One of my very favorite things I have done this year is photograph the SPIRITED STITCH workshop of Elizabeth Duke & Nicolisa West
-- featured in the Where Women Create issue
celebrating Mindful Studios -- a must read!
My work for Where Women Create varies... but the best part is being a storyteller...being able to step into something and see that what's going on needs to be celebrated widely for its beauty, its gifts to those that partake, and it's inspiration quotient!
These women are inspiring, creative and utterly genuine... I was so grateful to connect with them...
You can read more about them in the current issue...but here are some of my fave chunks of the article...and lots of the captures that did not make the pages
Elizabeth Duke
and Nicolisa West of Fairfield, CT will tell you that it was destiny that brought
them together when they connected years ago at Nicolisa’s mindfulness
meditation session at “Terrain,” her then workplace. It was instant karma for
these creative women! A blending of kindred spirits, weaving and connecting in
a way that would allow them to form a friendship and then to work together
through their Spirited Stitch workshop retreats.
Nicolisa, a Registered Nurse, and Elizabeth,
a long time sewing teacher, make a powerful team, sharing their uniquely
matched creative talents to inspire other women to make art as part of their
wellness journey.
We both love
how mindfulness, meditation and slow stitching are so portable: you can take
them wherever you go! We often tell our
students about the book by Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are,
and how it supports this belief.
It’s our
hope that through the sharing of our talents and skills, we can create
stillness and inspiration for other women. We want women to feel inspired and
confident to continue their creative and wellness journeys on their own,
wherever they are, stitch by stich, breath by breath.
Elizabeth: While much of my work has been published in
trade magazines and has placed in national competitions in garment making and
wearable art, it’s the things I stitch for pleasure that hold the joy of all my
years of teaching and reflection.
Nicolisa: I
want women to Pause. A Pause can help
ease the mind, bring clarity and lead to inspiration for the creative in each
of us.
To learn more about The Spirited
Stitch …sewing workshop and wellness retreats
Facebook Elizabeth
Duke
Instagram @sewist44
Facebook Nicolisa
West
Instagram @nicolisawest
A huge thanks to Elizabeth and Nicolisa for the honor of being there to
absorb and celebrate what they do...
xo Jen
