Co-Imagine
A Creative Gathering for
Raising Hope and Resilient Futures
November 16, 2025
Portland, Oregon
Registration has ended!
“You know that crazy heart of yours? The one with lightning crackling and moonlight shining through it. The one you’ve been told not to trust because it often led you off the beaten path.
Trust it. Feed it. Grow it. It’s your greatest treasure and will point the way...”
I've been on a mission to explore ALL the creative angles on staying afloat with cultural winds blowing sideways and environmental stressors popping the seams of the planet our kids and grandkids and their kids will inherit.
...from climate crises to enflamed politics, mutual aid to militarized mania, and school-based stressors to support systems fraying—
Everything we thought we knew and hoped wouldn't happen...is getting messed up, shaken down, and blooming like a corpse flower (isn’t nature amazing? and so visceral!)
Many of you have expressed how worried and weary you feel.
Sometimes powerless.
I feel you. And I've felt that too.
Here’s what I tell my kid…
Everyone is feeling this mess. We can't let the tumult isolate and silence us. It's important to notice how this feels.
Let’s talk about it. Dance about it. Write poetry about it. Draw and play music about it.
Because if we don't? It will eat away at us. And fool us into thinking we're alone. Or somehow insufficient to meet this moment. It's not true.
Our job is to DIGEST this detritus and transmute it into action.
We need to use the twin energies of grief & hope to feed what comes next. This retreat is your invitation to CO-IMAGINE where we go from here.
Making art makes room for beauty, awe, and gratitude. Even when the world is on fire. And we don’t know what to tell the kids.
Join me for a one-day in-person retreat, guided by artists, therapists, and parents
November 16, 2025
Registration has ended
Mudland Creative Space
Portland, Oregon
Rediscover How To Stay Afloat
You are the captain of a ship—aiming into the dark ocean, seeing only as far as your navigation lights shine. The waters are shifty. The light only reaches so far…
You’ve good skills and reliable tools, but changeable conditions.
Who are you in moments of surging and disorientation? What gets your attention?
Who do you count on when the waves kick up and winds blow harder? Are you open to new strategies for responding?
This exploration is deeply personal. And collective. We are in a social, cultural, political, economic and environmental era of tumult. Global forces are shaping local landscapes. Protests are sending ripples. Power is shining a glaring beam on what isn’t working. And grief is part of the process.
Acknowledging our grief is essential to honoring what feels lost…and composting what does not serve the next iteration…we’re aiming for regeneration.
Not just for our generation, but far beyond. The process of cultural evolution and rebuilding support is key. We’re in between, with neither fully functional systems nor wholly absent structures. This is an initiation into continually reorienting. Fast-beating hearts and fatigue tell us nothing is settled. Tears and rage are signals.
Our bodies tell us to keep scanning for cues of safety.
We’re drawn toward what soothes us: food, company, solo time, nature, color, texture, music, silence, movement, animal friends, wild water, sleep. We must improvise. And connect what we notice with what we feel.
We don’t have to know what to make of it all…but we do have the power to make.
It’s the time of year when we can see plants winding down, wildlife stocking up, and temperatures shifting into preservation mode. Chills invite steam. Hibernation invites quiet. We change back clocks…slowly…moving toward the return of the light. But what helps us stoke the glow, from the inside?
Creativity offers a focus for our spark. And an outlet for release.
We have a lot to work with: Fear. Fretting. Exhaustion. Uncertainty. Helplessness. Defiance. Imagination. Impatience.
“Through the creative process, if we allow ourselves to enter it, we learn…to align it with our intuitive wisdom, to become comfortable with the big energies flowing through us, and find ways that we can express them.”
The kids have questions. So do we.
With no satisfactory answers. We can only convey that we don’t expect them to figure it out on their own. Indeed, none of us can digest the challenges of the world independently. We are communal creatures.
So let’s gather. We don’t have to be ready. It’s OK to come hungry. And, yes, there will be messes. We will explore, experiment, laugh, and find moments of synchronicity. Collage and conversation, transformation of found objects. Invitations to stretch and soothe our tender nervous systems.
Your dreams are welcome. Your imagination is necessary. Bring a friend. Or find one here.
Both your grief and your hope are invited. All of you is welcome.
“The richer and broader the inputs, the more the brain has to play with.
Creativity doesn’t mean making something out of nothing, instead it means refashioning what already exists: bending, breaking, blending...”
What to bring?
notebook/pen/pencil/doodle tools
cozy layers
water bottle or mug
masks not required, absolutely welcome
cozy socks, if you feel comfy shoe-free
snacks you love (we will have fruit, nuts & salty goodness)
a heart willing to be open to dreaming
Registration for this event has ended.
Don’t worry—I’m always thinking up new things for us to do together.
Our Retreat Rhythm
This retreat is a creative exploration. It’s an opportunity to connect with your awareness and anchor into your sources of hope…toggling your attention between inner and outer landscapes…practicing being in the world we have while raising resilience for where we go from here. What might we start to co-imagine?
Our venue is Mudland, an art-making and workshop space in the re-invented Lloyd Center Mall in NE Portland. My visionary friend, Katie, runs this space—it’s a wonderland, a haven for creative re-use, and the shape-shifting headquarters for an inventive puppet troupe!
