Creative Arts Eliot 2022: Your choice of workshops

Registration is now closed for this camp. Please consider Winter Eliot, or one of next summer's camps instead.

Eduardo Fernandez - Acrylics

This workshop is full.

Program Description: Painting 1-2-3!
     Explore the art and craft of acrylic painting in a studio offering personalized instruction, demos and feedback. Students will learn and gain inspiration by painting directly from life and by copying a master artist's work; a tried and true way to learn and create fresh and interesting work. While some attention is paid to theory, the workshop is meant to be hands-on, engaging, and fun. Painting 1-2-3 includes lively discussion of artists and their work to explain and illustrate: essentials of picture-making like value, color, and composition; painting technique such as color mixing, brushwork, and building a painting step by step; how to start strong and block-in a painting. Painting 1-2-3 is open to all levels and beginners are welcome!

Biography: Eduardo Fernandez is inspired by the effects of color and light, direct observation, imagination and love for oil painting and drawing. Portraits, still-life, and landscapes are ongoing themes in his work. Eduardo is know for his portrait work and has exhibited in several Pacific NW venues. He greatly enjoys teaching and has been an instructor at the Portland Art Museum, Pacific NW College of Art, and Multnomah Arts Center. To view his work, visit: www.eduardofernandez.com.

Linda Horton - Mosaics

Program Description: Create Your Own Glass Art Mosaics
Mosaic is an ancient art form, made accessible to beginners or those with limited experience in this workshop.  Participants will learn about choosing materials (iridescent or textured glass, small ceramic tiles, beads to embellish, etc.), glass cutting, composition and tips for constructing 2-3 simple pieces. These will include a small (5") picture tray and a pendant (other options available). Using glass triangles or slivers primarily, rather than squares, allows a more dynamic, flowing and quicker creative expression.  New skills, plus original, durable artwork to take home!

Biography: I have been involved in the arts since childhood, when my mother took me after church (San Diego 1st UU) to sketch in the park or at the harbor. In high school, I Illustrated the literary magazine, in my 20s I worked for an art gallery and sold my etchings, and in my 30s assisted an art therapist in senior homes.  While I have been involved in many art forms ( dance, drama, folk ensembles, and writing), I kept coming back to visual arts.  Abut 30 years ago I took up stained glass, which evolved into a passion for glass mosaics (I adore jigsaw puzzles!)   The past five years since retirement I have specialized in pendants, beginning with flaming chalices and branching out.  I have an Etsy site (MinervaMosaics) and a Facebook page (MinervaMosaica).  Between my Etsy site and craft fairs, etc., I have sold 300 or so pendants, as well as contributing both pendants and plaques to church and charity fundraisers and making larger pieces for gifts and the occasional commission. During my 25+ years as a parish minister, I regularly offered adult ed classes in “Art and Spirit.” 

Calyn McLeod - Dragon Sculpting

This workshop is full.

Program Description: Learn to sculpt a dragon in polymer clay! Calyn will walk you through the sculpting process all the way from armature to painting. You'll go home with a completed dragon, and skills that will apply to any future polymer clay projects you might make.

All skill levels are welcome! This class is great for complete beginners and returning sculptors alike. Calyn will guide you through the basics, but you will be able to modify the design and add decorations and details from your imagination. The best thing about dragons is that there's no one right way to make them!

Biography: Calyn has been making art for as long as she can remember, and has many years of experience crafting fantasy creatures. Her work can be seen here: fruitbatphoenix.com. This page https://fruitbatphoenix.com/solid-creatures.php has some dragons she has made using the same techniques you will learn in the workshop.

Mike Reddig - Active Sports

Program Description: An additional morning option, "Active Sports will be available for those wanting a more physical activity.  Led by Mike Reddig, there will be options for hiking, paddle-boarding, disc golf, and maybe some lawn sports or a service project. What this group does will depend on the interests of those who sign up.

Biography: When not working to build plane parts or spending time with my family, I enjoy getting out into the world and challenging myself. Earlier in life I was an avid rock climber and can tell stories about Yosemite and Joshua Tree and that elusive boulder problem at the gym. With age or wisdom, I have moved away from extensive climbing as my joints were starting to show the mileage. I had always enjoyed biking, but now I ride on all terrains from road, to dirt, to grass and have enjoyed racing both to be part of a team and for the solo challenge of it, pitting myself against my previous best.
     I find I am drawn to the more solitary sports as they allow me the time to process the world and my place in it.  My own path to spirituality, much like Henry David Thoreau, can be found in the natural surroundings and the breathtaking views from the top of a rock or on a bike ride through the countryside.

Richard Scher - Everyone's a Musician

Program Description: We all have music in our minds, bodies and souls. We are empowered with a gift to sing, dance and play. Many of us have had that gift encouraged and nurtured, and some of us might have been burdened with “old tapes” from a 5th grade teacher --“you can’t carry a tune or keep a beat”.

In my workshop “Everyone’s a Musician” we will burn those old tapes and explore and develop the musicianship that is inherent in all of us. The course is inspired by Orff Schulwerk—a holistic music pedagogy for children created by composer Karl Orff and other progressive music educators. The core principles and practices of Orff Schulwerk are as relevant and powerful for adult learners as for children: we all can learn learn music by making music. The learning sequence for a typical Orff activity moves through Imitation (for example--learn a rhythm by call-and-response); Exploration (try the rhythm at different tempos); Improvisation (make up your own version of the rhythm); Composition (find a way to symbolize your creation to share with others).

