For almost two years now, we’ve been producing small free workshops called ‘FieldTrips’ for those who didn’t get a ticket to the main event. FieldTrips are an opportunity to learn something new, explore creative companies around Vancouver, and connect with interesting people. They’re also a ton of fun.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve hung out with kittens at the Catfé, gone on a guided tour of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Gardens, participated in an improv class at Instant Theatre, got a behind-the-scenes tour of Kudoz, learned about blockchain at Dctrl, and visited with some sea creatures at the Vancouver Aquarium.

You can see the pictures from those field trips on Instagram. Follow us at @creativemorningsvancouver

OUR JULY FIELD TRIP

Recently we decided to start sharing a little bit more about what we’re getting up to each month.

For our July FieldTrip we headed over to Georgina Lohan’s Studio for an introduction to sculpture. She’d given me a short description of what we’d be doing that morning in advance, but when she said that we’d be ‘throwing’ clay, I didn’t actually realize that she meant we’d very literally be ‘throwing’ clay. At the start of the workshop, Georgina brought a big bucket of clay and demonstrated how to throw it on the ground to slowly start to create a flat surface to work on. We were meant to throw it down, then pick it up, throw it down, then pick it up… it was a lot harder than it looked.

During this workshop, we were going to have the opportunity to contribute to her SeaCreatures sculpture series. She’d be taking what we’d created, and then expanding on it. Eventually hints of what we’d done would appear as part of the base for the finished pieces. Our instructions: to mold and add and play without holding back. She didn’t want these to feel planned. The name of the game was chaos. I found this challenging, but many of the participants created some truly beautiful pieces.

The theme for this workshop was ‘intention’ and Georgina shared what that word means to her in how she approaches her work and life. She shared that although we may set many kinds of intentions – weekly, yearly, and lifetime – she feels it’s important to gain clarity on the biggest, or most significant lifetime intentions first.

To illustrate her point, she provided this image: you’re creating a decorative jar with big rocks, small rocks, and gravel, sand, and water. If you start by adding the large rocks, followed by the small rocks and gravel you’ll give yourself the opportunity to play with how the sand and water fit into the puzzle. There’s possibility for some additional creativity.

“But if you fill your jar with water then add sand, gravel, pebbles and then try and jam some big rocks in you’re likely to break the jar, or at the very least, not get much in before it overflows and makes a big mess. Life can be similar. If we set our biggest intentions first, the details of life will fit in easily as we go along.”

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ABOUT GEORGINA LOHAN STUDIOS

Georgina Lohana is a soloprenuer running a studio for contemporary ceramics, specializing in porcelain sculpture. As well as producing her own work, she also teaches workshops in pottery and sculpture.

Every Sunday for the rest of the summer, Georgina is running $40 drop-in clay workshops. Drop-ins require registration which can be done on her website. Registration for her September workshops is now open, and she is offering an early bird discount of $25 for registering before August 10th. Learn more!

1 Question Q&A with Georgina Lohan

How do you define creativity and apply it to your life and career?

“I think there is a close connection between improvisation and creativity, but like a good jazz musician, it is helpful to know your instrument well, to understand the how-to, in order to experience those moments of freedom. But no matter where you are on the spectrum of learning, creativity expands our state of awareness and allows us to make connections and take action in ways that we might not consciously consider, or that bypasses the rational, logical, language based centres of the brain. A creative practice is one that provides the essential structure and support around creative engagement. I think it probably is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration! The purpose in having a daily practice, building skills and spending time on the infrastructure needed, having the discipline to do what is needed, even if its not so enjoyable, is to get everything to line up for those moments when you are “in the flow”, and you experience those peak moments where the work almost seems to create itself and breakthroughs are possible!” –

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