So my week of Creative Spark session practice with my lovely guinea pigs finished on an excellent note; six people came in all, ranging from those who hadn’t put brush to paper in years to an actual artist friend who hadn’t been creating recently was looking to start painting again.
{this is my mum, discovering she likes to paint with both left and right hands}
I learned so much; layers and layers of how a session might work, what people need, how I can use my intuition to pull out threads from what they say to provide activities that would sing to them, when to step forward and offer help and support versus when to step away and let them dive in, how different and yet the same we all are.
Two things happened in every session I noticed; the person arrived with some degree of anxiety or nervousness, and there was a point at which I saw a spark light up in their eyes as they either realised something, felt understood and seen, or experienced that excitement of ‘yes, I want to try that’ or ‘I’m so loving this’. To be able to witness that lit a corresponding spark in me each time. It seems I have named the sessions well. 🙂
The feedback has been extremely positive; the general consensus seems to be that what I’m offering is both needed and fun. {yay!} Â I can see that I will not be able to apply really any of what I learn across the board ~ the uniqueness of each individual means that what works for one does not work for another. But I have a loose format and that seems to set the wheels in motion each time, with the person in front of me choosing which direction those wheels will take them.
 {some collage action on Friday}
Here are some of the kind words my guinea pigs gave me in response to their sessions:
‘It was beautiful, you were perfect, and I want to come back!’
‘This is like therapy! It’s so healing.’
‘I liked the freedom of being able to do what I wanted and also to try new things. I felt safe which is great. I also liked your attention to finding me good things to draw and your energy was kind and attentive too.’
‘I had so much fun!’
So far two people have booked to come back for actual sessions {ok, yes, one was my mum, but it still counts!}, and tomorrow I’ll start strategically placing flyers about my local area to keep the momentum going and really get this show on the road. 🙂
That’s really wonderful Tara. I think art allows us to let go of thinking and feeling and just tap into intuition. It give a voice for those things that we have no words for. I know it’s helped me enormously in coping during difficult times. Sometimes people don’t even know what they need and finding their way into your studio is really going to be transformative for many of them.
Thank you Lelainia; I agree ~ in fact one of my guinea pigs told me art had saved her many times ~ and I hope I can do justice to such tranformations!
What a fantastic time Tara! I’m so glad your session was such a resounding success! I’m going to be in Canterbury at the end of May, hopefully you’ll have a session going on that I can join in!!
Wow, how come? You’d be very welcome Lorinda!xx
ooooooh…this is lovely! i’m so delighted that it’s all falling beautifully into place for you (and your spark-ees).
i love to see people (re)discover their creativity…it pains me to think of people wandering around all disconnected from their Imagination.
xo
Oh me too!
Yay! How wonderful. Glad your guinea pig session went so well. xx