I will be drawing from the extensive music curriculum I developed during my years of teaching music to children and adult learners. The activities will include singing and vocal development, rhythm competency, percussion, movement, diverse folklore, assorted instruments, language and literature, improvisation, and composition--all leading to a performance of our own creations. All are welcome!

Biography: Richard Scher has enjoyed a varied professional career in music: songwriter/record producer, composer, keyboardist, percussionist, choral singer, jingle writer, Orff Schulwerk music educator, pedagogy and curriculum expert, and traditional dance-music performer. As a staff songwriter for major music publishers, Rich’s songs were recorded by such well-known artists as Diana Ross, Al Green, Jennifer Holliday, Patti Austen, and Kool & The Gang. He did recording studio work with Bob Dylan, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger and others. Before retiring and moving to the Northwest in 2015, Rich worked for a Los Angeles non-profit organization providing arts education programs to underserved schools throughout southern California, serving as director of professional development, curriculum specialist and workshop clinician. He is currently focusing on composing and publishing contemporary classical music, much of which has been performed by First Unitarian Church, Portland choirs and instrumentalists.

Jude Siegel - Nature Journaling

Program Description: Nature Journaling - for Joy, not Mastery. In journal format, we will combine watercolor, drawing, and writing. Simple exercises given to help you to see differently, enjoy the paints, and draw with more confidence. Awareness and relaxation will help you find your personal interpretation of the beauty around us.

Biography: Jude Siegel has been teaching children and adults about nature and art for many decades. Artist, educator, and naturalist, she has long taught in Oregon, including for Portland Audubon, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Multnomah Arts Center, as well as in other states, and in Italy. She wrote A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook (Timber Press 2006).

Laurie Smith - Soul Collage

Program Description: A SoulCollage Journey: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

Our workshop theme will be based upon the title of the Gaugin painting (which later became the lyrics of a beloved UU hymn). Each day, we’ll reflect on one of these BIG questions using SoulCollage®. 

SoulCollage is an enjoyable method of making collaged 5”x8” cards and is a simple, yet often profound, process that doesn’t require any artistic ability, only an openness to discovery! Both beginners and experienced “SoulCollagers” are welcome. Each participant is invited to begin to build (or add to) a personalized deck of collaged cards, each one with its own meaning for the cardmaker.  A deck of SoulCollage cards can represent many facets of our inner selves and our community influences - even the universal archetypes and energetic forces that shape us.

Laurie will guide the group in using principles and practices of “images, intuition, and imagination.” Participants can relax into the flow of browsing, choosing, cutting, and pasting from a huge selection of images from a variety of sources. The unique completed personal cards will be treasured by their makers and can provide meaningful portals for accessing one's own inner wisdom. With our new creations, each day we’ll practice with each other using these cards for personal and spiritual growth.  During our journey together, we'll consider our ancestors, how we navigate life "in these times," and what qualities in us are called forth as we go forward. And, no doubt, there will be Mystery!  

Biography: A long-time Elioteer (many Winters in the old Pines Lounge!), Laurie currently lives in the Upper Chesapeake region of Maryland. She discovered SoulCollage® in the early 2000’s and, excited by her own transformative experience, became a facilitator of this process in 2008, training with the “founder” of SoulCollage, Seena Frost. Since then, she has led many workshops and co-led SoulCollage retreats in the United States and in Scotland. 

Immersion in nature, deep conversation, play, the contemplative life, and practicing creativity are some of the muses that bring joy and hope to Laurie in these challenging times in which we live. Her two grandsons (both under age 2) provide additional delight to life. Laurie is an Interfaith Spiritual Director and is working towards becoming ordained as an Interfaith Minister. 

Jennifer Springsteen - Writing

This workshop is full.

Program Description: Creative Writing: Find Your Writer's Voice
     Writing to prompts and in community allows you to get rid of your inner critic and write from that deep well of memory and imagination. It also develops your skill at feedback and noticing what is working in writing so that you, too, can identify techniques that can make you a better writer. This workshop is appropriate for all genres of writing: poetry, fiction, and memoir, as well as for all levels of experience.

Biography: Jennifer Springsteen is a seminary student at Starr King School for the Ministry in Oakland, California. She is the co-founder of PDX Writers and her writing has won several awards including Regional Arts and Culture Council grants, an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. She is represented by Joanna MacKenzie of Nelson Literary Agency. She writes, teaches, and studies in Portland, Oregon.

Lynn Ungar - Poetry

Program Description:  Sermons in Stones: Nature Poetry

Beloved poets throughout the ages have turned to the natural world for inspiration, finding, in Shakespeare’s words, “tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones” and the wisdom that we need to find our place in this world. Participants will be invited to investigate both poetry and nature as inspiration for creating their own wisdom poetry.

Biography:  

Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar is a poet, Unitarian Universalist minister and dog trainer who lives in Vancouver, WA with her two Australian Shepherds. Her books of poetry include Bread and Other Miracles, Breathe, and These Days: Poems of the Pandemic Age.

Calling All Artists!

Are you interested in presenting a workshop at Creative Arts Eliot? If so, you can find more information at this link: Workshop Presenter Information

Ready to apply to present a workshop? Please complete the application found at this link: Workshop Presenter Application