Mask Making Workshops
Creativity as Catharsis
In 2018, I published Homeostatic Toes, a collection of visual art, poetry, storytelling, illustration and photography celebrating the catharsis of the arts. Homeostatic Toes honours the full spectrum of emotions we humans can experience. It confronts the passions that drive these emotions, and encourages individuals to channel their experiences into a creative outlet.
Four years on, as a development of this project, I am hosting workshops designed to allow individuals to explore their wondrous, volatile, and emotional selves through the creative process.
Process
1. Ceremony: intention with a spoonful of honey
2. Walk: find treasure
3. Create: assemble treasure
interim: break
4. Hike: climb a hill carrying masks
5. Dance: 5 rhythms
6. Closing ceremony:
- keep three pieces/elements of the mask
- individually, then collectively burn the masks
7. Feast
Using masks as a means to simultaneously conceal and reveal, we create these amorphic head-pieces out of trash, or treasure.
Working together as a group, we walk, search, create, hike, dance, celebrate and feast together.
Both walking and craft-making create spaces for us to mindlessly focus on a repetitive task, thereby opening up the mind for thinking, talking, and sharing. As such, this collective workshop creates a space for us to heal together.
It’s a long day and once the sun has set we enjoy a delicious feast: caught and prepared by my brother, fresh from the farm.
Above are images of the first workshop I ran in early April
Next workshops in August SOLD OUT
Check back here for dates in November
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