Creative Expression
Watercolour and the Art of Seeing
With David McEown
Explore watercolour’s magical flowing spontaneity and essential techniques as you paint directly from nature. Enhance your perception, way of “seeing”, and connectedness to the earth with this travel-friendly medium. Enjoy a dynamic watercolour demonstration; exploring paint as a form of meditation and play. Uncover the secret hydrodynamics of watercolour paint and the brush work manipulation […]
Weaving Ritual: an Embodied Rebozo Retreat
With Collective Rebozo
In order to open and enter a new stage of life, we need to honour, integrate and celebrate where we’ve come from. This retreat, offered for the first time in Canada, is meant for those who are longing to cultivate more ritual in their lives. Together we will weave a time and space of nourishment, […]
Sketch by Sketch: Connecting with the World Through Drawing
With Emma FitzGerald
Learn to sketch without fear of making mistakes! Join celebrated author/illustrator, Emma FitzGerald as she leads participants through a series of exercises that build confidence and improves observation skills, while allowing for the happy accidents that make a drawing that speaks from the heart. Using pen and water colour paint, and working both together and […]
Giving the Wound Air: Expressing the Inexpressible In Your Own Words
With Susan Musgrave
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional,” - attributed to the Dalai Lama It is hard work, when we are grieving, not to suffer; suffering — personal and universal — has become a condition of how we live. Yet we are bereft of time to grieve. Writing, especially poetry, fiction, journaling and memoir, has always been […]
Untangled: Moving Past Fear in Knitting and Writing
With Matthew J. Trafford
Get unstuck in your creative project and grow beyond what's holding you back. Knitting and writing are both crafts that require working on projects for a long time. Stitch by stitch and word by word we build our creations, but sometimes this process can be overwhelming, intimidating, or paralyzing, leaving us stuck and frustrated. Grab […]
Exploring Ocean Mysteries: The Science and Poetry of The Salish Sea
With Marjorie Wonham, Ph.D. and Melanie Koenderman
The ocean has long inspired curiosity and imagination in scientists and poets alike. Join us in a lively, embodied, place-based experience of the beautiful waters and life of the Salish Sea. In this unique program we will explore ocean shorelines and ocean poetry, and create our own poems that deepen our understanding of how we […]
Dance of Connection
With Bettina Rothe
Come home to yourself, find connection and nourishment in community, and with the land. Together we take refuge in our primary language "rhythm", and find belonging in the dance. Release old patterns of relating that no longer serve and expand your repertoire of how you can relate with others on the dance floor and in […]
The Embodied Voice
With Amy Thiessen
Step into the wisdom of your body & unleash the power of your voice. Our voice is both the channel through which we excavate past traumas and conditioning as well as a vehicle through which we may find healing and reconciliation with the various facets (voices) of our being. In each embodied voice session, you […]
Contemplative Mind, Spontaneous Brush: Ink, Colour and Japanese Washi Papers
With Heather Midori Yamada
Relax body, breath and mind with short guided meditations and simple perceptual exercises. Follow brushwork demonstrations using Japanese sumi ink and watercolour on various Japanese washi papers (provided). Inspired by surrounding natural subject matter, and mixed media approaches of layering, tearing and collaging cultivate personal and unique expressions in abstract or naturalistic imagery. Deep intuitive […]
Wild Soma Being and Becoming: Embodied Practices for Collective Thriving
With Andrea Nann, Julia Aplin, Roula Said and Shannon Litzenberger
In this time of intersecting social, political, and planetary crises, how do we embrace and honour all that is arising in us as bodies? What if we listen closely to what we feel in our hearts, what we sense in our bones, and what we know in our guts? Can we resonate care and connection […]
Tapping the Stream: A Spring Writing Retreat
With Betsy Warland and Shaena Lambert
Tapping the Stream is a week-long retreat - free from interruption - to explore the direction of a work in progress, as well as to foster creativity through community with other writers. “Tapping the Stream is the most wonderful workshop I have ever attended. The facilitators helped me get back to writing after a concussion […]
Flying SOULO: Your Story on Stage
With Tracey Erin Smith
Transform your life stories into a Solo Theater Show or a Keynote Talk. Using improvisation, writing exercises and one-on-one coaching with award-winning director Tracey Erin Smith, uncover the stories that need to be told and transform your experience into a powerful and entertaining show or talk. "Tracey is a true wizard who creates a whole […]
