a guide for creative retreat
making art + world building
🌀 where to connect in person
*new* parts work circle::: boundaries, wed. may 7: join a small group of quiet seekers for an in person exploration and internal conversation with parts that emerge around boundaries || learn more + register
monthly pop practice, sun. apr 27: small group in person space for those already familiar embodiment and parts work practice || learn more + register
🎶 *live* echo onda at turn turn turn, fri. may 2: with friends oklahoma perfect + lions of the interstate
press play to listen to me read this piece:
i’m on creative retreat finishing my digital ecosystem as i’m writing this piece. right now the dragon inside is fueled by a positive obsession with the belief that artists making art creates a culture that can get us through what is ahead. my wish for all of us is that each of us are in relationship with what those creations are. whether it looks like traditional art or not, whether it looks more like scientific innovation, an elegant mathematical formula or a moving and inspiring lesson for youth. we are drawing the outline of the future right now.
as a practice, creative retreats have become a more regular part of my life the last few years. i prioritize them in order to rebalance and let my creative nature have the solitude and space it really needs to access flow… and/or lots of nothing. rest can be creating. it can also be the art of nothing.
our creative expression is needed now more than ever. i’m here to support others with theirs no matter how loud or how quietly. i did this work in schools with teens for over a decade where we co-created cultures of care and respect that could hold true and vulnerable stories.
i have seen and felt first hand how sharing stories connect us and deepen empathy and compassion across cultural and political difference. stories can be told in so many ways — through song, through writing, through street art… when we create any physical manifestation of ourselves in the world, we are creating an imprint of our essence on this reality. and that is how we change this reality. we change it by planting the seeds we create from the divine part of us at home in source, creation itself.
i’m excited to share my take on how i approach making on creative retreat. it’s a time of focus and joy. it’s being your own boss. it’s practice listening inward and deep. creative retreat restores us. and damnit ever, do we need that.
in this piece, i’ll offer up:
section headlines that are also journal entry prompts. read my musings and/or journal about your own musings
a 3-night, 4-day retreat guide template
a few of my favorite travel tips (you can also see my post solo tripping1)
photos from my trip back up to Suquamish, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla land:::settler’s Vashon Island, WA again
📓 when i say ‘creative retreat’, what do you dream about?
whatever comes to mind as you answer this question is what you are visioning. visions matter. they point us towards a north star, a lighthouse, some guide in the dark and confusion of the times and through our humanness where we inevitably get in our own way. vision reminds us of possibility. it reminds us that the future is not written, and that our collective purpose is to breathe life into the space between now and then, or here and there. as poet-philosopher bayo akomolafe says: “everything begins in the middle… the middle isn’t the space between things; it is the world in its ongoing practice of worlding itself.”
so let’s linger between now and your future creative retreat, shall we? let’s do some nearer-future practice for materializing a far off vision by infusing life force into the butterfly wing flap-force that is you. here’s a creative retreat guide template complete with the following journal/reflection prompts:
what are your 2-4 intentions for this creative retreat? for balance, you might articulate one for a creative project, one for your creative process, and one related to your far horizon vision. my three for this last retreat were: (1) finish the first iteration of the site (2) trust your vision, and (3) imbibe mindfully
what is your retreat mantra?
what are 3-4 creative project goals you have for your time away? (eg. finish the ‘about’ page on my new site, write 20,000 words for NaNoWriMo, bang on a drum, bake the perfect cake). notice that these don’t need to be about the same project. and they also don’t need to be big goals. they can be ways of being that lead to creative flow over product.
if you had no responsibilities, what would be the most pleasurable things you can imagine doing in the AM, PM, and evenings (E)?
what kind of play experiences feel especially joyful right now?
