Start Here: The Wild Gathering

This pinned post is one that you may want to come back to many times over. In here I am giving you the low down on everything you can expect to see over the next year or more. Do not be overwhelmed by the breadth of information here - consider this your index that you can access when you need it (and I will actually list the headings of what is here below). This post is for clarity - not overwhelm or pressure or demand. 

In The Wild Gathering, we do not let overwhelm steal our joy.

This space was made for you.

You are exactly where you are meant to be.

This practice is for everyone, whether you consider yourself an artist or not. I promise you, you are a creative. You do so many creative things in a day without realising it. 

This is an opportunity for you to immerse yourself in creative play as a means to connect with nature and your own wild heart. 

There is no right or wrong way to approach and embody this work, what you create will be perfectly imperfect, just like us all. 

YOU ARE CREATIVE. 

This enchanting space is made for you.

These tiny, wild enchantments are a way to listen to, and delight in, the call of our own wild hearts, to dive deep into creative play, and to explore our senses and our connection to the world around us. They are invitations to unfurl, to root into where you are planted, to explore nature and the wild in a way that is unique to you. They are a pick your own adventure, and while designed to take no more than 15 minutes, can actually take anywhere from 5 minutes to all day, depending on how you are inspired and where your muse and your wild heart leads you.

You are a wild creature after all. You are kin to the wild and winged things. Let them inspire you.

We will be weaving a spacious place to reflect and ruminate, and to dwell in possibility. To celebrate a coming together of so many wild souls that know there is more to life than what we are fed by mass media. Who know that a slower, gentler, more curious and compassionate pace is needed. We will also be creating a gathering of connective enchantments, deeply intertwined with the wild in us and around us.

In some invitations we will use our hearts and minds only, using reflection or imagination or writing exploration. In others we will be using elements from nature to play with, taking photos to embellish, and diving deep into how the beauty around us can inform what we feel inspired to create, how we want to be present to the world, how we want to foster a reciprocal relationship with our other-than-human kin.

What you will find here:

Community

Make this connective practise a ritual

Supplies

Creative Prompts or Writing Prompts or Both?

Writing Invitations

Journaling

Mind Mapping

Pondering while wandering

Creative Invitations

Keeping it simple.

Thinking outside the suggested prompts

Sketch Practise

Be open to the unexpected

A photo a day

Community

Substack is a beautiful place to build community. We can hold circle in the comments section of each post, and these can be returned to at any time. Through this platform I can also create a ‘chat’ that is exclusive to this gathering, and will periodically pop articles or ideas to spark conversation there too. If you are not on the Substack platform, and would prefer not to be, that is perfectly ok too - all of the posts and invitations will come directly to your email inbox as well. When I think a discussion is particularly worth everyone being aware of (or a part of) I will pop that in an email that is widely distributed too.

Make this connective practise a ritual

If you can, make this time you are giving yourself even more special by making it a ritual.

Light a candle, burn some incense, make your favourite drink, put your favourite music on, do something that you would consider a little luxurious. If you do this consistently with your creative practice, after a few times just lighting the candle or putting on that music becomes  a queue that you are about to dive deep into your creative wildness, and all of your senses prepare for the wonder to come. Say one of the mantras or affirmations provided (or create your own) a few times, eyes closed and hand on heart, and begin your inspired creative connection.

Supplies

There are absolutely no supplies requirements for The Wild Gathering. This practise is for you, and you may show up for it in any way you like. I will structure the invitations so that each month you have meditation/journaling/pondering prompts (where at most you may want to use paper and pen), as well as some more traditionally creative invitations using wild elements and some art or creative tools. The sky really is the limit though, and I will always advocate for you to use what you have at hand (unless you need this to be an excuse to grab those particular art supplies you have been coveting, in which case, consider this your permission slip!).

Below I will list the supplies that I have used over the course of ALL of the prompts (and we are talking over a year long period), but these are suggestions only, and I highly recommend that you use the substrates and mediums that speak to you. Please remember that particular supplies, particular brands or colours are not what makes the magic. That dear one, comes from you. You can also do this entire course using only a pencil and paper - truly, graphite or charcoal is magic inherent and you can do so much with it. Though your projects will look different to someone using paint or ink, they will be no less sensitive and filled with beauty. Plus, ...sketching. Seriously, days filled with just sketching are my happy place!

• Mixed media or watercolour journal/book, or pieces of watercolour paper, cartridge (basic sketchbook paper), and other papers you enjoy playing with. (I will mostly be working on loose papers for ease of filming, but this entire course would be beautifully curated in a dedicated journal as well)

• A separate lined journal if you want to use the written prompts, but don't want to include them in your art journal (I think they would be beautiful all together though!)