Dancing from the Inside Out
With Margie Gillis
Move into your body’s experiential wisdom and reveal the soul in motion. Develop your sensitivity to the connection between thought, feeling, spirit and body as you listen in to your body’s inner wisdom, impulses, conversations and emotions. Becoming sensitive to and engaging with this inner life provides information both for expanding well-being, as well as […]
Nature Paints Itself
With Jeremy Herndl
What if the world created us humans to speak its names, sing its rivers and winds? What if nature paints itself, using our deft human hands and the tactility of sight to emulate its textures, colours and spaces? In this workshop we shall enter the space of nature, the garden, forest and ocean and paint […]
Something Opens My Wings
With Margie Gillis and Thomas Atum O'Kane, PhD
“Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness.” - Rumi Through meditation, movement, creative imagination and the soulful mystery of the Something, we will evoke the states and stages contained in Rumi's poem. Both Margie and Atum have spent their lives […]
Singing in the Vocal River
With Rhiannon
Hear your own song and learn new ones as you find your place in the world of music and invention. Co-create vocal magic in a safe, dynamic circle of singers, delving into the possibilities of spontaneous composition and the language of storytelling. Working alone, in pairs, and in ensemble, meld intuition and invention with skill […]
Healing Family & Ancestors: Ritual & Resonant Family Constellations
With Jill Purce
Transform inherited patterns into magical blessings, bringing harmony, joy, and order into your daily life. Activate the unconscious field of the ancestors, making it a rich source of wisdom and illumination. This healing program uncovers and restores aspects of the psyche that are normally closed to therapeutic methods, transforming negative patterns into natural blessings. Jill’s […]
You Are Not Your Story
With Mark Matousek
"I cannot say enough about this profound writing practice to heal, and awaken. I went away feeling weightier, more embodied, with a deep sense of having recovered more of my authentic voice, and depth of presence." - Krystal Dyan, Past participant Realizing you are not your story is a quantum leap in self-discovery. Learning that you […]
Slow Art, Somatic Practice, and Creative Rest
With Shauna Kaendo, Registered Art Therapist | BFA, RCAT and Trudi Smith, Registered Clinical Counsellor | MC, MA, PhD
Bringing our bodies into the conversation through creative process. In this therapeutic arts program, we get curious about what self-care practices can look and feel like both individually and in community. Through creative meanderings we will experiment with solo and collaborative art-making processes, for example, bilateral drawing, collage, watercolour, bookmaking, slow stitch, and somatic felting. […]
Kanikapila: Expanding the Magic of Ukulele
With Kimo Hussey
If you play the ukulele, you likely understand the joyful power of this small but mighty instrument. At Hollyhock this summer, discover kanikapila, the magic that erupts when playing and creating music together. With Hawaiian ukulele master Kimo Hussey as your guide, go beyond rudimentary play and explore the myriad combinations that come beyond C, […]
Cyanotypes on Fabric
With Sarah Fuller
This alternative photography workshop focuses on the historical Cyanotype photo process, using objects and plants from the Hollyhock ecosystem to create one-of-a-kind images on fabric. Participants will learn how to create Cyanotype prints on fabric and will be encouraged to use natural elements from the Hollyhock ecosystem to create photograms. A photogram is a photographic […]
SAORI: The Zen of Weaving
With Terri Bibby
"Terri flawlessly combined the techniques of SAORI with the philosophy. I didn’t want the week to end" - Past Participant Explore the beautiful SAORI weaving philosophy from Japan where there are no rules and no mistakes. This philosophy encourages you to “look out through eyes that shine” and see beauty in new ways. It places […]
Harmony Within: A Journey of Songwriting and Reconnection
With Leah Abramson and Samantha Parton
Writing can be a powerful tool of self-expression and intimacy with one's deepest thoughts and feelings. The “Harmony Within” workshop explores songwriting as a medium, a practice, and a journey through which we can reconnect with our creative source, our vulnerability, and our inner wisdom, harnessing the healing power of music to illuminate, transform, and […]
Translating Science through Writing and Art in Times of “Climate Boiling”
With AM Kanngieser and Zoe Todd
In this time of boiling climate crisis we are inundated with data and information about the dire state of the world. But how do we tell these stories in ways that center our interconnectivity, interdependence and the power of our shared and common action? This four day intensive study will work with participants to build […]