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Let the creative power within you express your feeling on canvas
Have fun Creating
A Day of Creativity Retreat with
Rassouli
Saturday Feb. 11 from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Explore the power of creativity you hold beyond your wildest dreamPaint, dance, compose music, write poetry or just create joy for yourself and others
You don't need to have had painting experiences to join us on this journey. Just come to play and have fun.
A Day of Creativity Retreat starts with all participants coming together to share their heart-felt discussions on how to live a creative life and have fun. Every time a special guest will share their creative process and how they tap into it. Aside from that, a new concept is introduced by Rassouli on every session. Following his guidance, everyone will let their creative power express itself free from judgement.
Everyone is served lunch in an open kitchen style to have it whenever they are ready to eat. Participants will continue to create until about 3:00 p.m. when all gather together to review and discuss their artworks until 5:00 pm.
Our New Location
ENCINO COMMUNITY CENTER
4935 Balboa Blvd.Encino, CA 91316
Tuition including lunch and art lessons
$100 if you register now online
or $120 at the door
Register Now
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Three-Day Painting Retreat
Click here to watch a retreat video
This unique retreat will give you an opportunity to explore your expanded creativity. You are encouraged to take risks: to explore the unpredictable rather than predictable, and engage in expressing yourself. Participation in various group programs augments Rassouli's individual guidance and encouragement. This is the place to let your soul express itself with no limits, no preconceived ideas. It’s a place to truly enjoy a beautiful setting complete with rustic cabins, delicious meals, and lots of fun.
No painting experience necessary. Just come to play
Weekend Retreat date will be posted soon
Here are some comment about our previous 3-day retreats:
Thank you ever so much for orchestrating such a creative event. My life is never the same after having shared time with you. I'm sure you've heard that many times before. David
We got in around 10:30 pm last night so I am just now getting into my e-mails...I want to thank you for the wonderful weekend and the continued inspiration, insight, mentoring and love that you share with all of us. Lily
While reading I couldn't help but laugh because I never attended a retreat when I was eight years old but at this retreat I sure felt like an eight year old. I really enjoyed these three days because it seemed to flow without interruptions. Everyone used all the time that they wished to just focus on painting. Thank you for your wisdom, guidance and for sharing your beautiful heart. By the way, your painting is delicious!! Irene
Thank you so much for getting us together this past weekend to work in our artistic endeavors. I had so much fun learning the process and seeing you paint. And I appreciated all of the feedback and help that you gave to me. It was all such a treat! James
Words is not enough to express my joy and gratitude over the weekend art retreat. You are always an inspiration. Nympha
... Feel longing today. Thank you from my heart for expressing such kindness and encouragement to my sister. You inspire us all to greater commitment . Will
Remembering Fusionart International's
A WEEKEND RETREAT
Impressions of a Three-day Painting Retreat
By: Rickey Hoefnagel as told to Richard Buntin
I felt like a little girl who finally gets to go to the playground. The weekend I had been awaiting eagerly formonths had finally arrived. I felt so excited because I knew somehow that it would be an amazing weekend of painting, dancing, talking and laughing. Early on Friday afternoon I arrived at Pali Mountain Retreat Center, nestled high in the heart of the SanBernardino Mountains on the Rim of the World highway between Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs. The endless natural beauty of the mountains and forest provided an atmosphere of serenity and wonder, which was the ideal setting for this journey into our individual andcollective creativity. Throughout the afternoon fellow artists arrived, settling into their rooms and then arranging their painting areas.
Rassouli soon arrived at the studio, beaming with happiness and began playing one of his recordings of melodic improvised music, which usually accompanies all of our painting sessions, raising the energy and baptizing the space with its spirit of free expression. As we began painting together, we started to get to know each other. I hadn’t met almost half of the participants before. People had come from as faraway as Texas, Arizona, Northern California and New Mexico. Our group of two dozen included all levels of development. There were accomplished artists with many years of experience. There were also those who were strongly drawn to be there, even though they had never painted before.