• Pencils and dry media: Graphite, coloured pencils, pastel, charcoal, whatever dry media you have that you want to play with

• Liquid media: watercolour paint is my go to, but inks, acrylic paint, gouache, anything that you can make free flowing is wonderful

• Flower press or a couple of large books to press your flowers in

• Any other supplies you enjoy playing with or want to explore - this is time to play!

• Access to the outdoors to grab a few natural supplies like foliage, flowers, twigs etc, or a way to obtain these (maybe a couple of bunches of flowers to treat yourself over the month!)

Creative Prompts or Writing Prompts or Both?

Over the course of the next year (and more) I will provide you with a writing or a creative prompt each month. They can be done in as little as 15 minutes, but this is your journey, take the time path that suits you. Come back to them whenever you would like, revisit the same prompt each month. You, my friend, are at the centre of this adventure.

Remember, you have access to all of these invitations for as long as you are a member of this community, so there is no rush. This is not a place for stress and hurry - this is your calm place in the clearing, where you can breathe deep and move slow.  

I intentionally leave the creative invitations 'unfinished' in my videos - there are two reasons for this. I want to give you enough inspiration to start, but I also don't want to influence your play too much. My hope is that you take what I show as a jump off place and let your imagination, your curiosity, your skills, and your courage take you on your own adventure.

You don’t have to get it all done at once - please, take your time, explore, be in place, be present, and enjoy the beautiful, slow practice of inviting creative connection - you deserve it.

Writing Invitations

Writing prompts can be used in different ways, and not just for writing.

Journaling

A daily journaling practice is a profound way to connect your thoughts and feelings, process them and begin to notice patterns of thought that may not serve you anymore. I enjoy long form journaling every morning, having started my practice of morning pages in earnest some four years ago now. The practice was prompted by reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist's Way (in the book recommendations section too - but below is a good video that gives a few tips about making the most of your morning pages). While I do the long-form three pages of stream of consciousness writing, I also collect writing prompts from all sorts of places, and will often add my thoughts about a prompt to the end of my morning pages. If you already have a journaling practice, you can incorporate the writing invitations into that, or make it a separate practice, in a separate and dedicated journal. There are no rules - you get to experiment and find what works for you - another opportunity to play. 

Some good tips about morning pages, if that is something that interests you:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRz-ajS_2zI

Mind Mapping

Journaling is not for everyone. Something that can work similarly and is an incredibly powerful way to learn is mind mapping. I have a link to a whole plethora of youtube videos on what mind mapping is and how to use it below. I would love to hear from those of you who use mind mapping in our community spaces, and perhaps see some examples if you are willing to share!

www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEB&search_query=mind+mapping

Pondering while wandering

The invitations can also be utilised as ponderings or thought prompts for while you are out wandering. If you want to print the invitation out and take it with you, wonderful, or just read and consider the prompt for the day, let your mind take you where it may. I find I do a lot of my best thinking while I am walking, but it is a trade off in that I am usually not very present to what is going on around me when my mind is engaged in deep thought. A compromise is to stop at spots along your wander - specific pondering points - where you can devote some brain space to your thoughts, that way you can still be open and present to your surrounds while you are doing the actual walking.

Creative Invitations

The creative prompts are made to inspire - bring your courage (to let go of perfectionism and allow yourself to explore), your compassion (to yourself first, always) and your curiosity (as a lot of “what if” and “I wonder why” questions). Let your imagination run wild and don't be constrained either by what I am doing or what I am using. This is your opportunity to play and foster connection in the most wonderful way for you.

Keeping it simple.

If you do not have paints or liquid mediums, you can participate in an intentional and beautiful way with just dry media, and even just a graphite pencil, coloured pencil, or charcoal and paper. Dry media (pencils, charcoal, pastels) are such a gorgeous medium with so much possibility wrapped into the shape of a pencil or pigment stick - you can have a deeply connective observational journey with just the simplest of materials. YOU are the most important supply.

If you are only using graphite, think about how you can use it in different ways. Use your shavings to create a darker background, use your eraser to pull out highlights, and create from there. 

Make compositions out of your found objects. Use these as inspiration for everything from contour drawings to more elaborate sketches and finished drawings, flat lay photography, or digital manipulations. Do lots of rubbings of organic materials - leaf, bark, flower, stone. The possibilities are endless, and sometimes really limiting our supplies, keeping it simple, opens up enchantments you didn't even know were possible.

