Electricity in the Workshop
Dear Friend,
In September, even though I no longer teach in the classroom, I feel the pull of the writing workshop.
The electric thrill of walking into a room full of new students, and discovering their new projects, never leaves me.
If you have read this letter for a while, you know that I had some experiences at universities that made being in the classroom feel unsafe for me.
But I love teaching so much that I have spent years thinking about how to be grounded in the writing workshop; how to soften and integrate the feelings that the workshop provokes.
I have written about the magic and impossibility of the university writing workshop before.
Individual desires run into mass psychic currents and the necessary limitations of our innate humanness.
In the writing workshop, there is more free association than we admit, and there is more impossibility than the form officially allows.
If you feel the desire for the transformative magic of sharing work with others and moving closer to your artistic vision but you need something a little gentler on your nervous system, then perhaps Atmospheres is for you.
Atmospheres begins at 7pm BST today. I would love to see you there.
There is no urgency – this project will unfold over a year, and you can join at any time, and leave at any time.
This is not a traditional workshop, but one based on slowness and softness, guided by the rhythms of the year. The atmosphere will guide the way that we work together and share work.
Sharing will always be optional, and will be based on the work you generate inside the session – creating and sharing will be in one breath.
If you would like a taste of the atmosphere of the workshop, then you can explore the first two potions:
You can read more about the process behind Kening Zhu’s beautiful illustrations on The Craft and Blackberrying here.
Kening and I both believe that everyone has the right to creativity in their lives.
We are only just beginning our whole year of atmospheric potions, and as soon as you join you will have access to all of them for as long as you remain a member.
In Scorpio season, we will have a guest workshop by Kening Zhu. If you don’t know her work yet, I am excited for you to enter her labyrinthine world. Her podcast episode ‘Make Art for No Audience’ is a good place to start. I guarantee you will feel your shoulders relax and your breathing slow.
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Atmospheres is about finding ways to let artmaking hold you, even when life is complex, messy, and scary.
Together we will receive signals from the dark, and make something new.
I hope to see some of you at 7pm today at Atmospheres.
Love, LJ
this is microdosing ceremony, a letter from my artist’s cocoon to yours.
find out more about rituals and writing on the ceremony podcast.
explore creative rabbit holes on my website.
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