Workshops
Workshops
Come curious. You do not need to know anything about art, poetry, or symbols.
Each workshop begins with something to look at—perhaps a dragon above a burning town, a dancer caught between stillness and motion, or a simple bowl. You are invited to stay with the image before explaining it. What do you notice? What story have you already begun to tell?
Then poetry, story, quiet writing, and conversation change what is possible to see. There is no correct answer to discover and no pressure to share more than you wish. The pleasure is in the unfolding—the moment when something once hard to name begins to take shape.
What You’ll Experience
- You meet an image before anyone tells you what it means.
- A poem or story changes the picture—and perhaps your first impression of it.
- You have time to wonder, write, and notice what feels familiar.
- Conversation opens possibilities you may not have seen alone.
- You leave with a question, phrase, or recognition to carry into ordinary life.
A Different World Each Time
Dragon, Bowls, Ballerina, Grismere, Poppy, and Queen Ann each open a different world of imagery, poetry, questions, and stories. The welcoming shape of the workshop remains familiar, but the journey changes with every Figure Edition. You can return without simply repeating the same experience.
Current Workshops
Every AwakenArts workshop is anchored in one Figure Edition. Each gathers artwork, poetry, story, and reflective questions into a world participants enter together.
Workshops with Susan
Susan Ann Shepler is an artist, writer, Certified Transformative Language Artist, and Certified Journal Instructor. She holds a Master of Arts in Counseling and created AwakenArts from her sustained work with image, poetry, symbolic language, and reflection. She conducts every AwakenArts workshop herself.
Her qualifications inform the care and craft with which she holds a gathering; AwakenArts is an artistic and educational practice, not counseling or therapy. Learn more about her background.
The Workshop Landscape
An AwakenArts workshop may be a single gathering, a return through several Figure Editions, or part of a retreat or community program. It can find a home in libraries, churches, reading groups, and other places where people gather around art, language, story, and reflection.
These are not separate packaged programs. They are different ways the same living practice can meet a particular group, place, and occasion. Each invitation is shaped in conversation with the people who will host it.
Recognition is rarely a solitary experience. It deepens as we learn to see alongside others.
Inquire About a Workshop