Workshops & Series
The Art of Becoming
A Creative Journey of Self-Discovery — Join One or the Full Series
Art has always been more than what I create. It’s how I find myself. After facing infertility, I went through a season where I felt lost and unsure of who I was. Making art became my way of processing grief and rediscovering meaning. It gave me a voice when I didn’t have words, and a sense of worth when I felt invisible. Over time, I learned that art is not about the end result. It’s about allowing ourselves to play, explore, and listen. It’s about who we become in the process.
That belief is what inspired The Art of Becoming, a six-part creative wellness journey that invites participants to explore who they are and who they’re becoming through art as mindfulness. Each workshop offers a space to pause, to breathe, and to connect inward. You’ll learn mixed-media tools and techniques, but more importantly, you’ll discover how creativity can build confidence, courage, and self-compassion.
Each class stands alone, yet together they form a larger arc of transformation. Every session is designed to meet people where they are, whether they’ve never painted before or already identify as creative. Participants leave not only with art they can hold in their hands but also with a renewed sense of clarity, self-trust, and belonging.
This series fits naturally in spaces that value healing, movement, and community — yoga studios, libraries, art centers, and retreat settings. It offers a bridge between mindfulness and creative expression, giving people permission to show up as they are and to rediscover joy through the act of making.
I am still learning, still becoming, and I invite others to walk that path alongside me. Together, we create not just art, but connection, understanding, and the quiet bravery to believe that we matter.
The Art of Becoming A Creative Journey of Self-Discovery
Workshop 1 – Begin Again: Self-Portrait Vision Board
Focus: Reflection & Intention — a gentle invitation to return to your creative self and set intentions for the season ahead.
Description:
This workshop offers a quiet space to begin again, to reconnect with yourself through mindful artmaking. Together, we’ll use collage, marks, and texture to explore what feels present in your life right now and what might be ready to grow.
You’ll be guided through techniques and prompts, but the process is yours to follow. There’s no right or wrong way to
create here. What matters is showing up, listening, and allowing what wants to emerge to find its way onto your surface.
What You’ll Experience:
• A welcoming space to slow down and listen inwardly
• Playful exploration with materials and color without pressure to perform
• Connection with a creative process that honors where you are in this moment
Techniques: collage composition, mark-making warm-ups, stencil layering, intuitive layout.
Surface: Wood panel (approximately 11 × 14 inches) or another sturdy hard surface.
Materials: please bring your own collage and art supplies that inspire you — for example, personal photos, meaningful words, magazines, glue, brushes, and paint. A list of recommended materials with links will be provided ahead of class to make preparation easier.
Workshop 2 – Line Language: Mark-Making for Calm + Flow (February 2026)
Workshop 2 – Line Language: Mark-Making for Calm + Flow (February 2026)
Focus: Presence & Rhythm — a mindful exploration of repetition, movement, and flow through line and pattern.
Description:
This session is an invitation to slow down and find rhythm in simple movement. We’ll explore how a single line can hold
emotion, energy, and calm. Through guided mark-making and playful repetition, you’ll experience how drawing without
expectation can steady the mind and bring you into the present moment. Each mark becomes a quiet conversation between
your hand and your breath.
What You’ll Experience:
• Gentle, meditative drawing exercises that promote calm and focus
• Freedom to explore pattern, shape, and texture without judgment
• A deepened awareness of how movement and art connect the body and mind
Techniques: repetitive mark-making, pattern development, neurographic drawing, simple ink and brush exploration.
Surface: sketchbook or mixed-media paper (9 × 12 inches recommended).
Materials: please bring your own sketch paper, pens, markers, or drawing tools of choice. A list of recommended materials
with links will be provided ahead of class to make preparation easier. You are also welcome to bring any additional tools
that inspire you, such as brushes, inks, or texture tools.
