By Tamar Swartz
To receive a Platform A Micro Grant from Jumblies via the Toronto Arts Council opened the doors of possibility for expanding the Intuitive Art workshops that I facilitate.
First things first, what is Intuitive Art? Intuitive Art is an approach to creating visual art. While many traditional art classes focus on acquiring specific skills and techniques, Intuitive Art focuses on the actual process of creating art, while being present in the moment.
Guided by intuition, these workshops are a space for participants to unleash their inner artist, experiment with different materials and most importantly, to have fun! My guiding philosophy is that regardless of background or experience, everyone is an artist.
Each Intuitive Art workshop begins with a short guided visualization, to encourage participants to find their own starting point. One might be inspired by a word or quote, a colour or feeling. From there, we work spontaneously to explore colours, textures and designs with all the art materials provided. At the end we reflect on the process of creating our pieces, sharing with the group.
So, with the Platform A Micro Grant, the intention to share Intuitive Art with a group of seniors, and a whole lot of optimism and excitement, I set off to clarify my project. With the guidance of my mentor Michael Burtt, my idea was to run a series of three Intuitive Art workshops, hosted at two different senior homes. In the past have really enjoyed working with seniors, as I find their gentle presence and perspective to be full and inspiring.
The Accordion Book Project, that would unfold over the course of three workshops, was to create a mixed media accordion book. I love book making and the format of the accordion book lends itself wonderfully to the exploration of visual narrative landscapes.
Providing all the art materials needed – from oil pastels, to magazines, texture mats, fine papers, markers, glitter and coffee, I facilitated a lovely group of 6 residents from Kensington Gardens. Beginning with a meaningful theme, over the course of three weeks we created together and allowed our intuitive books to emerge. There was a lot of creative focus and inspiration, sharing and excitement! On the final day, once the books were assembled and completed, we shared our creations with one another.
Facilitating Intuitive Art workshops at Kensington Gardens was truly a fantastic experience, as I continue to learn about creative facilitation, gentle encouragement and finding flexibility within the project to make it accessible for all participants. The highlight of the whole experience was learning each participant’s name and developing relationships over the course of three weeks. To be able to support participants in trusting themselves and following their own creative intuition was hugely fulfilling for me. Overall, the Accordion Book Project at Kensington Gardens was a great success.
I’m deeply grateful for all of the participants who attended the Intuitive Art workshops, for Kensington Gardens for hosting the project, for Michael’s mentorship and for Jumblies and the Platform A Micro Grant for making it all possible.
I’m excited to continue facilitating Intuitive Art workshops in the future and am always looking for new ways to reach out and bring colour, creativity and inspiration to others.
About Tamar: www.tamarswartz.com
Intuitive Art workshops for adults: http://www.meetup.com/Intuitive-Art-Toronto/
Platform A 