Your Heart's Desire

Your Heart's Desire
creating from art to life...

In the context of a group, your personal art explorations will familiarize you with the Principles of Creativity as presented by Sonia Choquette in Your Heart's Desire. The group setting amplifies your intentions and provides you with a team of "believing eyes" to incubate your fledgling dreams! Our primary purpose for creating art is for fun, exploration, and discovery. All levels of art experience are welcome.

Winter and Spring 2012
Tuesday mornings, 9:00am- 11:30am Blue Lotus Art Studio, 912 Sherman Ave. Evanston, IL. $175 per 5-week session includes art projects and materials. Pre-registration required. Please contact Daisy Hu by e-mail: creativitygrows@gmail.com or phone: 312.714.6510. Inquiries related to the class welcome.

New cycle: February 7th, 14th, 28th, March 6th, 13th

The Great Round Up 2012

with Pat Otto
One evening a month ~ One stage at a time 
Starting January 19, 2012, 6:30-8:30 pm 
Fee: $150 for 6 months, or $250 for 1 year
12 CEUs available for each section*

Come join our sacred circle - giving yourself the time and space you need - allowing your creative spirit to bring forth imagery that is full of meaning. The Great Round of Mandala as developed by Joan Kellogg (Mandala: the Path of Beauty, 1984) offers us an archetypal source and structure for our art-making and for self-actualization.  As we give ourselves permission to become creatively involved, our experiences deepen, giving our art-making - our creations - an opportunity to evolve, to grow and to make manifest. With the intention of creating mandalas as symbolic reflections of our own personal development in the Great Round - a cyclical pattern of wholeness can be generated.

We will meet on the 2nd Thursday of each month to focus on that month's archetypal stage, starting with Stage 0 - 1 in January. And move through archetypal stages of personal growth: the Void, Bliss, Labyrinth, Beginning, Target, Dragon Fight, Squaring the Circle, Functioning Ego, Crystallization, Gates of Death, Fragmentation, and Transcendent Ecstasy.  Having once cycled through these stages creating mandalas, we'll now have the opportunity to condense our experience into smaller, more concentrated versions - such as mandala mementos &/or tarot-like cards.


The Great Round Up Workshop is for those who wish to re-visit The Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala cycle of life as it coincides with calendar time, exploring each stage with renewed understanding and experience.  With more time to spend on your own in your own world, noticing, gathering, integrating...and then coming together just once a month to share, consolidate and create an essence of that stage for you. 


To Register: contact Pat Otto preferably via email pat.otto@att.net. Enrollment is limited, with priority given to previous workshop participants, therefore pre-registration/ payment is required. 12/24 CEUs are available for a $15 administration fee.  Be advised tuition is refundable only if or when a workshop is canceled due to lack of initial enrollment.
 
Location: Blue Lotus Art Studio, 912 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60202,  http://bluelotusartstudio.blogspot.com 
To see artwork from previous workshops, click Gallery.  Visit Pat’s website at www.patottoart.com
 
Please Bring: Journal/ Sketchbook and your favorite pen. Some art materials will be available.

the Sewing Rebellion is Coming

1-8-12 FREE with Pat Otto

Now meets the 4th Thursday of every month from 6:30-8:30 pm.  Always free and open to the public. Bring your mending, a needle and thread (or whatever sewing notions you might need).  Join us for some good time, down home,  hand sewin' at Blue Lotus Art Studio.  No sewing experience necessary!

The Artist's Way: A Creativity Group

this Winter!  6 alternate Mondays, 6:30-8:30 pm

Jan. 16, 30, Feb. 13, 27, Mar. 12, 26, 2012

with Pat Otto
$125, 12 ceus offered

You are invited to join our circle and commit to the exploration and development of your own creative gifts - in whatever form they may take. The circle allows each person's creativity to come forth, and nurtures it along the way - from the darkness of conception through the awkwardness of its first steps of moving into the world. Within this supportive atmosphere, we will explore a range of developmental stages through art-making, along with meditation, journaling and discussion.

In making art, we will experience our own unique creative process and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for its significance to our patterns of being. In so doing, we become aware of how our creative process may be reflected in both our artwork and our daily life.

This 6-session workshop is facilitated by artist, art therapist and art educator Patricia Otto and will focus on the second 6 chapters/ themes of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way: connection, strength, compassion, self-protection, autonomy and faith. (To see artwork from previous workshop, click Gallery and scroll down to Artist's Way.)

To Register: contact Pat Otto preferably via email at pat.otto@att.net. Pre-registration/ payment is required. 12 CEUs are available for a $15 processing fee.   Be advised tuition is refundable only if or when a workshop is canceled due to lack of initial enrollment.

Location: Blue Lotus Art Studio, 912 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60202   http://bluelotusartstudio.blogspot.com
Visit Pat’s website at www.patottoart.com

Please bring:  a journal or sketchbook and simple art supplies. Some art materials will be available.

~The great artist is wise, All That Is, is in her art, she puts divinity into things,
she converses with her own heart.~

Cultivating a Daily Creative Practice

this Winter!  6 alternative Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 pm

Jan. 12, 26, Feb. 2, 16, Mar. 1, 15, 2012
with Pat Otto
Fee: $125, 12 CEUs available

Choosing to do a simple creative thing every day is soul work that takes us on a personal journey of self-discovery and expression. Workshop facilitator, Pat Otto will share her experience with Mandala-a-Day and guide participants in cultivating their own unique daily creative practice.  A variety of approaches to creative expression as well as possible formats for our daily project will be explored in this workshop.  Encouraged to pay attention to our soul whispers and creative inklings - letting them move lightly into our daily project - our creative spirit will be set free to play.

We will discover how small steps taken day-by-day add up to something much larger than their individual parts, with tangible results and unexpected outcomes.   With meetings scheduled every other week, participants will be able to experience and develop their hands-on practice while receiving support, encouragement, and inspiration from the group.  There is no need for art experience.   

To Register: contact Pat Otto preferably via email at pat.otto@att.net.  Pre-registration/ payment is required.  12 CEUs are available for a $15 administrative charge.  Be advised tuition is refundable only if or when a workshop is canceled due to lack of initial enrollment.

Location: Blue Lotus Art Studio, 912 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60202.  See Pat's website at www.patottoart.com  or visit Daily Creative Practice to see what's been happening!
 

Please Bring:  Please bring something to write/ create in, and a cell phone that takes pictures or a camera.  Some art materials will be available.

"Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul - the daily need of the soul, mind you!"   C.G. Jung