Workshop 3 – Say It Small: Mini Zine Storytelling (March 2026)
Workshop 3 – Say It Small: Mini Zine Storytelling (March 2026)
Focus: Personal Narrative — exploring your story through images, words, and intuitive composition.
Description:
Sometimes, the smallest format can hold the biggest truths. In this workshop, we’ll create a simple folded zine, a handmade
mini book, as a space to explore your inner stories. Using collage, drawing, and found text, you’ll be invited to follow your
intuition rather than a plan. This process encourages gentle reflection, curiosity, and play. Your zine might hold a memory, a
dream, a list of reminders to yourself, or simply layers of color and marks that feel right in the moment.
What You’ll Experience:
• A quiet and imaginative space to tell stories in your own way
• Playful experimentation with paper, image, and text
• Permission to create freely, without editing or overthinking
Techniques: intuitive layout, collage layering, drawing and mark integration, simple folded zine construction.
Surface: recommended paper size at least 11 × 17 inches to allow space for layering, folding, and intuitive composition.
Materials: please bring your own paper, pens, glue, scissors, and any collage materials that inspire you such as photos, old
magazines, or printed phrases. A list of recommended materials with links will be provided ahead of class.
Workshop 4 – Bind Your Becoming: Hand-Built Art Journal (April 2026)
Workshop 4 – Bind Your Becoming: Hand-Built Art Journal (April 2026)
Focus: Foundations & Flow — creating the bones of your art journal so that inspiration always has a place to land.
Description:
In this workshop, we’ll take away the fear of the blank page by building the foundation of your own art journal. Together,
we’ll gather a variety of papers, plain, patterned, textured, and repurposed, and create a layered surface that already
carries stories within it. You’ll design a personalized cover and learn how to assemble your pages using a wire-o binding
machine. This process gives you a creative container that feels alive and ready for exploration.
This journal will become a safe space to play, reflect, and grow long after the workshop ends. Each page will remind you
that creativity doesn’t have to start from scratch, it can grow from what’s already here.
Revised: 2025111744
What You’ll Experience:
• A calm and creative environment to build your own journal foundation
• Hands-on instruction in paper selection, layering, and cover design
• The satisfaction of creating a journal that already feels rich and inviting
Techniques: paper selection and layering, intuitive page composition, wire-o bookbinding, simple cover design.
Surface: custom journal created from assorted papers (recommended finished size 6 × 9 inches).
Materials: please bring an assortment of papers that inspire you — such as watercolor sheets, book pages, scrapbook
papers, or recycled materials. All binding materials and wire-o machines will be provided for class use. A list of
recommended materials with links will be sent ahead of class.
Workshop 5 – Carry Your Becoming: Embodied Canvas Story (May 2026)
Workshop 5 – Carry Your Becoming: Embodied Canvas Story (May 2026)
Focus: Integration & Meaning — transforming your story into something you can touch, hold, and carry with you.
Description:
This workshop invites you to translate your creative journey into a tactile form that reflects your growth and self-discovery.
Using a blank canvas tote as your base, you’ll layer fabric paint, collage, and meaningful textures to create a personal
visual story. You’ll be encouraged to bring found objects or small items that hold significance, things that represent
memories, affirmations, or parts of your becoming.
You’ll explore ways to attach, layer, and express through color and texture. There’s no expectation of outcome, this is
about process, play, and meaning. By the end, you’ll have something that feels deeply personal: a piece that walks beside
you in your daily life and reminds you of who you are becoming.
What You’ll Experience:
• A supportive space to connect your creative journey with your everyday life
• Exploration of texture, symbolism, and storytelling through mixed materials
• Permission to create intuitively and meaningfully without pressure or perfection
Techniques: fabric painting, layering, collage application, optional hand-stitching or embellishment, intuitive composition.
Surface: blank canvas tote bag (recommended large grocery size or larger).
Materials: please bring your own tote bag and a selection of small items or fabrics that hold personal meaning. All shared
materials such as paint and adhesives will be provided. A list of recommended materials and links will be sent ahead of
class.
