Kerry Lee
Benicia, California
Your Legendary Life is an Intentional Creativity six-week series I created and held at a Northern California retirement community. With a group of sixty-something to ninety-something, adventurous and fun senior citizens, we took stories of personal legend to the canvas. The center has an active life enrichment program, though many of the participants had never painted before, (except for houses and fences!). Some had simply left their artistic selves in the past.
My inspiration for the workshop came from this quote:
The Grace in Aging comes from the perspective that with some outer vistas closing as we age, we would do well to recognize that inner vistas, peaceful and joyful and beautiful beyond imagining, can open. These inner vistas have always been within, available to us; we often didn’t have the time to explore them in any depth while we were immersed in the busy-ness of our lives to date. From “The Grace in Aging, Awaken as You Grow Older” by Kathleen Dowling Singh
The inquiry for the series was about what made each participants lives unique and their legends. They identified memories from their lives that they could release and embraced words of wisdom to pass along as part of their legacy. At each gathering we joined together in a red thread circle, where I witnessed each person gain deeper connections. They enjoyed sharing about their lives, while learning more about one another and also themselves. As the teacher, I especially enjoyed having my parents in the workshop, getting to paint with them, to know their friends and have dinner afterwards every week.
I was thrilled to receive these student comments after the workshop-
A highlight included painting on canvas – never done that before (that I can remember!) and finding new discoveries in myself and what was what was already known.
The face looks like a face!
The experience turned our inner spirits loose!
I will be starting a second series with the retirement community in June, titled “The Alter Ego’s Mask”, with the participants Alter Ego represented as a masked face. An Alter Ego is said to be a second personality inside us, our most genuine self, and the one that is not defined by our particular cultural context.
Kerry Lee’s workshops are primarily aimed at expansion for creativity and release creative blocks for all, changing beliefs that limit health, success and longevity and customized corporate team building. She offers Intentional Creativity Painting workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. Join Kerry at her next workshop, The Honey Jar. Sweet. Wet. Wild, held on May 23 & 24. For more information see the events page at KerryLeeArt.com or on Facebook at The Alchemical Artist, Kerry Lee and You.
