Calling all wild-hearted and deep-souled women who are hungry for the luscious feminine nourishment that comes from playing, praying and painting with a group of creative sisters in a sacred container of lavish support.
This workshop is also wondrous opportunity to experience intuitive painting and my Creative Juices Arts studio in a whole new way-with help from animal guides and totems!
When: July 19-21, 2013
Where: Creative Juices Arts Studio, Oakland CA
Cost: $550 includes three delicious gourmet meals and an abundant cornucopia of art supplies
The magical and amazing Pixie Campbell, creator of SouLodge, and I are partnering to bring you a unique painting experience that combines a deepening commitment to your creative practice with allies and a shamanic perspective to help you on your wild woman’s journey.
Here is what I loved about retreating with Chris and Pixie – my creative heart was fed. Loved. Held. Dipped in mystery. I never felt less than safe and inspired. Go if you need to unlock and unfold. Go if you need to touch that which is forgotten or waylaid. Go if you want to be seen and loved as you are. ~ Jennifer Louden
We’ll open the sacred creative space with the intention of allowing nature’s teachings and indigenous practice to guide us throughout the day. With drumming and journeywork meditations woven into the weekend of painting, our expectation is that your work will reflect your divine connection to the sacred Earth and the spiritual and creative energies you wish to anchor more powerfully into your daily life.
Pixie and I have both devoted our work lives to women’s healing, growth and sacred empowerment.
Between the two of us we have close to 50 years of collective experience in creating safe, powerful and effective womens circles of transformation and soul restoration which we are honored to share with you.
From the second my toe crossed the threshold of Chris Zydel’s studio, I was transported to another world – a sacred place, full of soul and spirit. Never have I felt so held, cared for, nurtured, and respected as an individual.
Chris is the wise woman guiding all of us with such calm confidence and zero judgment. In fact, I have never felt so much pure love, as I did from Chris. And Pixie, well, she is always the magical one who inspires, delights, soothes and takes us to other realms.
As if that wasn’t enough! There were so many interesting and cozy places to gather, sit, paint, absorb, go inward, or whatever! For lunch and dinner we were treated to delicious and nutritious, farm-fresh, home-made meals that were prepared on-site by a private chef in the homey kitchen.
The most amazing part about the weekend, is that I hadn’t painted for 46 years, since I was in 2nd grade. Chris, Pixie, my fellow painters and the studio made me feel safe. I opened up so wide, that I realize in retrospect, something primal was awakened in me. Looking at my paintings now, I feel a connection to my ancestors who painted on rocks 10,000 years ago.
Great workshop, awesome supplies, spiritual setting, complete freedom to BE and fully express. ~ Cindie White
Pixie and I will be in co-creative partnership with you, weaving a web of luminescent healing, crafting a spiritual haven for women to thrive in and constructing a holy sanctuary of creative juicy aliveness.
You will gain access to your deepest creative longings through the intuitive painting process and channel your authentic expression through the vessel of time honored nature based wisdom and indigenous healing methods.
“Chris and Pixie are both women I have had the great privilege to study with and to welcome into my heart as guides, teachers and sisters.
Both Chris and Pixie work from the depths of their oceanic hearts, offer experiences which are deep, healing, hold great wisdom and yet can giggle like schoolgirls. This combination of depth and lightness is energizing and revitalising and when combined with creativity and traditional wisdom promises a potent and sacred container for transformation.
These two can hold a vision of women in their greatest potential and create experiences that can help shift deep stuff gently and with great love.
This new- year retreat promises to be a container of powerful shifts, great safety and connection to a wisdom that holds immense gifts. The combination of creativity, spirit, and compassionate wisdom that Pixie and Chris combine to create is something that should probably come with a seismic warning – the shifts will be that big.
Being on this retreat will be gifts to your soul and to all those you love. You will leave having been soaked in love and great spirit and you will not be the same.”
Jane Cunningham~ Reframing Your Story
Through this simple but primordial process of being seen, held, respected, celebrated and LOVED as the sacred artist you have always been, you will be able to find your way back to the core essence of your joyful AND powerful wild woman self.
You will be given opportunities to reclaim the deep wisdom of your reverence for Mama Earth, taste the delicious freedom of uninhibited play and be fiercely encouraged to let your inner Creative Queen SHINE in her full technicolor glory as she joins the circle of loving and courageous sisters who are on the same path.
