If you’ve been in my world for any longer than five minutes you already know how much I LOVE offering in person retreats and workshops. So I’m always on the lookout for retreat venues that are willing and capable of providing me what I need to make the retreat magics happen!

One of the first things I look for as a facilitator is a physical space that is large enough to hold 10-18 painters comfortably with our big ass 4 x 6 foot easels!!! I also need privacy, accessible water and good light and preferably the venue needs to be in some wildly beautiful natural environment like the desert, mountains or forest.

But one thing that is TOTALLY non-negotiable is that I need, need, NEED a workshop space where it’s OK to get messy. The experience I’m trying to create won’t work in a space that’s too pretty, or precious or pristine. It has to be no big deal if someone accidentally drops a palette full of paint or a water container on the floor ( something that happens ALL the time) or splatters some paint on the wall. I need a place that can tolerate accidents, mistakes and just the sheer unbridled exuberance of the creative process.

And let me tell you… those kinds of places are in woefully short supply.

I can always easily find places to do dance or yoga or breathwork. Or places where everyone is seated and speaking in a circle. Rooms filled with tables, or comfy couches or chairs where people can sit or lie down and write in their journals or type on their computers and make marks in art journals with colored pencils or watercolors, are pretty plentiful.

These types of venues are often covered in plush carpet or have shiny, high end wood floors and the walls are painted in soft colors with natural light pouring in through windows from the outside. They are clean and spotless and exude an energy of peace and beauty, stillness and silence.

Now don’t get me wrong, I also love these kinds of spaces. I love how calm they can make me feel. I love how my nervous system often breathes a sigh of relief when I am surrounded by this energy of serene tranquility.

But my main problem with them is that they are often billed as the epitome of sacred space. And they ARE sacred space.

But it’s only one expression of sacred space.

Most of us are led to believe that these types of spaces that engender the experience of internal quiet, and harmony and comfort are the epitome of sacredness. That you can only experience the sacred when everything outside of you is completely mellow and chill and unperturbed.

But in my experience with the creative process that is definitely not the case.

Having a physical space where you can be free to express the energies of chaos and confusion and disarray and to MAKE a mess are some of the holiest, most sacred spaces I have ever had the privilege to inhabit.

When I had my Oakland studio and people first walked in the door they were often aghast … in a really good way… about how much paint there was on the walls surrounding the easels and even on the ceiling from people allowing themselves to fully surrender to their creative painting process!

Right away these new students got the message that there was total PERMISSION to express themselves fully. They didn’t have to worry about being careful or tidy as they painted. They didn’t have to worry about playing small or holding anything back.

So when I am looking for a place to hold my classes, workshops or retreats my first question for the proprietors of that space is not how tolerant they are of mess, but how capable are they of welcoming mess.

I want to know if they have a deep enough understanding of the creative process to enthusiastically embrace mess and disorder as an important part of how creativity unfolds. I don’t want to feel like I have to tiptoe around their maintaining control anxiety and become the protector of their physical space instead of doing the work I’m there to do. Which is to be the protector of my students SOUL space.

Because messy does not always play nice. Messy is chaotic and often confusing. Messy opens us up to the wildness of the unknown. And the unknowable. Messy is an opportunity to dance with the energy of letting go of control.

And messy is actually a HUGE part of being alive!

Feelings and emotions are messy. “Oh my god… I’m such a mess,” is something people say when they have strong emotions being expressed.

Kids are messy. Birth is messy. Death is messy. Sex is messy. Intimacy is messy. Decay is messy. Dying and illness are messy. Crying is messy. Rage is messy. Pain is messy.

If you walk through a forest that is wild it is incredibly messy. Trees fall down. Nothing grows in a straight line. The forest floor is littered with fallen leaves and broken branches and animal scat.

So much of where we are most alive in our lives is messy. And where we are the most real.

And the patriarchal culture that we live in every day tries to control that mess by pretending it doesn’t exist. Which is where we get people always thinking that they have to curate their lives in one way or another to hide the reality of what they think of as their mess.

So when looking for venues, I need a space that can hold that messiness and provide a safe container for it. I never want anyone to feel judged or criticized for being messy, feeling messy or painting messy.

Because the truth about what we think of as mess is that it’s actually indicative of a type of divine order. There is an underlying system and type of organization going on at all times but it’s not a logical or linear or rational order. And it’s this non-logical, non-rational organic growing order that we are needing to learn to trust when we allow ourselves to surrender to the wisdom of our messy lives that includes the messiness of our creative process.

Tim and I are SO excited that we have found a brand new venue in the town of Nevada City in the Sierra Foothills of California that TOTALLY supports our need to be able to create with wild abandon! And we are holding our next The Inner Art Of Goddess Creation there in May.

Time is short. Space is limited. Click on the image below for more info and to register.