We shared all of our meals together at a large table in the dining hall, formed by combining smaller tables. As we sat down to dinner, there was a feeling of eagerness for the adventure to come. I realized that I was far from the only one who had been looking forward to this weekend. That evening we celebrated the 80th birthday of my dear friend Felix de Quesada, a very talented and seemingly tireless painter andpoet. The whole dining room joined usin singing “Happy Birthday. “
Over dinner Rassouli began explaining the theme and purpose of the retreat. As I understood it, the painting sessions would focus on exploring the moods of the heart using various approaches. We were each to develop our own inner heart connection, and then allow the heart to express itself through our arm, ourhand, and our brush as it placed color on the canvas. This can only be done when we are fully involved in the present. Letting go of the judgments, expectations and emotional baggage of thepast is necessary in order to free ourselves to create from our innertruth. When we overcome resistance andour hearts are open, we receive all the help we require. We are free to love, and creativity springsfrom love. Loving ourselves for who weare, loving each other, and loving what we are doing. When our hearts open inthis way, we feel an explosion of energy and joy. Creating from authentic experience heals us and we become whole again. This applies collectively aswell as individually. The open heart isa fertile field, capable of the love which is necessary to heal and unite the planet.
After dinner we gathered in chairs around a roaring fire pit near the dining hall andwe drank in the breathtaking beauty of the sunset over the mountains, with thelights of Lake Arrowhead village twinkling in the distance. I felt very close to Nature in all itsmagnificence and mystery. The discussion, led by Rassouli continued with anatural ebb and flow from profound to mundane, seasoned with Sufi humor andwisdom. The fire’s warm flames and thesoft inspirational music in the background conspired with the stillness of theforest to cast a spell over us, loosening any tight knots or burdens ourpsyches had been holding. We sensedthat this was a safe space to be playful and vulnerable, and to speak from ourhearts without fear of judgment. The energy of the group became light andsoft. The alchemy had begun.
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The mountain air was cold as we walked in the dark back to our painting studio fromthe fire pit. It didn’t matter becausewe were glowing. With residualresistance removed, our energy was free to expand. Rassouli put on some music and encouraged us to dance as wepainted. The room was filled withhappiness. Everyone was in ecstasywithout a drop of alcohol. Some of uswere doing the Sufi turn, and I could feel the energy spiraling through theceiling, and the roof about to come off. I kept on playing with the “bird of paradise” on my canvas. The creativepartying lasted until midnight, but some of us turned in earlier so we would beready for Saturday. I realized againhow wonderful this energy is. It was sonatural and effortless, even with people I had never met before. I wondered why we don’t experience it moreoften, and why some people never feel it all.
That nightI slept soundly with my window open to take in the fresh mountain air. I was awakened by the sound of birds andhikers returning from their morning walk. After breakfast we gathered on the outdoor deck of the conference roomwhere Rassouli gave us a practical demonstration of letting go of the past inorder to create something new in the present. Amber, a fellow artist, offered to let go of one of her paintings forthe demonstration. With masterful brushstrokes, Rassouli transformed herpainting into a new one, both in mood and appearance. He also made the point before our eyes that we are not to becomeattached to any particular part of a painting, because we always have the powerwithin us to create a better one. Ourdeep desire is to be in love with creativity itself rather than any particular work.
I feltinspired by the demonstration, and I couldn’t wait to get to my easel. There was a magical synergy in thestudio. I felt that the creative energyof the other artists was feeding me as I was feeding them. The more we shared, the greater the energybecame. This is a tremendous benefit of painting in groups. In addition to circulating and helping allof us, Rassouli added even more to the energy of the group by painting alongwith us himself. My focus did not waverfor the rest of the day even while I was dancing.
