'Dream Manifestation Workshop'

Led by Katie Pickerell

A workshop participant reflects, "The dream manifestation workshop was a solid entry of work which was like play. As I noted and lamented my then present lack of thinking towards the future. 

However I felt that Katie led the workshop with a gentle, kind ease and a heartfelt presentation, this workshop, which allowed us to accept ourselves and maybe our limitations while trying to reach for more from ourselves and the future.

I dreamed of gold Elvis sunglasses and better money management skills and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere.

Katie is a delightful workshop leader who led us into our imagination, that might grant us wishes if only we were to ask for them. I felt a flow go through us and fall, at times, as if so few of us actually really think of the future much at all outside our calendars, outside of today, but dare look in to our hearts so dreaming as they are, for we are made in wakeful moments as these, as we sipped juice and sat floor, stored up our manifestations on paper, encouraged."
- Andrew

Workshop leader Katie writes,

"A workshop where you are invited to dream big. Dreams are dreams so there are no limits. We will sit together and focus on different areas of our lives in which we want to manifest something, creating a drawing that you can take away and refer back too. We will release and let go of what is standing in our way. Grounded in gratitude we will meditate and visualise our dreams as if they already exist, focusing not just on the object of our desires but the feelings in which they bring us.
In the magical context of the exhibition ‘What Does Life After Death Look Like?’ at @movinggallerysunderland with support from @amysouthartist

‘The Virgin, The Warrior, The Goddess’
Acrylic on Canvas, 2023

Katie wrote a poem in response to these paintings. Here is an extract:

“...Then sometimes,
I get a glimpse,
Of the mother,
I am becoming.
She is primitive 
She is a wolf.

I think of my mother
And my mothers mother
And all the mothers 
Before.
And I feel firmly rooted
To this earth
To this ground.

Then there’s the love,
The growing love.
It’s not red love
Nor orange, purple or yellow.

It’s white,
It’s pure it’s a bright 
Overwhelming light
That wakes me up
In the middle
Of the night.”

You can see more of Katie’s artworks on her website, www.katiepickerell.com and her instagram, @katiepickerell

'Heaven and Hell'
Acrylic on Canvas, 2023

Katie wrote a poem in response to her paintings:

Grief landscape

Hellish, 
Dark landscape.
Trees,
Stripped of their leaves,
Rough bark
Bitter and Crooked.

Skies,
Burning,
Red, gray and black.
Thick smoke 
A Raging Fire.

Orange glowing embers 
Flickering through 
The fog.

Dry Barron,
Cracked lands,
Of Destruction.

Sharp, metal pieces,
Sticking out of the path,
From the war that has been raged.

Guts
Ripped open,
Heart bleeding.

Throbbing, thrashing,
Screaming into the void.
Only to be answered

By a disconcerting
Silence.

Spinning, 
Swirling,
Spewing,
Purging.

An excorcism,
Of pain 
Of Terror.

Sit with the darkness
Sit with the discomfort 
Hold it,
Embrace it,
Be thankful for it.

Through gratitude
And Grace,
The fog begins to clear
The fire burns slowly out.
Clouds begin to part.

Revealing the bluest 
Of skies,
Crystal clarity.

Waterfalls,
Fresh clear water,
Pouring down,
Nourishing,
Healing,
The landscape.

The rough bark
Has weathered the war.

Like it always has done 
And always will.

A thick armour.

The crispest
Green buds,
Start to appear once more.

On the crooked trees,
Which look less wicked.

I thank the dark,
I thank the fire,
The storm,
The desperation.

I thank it all,
Because I love,
I trust,
I hope,
That the buds will bloom,
Bigger,
Brighter,
Than ever before.