Because play is not just for kids…we adults need a place to unfurl new ideas, make creative messes, and chat with friends. This will be our creative fort for the day! Don’t worry—there are grown-up sized chairs.
Sunday, November 16th, 10am-4pm
We’ll start with a welcome gathering, orienting to the space and one another.
Workshop #1 will be a guided session toward expanding our imagination around being good stewards of the environments we’re in. We’ll used mixed media and visualization, tapping into a deeper awareness of our necessary roles in our community ecosystem.
Drawing. Collaborating. Co-Imagining.
We’ll break for 1-hour lunch. Bring Your Own. You can pack for a picnic under the skylights while watching ice-skaters, collaborate on a mix-n-match spread with friends, or enjoy a big, chewy pretzel from the food court. DIY helps us keep costs down and lets each person decide your own fuel & flavor for the day.
Savoring. Digesting. Lounging. Ice skating?
Workshop #2 will anchor us in our roles as community and family leaders, making a project that involves found objects and creative re-use, collaboration, and expanding our capacity for holding paradox—a reminder that there are multiple baskets of truth, not just one way.
Balancing. Pooling resources. Improvising.
Workshop #3 will braid together time, space, perspective, and emerging versions of what’s next—because we are not now who we will become. Practice zooming in and out, holding what you need, reflecting more of what you want to see, and co-creating a multi-layered vision for the future. We each hold a piece of the 3-D puzzle…you’ll get to take one home.
Wrap Session. Before we go, we’ll gather everyone together, digesting what we’ve discovered, and tuning into clues and cues about our best next steps. Q+A with the artists and a Special Guest!
Our Amazing Artist Guides
Session Highlights
Imagining Our Power is part meditation, part creative adventure. You'll have a chance to step away from daily to-dos, slow down, and let your imagination lead the way as you rediscover your personal power. Gain access to your deeper wisdom through colors, images, and symbols—no experience or special skills needed. You’ll leave with a renewed sense of empowerment to make the change you want to see in the world.
Imagining Our Power
Marissa Emery (she/her) is a mom of two teens, massage therapist, massage instructor, and avid volunteer. She's a lifelong casual crafter, and has leaned more heavily into her creative side since the pandemic, playing ukulele in a band, joining a community choir, and recently learning to crochet.
Balancing Big Emotions
Glee Lumb (she/her) is a parent of one teen and one young adult. She offers art therapy counseling from her studio in NE Portland. She believes the key to building a bridge from fear to love is meeting each struggle with creativity and curiosity. Creating art with her family has been both magical and messy, grounding them through turbulent times & offering new ways to connect. Glee brings warmth to each gathering, welcoming questions, stories, and the playful spirit when art and parenting meet.
Session Highlights
Engaging the complexity of shifting cultural development and changes means holding many emotions at once—sometimes heavy, sometimes light, often needing re-balancing. We’ll use found objects and natural elements to build a mobile that reflects the shifting balance of feelings in a world struggling to find a way forward. Through playful making, reflection, and shared conversation, we will explore how emotions can be noticed, held, and rebalanced—opening space for connection and resilience.
Dream Scape: Nightmares and Visions
Beth Purcell (she/her) is an art therapist and psychotherapist in Portland, OR, with 15+ years’ experience. Alongside her work, she loves to draw, sing, and be a little ridiculous. Always looking for hidden threads between creative and concrete disciplines, she counts musical and artistic guides as equal teachers alongside professors, therapists, & consultants who have shaped her learning. As a mom to a school-aged child and a lifelong learner, she has come to trust imagination and curiosity.
Session Highlights
Explore the edge between personal and collective dreaming through collaborative art-making.
Using pre-cut materials and found objects, you’ll create a piece of a shared “Dreamscape” that holds both vision and nightmare. Together, we’ll navigate themes of borders, shadow, growth, and decay — and uncover what our inner landscapes reveal.
We’re Co-creating Next Steps As They Emerge
Join Solo
This is your personal invitation. Swim with us through a microcosm of creative inspiration and collective visioning…where you don’t have to clean up a single thing.
Friend Deal
$25 off if you bring a buddy/partner. Exploring together is a powerful path thru stuck spots to new vistas and radical reflections.
** Two full scholarships are available. When we reach 15 participants, these will be offered to folks who request them. Please be in your integrity about whether this makes the necessary difference for you to attend. If you are interested, please request a scholarship here and share why this retreat is calling to you.
*** A portion of registration fees will be donated to Moms Demand Action, a grassroots, parent-led, national movement for public safety measures that can protect kids from gun violence.
MereAnn’s journal, August 2025
“We can only navigate what is present—but we can envision FAR MORE than what we currently see, here and now. What I want to bring our community and show our son is that visioning is crucial for blooming futures.”
“It is so important that we fight for the future, get into the game, get dirty, get experimental....We embody. We learn. We release the idea of failure, because it’s all data.
But first we imagine. We are in an imagination battle.
”
“Eight of Cups invites us to be both decisive and present as we leave behind what isn’t working.
”
Make it visible. Do it messy. Bring a friend.
How we hold the paradox of grief and hope can make all the difference.
“Even just acknowledging that we are not alone in our grief, brings a sense of solidarity and collective strength. That strength kindles our energy to face the future, sparking the fire of hope.”
— Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba, Let This Radicalize You: Hope & Grief Can Co-Exist (p. 152)