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Practice art.

Practice meditation.

Practice togetherness.

 

The registration for this class has closed.
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Beginners welcome. No experience necessary.

Do you want to deepen your creativity?

Do you want to explore art as spiritual practice?

Have you longed for a sincere community of art-makers and meditators?

 


Let us join together as creative folk who meditate
and meditators who make stuff.

Dive into a journey where art meets meditation, and community flourishes. Whether you’re picking up a brush for the first time or seeking to deepen an existing practice, this course offers a sanctuary for both. Join us to intertwine art and meditation, fostering a daily practice that enriches your life and the world around us.

Suiko McCall, Art Monastery’s visionary, enhances this year’s experience with her unique blend of mindfulness and artistic expertise. Expect to explore improvisatory drawing with whatever materials you have, inspired by Suiko’s inclusive approach to creativity.

We will gather via Zoom for two hours on four Sundays to:

  • build community
  • make art
  • interweave our spiritual & creative practices and chew on the challenges that arise from the creative process
  • come together in symbiotic support and mutual inspiration, in all our vulnerability and prowess
  • for the benefit of this beautiful planet and all beings!

This class supports you to

  • create (or rejuvenate) a daily art practice of your own
  • deepen your creativity
  • bridge your creative & meditation practices (even if you don’t already have those)
  • connect with a heartfelt community of Artmonks for mutual encouragement & accountability
  • share your work, should you so choose

Testimonials

“I need to say that your class has been the best online class experience. I’ve taken a number of zoom classes and led a few myself but your class has been the most connected zoom experience yet!”

—Sherri M.

“Art&Zazen provided a space for me to play, create and discover my creative voice. It has provided a safe place for my creative voice to emerge and find its unique self-expression.”

—Alysia T.

“Suiko has a magnetizing quality. She is like the taste of a cool mountain stream on a hot day. She is refreshing, magnetizing, and joyful.”

—Kasha B. 

“Before this program I did not have connection with community around art-making practice, but this course provided a safe space and motivation and examples of how to create community outside the course.
Through the process that Suiko led, I experienced communion with the creative spirit to be open, explore, listen and share. I now have a clearer vision of my art practice as one of the ways that I practice my spiritual path.”

—Claire D.

“I have watched the two zoom sessions over and over and found myself in awe of the brilliance, the way individuals shared on zoom. I was inspired and moved to tears. The topics and the depth of the shares showed the sacredness of the container that was created.  Thank you for your playfulness and your deep compassion, the lighthearted play that transcends the ordinary. The safety of this container and the caliber of people drawn to you and your work! It’s profound! I’ve been creatively blocked for some time and now am opening up what was frozen.”

—Alexandra S.


“Art & Zazen reignited my art practice. It gave me enthusiasm, inspiration, and ideas for making. Now I am more confident in my making and my identity as an art maker. I’ve formed amazing friendships and community around making. I’ve deepened into my understanding of what it means to make, why it matters, and possibilities of how to create community around it.”

—Shenandoah W


“Art & Zazen allowed me to trust my instincts and manifest my ideas into something tangible and not to question the validity of my impulses so much.”

—Mary W

Course Host

This class is hosted by Art Monastery Founder and Abbess Suiko McCall. 

Retreat leader bios...

Suiko Betsy McCall brings her experience as a competitive synchronized swimmer, professional knitter, and founder of the Art Monastery Project to inform her visual art and her teaching. Garnering degrees from Yale University and San Francisco Art Institute, Suiko’s paintings have been exhibited from San Francisco and New York to Amsterdam and Budapest. In 2013, she co-authored and illustrated the book, “Hosting Transformation: Stories from the Edge of Changemaking”. In 2017, she authored and illustrated the workbook, “Live Your Dream. Start Here. Start Now.” In 2023, she published another workbook, “Live Your Power. Become who you are.”

Her paintings have been published in International Interiors Magazine, Leaping Clear Literary Magazine, and Cream City Review. She is the Founder and Abbess of the Art Monastery, an arts organization dedicated to cultivating personal awakening and cultural transformation through artmaking, spiritual practice, and reciprocal relationship with the earth. An American non-profit, the Art Monastery is one of the founding organizations in the International Partnership for Transformative Learning.

Suiko is a certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher, Morning Altars teacher, and Transformation Host. She received lay ordination from Fu Schroeder in 2019.

Suiko lived at the Art Monastery in its various locations throughout Italy for seven years, Art Monastery Vermont for seven years, Art Monastery Hawaii for two years, and Green Gulch Farm for four years. Suiko now lives in San Francisco. You can see Suiko’s paintings at suiko.art.

Sundays, April 29 to May 19
9-11am PT
Online

Schedule

9 to 11am PACIFIC

9-9:30 PT — Artmonk Practice (begins with seated meditation and leads into improvisatory drawing/writing/sounding/movement)

9:30-10:10 — Heartshare in small groups (themed on topics relevant to the challenges and glories of artmaking and spiritual practice)

10:10-10:25 — break

10:25-10:55 — Artshare

10:55-11 — Closing & Dedication of merit

Fees & Registration

General $200

San Francisco Zen Center members $180

Sliding scale $50-120

For additional financial support, please email rezoffice@sfzc.org. 

Materials

There are no particular supplies you need for this course. We will be engaging in a kind of improvisatory drawing. I encourage you to use whatever you already have. That said, I know that it can also be inspiring to acquire new supplies. 🙂 Here’s what I recommend: