September 14 - 18, 2022
Your September 2022 Teachers
Emma Freeman
intuitive artist, poet, teacher, deep diver |
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 Kiala GivehandIntuitive Guide, Poet, and SoulCollage® Facilitator & Trainer |
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Rachel Barclay
Stitcher • Mender • Teacher |
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Roben-Marie Smith
Mixed Media Abstract Artist, Art Courses Teacher & Art Journaler CLASS TITLE
Mixed Media Meet Up |
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Your Guides on This Adventure
Damon Givehand
Yogi & Author Kiala Givehand LifeAlchemist & Multi-Passionate Creative |
Damon & Kiala GivehandKiala and Damon have been best friends for more than 35 years, a couple for 21 years, and married for 17. They have birthed many things together, raised their nephew as their son, hosted several in-person transformational retreats, and taught online courses on self-discovery and cultivating happiness.
Damon is a yogi, author, and mystic who resonates deeply with Vedic chanting. He spends his time studying ancient texts, practicing yoga, and writing. Kiala is a poet, bookbinder, seeker, and Life & Creative Alchemist. She guides women through creative and spiritual awakening and supports them on their journey back to themselves. Together they create safe spaces for humans to do the beautiful and messy work of shedding old stories, healing, and connecting to the Divine within. |
September Artist & Maker in Residence
In an effort to open the discussion around the intersection of Mixed Media and Fiber Arts, we have invited two amazing artists who are pillars in their industries. Our 2022 Artist & Maker program is designed to foster conversations across the gaps in the creative industry. Please join us in celebrating, honoring, and experiencing the creative expressions of:
Lisa Shepard, The MakerWriter, Designer, Teacher, Fabric Collector
Lisa Shepard Stewart is a writer and designer based in New Jersey. In her books, African Accents: Fabrics and Crafts to Decorate Your Home and Global Expressions: Decorating with Fabrics from Around the World, Lisa encourages others to express themselves creatively through culturally relevant techniques and materials. She published her third book, African Accents On The Go! Designing Accessories with Cultural Style in June 2007, and in 2011 began publishing FABRIGASM magazine, for Lovers of African Textiles.
Lisa offers classes and events internationally, and travels to Ghana to source artists, fabrics and materials. She also organizes and hosts SewJourns to Ghana, Colorado, New Mexico and other fun destinations. Lisa has written for various web sites, and trade and consumer publications. and has demonstrated several projects & techniques on HGTV , and its sister network, DIY, along with Discovery Channel and sewing & quilting programs on PBS. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City with a Bachelors degree in Marketing and an Associate degree in Communications. Lisa opened Cultured Expressions first studio location in downtown Rahway, NJ in December 2017. Lisa's obsession with African textiles began in 1986, during a trip to Senegal, West Africa. In addition to sewing and fabric collecting, she is a part-time vegetarian whose other interests include travel, entertaining, holistic health, and yoga. Connect with Lisa on Instagram. |
Colleen Attara, The ArtistStoryteller, Photographer, Mixed Media Artist
Colleen Attara is a mixed-media artist who finds goodness in the pieces left behind. She is a storyteller, a treasure hunter and has designed a line of greeting cards and prints that are sold in stores across the country and in Canada.She is passionate about giving people spaces to hold their stories through old books, thread and gesso. Colleen can usually be found in her studio cottage in the middle of a historic farm in beautiful Bucks County, PA. Music is always playing inside and her hands and heart are working instinctually while her mind quiets. She adores thread and knows that it is “the tangles that hold us close”.
Colleen’s work on healing and altered books have been published in a London medical journal. She has written several articles for Stampington Magazines and her studio was recently featured in “Where Women Create” magazine. Her artwork is in private collections across the United States and Europe and her public installations are in hospitals and schools in the northeast. Colleen and her husband recently sold most of what they own and relocated to the small city of Lambertville, NJ so they can walk everywhere. Connect with her on Instagram. |
Why Sacred Makers?
The short version is rather simple -- creativity is abundant. It always has been, always is and always will be. Every soul on this planet is creative (yes, animals and creatures too). The act of making something with your hands infuses your energy into the thing being made. Whether you do that intentionally or not, it IS happening.
Sacred Makers understand this and are also aware that this energy transfer can be mundane or it can be magical. We can intentionally infuse our love, light, kindness, compassion, fear, anger, frustration, joy, calm, peace, and everything else into a blanket, scarf, shirt, skein of yarn, yard of fabric, painting, weaving, or the pages of a handmade book. We are that powerful.
If we treat it as a sacred act, every stroke becomes ethereal and has the ability to shift the energy, mood, and disposition of the person who gets to come into contact with it. That's what sacred making is all about. We can shift the energy of the world with our hands.
Sacred Makers understand this and are also aware that this energy transfer can be mundane or it can be magical. We can intentionally infuse our love, light, kindness, compassion, fear, anger, frustration, joy, calm, peace, and everything else into a blanket, scarf, shirt, skein of yarn, yard of fabric, painting, weaving, or the pages of a handmade book. We are that powerful.
If we treat it as a sacred act, every stroke becomes ethereal and has the ability to shift the energy, mood, and disposition of the person who gets to come into contact with it. That's what sacred making is all about. We can shift the energy of the world with our hands.
Why Squam Lake?
In 2021 Damon and I made our way to the lake and needless to say, it was life changing for us both. It's still hard for us to describe the experience we had. From the way nature welcomed us and held us so beautifully, to the transformative conversations we had with students, teachers, and partners who braved the trip with their loved ones. It was a unique experience that afforded us the time to create, contemplate, and reflect. We made beautiful relationships that we are sure will last a lifetime.
It was both an honor and a privilege to spend time in such an exquisite place where we felt the energy of the natural world all around us. And with the same energy, we return to the Lake in June 2022 to meet you on the path.
Let's gather...soul to soul...and create...
xo
Kiala & Damon
It was both an honor and a privilege to spend time in such an exquisite place where we felt the energy of the natural world all around us. And with the same energy, we return to the Lake in June 2022 to meet you on the path.
Let's gather...soul to soul...and create...
xo
Kiala & Damon