up a pen, and ‘vomited’ many poems onto the page – the sickness settled immediately and I was very surprised at the contents of the poems.
I’ve gone on to study and experience how art can be used regularly to give us images and insights into our interior worlds – to help us befriend ourselves in a deeper way. To me, spirituality is about becoming more connected with ourselves, our world, and others. It can be such fun and bring energy and fresh air into places we don’t appreciate exist.
If I can create a space to introduce people to using creativity in this way, and to network and share ideas, that would be very satisfying and totally in keeping with the aims of LivingSpirituality.
