Earlier this year, after teaching art classes for more than a decade and courses like “movement, meditation and expressive arts” at UNM’s Center for Life, Nicole White decided to centralize her expertise in a single location, now called Raven Art Center (301 Washington SE). After connecting with a community of women also interested in teaching the arts, and emphasizing the relationship between art making and mental health, the center got a firm grounding. White and other instructors will hold several classes to welcome the new year, and enunciate how to meet it successfully. A New Year’s Art Intention workshop will be held on Dec. 30, from 11am to 2pm, and will be followed on Dec. 31 with a Year in Review Oracle Cards and Intuitive Process Art and Journaling workshop from 2 to 5pm. (For registration and further information, visit ravenartcenter.com.) White explained her relationship with intention-setting and how this speaks to art and life.Alibi: How do you see intention setting working in the lives of other artists you know?Many artists or people [with] their craft find that they “don’t have enough time,” and I believe that setting the intention to work on one’s craft everyday, even if it’s just five minutes, will create a new ritual or habit that can eliminate blocks and help someone move towards their artistic or life goals however works for them. Setting an intention is the light bulb of focus.What is the power of identifying goals at the turn of the new year in your eyes?Identifying what someone really wants, or their goal creates a focus and intention, putting it to work is the real way to make this happen. It’s one thing to make a list of all the things you want to accomplish, next it’s time to take that further. It’s time to flesh out the list into action steps. Having a daily, weekly, monthly goal to get one to where they want to go. Writing down a goal is a good first step, but without taking it further, it may just remain a list that gets lost somewhere. It’s time to flesh out the list, create a mind map or vision board. Making notes, hints and reminders around your environment and on your calendar keeps the goal in mind on the daily. I personally love a physical calendar to assist with this. Just writing a goal in a notebook and not looking at it again until a week, month, year or years later just keeps that dream trapped, the way through is to make it a project, to spend time with what you want and give it solidity through process to make it happen.What is going to happen at the art intention workshop?… First, we will first do a stream of consciousness writing exercise with a few prompts. Then I will pull an oracle card and do a mini-reading for each participant; this will help solidify the direction for each person for the class. Next, the participants will be guided through [a] visualization process. Attendees will have access to art supplies as well as paper and pen. After the visualization, participants will be guided through the intuitive art process (those who wish to journal are welcome too). We will repeat steps two to four one more time; I will pull an oracle card, do a reading on the new card and then the interpretation of the two cards together, take [guests] through the visualization process then lead them to the intuitive/process art. Based on the card readings, their visualization and what comes out in the process art portion of the class, we will then go through the action step process. Each participant will describe their goal and will be guided to chunk it down into doable action steps to keep them motivated and find their success. At the end of the class, participants will have the opportunity to share their insights and action plan.What do you hope visitors will get out of it?I hope that the participants will receive clarity about clear action steps to help them achieve their goals. I hope to assist each participant in pushing through any barriers, including the ones in [their] mind so that they can accomplish this. I also hope to leave each participant with a sense of can-do and [they can take] the process we used in class towards any goal for life and for art.What will the new year bring for Raven Art Center?This new year, Raven Art Center is looking forward to hosting a variety of art and wellness classes. We will focus on enhancing the awareness and importance of art by offering articles through our website and newsletter as well as a free video series. [Also] this new year, Raven Art Center is going to branch out, we will be traveling … going to schools, community centers, businesses and retirement facilities to expand the awareness of art and it’s therapeutic properties.
Arts Interview: Best Of Intentions
Raven Art Center Hosts Workshops That Focus Efforts In The New Year
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