📓 what is a good balance between accountability to goals and attunement to the moment?
i walk into retreat with the good intention to accomplish the goals i set. i also give myself permission for the plan to fall off the rails.
a few years ago i went on creative retreat to the sou’wester to finish writing the songs for the album. when i got to my trailer for the week, i was thrilled to find a little purple and green music lounge in the back. i set it up like a recording studio and got to it. i had so many gear and sound issues that week. it was beyond frustrating. i made some music. it was fine. i didn’t end up using any of it for the record. the random spark of creativity that really fueled my interest was pocket zines.
poetry emerged about the beach and the nature i was observing. i wanted a way to share them. i started making baby zines and ended up with a collection of four poems and two others.
while i wanted to hold myself accountable to my goals on retreat, i also followed the energy from whatever pocket zines had to teach me. since then it’s become a new medium for me. and such a delightful one.
so, you know. maybe don’t completely blow off your goals on retreat, but also give yourself permission to attune to the creative inspiration that wants to flow through. could be an interesting view around the bend.
📓 what helps when you’re feeling blocked?
feeling stuck sucks… for a few years leading up to the inception of my Substack, i couldn’t write essays or creative non fiction to save my life. i could journal and write poetry, but the genre i love so much was inaccessible. it was also around this time that i began reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
if you’ve experienced this recovery program, you know how transformative it can be. one thing that emerged was that i was able to release the singular view i had of myself as an english teacher who writes to encourage students to write. i released that role completely. the writer, too. i accepted that the words weren’t coming. but new forms came through.
of course there are times when you are actually in the flow of a big project and you’re blocked. those phases really suck… the self doubt creeps in. the fog of depression looms. irritation fuels anger. i’ve learned to read these signs as invitations to rest. to put the project away. to go play somewhere else or nowhere else for a while.
do you ever catch yourself working on a creative project without a spark of joy? i try to notice this. sure, there are some parts of the creative process that aren’t fun. they’re tedious. they’re dull. but when dread is the prominent experience… that’s probably something to get curious about.
blocked flow is a patience and listening game. it’s about knowing what is needed instead of trying to force the block out of the way. should this be your experience on creative retreat, it could be helpful to reframe creative goals by attuning to your creative process. your new creative process may not be what your mind believes it should be. it may be rest. it may be long walks in the woods. it may be a long bath.
allow creative retreat to teach you about your blocks and show you new flow around or under or in the eddy of stillness.
📓 why prioritize creative retreat?
Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act describes creative force as source. some may prefer spirit or ether or love or god or consciousness. whatever the word, i’m here for that knowing sense inside that there is something more than what we can see in this material world.
creativity and making art is translating source into material. each of us is specific and unique conduit for what source wants to communicate through us. each poem, story, song, or painting we create comes from that place. for a quantum spiritualist nerd like me, the most fascinating aspect of that notion is that our creations are infused with the vibration of our frequency. and that frequency is intrinsically connected to source.
when we create from the heart, from the gut, from the fiery root of inspiration inside of each of us, we not only inspire one another, but we offer the most important medicine needed to find our way in the dark chaos of this unraveling — love. and as woo-as-fuck as it sounds, the most powerful thing we can do in the world is to resonate outward from the vibration of our embodied essence. that frequency is vital to the harmony and balance of all things. that’s resonance.
making art is fighting. our creative nature and the mediums it wants to communication through is fire. the fire is inspiration, passion, and imagination. it’s fighting with love instead of fear for a world we have to build from the ashes.
📓 what is the reciprocal medicine of land and creative expression?
for the winter solstice, i wrote a piece about our creativity being akin to the fires of creation at the center of the earth, the ones that move molten and meet air and water to become land.
in the tarot, this is the wands suit. the fires of creation. when we arrive to a place, and we greet the land like a friend, we move in relationship with it. the water talk to us. the birds and frogs raise their voices to offer their wisdom and guidance. the sky is our home dome. we have access to this all the time, but i’ve discovered something especially sacred and potent about honoring the land on creative retreat.
to arrive in a new place, is to arrive on new holy land. land is ancient. older than our brains are really capable of fathoming (though i think we might get there in the not too far future…) there is spirit in each of the trees and the ground speaks deep and old. the protectors will get elder on you quick. the land is a family that you’re a visitor on.
what might you offer to this place? your attention? a prayer? a protection spell? a song for the land and its inhabitants to hear? a gratitude message to indigenous and current land stewards? here’s to sensing into your offering and being in relationship with land.
📓 what could my time away look like?
maybe something like this? HERE is a creative retreat guide for you. i hope it’s helpful!