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After dinner we returned to our fire pit. While seated in our chairs, we were led in gentle, relaxing yoga movementby Felicia Tomasko, editor of LA Yoga magazine. We also used pressure points on the body to release each other’stight, knotted muscles. The retreat, described as a Rachana Retreat, was acombined venture of Fusionart International and LA Yoga. Yoga includes many different paths toliberation. Rachana Yoga is the yoga ofcreativity. Fusionart, in the broadsense, would be considered a form of Rachana Yoga. After centering our bodies with Yoga, we went into silentmeditation as we listened to music which transported me upward as it echoedgently through the mountains. Althoughthe day had been long and I had felt a satisfied tiredness at dinner, the yogaand meditation completely recharged my battery and I was ready to return topainting for our final session of the day. As we began painting again, the music and dancing continued. The energy in the studio becamesimultaneously more playful and powerful than ever. Everyone was riding on it. There was such a feeling of unity in the studio. I began covering my third canvas with brightyellows, blues and greens to express the elation I was feeling. By 10:30 I was ready for bed. When my headhit the pillow, I quickly fell into a sound sleep.
Having lived in this timeless dimension for the past two days, it came as a bit of ashock Sunday morning that the final day of the retreat was already here. After breakfast we gathered in the studiofor a guided meditation on the rainbow led by Gitty. With my eyes closed, Ilistened to her melodious voice describing each color. As they floated before me - sometimes asclouds and sometimes as transparent fabric – I saw them melting together intopathways and bridges to infinity. We usedthe meditation experience as inspiration for our creative expression that morning. The atmosphere was still and peaceful in thestudio. We were focused within,savoring every moment of our last painting session before the evaluationsession which would conclude the retreat.
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Rightafter lunch on Sunday, we presented our works to each other with the paintingsarranged in the order in which they had been painted. Each artist spoke of his or her work first, encouraged to discussthe feeling that motivated each painting. Then the group offered the artist their reactions to the work, particularlyhow it affected them. Finally Rassouliadded his comments. The overallexperience was very positive and supportive. What stood out for me was the growth in emotional freedom I saw in everyone'sfinal painting compared to the initial pieces. As much as we had bonded as a group, we had each taken our own uniqueinner journey as well. Many of us hadartistic breakthroughs. Some hadpersonal breakthroughs as well, which were reflected in their painting and gavenew perspective to their lives. The quality, particularly the use of rhythm inthe work, was remarkably high even from those who had never painted before.There were some truly amazing works. Finally, we embraced and said our fond farewells to each other and themountains, with gratitude deep in our hearts for all we had experienced andlearned together over the past three days.
Ultimatelya Fusionart retreat is about much more than painting. It gives us a practical experience of the power of the heart andlove to transform individuals and groups. It focuses our attention on what ismost essential and valuable to us as human beings. It demonstrates our creativepower to go beyond our self-imposed limitations and to discover that we aremore than we ever thought or imagined. It teaches us that our lives can bebeautiful and joyous.
View Rickey's artworks at: www.rickeysart.com
Heart Song of Pali Mountain Retreat
Painting and poem by Fusionartist Carole Burdick
I dream in brush strokes of color on a canvas of open imagination
inspiration tingling, like a tickle of a feathery brush against skin, the canvas becomes skin, the skin the canvas.
Golden effervescent light fills to overflow-- radiating, there is a lightness of being- a melody of spirit
The spirit dances with pure joy to the freedom found in this dimension of presence, the synergy of the energy is harmony
Feeling floods the heart. The heart and hands beat the rime the rhythm, as the color of the mood mirrors the heart, revealing this moment in its expression.
Ahhh
Feel the depth of the surrender as the soul exhales and the boundary between disappears.
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The experience of attending a
One-Day Painting Retreat
as told by someone who had never painted before.
by Parviz
On the compact corner of 7th and Bixel Street sits the structure of a building that wears the odor of the old Downtown Los Angeles on its façade. The ordinary eye could easily miss it in passing through the traffic of every day business of turning time into gold. But there are few who have no difficulty arriving at its iron door, every so often, to treat themselves to a day of painting and experiencing the art of being. They arrive with their bags of tools, brushes and paints, in one hand while in the other they hold the wooden edge of a white canvas that soon would turn into reflections of their hearts. They go over the dizzying patterned carpet and through the arranged armchairs, like every other hotel lobby, and wind up on the second floor where the fashion of a hotel is covered by the aura of an artistic loft and promises of a lively experience of a mystical journey in the forest of poetic symbols.