Thinking outside the suggested prompts

What other ways can you approach the creative prompts if you are not inspired by the wet media explorations and their follow ups? In the previous section I talked about dry media and how that can be a fantabulous alternative to wet media. But what else? I can think of three ways the prompts can be approached in a completely different manner, and I have no doubt you can think of more. I encourage you to be creative in every way that speaks to you - there are no rules, and there are also no limits.

Collage - gather some magazine clippings or print out some photos from places like Pixabay and Unsplash (royalty free photography) and collage a prompt, or be inspired loosely by a prompt and create something that speaks to you. If you love to art journal, and use a myriad of mixed media, go for it. 

Photography - While I suggest we take at least one photo a day whenever you are out in the wild or playing with wild elements, that doesn’t mean you need to be limited to just taking some standard photos. Like our word flatlays, what other arranged artworks can you make and photograph? The possibilities are limitless - you can loosely stage items, or create a narrative. I am really excited about the potential of a completely photographic interpretation.

Digital art - turn the photos of your wild explorations or your artwork into digital art - at layers and elements, make gifs with movement. What a beautiful way for you to blend your creativity and be inspired to connect with the wild in whole new ways.

Creative writing - maybe instead of art with pigment on paper, you might like to create art with words. How could the prompts inspire creative writing, poetry or prose? What might you discover outside to spark conversational dialogue with text and texture? With words and wonder? With literature and leaf litter?

Sketch Practise

If nothing else (or if you don’t want to work with wet media), this is a perfect opportunity for you to devote just 15 minutes per invitation (or every day) to a sketch practise. It is not about how pretty a sketch looks, and you don’t have to show it to anyone if you don’t want to (but I am ALWAYS open to seeing your sketches, I find it profound to see through other people’s eyes).

Sketching is a direct connection to your subject - in deep observation you learn more about the subject, you expand your observational skills, you improve your hand/eye coordination, you pick up tiny details more and more with practice, and you learn more about yourself and your place in the world. It can be a truly humbling, enlightening and expansive practice. You will find yourself experimenting with your pencil, working through ideas.

Like all practise, it is cumulative, you learn on top of your learning, on top of your learning.

Below is a quick video of what I mean - in just a few minutes each day you can create an intentional practice, and foster deeper connection through deep observation. We have so much to learn about the world around us, isn’t this a wonderful way to do it!

Be open to the unexpected

This is not a fine art course or a writing course.

There is no room for perfectionism in play, and that is what this space is all about - being present and playing with the natural world around us.

Be open to the unexpected, try very hard not to allow space for disappointment (though I know that can be difficult when we are entrenched in systems that value product over play). Allow any work you create that you are not altogether fond of to be like leaves floating on water rushing by you - set them free by placing them on the water and allowing them to be carried away to the great creative well we all dip our toes into daily. You always learn from play, regardless of the outcome. And if play alone is the worst outcome, then I think that is worth celebrating.

Know that even if you didn’t like an outcome, you learnt something, you practised, you had an opportunity to show up and you did. You were courageous, compassionate, and curious - you are a wild being of beauty.

"Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all."

 ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

A photo a day

This doesn’t have to be done every day (remember, you are steering this ship) but I would encourage you to take at least one photo per day when you are feeling particularly disconnected from the wild. Not just any photo, but something that delights and grounds you. Something wild, even if that is tiny.

It could be just what is out your window. It could be the way your art table is set up. It could be the natural element you are working with that day. If you can get outside, even just for a few minutes each day, take a photo or three of what you can find. You may end up with 100 photos of the same thing - snow, mulberry leaves, the grass, but taking that photo gave you pause, it let you connect (if only for a moment), and it can be revisited when you are needing a bit of wild to look at.

Try and look for the interesting things. Look for textures and shape, look for light. As you take photos, think about how you might like to come back and use them. Or how you can zoom in and see detail - magical, intricate detail - that you couldn’t see with your naked eye.

We will do different sketches and studies, so if there is something you see outside that you really like and don’t think you can come back to it often, take a photo. 

Some of the invitations will be around studying bark too, so take some nice up close photos of interesting bark you come across. Then show the tree some love with a caress and a kind word or two. I will also provide you with some photos, which I know will be handy for those unable to get out, but what else can you find? 

If you are able to take lots of photos, maybe choose one or two from each day you are out with your camera, your favourites for whatever reason, to put in a specific folder on your phone or computer if you’re using a DSLR. We will be using those photos in a couple of different ways, and ultimately, at any time you need it, you will have a beautiful photographic journal of what your wild world looks like.

Now, go walk with the wild, dear one

I hope you find much inspiration and joy in play