Expressive Arts and the Natural World

Reconnecting People with their Passion and Purpose
Using Arts, Creativity and Nature

Our indigenous ancestors knew that each of us is born with a unique path to walk and unique gifts to offer this world. They knew that art was not only for a special few, but for everyone, not separate from, but intertwined with healing and spirituality. And they understood the wisdom to be found in connection with the natural world.

Yet that knowledge too often gets lost, forgotten or swallowed in the hectic pace of our contemporary civilization, in a society that often builds more walls than windows, where what we do is too often mistaken for who we are, where we are increasingly cut off from the earth's natural rhythms.

We long for connection - with our inner selves, with each other, and with the natural world of which we are a part. We long to bring our unique gifts to the place and time in which we live.

As a writer and photographer, I have personally experienced the power of art and nature to touch hearts, change lives and express the intimate mysteries of the human spirit. My personal journey to better understand this profound power led me to my study of Expressive Arts, my practice as an Expressive Arts Facilitator and my own ongoing conversation with nature.

I offer an original form of workshops, classes and consulting that blends the emerging fields of Expressive Arts and Deep Ecology (see explanations below) to offer tools and pathways for healing, connection, a deeper understanding of self and as a guide in one's journey through life.

You don't have to be an artist or want to be an artist to benefit from these workshops. It is about understanding and creating the artwork that is your life. It's about discovering that place of connection, growing your passion and purpose, and living your unique place in this world.

Anyone Can Use Expressive Arts - Even If You Can't Draw!

For more information about my workshops and other offerings
Contact me:
dianne@diannemonroe.com
210-738-0564

To learn more about Expressive Art, Deep Ecology
and The Work that Reconnects (developed by Joanna Macy),
keep reading below.

For more samples of my photography, scroll down to the end.

Offerings by Dianne Monroe

Expressive Arts and Nature
Workshops Classes Consulting
for groups families
couples individuals


Customized Programs
created
just for you
or your group


The Work that Reconnects:
A path-breaking approach to re-visioning how we live in relation to the earth and each other, developed by Joanna Macy (www.JoannaMacy.net)


"Expressive Art Workshop with Dianne Monroe was an expected free release of creativity and joy. I found myself being totally engrossed in simple art exercises with the art supplies she provided and being totally surprised by the flow of poetry coming through me. I did engage in the inner grief and pain and it seemed to move through to joy."
Lucy Greer Burton

"I recommend Dianne Monroe's Expressive Art Workshops for anyone who want to uncover their inner artist and poet, and anyone who wants to access abilities, feelings and thoughts that exist beyond conscious awareness..You visualize images that represent your inner feelings and thoughts. Then you get to play with an array of artistic media, natural objects and words to represent your image... It's creative play with a purpose... I came away exhilarated. Dianne is a great facilitator... Don't miss this workshop."
Anne Larme

Expressive Art

Expressive Art is a way of opening our creativity and using it to travel deeply into our inner being. It is a visionary, turn-all-your-ideas-about-art-on-their-heads approach to using arts processes and materials to explore our internal worlds and the way we live our lives. Expressive Art is based on medical research into visualization, deep imagery and the mind-body connection. It is an easy-to-use and rewarding approach to understanding who we are, what our feelings are telling us, our path through life and the gifts we bring to this world. Expressive Art is used for healing, self-discovery, transformation and as a guide in one's journey through life.

Deep Ecology

Simply expressed, Deep Ecology is the belief that humanity is part of the earth, not separate from it, and that planetary and personal well-being are deeply intertwined. The more we expand our concept of self to identify with "others" (people, animals, ecosystems) the more fully we realize our true selves.

Because we are part of the natural world, nature can reflect our longings, our gifts and our inner worlds. Through developing connections with the natural world, we can deepen our understanding of self and our relations with others.

I combine Expressive Arts with Deep Ecology, using inner imagery to explore our relationship with nature and learn from the wisdom the natural world has to offer. This experience can open pathways for a more meaningful relationship with ourselves, each other and our planet.

The Work That Reconnects

A Path-Breaking Approach to Re-Visioning
How We Live in Relation to the Earth and Each Other

The Work that Reconnects is a rapidly spreading form of group work developed by Joanna Macy (www.JoannaMacy.net). Through these workshops, you experience your connections with others and all life, and strengthen your ability to act on behalf of meaningful change - all in a way that opens us to gratitude, joy and a renewed sense of self. It can be a life-transforming experience for those already immersed in making change and those seeking a way to join in.

That our world is in crisis and needs our help is well known. Perhaps less wekk known are the many ways people are gathering to create new ways of living with each other and in collaboration with our planet. Macy calls this process The Great Turning and describes it as "the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. The Work that Reconnects enables people to feel their own power, in connection with others, and to play their full part in his historic shift.

(I have studied with Joanna Macy and am part of The Work That Reconnects Facilitators Network.)

Heartrock

Searching for What is Lost

Mi Tierra

Autumn Pond

Trees Seeking