Grief Studio 2/20: VENUS/LOVERS EDITION
Pleasure & Love as Grief Allies & Forces of Resistance (zoom link + details inside)
///CALLING ALL LOVERS////
Say what you will about Valentine’s day, but I’m a slut for all things Venus, pleasure, and love related… especially in community with those who believe in pleasure and love as forces of resistance & creativity which can’t be contained by definitions of heteronormativity/the couple/capital. ✨
Which is why we’ll be exploring themes of the Lovers and Venus as grief allies in this upcoming grief studio….
Our next Grief Studio is Thursday, February 20th, from 6-8pm eastern time.
In honor of Venus shining most brilliantly this Valentine’s day, we’ll be exploring the intersections of grief, pleasure, love, and the erotic and making art inspired by these themes. ❤️🔥
These studios are for paid subscribers and are spaces to dialogue with, make, and share your own art and writing alongside other grievers. For $16-20 per month, you both support this publication and your creative practice too! You’ll also access monthly creative prompts and other paid posts!
What to bring:
🕯️🧙♀️Bring something Venusian, perhaps the Lovers card from your own tarot deck, or an image or item that reminds you of Venus in some way. Or something delicious. Or something you love the scent of. A sprig of a favorite aromatic plant. Rose petals. Chocolate. Strawberries. (Etc, etc).
🕯️💐Set the space: Please find a comfortable, quiet place for our meeting. Set this space for yourself in any way that feels most supportive for you, whether bringing in pillows, candles, flowers, photos of any of your beloved dead, drawing a tarot card, creating an altar of some kind, bringing in scents and textures you enjoy, or simply making sure you have a spacious and comfortable space.
🍉🫖Bring nourishment: Please bring water, tea, any beverages, fruits, or snacks you'd like to bring for our time together.
🎨📒Bring art supplies, a pen and paper or something to write with, or if there is a more pleasurable or accessible form of reflection you like to do, bring materials for that…Markers, colored pencils, paints, collaging supplies, your phone to record voice memos... There will be time set aside to free-write/create/reflect using whichever mediums work best for you.
🧚♀️🌊Disrupt perfectionism and come as you are. You do not need to be "on" in order to show up to this space. Let however you're arriving be enough.
Structure for Grief Studios*:
Welcome & Grounding
Small group discussion around a particular theme, tarot card, plant, or text related to grief
Intention Setting for your creative practice
Creative Exploration/Studio time: Undirected, parallel play/creative exploration using whatever mediums/materials you feel called to, with the understanding that all of life can be lived as art, and that our artmaking gets to be a practice of attunement to ourselves and the world around us. Studio time can include anything from painting, collaging, dusting off your apothecary shelves, making tea, making music, rearranging your room, casting a spell, cooking a meal, or simply laying down and allowing yourself to rest as a creative practice…
Reflection/Witness Writing: Set aside time to free-write/reflect on your creative process, and witness and dialogue with your own art/creative process as if it were animate and speaking to you.
Reading Witness Writing: Time to read aloud our witness writing with one another, without the intentions to critique or comment or discuss. Here we are simply in the magic of witness - hearing ourselves speak aloud our witness writing, feeling ourselves be heard and received by one another.
Closing✨
Optional Debrief: After we close our ritual studio space, there will be an option to stay back and spend 15-20 minutes debriefing and discussing about your experiences of this process!💗
Sessions (not including break out rooms!) will be recorded for those unable to make them live ✨
*This structure is adapted from the lineage of the Jewish Studio Process, whose two year Creative Facilitator Training Fellowship I am currently in and deeply grateful for!