Exploring and Giving Form to Our Inner Home

                             Notes for The Workshop on May 26th         

Ecology -   the Greek eco means home.  Logos is the mysterious process of coming into being of a idea or impulse or ray of light.  Ecology can thus be considered as the mysterious process of making home.

This workshop delves into the idea that seeking home is our life's journey and explores

 "home" as an internal image, within the context of that journey. Home is our place of deep refuge, wholeness, being known. It is where we feel safe to be fully loved and love openly - our quiet, still center.  Ironically, home exists in spiritual realms, yet here we are, living in a crazed world, amidst our humanity - our fullness, of light and darkness. 

This workshop is experiential -  I open some of the infinite doors into exploring your inner self, your soul,  with the intention of drawing out life giving impulses which you can then embody through your daily living.  Each door is a creative-meditative drawing or sculpting exercise, where I offer a poetic image which you'll internalize, listen for a response, and then explore by playing with clay or pastels on newsprint, letting the exploration awaken essential parts of yourself you have forgotten or never realized.  As you create, more images appear -  each exercise opens a deep well of life giving water.

After the group completes each expression, you are invited to share with the group how the unfolding occurred.  Other particpants offer their insights into what you've offered, which also expands their understanding of our common humanity.  We then discuss how these revealed impulses can be lived into.

Consider the impulse of, say, wanting expansiveness, perhaps expressed when drawing by large, sweeping arcs of color, unfolding like bird's wings.  How that energy is given form is unique to our experiences and inclinations, but they may include: Considering new, bold options regarding significant life decisions; or making a window seat with a distant view, for our gazing;  or traveling to the southwest deserts (or moving there): or sailing (experience such an expansive space as the ocean, with the wind, and see what it has to offer), or letting your hair grow, or learn swing dancing!  

As there are infintite facets to the crystal that is our soul, this workshop can go on for a day, or two or three.  Regardless of duration, participants will have opened to ways to explore home and can continue this work throughout their life's journey.

Workshop fee -  $150.  Includes breakfast & lunch.  9am - 6pm.  At my home.

What makes Helicon Works unique is that i invite people to create their own vision of “home” by first going deep inside themselves spiritually, emotionally, and aesthetically.  I do this work with clients, and I teach a couple of workshops which delves into this possibility.   In one workshop, I lead participants through exploring home as an internal image, considering our life's journey as a process of finding home in the world, a journey that is all about inner work.  The other workshop explores home in this sense as well, with the intention of embodying our fuller self through the making of our physical home.  I believe that our inner home and physical home mirror one another.  I offer these workshops at my home, where i have attempted to illustrate this work.

I recently held the second workshop, and on Saturday, May 26th, i'll hold the other workshop, which i call "Ecology. The Mysterious Process of Making Home."   We'll do creative expression work to reveal life-giving impulses wecarry in our heart, and then engage in dialogue regarding ways to make those images a part of our daily living.   

I asked some friends recently for their favorite buildings in DC. Many are predictable, some are unique. Here's the list ~

· Lincoln Memorial

· Jefferson Memorial.

· The Islamic Center (2551 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington D.C.)

· Finnish Embassy

· National Church (Episcopalian) --- and don’t miss the nearby garden, the crypt and attic spaces)

· Russian Orthodox Cathedral (close to National Cathedral)

· Outdoor space of the Hirshorn Gallery

· Atrium of the Portrait Gallery

· The Library of Congress (main building, all its interior and specially the interior dome/reading room – you need to be a member to gain access)

· The National Gallery of Art West Wing by John Russell Pope (esp. the dome and the courtyards)

· Union Station

· Franciscan Monastery,

· Botanic Garden,

· Arboretum,

· Kennedy Center Rooftop Deck,

· Roosevelt Island

· Jack's Boathouse

· Fletcher's Boathouse

· Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

· St. Matthew's emphasizes the drama of noisy street transition to silence, Romanesque (I think) church design with all the gold trimmings:
http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/

· Hotel Tabard Inn - the best experience of smallness, human-scale flow, quiet, cozy, and awesome martini and life, nearby the cathedral:
http://www.tabardinn.com/ (also across the street is the Iron Gate restaurant with portico seating)

· The building of the Organization of American States (OAS) in DC

· U-Line Arena. It’s just a parking lot inside now so access isn’t restricted. It’s amazing and while not exactly quiet, it has very unusual lighting and relatively good sound isolation from the CIP concrete structure.

· For more interesting, forgotten buildings Check: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/07/23/GA2010072302501.html

· Fort Washington. We don’t have many massive buildings here in Washington, but it has massive masonry and earth walls and the quality of silence within those massive walls is very different than other quiet places. There are some interesting lighting conditions there as well.

· The Third Church of Christ Scientist, a sanctuary of the Christian Science movement (http://www.thirdchurchdc.org/washingtondc/910 16th Street, NW, 20006)

· Holy Trinity Chapel on N Street between 35th and 36th in Georgetown (original 1740s chapel) is an interesting space tied to a quiet garden.

· Metropolitan Community Church (Suzane Reatig, architect, 1993) http://mccdc.com/ --- 474 Ridge Street NW, Washington DC 20001

· The New Tenley Town Library

· Dumbarton Oaks Gardens in Georgetown (specially, the oval pool and pleached linden trees)

· The Dahlgren Quadrangle and Chapel of the Sacred (Georgetown University)

· The Olmstead grotto on the Capital grounds.

· The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Temple by John Russell Pope at 16th and S streets NW DC (numerology and proportion are important in addition to light and silence; count each set of steps as you approach the front door)

· The Folger Shakespeare Library by Paul Cret (Luis Kahn's teacher); visit the Great Hall, Elizabethan Theater, and the Paster Reading Room.

· Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery (the one which is actually just north of the US Soldiers Home, i.e. close to cua); sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens; bench by McKim Mead; commissioned by Henry Adams for his wife Mirian Hooper Adams. It used to be surrounded by high bushes and hard to get past them and into this quiet contemplative space; they chopped the bushes down maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but maybe they've grown back. The hidden quality of this space made it quite powerful along with the mysterious figure seated in front of you.

· The Community Mausoleum at Fort Lincoln Cemetery behind the little church. Cemetery at east corner of Eastern Avenue and Bladensgurg Road just over the DC line in MD.

· First Congregational United Church of Christ by Williams and Tsien at 10th & G streets in NW DC.

· Lavinia Fici Pasquina's House (that light off the copper is quite magical!)

· Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Ave across from the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

· The Corcoran Gallery of Art

· MacMillan Reservoir vaults.

If you made it this far, please add your favorites!!

New projects on our site!

Take a look at our site to check out two Vermont projects we've just included in "Our Work" and let us know what you think.

Kay & Brian's is completely off-the-grid and home to a family of four in rural Vermont (4th project on the first row).
















Beth's refuge, passed down through generations, has undergone a complete renovation (4th project on the third row).















We hope you enjoy looking at these!