How to Be a Gorgeous Genius
Weekend Workshop 1: Finding and Following Your Bliss with A Wayfinding Toolkit

 

Workshop Dates & Locations (click on your preferred date/location to register and for more info)

 

 May 15-16, Berkelely, CA

 

 Dear Creative Soul,

 I know that YOU are a Gorgeous Genius brimming with ideas that have heart and meaning to you.

 By Gorgeous Genius I mean: You have a unique gift to offer in a unique way that can be used in service of your creative dream. And when you do that, you prosper in ways that make you feel blessed and lucky every day.

 Ultimately: You get to do what you love, while making a difference and getting paid for it.

 

the workshop
My mission and purpose in my work and for this retreat is to help you remember, reclaim and recognize your particular gorgeous genius, and learn how to make it work for you

 

and

 

show you how to translate that into tangible, practical ideas that get you moving forward-or back on track-toward making your creative dream real.

 

What we’ll be doing: we will write, paint, and play with all manner of collage and mixed-media supplies, including photography. Absolutely any level of experience is a-ok, and if you have no experience with this…you’ve got a head start!

 

These are creative tools especially designed to access and hone your Gorgeous Genius World-Changing powers. You do have them. Imagine what you can do when you use them.

 

can I say “fall in love” in a workshop description?
Simply put, I want to show you how you can create with abandon, free of self-consciousness and fear, and fall in love with your particular gorgeous genius. When you learn how to do this, anything is possible. Which brings me to the bit about Creative Dreams.

about creative dreams
I think that having and nurturing a creative dream is one of the most important things any human being can do, whether or not they consider themselves “artistic”. When we learn how to do this, the effects spill over into other areas of our lives in wonderful and unexpected ways. Plus, it just feels good.

It doesn’t matter how seemingly small or lofty that dream is. Some examples of creative dreams from other participants include wanting to:

find a way to face a blank page without paralysis
learn to develop their own visual style
make a living from their passion
develop a new body of work
learn how to infuse their creativity with more meaning
nurture a new idea
boldly take a new direction
just get away from it all and have some fun

What is your creative dream? How do you want to make a difference for the things you care about? How do you wish you could change the world?

 

the takeaway
By the end of the weekend you will have transformed a totally blank sketchbook into an abolutely unique visual guidebook that maps out the what, where and why of your creative dream — and what the next steps are in mapping out the all-important how.

 

Based on other experiences in this workshop, you’ll likely take away many new connections with the other people who are attending. These folks are just like you in so many ways, and this work attracts people of like mind who want to pursue creative dreams that have heart and meaning.

 

Integrated into the workshop are tips for how to take this material and keep using it on your own, long after the workshop. Speaking as a practical idealist, I believe that while inspiration is good, it wears off quickly. This workshop gives you the tools and techniques to keep going, whether you feel inspired or not. Which, amazingly, creates the inspiration we are looking for.

 

an outline of what you’ll learn:

   * How to identify your unique Gorgeous Genius

   * How to find and follow your bliss (otherwise known as your thing)

   * How doing your thing can be world-changing

   * How to create a visual road map of what it is you want to accomplish

   * How to approach your thing with love, and transmute fear (seriously, this is powerful!)

   * How to develop a positive and productive relationship to your creative process   

   * How to harness the power of difficult (and commonly experienced) emotions that can sabotage your ideas (such as envy, jealousy and feeling overwhelmed) to make them work for you, rather than against you

   * All about art supplies: the best, cheapest, funnest-and most meaningful-ways to incorporate imagery into your visual journal roadmap

   * Ways of dealing with procrastination, self-criticism, judgments and other emotions that keep us from not working

   * Taming Sketchy ideas: How deal with wanting your work to look “artistic” and still get your rough ideas down. Yes, you can have both!

   * How to return to a creative project after an absence

   * Concerns of privacy: Surprising and fun ways of getting your ideas out without fear of prying eyes. Concerns about publishing and blogging.

   * The magic of mixed-media: How to integrate writing, painting, collage, photography, and the kitchen sink into your visual journals

   * How to build and maintain a creative support system to prevent isolation and burnout

   * Critical information on how to take what you learn at the workshop and consistently apply it long after our time together

   * Practical tools that bolster courage and confidence designed to help you move forward on your creative dreams-whatever they may be

 

geez! that’s a lot of bullet points!
Yep. That’s because I’m giving you everything I’ve got — material that took me a couple of decades, to learn and synthesize and codify.

 

my promise: if I can live my creative dream - so can you

 

Like many people, I come from background where making a living doing what you love was seen as a kind of luxury for others. You know, people with better funding, more smarts or more opportunities. But for some strange reason, I was compelled to try, without any kind of roadmap or guidance. Shooting in the dark, as it were.

I had to learn so much the hard way, the long way, the expensive way. I’m not saying there are quick fixes or easy answers, I’m saying that I have put together the wayfinding toolkit I wished I’d had when I was starting out….or starting over….yet again.

 

The Gorgeous Genius workshops provide creative tools that anyone can learn to use for a lifetime of rich, unique, absolutely authentic expression that serves your higher purpose, and supports you in making your own creative dreams real.