WELCOME TO CONTEMPLATIVE CREATIVES JOURNEY – AUTUMN 2022

JOIN ME FOR THE AUTUMN SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES–AND CELEBRATES–THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

WELCOME!

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, and enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

Contemplative Creatives Journey gives me a calm, safe place to renew and rejoice and connect with uplifting humans. I can’t imagine life without it. ~ Linda Bannan

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

A Sampling of Tree Mandalas by Summer CCJ Participants © 2020 Bo Mackison

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, which satisfies the senses and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore autumn’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang (Contemplative) Photography Mosaic © 2020
created by the participants of CCJ Summer 2020

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Autumn, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of Autumn’s Progression © 2018 Bo Mackison

CCJ has been a soft landing space for me. One in which I explore beauty while learning so much about art & in the process, myself. Bo consistently introduces us to concepts, artists, and exercises that foster creativity. ~ Liz Amaya-Fernandez

MY AUTUMN OFFER:

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on Thursday, September 15th, 2022 and we journey together until Thursday, December 15th, 2022.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Autumn Season. The first weeks of our practice will include introductions to the practice of collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the study of phenology (Nature’s calendar).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s complex world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art room or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout. ~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The AUTUMN journey is 13 weeks long. September 15th through December 15th, 2022.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on this private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however, and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

PDF booklets of each theme are provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, skills, presence, enthusiasm, and ongoing daily contemplative practices. The all-inclusive cost for the Autumn journey and the active sharing community is $99.00.

THE DEBI BRADFORD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP:

Debi Benson Bradford, a dear friend and member of CCJ, passed in 2021. Debi was a talented photographer, a Master Gardener in her beloved North Carolina, and a lover of all things in nature. She had a long-standing daily practice of sharing her photographs taken along the NC coast and adding words of inspiration. In her memory, I will be offering one scholarship for CCJ Autumn 2022 to a CCJ alumna. If you share Debi’s passion for adding beauty and kindness to the world, please contact me at bomackison (at) Gmail (dot) com.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until September 30, 2022.

Register here through PayPal or contact me at the above email address to send a personal check. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

WELCOME TO CONTEMPLATIVE CREATIVES JOURNEY – SPRING 2022

JOIN ME FOR THE SPRING SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES–AND CELEBRATES–THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

WELCOME!

Contemplative Creatives Journey gives me a calm, safe place to renew and rejoice and connect with uplifting humans. I can’t imagine life without it. ~ Linda Bannan

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, satisfies the senses, and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore spring’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang (Contemplative) Photography Mosaic © 2020
created by the participants of CCJ Summer 2020

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Spring, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of SPRING © 2019 Bo Mackison

Bo Mackison’s seasonal CCJ offerings are both balm and spark for the creative soul. Come play and discover what inspires you to make: poetry, photography, collage, mandalas, stories and observations, the lives of artists! You’ll find a no-pressure, quietly supportive community that welcomes whatever you choose to share.

~ Pascale Parinda

MY SPRING OFFER:

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on Sunday, March 20th, 2022, the first day of Spring, and we journey together until Monday, June 20th, 2022.

New participants are always welcome to join CCJ. The first weeks of our practice will include introductions to the practice of collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the study of phenology (Nature’s calendar).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s complex world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art room or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout. ~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The SPRING journey is 13 weeks long. Sunday, March 20th, 2022 through Monday, June 20th, 2022.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on this private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

PDF booklets of each theme are provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The all-inclusive cost for the Spring journey and the active sharing community will remain at the affordable price of $99.00.

THE DEBI BRADFORD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP:

Debi Benson Bradford, a dear friend and member of CCJ, passed away on May 4th, 2021. Debi was an extremely talented photographer, a Master Gardener in her beloved North Carolina, and a lover of all things in nature. She had a long-standing daily practice of sharing her photographs taken along the NC coast and adding words of inspiration. In her memory, I will be offering an alumnus scholarship in her name for CCJ Spring 2022. If you also share Debi’s passion for adding beauty and kindness to the world, please let me know.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until April 30, 2022.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

Contemplative Creatives Journey – The Winter Season

Two Views Mandala ©2021 Bo Mackison

WINTER SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP
FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES – AND CELEBRATES –
THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

CCJ has been a soft landing space for me. One in which I explore beauty while learning so much about art & in the process, myself. Bo consistently introduces us to concepts, artists, and exercises that foster creativity.

~ Liz Amaya-Fernandez

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

A Variety of Winter Welcome Mandalas ©2021 Bo Mackison

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, satisfies the senses, and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore winter’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang Photography Mosaic created by CCJ Autumn ©2021 Bo Mackison

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Winter, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of Winter’s Progression ©2018 Bo Mackison

There are also deep-dive explorations into the practices of artists and poets. In past seasons we’ve been inspired by folks like Carmen Herrera, Bisa Butler, Corita Kent, Andy Goldsworthy. (If you don’t recognize the names of all these creative folks, you might enjoy researching them. I promise you’ll be inspired. And if their creative work beckons to you, you’ll love the Artist Explorations coming in Winter CCJ.)

Bo Mackison’s seasonal CCJ offerings are both balm and spark for the creative soul. Come play and discover what inspires you to make: poetry, photography, collage, mandalas, stories and observations, the lives of artists! You’ll find a no-pressure, quietly supportive community that welcomes whatever you choose to share.