Workshop 6 – Layers of Becoming (June 2026)
Workshop 6 – Layers of Becoming (June 2026)
Focus: Reflection & Continuation — celebrating your creative growth and honoring who you are becoming through layered
expression.
Description:
This final workshop is a time to pause, look back, and create from a place of quiet awareness. Using familiar tools like
stencils, brushes, stamps, and texture, you’ll build a layered mixed-media painting that reflects the many versions of
yourself that have emerged along the way. Each mark and color becomes a conversation between what was and what’s
next.
There’s no single way this piece should look. Some layers will hide beneath others; some will shine through. Just like life, it’s
a reflection of movement, change, and the beauty of imperfection. This process is less about finishing a painting and more
about being present with what unfolds.
Revised: 2025111744
What You’ll Experience:
• Space to reflect on your creative and personal growth throughout the series
• Freedom to explore layering and composition as symbols of becoming
• A sense of completion that honors both progress and openness to what comes next
Techniques: intuitive mixed-media layering, color blending, gesture painting, mark-making, use of stencils and texture
tools.
Surface: your choice of hard surface or canvas (recommended size at least 16 × 20 inches).
Materials: please bring your own paints, brushes, and favorite tools. A list of recommended materials and links will be
provided ahead of class.
RISE Up & Recover
Monthly trauma-informed workshop
Taught by Chris Warne, MEd, CYT, ISTT
In Yoga, donations are a means by which to practice an aspect of moral restraint of aparigraha-non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-hoarding, non-attachment.
In Buddhism, donations are called dana, the practice and perfection of generosity—generosity as a practice is the moral ground upon which Buddhist mindfulness practice stands.
In 12-step language, donations are a way n which spiritual principles such as honesty, integrity, willingness, humility, and service are put into action.
Note-if you just have $3, you are most welcome to join us, you are more important than your money. If you are in a position to 'pay-it-forward,' that others might be able to participate, please let us know.
1/3 goes to instructor, 1/3 goes to facility, 1/3 goes to Link House Inc. (local 501(c)3, a non-profit supporting the needs of those in recovery in the local community.
October 20th, November 17th, December 22nd.
Choose your rate: $15-30 Pre-register to secure a spot :
Venmo: @Chris-Warner-34
Amesbury Open Studios 2024
We’re Looking to Host Artists at RISEilience for the Event!
All artists with studios in Amesbury are welcome to participate. For those who don't have studios in Amesbury, our downtown businesses and City Hall graciously host artists for the weekend, providing space to showcase their work and set up shop.
A free trolley transports visitors to nearly a dozen stops across town, and each year brings something new! You might catch a woodworking or glassblowing demonstration, hear live music, try finger-painting, or discover your next favorite piece of original art.
RISE Up & Recover
Monthly trauma-informed workshop
Taught by Chris Warne, MEd, CYT, ISTT
In Yoga, donations are a means by which to practice an aspect of moral restraint of aparigraha-non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-hoarding, non-attachment.
In Buddhism, donations are called dana, the practice and perfection of generosity—generosity as a practice is the moral ground upon which Buddhist mindfulness practice stands.
In 12-step language, donations are a way n which spiritual principles such as honesty, integrity, willingness, humility, and service are put into action.
Note-if you just have $3, you are most welcome to join us, you are more important than your money. If you are in a position to 'pay-it-forward,' that others might be able to participate, please let us know.
1/3 goes to instructor, 1/3 goes to facility, 1/3 goes to Link House Inc. (local 501(c)3, a non-profit supporting the needs of those in recovery in the local community.
October 20th, November 17th, December 22nd.
Choose your rate: $15-30 Pre-register to secure a spot :
Venmo: @Chris-Warner-34
Amesbury-Opoly 2024
Visit RISEilience and make a purchase! With every purchase, receive a card for a chance to win the $1,000 grand Prize!
More information at the Amesbury Chamber of Commerce