LIke many women, I tend to get caught up in the pace of life and the never ending to-do list. This workshop was a gift to myself–permission to play and explore. I was not prepared for the depth of experience and connections that would follow. Magic never fails to happen when women gather in circle. From start to finish, the expert and loving facilitation by Chris Zydel and Pixie Campbell that unfolded in the Creative Juices Arts Studio, was like a magic stew that transformed our precious gathering of beautiful and sensitive women. We nurtured our souls, our bodies, and our hearts through deep sharing, dancing, painting, celebrating, and the eating of nutritious, gourmet feasts. Truly a special memory and experience that I will not soon forget. ~ Eileen Pardini
And finally, you will be given the tools, the sustaining power of community and the direct hands-on experience and teachings that will allow you to bring this sacred medicine of open hearted creativity and connection to the primal roots of ancient practices of wholeness into your daily life.
The workshop will be held at my gorgeous, funky, homey Creative Juices Arts studio in Oakland, CA.
It is across the street from Lake Merritt, the oldest bird sanctuary in the United States which is a place where you can walk and commune with water, birds, nature and old trees.
The surrounding neighborhood is filled with a wide variety of great restaurants and lovely little shops to explore.
And if you are coming from out of town there is a fabulous old mansion that has been converted into comfortable and affordable lodging that is within walking distance of the studio where you can stay in style!
We will also be supplying you with all the art supplies that your heart could possibly desire as well as gourmet and healthy meals that will provide sustenance for your body and your soul.
This will be a retreat in the true sense of the word where you will have the time, space and support to ground yourself in your body, heart and intuitive knowing and to come home to your sweetest place of self nurturance and self love.
Progress on the path to wholeness often feels agonizingly slow and hard-won. I took giant leap forward on my path at Chris Zydel & Pixie Campbell’s workshop combining the Intuitive Painting Process with Shamanic Journeying. The shamanic practices offered me a sense of rootedness and calm, while the intuitive painting practice gave me lots of space and permission for process and feelings. I left the weekend feeling lighter and more at home in my own skin. I am so grateful to Chris and Pixie for combining their considerable talents to create an experience that I can only describe as pure alchemy. ~ Kelle Jacobs
The Essential Details
When: The retreat begins at 10 AM on Friday, July 19th and ends at 5 PM on Sunday, July 21st.
Cost: The fee for the retreat is $550 and this includes a cornucopia of art supplies, surprise goodies and three delicious and healthy gourmet meals.
We are asking for a $200 deposit to hold your space.
Where: Creative Juices Arts Studio, Oakland CA
Space is limited to 14 women.
If this weekend experience is calling your name, you can get more info about registration by contacting Chris here.
Beginners are more than welcome! No art experience necessary.
As a first-time participant of Chris & Pixie’s painting and shamanism workshop in January, I experienced a profound shift in awareness and consciousness. The workshop gave me the opportunity to paint over the course of a weekend. It was the first time I have ever painted for a prolonged period. I had an incredible experience directly related to the loving support, spiritual guidance and meaningful rituals Chris and Pixie created. My inner child had so much fun! I can think of no better way for a person to explore new growth and to release through play and ritual. I am truly grateful for Chris & Pixie and the sacred circle of love and spirituality they exuded. ~ Lucy Ragnelli
Your Guides For The Journey
I am Chris Zydel, Wild Heart Queen + founder of Creative Juices Arts, and I have an unshakeable faith in the power of creativity to heal hearts and to change lives. I also know deep in my bones that everyone is deeply, wonderfully and gloriously creative. I am on a mission to prove that to the world by providing nurturing and joy-filled creative sanctuaries of encouragement, permission and trust in the sacred energy of play and creativity that lives inside of us all.
I have over 34 years of experience as a soulful creativity guide, warmly inspiring teacher and open hearted visionary leader. And I have joyfully developed many innovative retreat and workshop experiences such as Painting From The Wild Heart, The Point Of Greatest Aliveness: Painting As A Spiritual Practice, Intuitive Painting Power and The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program.
I also adore my work madly and am never happier than when I am helping people to find their way back home to their authentic creative source.
Pixie Campbell founder of Soul Lodge has been practicing art and healing craft for twenty years. A decade ago, she came upon a traditional teacher who held monthly circles among women to reignite the power of the intuition, which she learned to apply in a great many ways, including her creative path as a painter.
Her most recent creative birth is a shelter of sorts. The SouLodge was created specifically as a virtual space for women to experience the beauty and breakthroughs that sitting in safe circle can bring. It serves as a sacred space to do the soulwork that so many of us are called to do when we awaken to our true potential as creative beings. In live Lodge experiences, the circle holds us even closer.
She’s incorporated the creative process into the teachings in the Lodge because the spiritual life and the artful life often blur together and dance as their own entities-this is the work of Women: to allow creativity and *knowing* to flow freely in, out and around us.