~ Pascale Parinda

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2022, and we journey together until the eve of the Spring Equinox, March 19th, 2022.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Winter Season. The first weeks of our practice will include an introduction to collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the practice of phenology (weekly nature observation).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art studio or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see/ create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration, and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout.

~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The WINTER journey is 11 weeks long. New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2022 through the eve of Spring Equinox, March 19th, 2022.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on our private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however, and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

Downloadable PDF booklets of each theme are also provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The cost for the Winter journey and our active sharing community remains at the all-inclusive price of $99.00.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until January 15th, 2022.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

WELCOME TO CONTEMPLATIVE CREATIVES JOURNEY – AUTUMN 2021

JOIN ME FOR THE AUTUMN SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES–AND CELEBRATES–THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

WELCOME!

Contemplative Creatives Journey gives me a calm, safe place to renew and rejoice and connect with uplifting humans. I can’t imagine life without it. ~ Linda Bannan

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

A Sampling of Tree Mandalas by Summer CCJ Participants © 2020 Bo Mackison

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, satisfies the senses, and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore autumn’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang (Contemplative) Photography Mosaic © 2020
created by the participants of CCJ Summer 2020

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Autumn, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of Autumn’s Progression © 2018 Bo Mackison

Participating in the last few CCJs has given me many things; a regular creative practice that takes multiple forms, a cohort of people sharing their experiences and processes, new ways of seeing, introductions to new artists, experimenting without the pressure of product outcome. ~ Deb Reynolds

MY AUTUMN OFFER:

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on Wednesday, September 22th, 2021, the first day of Autumn, and we journey together until Monday, December 20th, 2020.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Autumn Season. The first weeks of our practice will include introductions to the practice of collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the study of phenology (Nature’s calendar).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s complex world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art room or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout. ~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The AUTUMN journey is 13 weeks long. September 22nd through December 20th, 2021.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on this private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however, and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

PDF booklets of each theme are provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The all-inclusive cost for the Autumn journey and the active sharing community is $99.00.

THE DEBI BRADFORD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP:

Debi Benson Bradford, a dear friend and member of CCJ, passed away on May 4th, 2021. Debi was an extremely talented photographer, a Master Gardener in her beloved North Carolina, and a lover of all things in nature. She had a long-standing daily practice of sharing her photographs taken along the NC coast and adding words of inspiration. In her memory, I will be offering 2 scholarships for CCJ Autumn 2021. If you also share Debi’s passion for adding beauty and kindness to the world, please reach out to me at bomackison (at) Gmail (dot) com for the brief application form.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until September 30, 2021.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

CONTEMPLATIVE CREATIVES JOURNEY — SPRING 2020

JOIN ME FOR THE SPRING SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP THAT EXPLORES–AND CELEBRATES–THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

This gently guided journey with Bo has infused my existing practices with renewed energy. Her exquisite leadership is informed by experience, training and soulful instinct. I consider her a modem mystic. ~ Mary Anne em Radmacher

If the words contemplative and creative have a sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no firm schedule but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There is no planned curriculum, but lots of surprises and serendipity. There are no expectations, but infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and poetry art using found words and pictures. You don’t need to consider yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone with an established writing practice will surely delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively. I find this to be a lovely spring practice as we’ll focus on nature and growth and the many opportunities found in the outdoors. It’s a pocket-practice — the practice requires only a small container of basic supplies that can travel almost anywhere.

Mandala in Tulip Pots © 2019 Bo Mackison

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on the study of 1) color, pattern, and texture and 2) interacting with your ordinary and personal world. We’ll also explore the spring’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

PLACE:

Throughout the warming days of spring, we’ll continue the weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

The Making of a Season © 2019 Bo Mackison

Bo Mackison is an insightful, talented and inspirational art, photography and writing creativity coach and teacher. Bo’s wide range of artistic knowledge along with her life experiences makes her the artist and writer’s trusted advisor. I highly recommend Bo as a mentor, teacher, trainer, and speaker. ~ Jeanette Richardson Herring, Author and Artist

MY SPRING OFFER:

YOU WILL RECEIVE REGULAR — AND RANDOM — PROMPTS AND EXPLORATIONS.

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work and play.

We begin March 19th, 2020, the first day of Spring, and we journey together until June 19th, 2020.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Spring Season. The first weeks of our practice will include introductions to the practices of collaborative poetry writing, how to begin a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and the study of phenology.

Due to unexpected circumstances, I will be offering the Spring workshop to past participants, only. This will allow me to continue offering these practices but reduce my workload at a time when this is necessary. Regular programming will resume in Autumn, welcoming new members at that time. Thanks for understanding the need to adapt to my current situation.

Enter this Sanctuary © 2019 Bo Mackison

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up bright and energized for the demands of living in today’s noisy world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art room or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

Come along and explore the creative and contemplative life with spaciousness and spontaneity.

A Miksang Contemplative Photography Mosaic © 2019 Bo Mackison
created with photos from CCJ members

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout. ~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The SPRING journey is 13 weeks long. March 19th through June 19th, 2020.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on this private group page and can show up anytime. Surprise and serendipity! You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group however and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

A handsome PDF booklet featuring content from the 13-week session is provided at the end of the season as a helpful ongoing resource.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The cost for this Spring journey and an active sharing community remains at the all-inclusive price of $99.00.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until March 20, 2020.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

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BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; she knows this to be true.