Rassouli arranged us in a circle and began the day with a little talk about Attar and his Conference of the Birds and planted the seeds of metaphors on the tips of our fingers and wished us a moment of inspiration and a day of growing souls. I left the room with the tips of my fingers tingling with the vibrations of an unknown sensation and found myself a little spot among my fellow travelers.
I had not painted before and as I recall the moment in my minds eye I am certain that this went unnoticed by the way that I set the easel, put my canvas on it, and began to ornate the borrowed table with the tubes of brilliant acrylics that I had brought with me. I was standing on top of the order of the fellow participants, looking down the two rows of easels, and began moving my body to the music that was suddenly in the air and staring at the white canvas in front of me. I went to work and did not come back until the music stopped and lunch was announced. Couple hours had passed and before my earthy eyes opened again I turned the third eye to the magic that was flying in that hallway. There I saw Psyche and Eros hovering in the air and whispering joy in every heart. We were all awake and standing back a step or two to see what had grown out of those blessed fingertips. Then I looked down at my feet and the ground they were standing on. There I saw my divine land under me and knew that for arriving there I did not have to go the Ganges River or Jerusalem; 7th andBixel do just fine.
The ritual continued through sharing bread and water and ended with an intimate discussion of our works. After a second going in the studio, I found myself sitting in a circle again inside the room where we were initiated in the morning and discussing our works of art. One by one we took turns and told tails of our experiences. Words at his time do not cover the texture of the day in a coherent and concrete way. The colors of the works and the feel of the canvases were of the magical world of experience, not the realm of semantics. I am sitting in the middle of my living room now with the two canvas souvenirs that I have brought back with me, looking at them, and wondering about the possibilities of not only projecting more of my imagination onto a piece of cloth, but brushing out the rough edges of my mere existence with creative strokes of pure light.
The gift of Rassouli does not only lie in the strokes of his genius brush, it extends its offerings through genuine days like this where he steps away from his studio and creates a lively image of an atelier filled with bodies who thrive for a space to unleash their souls. Like Hermes he appears and disappears from one easel to another and guides the psyche away from the realm of intellect that often gets in the way of creative instincts and forwards it towards the light within. He makes a call and challenges you to do away from the rational thinking and dares you to travel the forgotten road of the symbolic images that you are born with, with no judgment, no expectations. He may transform a white canvas into a brilliant celebration of colors and images, like an alchemist turning copper into gold, but he does more wonders in dissolving space into time and making both disappear in the middle of a life that is rapidly being sacrificed for modernity and the outcome, and unwraps the masks of daily living to create a different religious experience that links back the soul to where it comes from, our true nature, born from mother earth and father universe.
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Exhibiting in a gallery
Most artists harbor the fantasy that if they could only findone art dealer that loved and believed in their work, their career would beset. They secretly believe that there exists a special person that can catapultthem to fame. Many artists spend most of their careers searching for "theperfect gallery." And, as all quests towards perfection, it is neverending. If they already have a gallery, it's not good enough; if they arelooking for their first gallery, they dream about the moment when someone setseyes on their work and offers them a solo show immediately. The harsh realityof the situation is having a gallery love your work, is only one very smallpart of what goes into the decision to represent an artist. From a gallery'spoint of view, adding an artist to their stable is much like adding a stock toone's portfolio. There are many complicated factors to take into consideration,and liking the "stock" usually has very little to do with thedecision. There is no doubt that while liking the artists work is certainly thefirst criteria, there are several other hurdles that must be overcome before agallery will commit to an artist. Understanding those hurdles will help you toeffectively present your work to galleries and detach yourself from theinevitable sense of personal failure that follows when a gallery rejects yourwork. Remember, these are very general assumptions, attempting to explain whyeven if a gallery LOVES your work, they can not take you on as an artist. Thankfully,there will always be some exceptions. Too Similar: A gallery looks at the groupof artists they represent, much like an artist looks at a painting. It is notso much the individual artist that is considered, but, rather, how that artfits into the existing group. Often galleries are reluctant to take artiststhat are too similar to an artist they already represent. Too Different: Allgalleries try to create a niche for themselves by representing artists that arestylistically similar and would appeal to their core group of collectors. Ifyour work is outside the arbitrary parameters they have established, you areout of luck.
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