in the wishstudio i have been working on connecting… gathering, networking, meeting, chatting, putting my vision out there and then being open to what comes.  i feel the importance of creating relationships, expanding social circles, and not simply selling people a product. yes, it is deeply about the community.

i love to light that spark of possibility in others, and the collective excitement that follows in finding the juiciness together is always so rewarding. this alone is a core part of my work.

in the works is a new RAW Studio Collab. i am so happy that Jenica brought the light of her vision to the wishstudio last year, as i believe in it wholeheartedly. a few fabulous creative studios in the Boston North area are connecting to share in hosting Random Art Workshops in hopes to grow community while fostering and supporting creativity.

yay for more opportunities to gather, more fabulous people to meet, more inspiring spaces to inhabit, and more creative messes to make!!!

here are some of the studios in the mix:

Wishstudio :: 21 Middle Street :: Newburyport, MA
Artstream Studio :: 56 North Main Street :: Rochester, NH
Open Studio Groton :: 30B Hollis Street :: Groton, MA
Sparkle Days Studio :: 14 Cedar Street :: Studio 105 :: Amesbury, MA
Scala Art Center :: 28 West Main St :: Georgetown, MA

stay tuned to the RAW facebook page for upcoming dates and times (heads up… the next RAW gathering will be at Artstream on February 24th).  i’m really looking forward to meeting new faces!

by mindy tsonas

despite these (very) blurry pictures, it was an amazing night in the wishstudio.  yes, in the wishstudio!!!  and even though the studio was far from ready, there was such beautiful creative energy that swirled around in that little space.  the notion of “tribe” and “journey” and “process”, all those words we throw around so liberally round these parts were deeply, silently, yet vibrantly woven threads connecting us for a few sweet hours around a messy table.

for me, it was realizing the necessity of THIS, of just being together will my fellow creatives, and it also reaffirmed the notion that if this is my life, it is more than enough!  i just want to be elbow deep in paint, laughing out loud over silly things, sharing ideas and dreams, and finding ways to do it together, and light up each other’s lives!

this is markedly the beginning of something… something deeply personal and soul-shifting for me… and this is also the end of something else, the way i used to envision Wishstudio.  thank you dear friends for being a part of it all.  for making my life what it is, blissfully immersed in the raw… kat, brittany, nina, miranda, heidi, jill, and ellen… and all of YOU in our creative community!

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what happens when old and new friends gather…

yummy food and drinks are added…

topped off with creative messes of all sorts…

MAGIC!

thank you all for making it so wonderful…

maya, kat, miranda, anna marie, jill, jess and tina

and extra special thanks to jenica and nina for being such fab hostesses!

you ladies all rock my world…xo

by jenica mckenzie

When I get asked what you should do at your own RAW night, I always smile and say, “Whatever you want!”

The point of Random Art Workshops is to bring creative individuals together in a space of open learning and sharing.  And while the group has changed and shifted as people come and go over the years, there is still the thread of creativity that binds us together.  In finding activities to do as a group I had to ask myself what really nourished my soul and what I’ve always wanted to try.

Whatever feeds your creative self is something worth doing at a RAW night.  I spent one raw night on a beach, painting rocks, watching the sunset, and then going to an Italian place to continue conversation.  Another time we made dioramas from children’s toys and giggled all night.  A group of daring women filled water balloons with paint and played Jackson Pollock for an evening.

Because my roots are entrenched in paint, our Utah group has done a lot of painting.  But we’ve also had times where we took turns hosting the event or the activity to be accomplished.  We’ve used our collective hands for art journaling with writing prompts, photo walking, word-of-the-year canvases, collaborative paintings, poetry, yoga, exploring textures in art, collaging, music appreciation, jewelry and beadwork.

The longer our group has met, the more activities we find to do because every one of us has a talent or craft worth sharing. When a group of artists come together the pool of talent works synergistically.   Each of us have our thing we do, our creative outlet is there, and it’s worth sharing with others.  I wanted to continue to learn as an artist but felt intimidated by the idea of taking college classes.  Cozying up in someone’s house and learning among friends has given me the space to learn a plethora of awesome new things.

