The Art of Gratitude: Creative Gratitude Journaling as a Practice

“When we trust our creativity we encounter a supreme kind of enjoyment — an amazement at the natural unfolding of life beyond our ordinary way of looking at things.“

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

In collaboration with artist and teacher Margaret Alvarez, we’re delighted to announce our first-ever Art of Gratitude online workshop! This unique offering combines art and gratitude journaling, yielding a creative gratefulness practice that invites reflection and expression through the combination of words and images. Whether you’ve kept a journal or sketchbook your whole life — or have often thought you’d like to experiment with these forms — we invite you to join us for this hands-on workshop that will enrich your gratefulness practice. No prior experience necessary!

Guided by Margaret’s personal and professional experience of combining her journaling and arts passions into a longstanding gratefulness practice, participants will learn basic techniques for creating beautiful journal pages on which to explore the principles and practices of Grateful Living.

Throughout the session, Margaret will offer:

• Step-by-step instructions
• Examples from her own gorgeous journals
• Her story of how this particular practice of gratefulness has changed her life
• And time for questions along the way

Grateful Living team members Stephanie Patterson and Sheryl Chard will join Margaret to welcome you to this live workshop. The session will be recorded and made available to all registrants. We look forward to creating alongside all of you!

Please gather the following materials (or as close to them as possible) prior to the workshop:

• Art journal 5×8 or larger: Ideally, choose a journal with drawing paper, NOT a mixed media journal
• Watercolors: Crayola is what Margaret uses but any brand will work (they don’t need to be fancy)
• Paintbrush
• Crayons
• Black ballpoint pen
• A few stencils: Margaret will demonstrate using stencils but it’s not a requirement to have them; here is the type of stencil packet you might purchase

When:
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. EDT

Where:
Zoom Webinar: All registrants will receive the Zoom link via email on Friday, October 14. 

Participants will not be on video, but we will utilize the chat for Q+A. Participants will be invited to share photos of their creations after the workshop, which we will then share with all participants.

NOTE: Thank you for your interest. Registration for this workshop is now closed. If you would like to learn about future courses and  offerings, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Meet Margaret

Margaret Alvarez is a working artist who has been passionate about art ever since she was a small child. She has taught art for grades K-8 full time in private schools for the past 13 years. In 2019 she founded My Artsy Coach where she hosts creative gratitude practice workshops that help people connect creativity, art journaling, and gratitude. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Houston and her master’s in teaching with a specialization in Teaching and Learning in a Global Society from National University. She lives in Houston, TX with her family and feels very fortunate that she gets to share her passion for art and gratitude with the world. Connect with her at myartsycoach.com and on Instagram @myartsycoach.

We recently shared Margaret’s Grateful Living story in our monthly newsletter. Enjoy!