Melissa and Laurie believe in the value of self exploration and expression through expressive art. They share a desire to help individuals reconnect to the natural world and to themselves through artistic practices. The focus is on the process rather than the product. Through simple exercises individuals can open to new experience and emotions, reclaim their child like enthusiasm, focus their healing intentions and gain understand of their unique gifts and talents. Art can also help us remember our experiences so we can develop and integrate our life purpose with our life process.

A woman takes up a cobalt blue colored pencil and as she starts to fill in the spaces of a mandala she remembers how she loved to color when she was young. She switches to lemon cadmium and then to juniper green and light violet. She feels her shoulders relax and her mind clear as she watches the creation that is unfolding. She doesn’t stop with one drawing but continues to a second and a third feeling her energy flowing and wondering when she stopped coloring her life and why?

 A man sits waiting for the group around the art materials to thin out. He tells himself that he doesn’t need to hurry there is plenty of time for him to make some simple shape to satisfy the goals of the exercise. Then he notices that he is unsure of how to take the first step, where to begin when there is no right or wrong way to do this thing. Why is he finding it so difficult when he only has to follow his internal guidance, and then he wonders how long had it been since he listened to that inner voice instead of all the external directives that control his life. He listens to the music and let it lead him to a stick, a piece of string and a feather and is amazed at the satisfaction he feels as he assembles these items into a simple structure full of meaning and association.