Liv­ing Image Workshops

Tools and prac­tices of visual self-inquiry

A sacred cir­cle is an ancient sym­bol of whole­ness, har­mony and bal­ance in the spir­i­tual tra­di­tions worldwide.

In “Liv­ing Image” work­shops we will be form­ing a sacred cir­cle of our own  — an artis­tic laboratory

specif­i­cally designed to awaken and to nur­ture cre­ative power within. Every child is intu­itively connected

with this power – be it to make a pic­ture or to man­i­fest one’s des­tiny. This power is still at our fingertips –

we just need to make space for it in our lives and let it per­form its magic!

 

 

 

“Spi­der Weave”

 

A unique and inno­v­a­tive approach to draw­ing devel­oped by Andrey.

Com­bin­ing body aware­ness and visual per­cep­tion in an easy, spon­ta­neous and nat­ural way “Spi­der Weave”

allows you to explore outer and inner realms while the hand dances and weaves a trail of your eye’s wanderings

on paper. All the dif­fer­ent threads come together into a tight web that catches and holds in place the residue

of your visual expe­ri­ence. Both a novice and mature artist alike will dis­cover that “Spi­der Weave”:

• Is a sim­ple and prac­ti­cal way to begin a visual dialog

• Cre­ates a deeper con­nec­tion with one’s intu­ition and inspiration

• Frees the flow of cre­ative juices regard­less of one’s par­tic­u­lar draw­ing style.

 

 

“Artist’s Med­i­cine Wheel”

 

Devel­op­ing bal­ance and gain­ing momen­tum in one’s art practice.

5 tra­di­tional ele­ments of alchemy and scrip­ture — Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether will serve as points

of depar­ture in our con­tem­pla­tion of the cre­ative par­a­digm – spirit sat­u­rat­ing mat­ter, free­dom of limitless

fluc­tu­at­ing poten­tial becom­ing a fixed real­ity of spec­i­fied sub­stance. Sur­face ten­sion and spa­tial depth,

color and light, move­ment and tex­ture, vol­ume and form are some of the aspects of visual vocab­u­lary that

will pro­vide the prac­ti­cal con­text of the work­shop. We will explore how their inher­ent expres­sive qualities

allow us to man­i­fest and har­mo­niously weave together the var­i­ous dimen­sions of our being –

spir­i­tual and phys­i­cal, men­tal and emotional.

 

 

“Inner Vision”

Con­nect­ing to the source of inspi­ra­tion within, chart­ing a path towards per­sonal iconography.

Where do images come from? What gives them mean­ing? How do they become charged with energy

that can trans­form our lives? We will pon­der these ques­tions fur­ther as we focus our dis­cus­sion on the

alchem­i­cal power of imag­i­na­tion that can turn a base metal of every­day occur­rence into the inner gold of the soul.

Dreams and visions, med­i­ta­tions and spir­i­tual expe­ri­ences, sym­bols and arche­types – each one is a thread

that can lead us to the Source, pro­vide us with a par­tic­u­lar line of inquiry, become a path to fol­low on a journey

of self-recognition. “Inner vision” is not only a pow­er­ful tool for devel­op­ing an image of last­ing artis­tic interest

and com­plex­ity, but also a road map to an art prac­tice that can encom­pass and reflect our inner landscape,

guide and inform our soul’s jour­ney through it, reveal and revel in the shim­mer­ing golden vision

of the beck­on­ing light ahead.

 

 

“Man­i­fest Destiny”

Shamanic cave paint­ing is an old­est form of cre­ative visu­al­iza­tion. Before the hunt a shaman would inscribe

its suc­cess­ful out­come on the cave wall. This process of man­i­fest­ing one’s painted vision is the heart and soul

of our work­shop. It is said — “see­ing is believ­ing”. When your heart’s deep­est wish, your inner­most intention

takes form before your eyes – magic takes place. The dream sud­denly becomes real, acquires a life of its own,

a life in this Uni­verse beyond the realm of one’s imag­i­na­tion. To actu­ally see your dream man­i­fest even as a

crudely drawn sketch on a sim­ple two-dimensional sur­face is to acquire faith that it CAN become a pal­pa­ble reality

in your life. It can serve as a visual reminder of what it is you REALLY want. It can give you courage and self-confidence

to actu­ally “GO FOR IT”!

We will con­tem­plate our life’s pur­pose and search for images to express it. We will con­tem­plate our deep­est intentions

and wishes for the future of our com­mu­ni­ties and the whole world and paint it into being. Work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tively on a

large-scale mural we will join count­less other artists and vision­ar­ies that through­out the ages offered their heart’s best

with what­ever means they had at their dis­posal. They real­ized their vision by imprint­ing it for­ever on the indestructible

Tem­ple Wall of the human spirit.