The following photos are from various “Magic Vessel” workshops I’ve hosted over the past few years. In these free-style workshops, participants with varying levels of art experience chose a bottle or vessel and an assortment of objects such as tiles, shells, bottle caps, glass gems, broken jewelry, or other personal momentos they’ve brought with them. Once they coat their vessel in wet cement or adhesive, objects are embedded, creating a personal “magic vessel”, or memory jug. These workshops provide a link to the unique legacy of Wisconsin folk art, highlight the importance of collecting objects to help build a sense of personal identity, and foster camaraderie and storytelling among participants.
I’ve hosted workshops (in person or virtual) with the following organizations:
The John Michael Kohler Art Center, Cactus Club, Moonlight Retreat, Neighbor Art Studio, The American Visionary Art Museum, (upcoming) Bloom Art and Integrated Therapies
I have also hosted workshops in which participants create their own “pocket shrine” out of an altoid tin. I like to refer to these as "cosmic brain batteries"- your shrine does not have to include a diety but may be small symbolic space of beloved objects, affirmations, fantasy, memories, dreams, an escape- whatever you want to charge yourself in whatever way you desire.
The following photos are from a Grotto workshop hosted at the John Michael Kohler Art Center. This workshop required an extensive amount of preparation time as I needed to create each fiberglass grotto by hand ahead of time, but the results were worth it as each participant went all-out to adorn their own personalized shrine in this 2 -day class.
