Joining other artists with shared interests and concerns is often a constructive and supportive way to work. As part of the Healthy Artists program, Dr. Colvin’s workshops are specifically designed to support the well being of creative and performing artists, and are linked to the framework for integrating mind-body wellness and artistic practices.
Healthy Artists Workshops
The Psychology of Creativity
Since making art is a manifestation of the psyche, The Psychology of Creativity workshop explores how artists do their work to successfully access and nurture their personal creative process. As artistic expression is the central source of meaning making for artists, we consider the mysterious confluence and complexity of preparation, imagination, receptivity and innovation that enables the creative endeavor.
Moods and the Creative Process
Research and clinical studies have affirmed that highly creative individuals experience mood disruptions more often than do others. Most artists will acknowledge a strong relationship between their fluctuating moods and creative productivity, and the necessity to modify the impact of moods during periods of creative work. For the Moods and the Creative Process workshop we will focus on these feelings and the sometimes fragile balance between living life and making art, and come to more fully understand what this means for the artist. Useful strategies that will help manage moods to enhance the creative process will be explored.
Portrait of the Artist
Since creativity is the source of meaning for artists, the Portrait of the Artist workshop will explore how creative work promotes wholeness by connecting inner ideas to manifest as outer objects of artistic expression. Opposite traits integrate with each other in the artistic personality – such as balancing imagination and reality, introversion and extroversion, playfulness and discipline. We will examine the essential qualities of the artist’s personality and how they influence creative productivity.
Transformative Effects of Wellness Therapies
During this workshop the confluence of Eastern and Western philosophy, science, medicine and alternative healing strategies will be explored as they apply to developing a healthy lifestyle, integrating the mind, body and spirit of the artist. In the Transformative Effects of Wellness Therapies workshop we will evaluate such practices as nutrition, yoga, meditation, and expressive arts therapies among others, in our search for strategies that truly benefit and support artistic development.
Art Can Heal Your Life
We marvel at how extremely gifted people create art that touches our lives and bestows so much beauty on our world. Yet, we all can unravel these mysteries by tapping into our potential for art making, while using art itself as the “medicine” that heals. The Art Can heal Your Life workshop also explores creative wellness strategies that maintain the healthy artist, considering neuroplasticity and “rewiring the brain” with focused training to find long-standing changes; finding “flow states” to “live inside your art”; and Mindfulness practices as a scaffolding to support optimal creative expression. With art as a healing tool, we can find a balance for living a successful and artful life infused with beauty, contentment and happiness.
The Calming Clinic: Successful Performances & Auditions in Spite of the Nerves
This workshop explores “creative wellness” practices since robust psychological tools help the artist cope with the many stressors of auditions and performances. The Calming Clinic workshop offers strategies for maintaining a healthy body, managing anxiety, understanding the neurobiology of the sensitive, artistic person, and using wellness practices to prepare for optimal creative expression.
Mindfulness and Wellness Practices: Healthy Approaches in the Training of Performing Artists
The task of making great art requires the integration and development of both the mind and the body working together, and it is through the assimilation of these two that artists can truly realize wellness and their potential as performers. Performing artists can significantly benefit from mindfulness and wellness-based practices to help train their minds, automate body movement, and deepen connections with their repertoire. Understanding the components of mindfulness and wellness practices and how they work together to alleviate stress, will allow performers to creatively adapt these strategies to meet their specific needs and promote peak performances.
Mindfulness Practices: Healthy Approaches for Treating Bipolar Disorder and Sensory-Processing Sensitivity in Performing Artists
Please Contact Us for more information and to register for the workshops.
