Explore Your Creativity Dreamcatcher Workshop

According to Native American Ojibwe tradition, when a little child was born, its mother would weave a dreamcatcher to place in the cradle. Only the good dreams would be able to pass through the web, and all of the bad dreams would become entangled. When the sun rose and the first rays of sunlight touched the dreamcatcher, all the bad dreams would dissolve.

Today, dreamatchers have captured the imagination of people of many beliefs. In this workshop, we will create beautiful dreamcatchers adorned with objects that you bring or others that will be available to choose from. Using writing experiences, drawing, and dreamcatcher making, we will look into the way that we use artistic expression to put form to our explorations into the spirit, soul and our connections with the web of life.

Join Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D., a professor of environmental studies who integrates art experiences into his teaching about our relationship to the natural world, for an exciting workshop about how to create beautiful dreamcatchers and get in touch with our participation in the web of life.

Workshop participants will leave with a reinforced belief that we are all part of the same thing and that profound personal change is necessary to feel a part of the Earth again.

All tribes throughout history have had a story of their creation, a story that unifies them as a people and a culture. Western culture has not had such a unifying story until today, as modern theories of physics, astronomy, and ecology have given us a tale that tells of the creation of our planet and the universe - a creation story for an Earth Tribe. Today we know that the Earth and everything on her was born in a primordial fireball and remnants of that fireball are present in each of us and every animal, rock, and waterfall on the planet. We are all intimately connected.

Through writing, drawing, mask making, movement, weaving, and discussions, we will explore the many ways we are connected to the earth, the air, the water, and ourselves.

By the end of this workshop, you will definitely feel more a part of our awesome universe.

OBJECTIVES
To answer the question "how are we connected to the web of life?"

1. Explore the human artistic experience as a way to understand the meaning and place of creativity in our own lives.
2. Explore the ways that the arts and creative expression have reflected our society's changing concepts of and relationship with the natural world.
3. To provide personal answers to the following questions: What is art? How does artistic expression fit into my life? How can I make artistic expression a part of my life?
4. Use the dreamcatcher as a means to reweave ourselves back into the cycles of the natural world.will leave with techniques in meditation, observation, perception, and mindful living that could transform their lives and the way they relate to others.
5. To encourage alternative ways of thinking about human's place in nature.
6. To examine models for relating to nature and to spirit.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Seed, John, et. Al., Thinking Like A Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, 1988.
2. Roszak, Theodore, et. al., editor, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1995.
3. Glendinning, Chellis, My Name Is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization, Shambhala Publications: Boston, 1994.
4. Nhat Han, Thich, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Parallax Press: Berkeley