9d • General discussion
Welcome!!!
Hey, I'm Andrea and I'm an author and artist. Creating Art has been a life long passion for me, but one of the things that breaks my heart is hearing people say "I wish I could be an artist like you!"
Which is why I'm offering 'Art from the Heart', a series of art workshops where anyone, with any skill level, can join in the exercise and create a beautiful piece of art for themselves! Not only can you discover your inner artist, but hopefully you will enjoy yourself by using your creative talents in a few different art mediums!
Making art has also been a big part of my healing journey. In my younger years, I experienced a lot of trauma and struggled with mental illness and drug addiction in my 20s. While I still have difficult days with my mental health, I have been clean of drugs for nearly 22 years! Creating art has helped my healing in many ways:
1. It enabled me to express hurts, emotions, memories and ideas when I couldn't use words to get those things out.
2. I learnt different art exercises that I could intentionally adapt into a healing practise for myself to process some of my inner pain. By using art as a healing tool, I could move towards a life free of past emotional burdens. And know when things do get difficult, I can use these tools to express and explore what I'm going through.
3. I discovered ways I could use art to visualise future goals, dream for better outcomes and shape the healing I wanted in my life.
I'm not an art therapist but I do have lived experience with trauma and as an artist, have used art and the exercises I'm offering here as part of my own healing journey.
That's why with every exercise, I'll give you the instructions on how to make art just for fun, followed by the option to 'go deeper', that gives you the choice to look at some of your hurts and use the art exercise as a healing tool. Sometimes you might want to make art just for fun, that's great! But there might be times when you feel ready to go deeper. You have the freedom to choose what's best for you.
You'll notice, over time, there are patterns in how you can turn an art activity into a healing activity. What this means is that you'll eventually be able to adapt your art making into a healing activity, whenever you feel like using that tool in your own healing journey!
I really look forward to hearing from you all, wherever you are in the artist journey or the healing process! Creativity is part of our genetic make up! Humans are able to create so many things! Look around us- so many of the things we use each day have been made by human hands, born out of the human mind! And we're surrounded by so much beauty in this incredible Earth, through nature and amazing animals! Learning how to reach your inner creativity and express it through art, whether for enjoyment or healing, is why I've named my workshops 'Art from the Heart'. It's my heart's desire to offer creative expression to everyone who seeks it, through art exercises that are achievable!
I'll also be including a few sessions here and there on art theory. These will be practical, instructional pieces on how to use different art materials, draw different things and some items from art history that I find interesting or relevant. If there's something in particular you'd like to learn, please let me know.
For now, please introduce yourself and let me know what your experiences with making art have been and what you'd like to gain from this community!
If you'd like to know more about me, check out my website, read my blogs and join my mailing list. I'll be running 'Art from the Heart' workshops around Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) in 2026 and recently updated my website with photos and feedback from participants from the retreat I held in December 2025. www.andreadosantos.com
Thanks for joining my community! I'm looking forward to sharing more about me and learning from you all- as well as seeing some amazing art work- as we grow together!
2
2 comments
Welcome!!!
powered by
skool.com/art-from-the-heart-2521
Art Workshops for Fun and/or Healing! Never made art before? Already a confident creative? Come join in!
Suggested communities
Powered by