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February 26, 2008

a meeting of the muses

by gl. at 1:15 am

this month i had planned to have a "romancing your muse" workshop near valentine's day that would include wine, chocolate, music & flowers to entice and relax participants as they reviewed ways to increase visits from their muse for the rest of the year. i thought i could target the "hip chicks do wine" culture i see a lot in portland, so i was hugely surprised when nobody signed up for the workshop: this is the first workshop that's happened to.

fortunately i talked with serena & bridget at the monster month book release party about the poor attendance and came up with a better idea. so i scrambled to create a new event: "a meeting of the muses," where i invited the kindest, most generous muses i know over for a fireside chat.

we don't have a fireside, but i borrowed a chocolate fountain from linda. since i invited the muses with less than a week's notice, many of them regretfully declined, but i had a lot of fun with those who came! call it a "beta test," if you will.

we dipped strawberries & cookies into flowing chocolate, drank wine & pear brandy, and chatted about things i can't usually talk about with anyone: creating workshops that don't require "widgets," art & soul, certification, useful feedback & recent art therapy legislation, just to name a few topics. there was even an impromptu song about credentials and credibility. several muses met each other for the first time. i thought we would make art, too, and so i created a "love letters" exercise, but we just spent 3 hours talking instead! at the end of the event everyone took a rose home with them.

we had such a good time that this may become a quarterly event rotating to different studios. i know i'll host it again! i love it when i can transform an event from potential failure to success. (for instance, guided intent was created when meetup began charging for its services; instead of giving up the free collage night, i created a regular paying event to cover it.) i'm definitely looking forward to the next meeting of the muses!


[chocolate fountain setup]


[bridget & serena commiserating]


[other muses: consu, serena, bridget & mark. i may have been a little tipsy at this point.]


[chocolate fountain aftermath]


[love]

posted by gl. | February 26, 2008 1:15 AM | categories: classes & workshops