The basics of a Random Art Workshop: good peeps, good food and beverage, good music, and something new to learn. So get going, you can do it!

by jenica mckenzie

what is keeping you from art?

from finding YOUR artistic community?

from taking the time to get messy and throw technique out the window?

my fears were that no one would come, that i would spend my time and energy and no one would even show up! what if they thought my house was messy?  what if my kids were rotten in front of new people?   and then i realized that if someone invited me to an art night all i would feel is gratitude, finally a place to to safely just BE.

so here’s my challenge to each of you:

GO GET MESSY

play with paint, charcoal, dirt, mud; bake something delicious and share it with someone; knit yourself into a knot; clean out your closet and repurpose some of your uglies.  whatever feeds your heart and makes you feel alive, how bout you commit to spending one hour this weekend getting messy and remembering what feeds you.  your heart needs it, or you wouldn’t be in this group. ;-)

trust your mess

RAW night this thursday…

if you live in the colorado springs area, shannon root is hosting a RAW night on thursday. connect with her on facebook for more details – go shannon!


join our RAW facebook group here and grab tour button!

{fabulous RAW photos by the lovely gretchen}

by jenica mckenzie

RAW photos by amy gretchen

What if I had judged a book by it’s cover? What if I had assumed that she wouldn’t want to be my friend because we didn’t appear to have much in common? The more we were together, the more commonalities surfaced, and I’m grateful every day that I have her in my life.

As we started RAW we acknowledged that we were opening our lives and friendship up to strangers, some who might come off as a little kooky, but we were open to the idea that we could find a common language through art.  And we have.  The women in our Utah group are from very different backgrounds and varied age groups, some are mothers, some aren’t, some are religious, some aren’t.  We craft in entirely different ways.  And we are learning so much from one another.  Because we all decided that when we showed up, we would only put the truth forward, we cut past the chit-chat and grew comfortable in one another.

I believe this can happen for you as well.  As I work to bring women together in open environments I see over and over again how necessary it is for women to create. Especially in a group, each bringing their own truths, all of us learning from one another.

How can you be in a place of openness when you come to raw? How can you stay in your own energy? When you bring a group of women together it can be so easy to be swayed by someone else’s reality.  It seems that we’re born to compare our lives, but really, it doesn’t matter what anyone else’s definition of happiness is. Because, do you know what YOURS is?

What do you want to learn? make a list of things you want to learn to do. A bucket list? No, don’t put that much pressure on this list. Try writing stream of consciousness, make a list of all the things you want to try in life, things that you enjoy doing, things that make you happy, things you barely give yourself permission to dream of.  Make your list as ridiculous as you need to. Your dreams are unique to you, it’s important to get to know what makes YOU tick, what makes YOU happy, and then you’ll know whether or not you’re chasing the goals that will actually open your happiness.

For me, I thrive in groups of people, I LOVE the energy. I’d be happy to be in a group of 30 women creating together.  But that’s me.  What size of group do you thrive in?  Tailor your RAW group to your needs.  It could be just two of you, someone that you’re totally comfortable with.  What feels natural to you, where will you be the most comfortable?  This is a night that you should look forward to, not stress about.  If the idea of going out dressed up is making you anxious, then make it a pajama night. I give you permission to do what works for you. Will you feel uncomfortable in your pajamas with a bunch of people you don’t know?  Take the reigns, they’re yours.  You can have it as formal as you’d like to.  Again, I give you permission to do what works for you.  I think of the years that my babies were little and I do remember how hard it was to leave my little ones.  So have a RAW day, let the kids play, and create something with your girlfriends.  What if your spouse wants to join?  Make it a party.  RAW night is yours to create what you want with it.

When you put yourself in a position to succeed, you will.  Take courage in the idea that the right people will always come, your night will never be wasted. Because regardless of who comes, you WILL be creating something for yourself. Play music that speaks to your heart, eat foods that nourish you (and yes, this includes chocolate), put yourself in a position where you can rest your insecurities and feel as comfortable as possible.  Providing an environment that you can thrive in will allow you to use your courage for creativity.

by jenica mckenzie

we are all creative beings.  even as infants we longed to create: stacking wooden blocks to create towers and tearing them down just for the cheer joy of it.  seeing a beautiful meal placed before us and then painting with it, moving the textures in our hands, mashing it to bits and dumping it all over ourselves… creating yet another piece of art. ;-D have you ever given a baby a piece of paper?  this is what happens! when did we stop enjoying the simplicity of life unaltered?

