A six-week exploration dedicated to renewing and deepening one’s connection with art-making
When: Sundays January 11 – February 15, 2026
Main Meeting Time: 9:00am to 11:00am Pacific (5:00pm to 7:00pm UK)
Where: Online
Cost: $300 (you are also welcome to take this course on a sliding scale /donation basis, see below for more information – no one will be turned away for lack of ability to pay).
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/YxTpRwZzWPcnjHR48
Note: this course was offered under the name “Creative Refuge” in 2025.
This six week offering is intended for those who seek to reconnect or revitalize their art making process. The course will provide a framework and community in which focusing on your experience within your creative process takes priority over all else, including what you produce. This course will provide an introduction to creative process work for those who are new to it, as well as providing s protected place for those already working with this approach to go deeper.
Even though we may know there is something blocking our freedom or joy as we create, or we may suspect there is more beauty and adventure to be found within making or creating, it can be hard to prioritize tending to our creative process itself vs. focusing on what we produce. But taking the time to do this can open surprising and exciting terrain within our work and process. Whether you are struggling with creative blocks, feel disconnected from art-making, or have an inkling that there is always more adventure and freedom on offer through creative exploration, this course will provide a dedicated space and structure for you..
There are no specific techniques or projects in this course. As freedom of exploration is the priority, we do not share work or have critiques in this course. We will have structured time to work within our chosen medium within the container of the course, and time to share about our creative experience during the sessions. Through working together but independently allows us to lean on the sense of community and feel supported as we explore our habits, blocks, and deepest sources of inspiration.
Who is this course for?
Anyone who engages in making art or craft of any kind is welcome (writers, painters, dancers, musicians, writers, textile artists, poets, crafters, filmmakers, digital artists, ceramicists and more). In this context, labels like professional vs. hobbyist don’t apply – if you are called to make any kind of art, then you have a creative process that can be opened and explored and loved more fully.
The ideas and practices offered are intended to open your own creative process, wherever it’s at, presently – the terrain that opens for you will necessarily be different, and so both returning students and new folks are welcome to join and hold the space of exploration together. As is most often the case, the best part of this course will most likely be the chance to explore this way with a group of kindred spirits.
Elements of the Course
Guided Practices: There will be some short guided meditations offered within the main meetings (a few simple practices I think are useful to supporting anyone’s art making), but you do not need to be an experienced meditator to join. There will also be guided contemplations intended to evoke inspiration in some of the sessions.
Teaching: Susy will offer short talks each week to invite reflection on your own creative process + time for sharing and questions.
Group creative work sessions: The main practice modality offered in this course will be the “creative process session”. You can learn more about creative process sessions here. Within these we will work independently in our chosen medium while others are doing the same (in a shared zoom room). I will offer simple guidelines or prompts to help establish the tone of the exploration, but mainly its a time to engage creatively while being supported by the collectively shared intentions to explore beyond our habits and into the wilds of creative possibility. There will be time to check in about how things went during the creative process work sessions.
Course Details
Main Meeting Schedule
- 15 minute meditation
- 25 minute talk
- 25 minutes sharing/questions
- 5 minute break
- 40 minute group creative process session
- 10 minutes check-in about process session
Outside of class
- Optional one-hour creative process sessions (will be scheduled based on participant availability, 1 or 2 times each week) if there is participant interest.
- Additional recorded guided meditations and contemplations relevant to the course (optional).
Some Teaching Topics
- Questioning the limiting demands and imperatives that constrain our creative exploration
- Exploring our relationship to the the unknown/the new
- Cultivating connection to the ways our art extends beyond the boundaries of our medium (the meanings and images that are greater than the impressions we capture within our work)
- Working with fear and self-judgement within the creative process
- Creative process work as a means to explore limiting views about ourselves
A little about the approaches offered
My approach to creative process work (and my own art-making process) is heavily informed by concepts found within Buddhist practice (a body of teachings where there is a tremendous amount of wisdom regarding transcending limited habits of mind). So, part of what will be offered will be themes, ideas, and practices culled from my experiences teaching meditation, as well as ways I’ve found these teachings helpful in releasing creative blocks and opening ease and freedom within the art process. I am indebted to my dharma teacher Rob Burbea for expressing so uniquely the connections between art and spiritual practice, empowering me to think “outside of the box” in terms of how the two domains of exploration might interweave.
The approach to process work that I offer (the creative process work sessions) is heavily informed by my time spent studying with Barbara Kaufman, a senior student of Michelle Cassou. Barbara taught creative process work through the medium of painting, and so this approach is a little different in that one has the choice to work in any medium within the group sessions. My intention is to present a form that a given artist can bring into their own creative life to use -as-is, or feel free to take what has been helpful and to shape more personal ways to work directly with their own creative process.
About Susy
Official Bio: Susy has practiced Buddhist meditation since 2001, and began practicing insight meditation five years later. In 2015 she began studying and training with Rob Burbea, and completed her teacher-training with him in 2020. She teaches meditation in Los Angeles, California, and is an artist and a parent.
Some particular biographical details related to this offering: I consider my first spiritual root to be art-making, and painted throughout my teens and early twenties. I studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, and Film Directing at UCLA. The one thing I did not learn at school (or maybe more accurate to say, I learned to forget) was how to keep my creative process alive and vibrant and fascinating. In time, through years of meditation practice and spiritually-oriented art making practice, I found my way to keeping those doors open – at times working as an artist and at times making art for no reason at all.
About Dāna / Donation based offerings
It is common for Buddhist teachings to be offered freely – the teachings themselves are said to be beyond price, and the teachers give and students offer within a shared spirit of generosity. The Dāna/ donation model also means that no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay – if you are called to explore in this direction you are welcome whether or not the listed cost is sustainable for you. This course is not a Buddhist course, but I am still offering it in the same spirit. So if you are familiar or comfortable with offering dana for teachings, you can choose to do this – you can indicate you wish to do this on the registration form.
You can always contact me with any questions about anything related to cost or the course in general.