Friday, January 17, 2014

Right Brain Activities Solve Problems ART Lab & ARTiculate workshops


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Melissa Klein
                        360.809.0083
                        me.lissa@melissaklein.com

Re:                   Using Right-Brain Activities to Solve Problems:
                        Art Laboratory & ARTiculate Your Story Workshops
                        (see below for dates)
                        Waterfront Park Community Center
                          370 Brien Drive SE, Bainbridge Island 98110

Click to download high-resolution photos of Klein’s art & word document
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3254631/Right%20Brain%20Activities%20Art%20Lab%20Solve%20Problems%20and%20ARTiculate%20%20Press%20Release_Melissa_Klein%20copy.zip

              

Get your new year off to an inspired and creative start.  Starting on January 25th at the Waterfront Park Community Center on Bainbridge Island, artist and art instructor Melissa Klein will present Art Laboratory ARTiculate Your Story workshops, which integrate right-brain activities to help solve problems and find creative solutions.
 Art Laboratory is designed for novice & professional artists as a forum to share ideas, explore monthly themes and develop practical business skills to support an artistic lifestyle.

ARTiculate facilitates the ‘emerging’ creative to share their story with clarity and power with pictures, words or a combination of both.

In these playful workshops Klein will share right-brain techniques for using art and imagery as a powerful tools to take control of your life.

“I’ve had to weather some great changes and challenges in my life – professionally and personally. When I really decided to commit myself to a career in art – my verbal side was freaking out, saying things like ‘You will starve! You will fall flat on your face…Who do you think you are?!’ At the same time, I was creating paintings that were saying something very different – that saw the world in a different way – and that some of the emotions I was going through were simply a result of breaking out of my shell; which is an uncomfortable process – which made it all OK.

“As an artist, I am able to access my right brain – which has a very different modality for problem solving, and sees things in a more holistic light. As I was showing my art and talking to people about my process and symbols – they started to ask me to teach them some of the techniques that I had intuited for creative problem solving.“ explains Klein.

There is some startling information about how the right brain solves problems. Dr. Mark Beeman’s research shows “About a second and a half before people solved the problem with insight, they had this sudden and prolonged increase in alpha band activity over the right occipital lobe, the region that processes visual information coming into the brain.” (Your Brain at Work, David Rock) This was exciting, organic evidence about how important the right brain is for making connections and global thinking.

There is also a strong correlation between emotions and problem solving – the greater the happiness, the greater the likelihood of solving the problem which is also inversely proportional with anxiety. (Your Brain at Work, David Rock)

Unfortunately – so much problem solving is approached with a sense of ”heaviness” about the magnitude of the issue that our brain generates a strong “away” response – which is a variation of fight or flight. This explains why people procrastinate, and don’t follow through with their dreams. It’s not fun! Working with visual imagery, which is how our brains are hard-wired to think, creates “pure excitement for our minds” (Unfolding the Napkin, Dan Roam) and generates a positive “towards” response for putting vision into action.

“I started to create activities to help activate visual problem-solving and reach out to either the blocked artist, or help the person who doesn’t consider themself creative to access their creativity. In many ways this is what I’ve been doing for years as a Commercial Art Instructor; working with disengaged teenagers who are reluctant learners, helping them become excited about what they can accomplish. The point isn’t to create art – it’s to use art as a way to create a new perspective and stay connected to your vision.”

Whether you are looking for ways to stay connected to your intentions for the New Year or are looking to reconnect with touchstones to your truest self - these workshops will support you in your journey through a combination of exploratory exercises and visual information provided in a safe and fun environment.

 “Visual images, symbols and mythology have a direct access to our emotions and can help us to harness the power of emotion and heal the gap between intention and reality. They can also act as a ‘True North’ to keep you in touch with what you really want in life instead of what you ‘should’ want or is perhaps what others think is best. When these are in alignment, the power of human intention is unstoppable.” Klein says.


ART LABORATORY
WATERFRONT PARK COMMUNITY CENTER 
370 Brien Dr SE, Bainbridge Isle, WA 98110

Monthly Saturdays 9am - 6 pm

January   25th                April 26
February 15                   May 17
March 22                        June 28

$100 each class or $550 for the six month seminar.  Scholarships available.

Includes healthy refreshments to feed body and soul!


ARTiculate Your Story
WATERFRONT PARK COMMUNITY CENTER 
370 Brien Dr SE, Bainbridge Isle, WA 98110

Monthly Sundays  12 - 5 pm

January 26                  April 27
February 16                May 18
March 23                    June 29

$60 each meeting or $330 for the six month class.  Scholarships available.


Includes healthy refreshments to feed body and soul!
If this article interested you and you want to explore this more in-depth, I will be offering two workshop series ARTiculate which is about telling your story & ART LAB for supporting people with creative projects. It will be a combination of entertaining storytelling, art history, discussion and right-brain art exercises. 
What are Right-Brain Exercises?
A picture is worth a thousand words and helps to galvanize your emotional forces to create positive change. Many times we become inundated with a tidal-wave of words or become demotivated by all of the “shoulds” in life - which make it hard to see things clearly. 
Right-brain exercises are a playful use of visualization techniques to see concepts in a new light. Using simple materials like ink, paper, sand, collage, and doodling - you will be able to engage your visual side and have it communicate with you in a way that is outside of words and creates a clear picture of issue and new possibilities. 
It’s not about creating art, its about using art to create a new perspective. — Melissa Klein
The Happy Factor
People get really happy when they are given permission to play like children before they knew if something is “good” or “bad” — they can’t fail. Remember the joy of mud pies before they were “dirty”? Accessing problems from a positive and humorous perspective is more motivating to create change.
Journal of Journey
Your Journal is included in the workshop and is something that you will take away with you as a physical reminder - and to add onto as you gain new insights. This is about creating lasting change and keeping inspired.
Space is limited - reserve your place! 
Please call me at 360.809.0083 or email me at me.lissa@melissaklein.com to reserve your place.





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