Its vitally important that we become familiar with the mystical aspects of our lives…it is not something we can easily define, nor can we truly understand sacredness until we catch a glimpse of it.*
Just as the natural world is alive with stories, songs, and wisdom, we too can sing matter alive. Let’s come together to make art and explore what it means to imbue an object with our presence, our values, and our deepest feelings. Through creative, imaginal, and somatic practices, we will explore the question(s) of what makes an object sacred. Exploring a body of work sculptor Erin McGuiness began in Malta called From Saints to Garbage, we will reflect on what bridges the sacred into the profane.
Can we find the sacred in our everyday lives and tasks?
What have we discarded, labeled profane that may contain wisdom we need?
What is contained in the cherished heirlooms of ancestors, both personal and cultural?
How does an object become a symbol of our personal narratives, a reminder of the moments, relationships, and values that shape our lives?
Is it the expression of the state of our own consciousness, awareness and presence when we create an object with our own hands?
Together, we will dive into these questions through creative practice, bridging the imaginal and sensate worlds, guided by the wisdom of our bodies. Erin McGuiness will share clay sculpting practices to strengthen our hand-to-earth connection and guide a deepening in our relationship with the creative process itself. By gathering and transforming everyday, found objects, we will also cultivate our intuition and the expression of our unique voice(s).
Whether you are completely new to the arts and meditation or a seasoned practitioner, please join us in this exploration of, “Sacred Objects,” a moment to glimpse the transformative power of art, nurturing our visionary capacities and expanding our ability to see richness in the hidden and to bring expression into form.
Date: June 8, 2024
Time: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm PT
Duration of workshop: Approximately 4 hours, with a 1 hour lunch break
Materials: Clay
Cost: $210 (includes materials and firing)
Location: Erin McGuiness’ Studio, 2547 8th Street #33, Berkeley, CA
California based sculptor Erin McGuiness incorporates contemplative practices with art making, working primarily with clay and found objects. She uses hand building processes such as carving and coil building, to create ceramic forms that are totemic, archetypal and play at the intersection of dualities; light and dark, monastic and lush, wild and cultivated. The pieces explore themes of the vessel-as-archetype, divine feminine & masculine, inter-relatedness of forms, ancestral recovery of earth based devotional practices and the animation of matter. Researching the Old European Neolithic culture, she seeks to find cultural roots that pre-date colonization and the suppression of artistic and spiritual practices in which her ancestors were deeply tied to the land, nature and one another in shared community. Ultimately the forms and three-dimensional spaces she creates provide a locus or quiet place where viewers are invited into their own personal form of communion. Her teaching philosophy explores the body as our most important tool in art making and the creation of objects made-by-hand, as a nonlinear process to cultivate myth-making capabilities. Integrating meditation, energy and embodiment exercises into the direct manipulation of earth – clay.
* Oprah Winfrey introduction of Eckhart Tolle for podcast Glimpsing What is Sacred Eckart Tolle: Essential Teachings