Workshops
Each of these workshops combines Clean Language methods with art in some way.
If you’re interested to know more or would like me to run a workshop for you
(one of these, or bespoke), please contact me.
What The Wardrobe Knows: A Clean Language Poetry Workshop
Have you ever wished you could write poetry but don’t know where to start? Would you like to write a poem that taps into your true thinking and feelings about your wardrobe or your clothing?
During my art studies, I have uncovered a new way to create poetry that is easy to learn and which produces good results…
The process starts with Clean Language Interviewing, and in this workshop I will teach you the basics of Clean Language: some really useful ‘content-empty’ questions along with the principles and some top tips.
You will have a chance to interview someone about their wardrobe and their clothing using this method. During the interview, you will accept everything your partner says and help them to extend their thinking by asking a clean question. They will interview you, too. Using a transcription service, you will end up with transcripts of both interviews.
The next step is to find the hidden gems in these interviews - short stories or scenarios which can be turned into poems. You will learn how to ‘lineate’ these stories and play with them a little until you have crafted something you’re proud of.
There’ll be help on hand at each stage of this workshop, which can be run online or in person. Contact me if you would like to take part in a workshop like this or if you would like me to bring this 4-hour workshop to your group.
Pockets of Shame
Most of us have experienced shame at some point in our lives, but it’s something we rarely speak out. During a Clean Language session some years ago, I discovered I was keeping my shame in (metaphorical) small, green pockets distributed all around my body.
More recently, I interviewed a number of people about shame, asking: For you, shame is like what? With permission, I used the metaphors which evolved from a couple of these interviews as the content for my Pockets of Shame artwork.
During this workshop, I share the pockets and their stories and then participants have an opportunity to develop their own metaphors for shame and to draw or write about these metaphors. This way of working allows people to share experiences of shame, without any need to share the details of what happened. Instead, participants can feel heard and understood through the sharing of metaphors.
Over time, the Pockets of Shame have also become receptacles for peoples’ shame, and those who wish can leave their drawings or writings - anonymously - in one of the pockets. (I leave these items in the pockets and do not read or look at them.)
Contact me if you would like to take part in a workshop like this or if you would like me to bring this 90-minute workshop - and the pockets - to your group. It can be run in person or online.
Insights in Space
Would you like to learn a versatile tool that could assist you with all aspects of art-making - from getting unstuck or working out your next steps, to making a website or putting on an exhibition?
The Clean Space process was created by David Grove as a way of sorting out all your art puzzles and problems - by finding a different space for each element and enquiring into each one individually as well as learning about the relationships between them.
Surprise yourself with the new insights that emerge as you step through the spaces you create.
During this workshop you will learn the basic principles of Clean Space and how to facilitate someone else to go through the process, a structure that allows you to be present and hold space for someone without needing any expertise on their chosen topic.
Once you know the process and have practised it a couple of times, you will be able to use it on your own. There are also endless possibilities for creative adaptations for all kinds of contexts which will also be discussed.
Contact me if you would like to take part in a workshop like this or if you would like me to bring this workshop to your group. It can be run in-person or online; a basic version lasts 4 hours, a more in-depth version lasts 2 days and if you want to apply it to group processes please allow 3 or 4 days.
Art Marks
Do you struggle with what to paint or how to get started? Are you interested in exploring your own inner life through art? Would your group be interested in a different ‘way-in’ to art making?
In this workshop, participants will learn a little about Clean Language and be introduced to a few clean questions. You will start your artwork by responding with a single mark to an initial prompt. Then, working in pairs, you will ask clean questions of those marks, responding, not in words, but with further marks. In this way you will build up an image, a pattern or a series of marks that represent your response to the prompt.
Prompts can be tailored to your group; possibilities include:
What would you like to have happen?
Joy, for you, is like what?
When you’re at your best, you’re like what?
Time, for you, is like what?
There will be time towards the end of the workshop for you to continue your work unprompted. Sharing what happened in your own mind during the activity is optional.
Contact me if you would like to take part in a workshop like this or if you would like me to bring this 90-minute workshop to your group. It can be run in person or online.