so come back to a child-like abandon. being creative is part of your intuition, passed down through your very DNA. we are born to create.  and somewhere along the way, we allow voices of criticism (from those that lost their childhood openess) beat us down and tell us that living with our eyes and arms wide open to the joy of this world is something impossible.  and we put down the blocks and the crayons and we shelved our desire to create.  we told ourselves that it mattered whether or not someone liked what we made with our hands, forgetting entirely the joy that comes from making a mess on a table.  for one reason or not, we stopped playing in the dirt.  we allowed ourselves to believe that making mud pies was something dirty and not something that filled our afternoon agenda.

creativity doesn’t come in one box.  i am creative therefore i paint.  but that’s not all.  i’m creative because i can come up with a meal for seven people in 30 minutes.  i’m creative because i currently have six different types of milk in my fridge.  i’m creative because when i get dressed i can fashionably pair colors and patterns to create an edgy, yet comfortable wardrobe for myself.  i’m creative because when i look at the sky i take note of all the birds and wildlife in my view.

why are you creative?  can you balance budgets? do you have the ability to create spreadsheets in the blink of an eye? is your house spotlessly cleaned and organized? do you speak more than one language?  do you like pirates?  how about video games?  can you stitch a dress or maybe you stitch up a patients hand? do you bake yummy things? do you rock out in your car to the radio when you think no one is looking? whatever your niche is, it requires creativity.  you, yes YOU are a creative being.  and what you create matters.  it matters because it releases your stress, it melts away your tension, and it allows you to meditate on the things that are perplexing you.  this creativity strengthens you because it’s something you’re good at, it’s something that comes naturally, it’s a secret garden where we’re allowed to be completely and wholly ourselves.

so how do we transcend?  how do we embrace our inner messy creative selves?

i get it, we have to be responsible adults.  we have mortgages and car payments, we have to pay for our food and enjoyment.  and it’s hard to remember why we used to play, we can’t remember the emotional payoff from when we were children.  my daughter took a marker to herself today, up and down her legs, all over the walls and cabinets, in her armpits, even on her precious unicorn pillowpet.  i was so disappointed and angry. she ruined a lot of stuff!  i could only see it from my perspective in that moment, but i get it now.  because as i stand over a canvas i feel humbled to hold a pen to it, to see it take off and transform into a work of art. as she held the marker in her tiny hands she simply wanted to see what she could create.  how she could alter something that exists and make it her own.  so we make a comprimise, “you’re allowed to draw whenever you like, but it has to be on paper, and i will ALWAYS have paper on hand for you.”

we’re not going to be quiting our jobs to stay home all day and color pictures.  but we do need a safe place to cultivate that side of us again.  a place to get messy.  to me this is the heart and soul of Random Art Workshops.  being childlike makes us very vulnerable, being creative creates vulnerability, we’re leaving ourselves open to attack and outside criticism.  no wonder we don’t nurture this side of ourselves!  it’s SCARY!!!  so why not create a space where it’s entirely ok to get messy? in fact, that’s the motto: just get messy.  opening your home and your heart to others that are ready to nurture their creativity.  all of us in different circumstances with different abilities, but united in the promise to put that down for an evening, once a month at first.  dedicate that time to yourself.

but we also have to be accountable for that time.  we need the reminder to do it or we will procrastinate our own peace.  and this is where RAW bridges the gap.  having a group of people ready to walk forward together, a promise to allow this vulnerability to move each person, to share your life and your hearts as you create with your hands.  linking our minds and our hearts in one evening.  when you’re in that space with common intentions, the conversation will flow (and ebb, mind you) and you’ll realize it feels really good to tell the whole truth of yourself.  without relying on talking about anyone else to keep conversation going, but simply sharing your own truths.  because your truth deserves to be shared and heard.

but be prepared, because as you let down your guard, the troops of kindness will envelope you.  in this safe place where the paint is spilling or the knitting needles are clanking, something will happen.  real conversation, real worries, real life, real talk, real art.  the point isn’t to have a showing of your work, the point isn’t to create the mona lisa, the point is to nurture the child that is yearning to just CREATE something.

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RAW women in your area!