Painting with the Mother: Full Moon

One hour in length

Monday January 13 : Full Moon

11am PST / 2pm EST / 8pm CEST

Theme: New Year Nurturing Intentions

Have you navigated the rite of passage of becoming a mother? Do you long to translate your experience into your creative voice? 

Are you pregnant, and want to integrate creative expression into your pregnancy journey to prepare for birth and beyond?

Join Melissa for a journey of devotion to our creative voice as we explore birth and the Mother as our muses.

In Painting with the Mother, each month we will explore several themes of Mother and Birth through creative expression. These include, among other things:

• Honoring the Mother in all her forms
• Painting practice guidelines for pregnancy
• Honoring our own birth into this world
• Connection with our own Mothers
• Our inner child and our child
• Honoring the birth(s) that we gave to our children
• Caring for the places that still need care; mending and tending the wounds
• Initiation Rituals into the Heart of the Mother
• The Archetypes of the Divine Mother

For certain classes, we may choose a form of the Divine Mother to be our own personal guide. She will help to hold us in all aspects of what may emerge, and will resource us with universal Mother energy.

Practical Aspects of Painting with the Mother:

This class is offered on a drop-in basis once a month. The theme for each month will be announced a week before each class. As of now, there is no particular day and time that each class will be offered, and this is subject to the interest and availability of mothers who want to attend.

In each class, we will be exploring our own journey of becoming a mother with the anchor of our art as a place to express, reflect, and hold our experience. I will be providing various art and writing exercises through the classes, which seek to explore the themes listed above and more. I will also suggest different rituals and ceremonies for us to do in our own time in between class. Each class will include guided creative journeys, meditations, and painting exercises to dive into each month's theme.

Creative practice, in whatever small moments possible, nurtures ourselves as mothers, and helps us to find our own rhythms of self expression. Hopefully, your creative expression each month will have illumined a healing path for a deeper embodiment of your journey as a mother. 

Part of the medicine of each month's class is that we are going to be reclaiming the importance of our own creative lives, something that very easily gets absorbed into the all consuming act of mothering. We will work with the energy of receiving, to balance the giving nature of mothering. We will be playing with the idea that the more we nourish ourselves, the deeper well of nourishment that we'll have to draw from for caring for our children and those in our lives. 

If your children have left the nest, this class is still an invitation for you. It may be healing to touch back upon your experiences, and tend to the places within you that didn't get tending long ago. I find that our bodies hold memory and experience in the Soma, and all it takes is an invitation and interest to evoke such memory into color, word and form. 

You do not need any prior experience with watercolors to do this class.  If the only way you can come to class is with your child, they are welcome to sit next to you with their own activity. :)

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Becoming a mother in 2020 was, among many other things, a very isolating experience. I did not have the opportunity to gather with other new mothers, to explore our journeys and to support the normalcy of all that emerges in such a profound rite of passage. Now, my intention is to turn the tides, and bring the creative community and support that I wish I had to other mothers on the journey.

One of the main tools to support my conception, pregnancy and emerging identity as a mother has been the little moments of space where I sit with my journal and my watercolors to express myself.

Over the past four years, the creative expression that has come through in these moments has served as my meditation practice, my anchor to my self, my soul expression, and my most cherished regulating tool. With Painting with the Mother, I seek to share the tools that I've learned, and to invite other women to explore how we can both be with and express different aspects of our journey.

This transition from Maiden to Mother is something that all of our mothers and grandmothers have done. We may or may not have experienced the aspects of support that we needed, or have/had the time to explore our experience through creative expression. No matter where you are in the journey and how old your kids are, this is a container to explore your journey as a mother through creative expression.

Our spirits have a well of content that is ready to be expressed. It sometimes requires the right container of support to evoke and weave such expression from our inner realms to the world. The process of journeying through each month's material will support you and give you practical and spiritual tools to alchemize and support your experience from this day forward. Art, and watercolors in particular, are a wonderful tool to connect with our subconscious and let it pour through via water, color and spirit.

This class is for you if:

*You want to immerse in daily creative practice

*You want to connect/reconnect with watercolors or other art materials

*You want to be a part of a collective field of inspiration

*You want to explore the expressive arts and connect with your creative essence

*You want to invite the energy of the HEART of the MOTHER into your life

*You want to connect with your inner child, curiosity, play and expression

*You seek to live your ongoing birth story as a mother in a more conscious, creative + embodied way

*You seek to connect with other Mothers to share your creative expression journey through this course

*You are pregnant and you want to support your pregnancy with creative practices while connecting with other mothers

Materials Needed (not included in class fee):

a set of watercolors (or other art supplies if you prefer)

a paintbrush or two (I love size 2 and 4 round brushes; you may like a bigger size or shape too)

a journal with paper that can accept watercolor (doesn't have to be watercolor paper per se)

a pencil or pen

(specific brand suggestions available upon request) 

Class is 60 minutes live via Zoom

Recordings are available if you can't make it live

Zoom link will be sent out the evening before class

If you would benefit from a partial scholarship to be able to attend this class, please use code MOTHERLOVE for 33% off the class cost 💞 

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Disclaimer: Please note that this class provides a fun and intuitive space for the exploration of art and creativity. Melissa is an artist and lover of sharing the joy of creativity. This class is not a substitute for professional therapeutic council. Please consult a Professional Therapist or Art Therapist for any such support. Also, all rights are reserved, and no portion of this course may be reproduced without express written consent of Melissa.

Due to the digital nature of this product, there are no refunds.