our story.
welcome!
here’s the scoop…
LOVE LAB STUDIO was basically born, because of a baby!
Ever have the urge to re-create your life?
I did! Becoming a mama propelled me to re-evaluate my life. I wanted a more holistic life – one that wove my identity as mother, artist and teacher all together. Honestly, we also needed it – my partner traveled for work, and we couldn’t figure out how to make our life flow financially (or spiritually). I also sensed less stress + more creativity was possible,…plus, I felt driven to find even more of a way to make a difference, you know? I wanted to create a better world. I wanted to find + make meaning, but also simplify and combine how I mothered and functioned as artist/teacher in the world. And so … LOVE LAB STUDIO was born, as a social art project designed to serve + sustain itself.
This is an experiment, really.
5 things we think about
can love be an art material?
We believe that love is essential to creating a better world, so we’re claiming ‘love’ as an art material. We experiment with how to put this idea into action. It’s really a feeling, right? An idea? A noun + a verb?
A story...For many years I taught at college level, I would lead courses in collaboration and community work, and over + over, I would ask students “what is the core value, the real reason for us to learn how to co-create in community?”
And over and over, the students would share in writing … it’s love. LOVE was the primary value, reason, and even material in their work in community. If I had images of all the times I saw students in that course write “love”…It was so moving, and so inspiring.
We just aim to keep love at the center of all that we do.
how can children be at the center?
We love most of all to create with children + folks of all ages.
We believe that shared creative space where all are welcome is a good thing.
We want to empower you, and the children in your life to be more creative.
Would you like more creativity in your life? Often, we just need thoughtful tools/materials, space, nurtured freedom and then we can soar. The cool thing is, providing conscious creativity is a super respectful parenting/planet loving move too – children become relaxed, freer, brighter, more confident + compassionate (I could go on!) – – – Your instincts to do them right creatively is spot on. There is also more evidence that neurologically – intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically – children thrive with access to simple, open ended, opportunities for creativity. So, more conscious creativity for children = better adults = better world.
where do we learn + create together?
we learn best together + try to make it accessible.
We believe that folks gathering together – of different ages, viewpoints, languages, religions, races, cultures and more – through making – (food or craft or art) is a great thing. We strive to do this through our various projects, collaborations, always working to learn more as we go, and feel incredibly grateful for the gift of community diversity in all its forms.
We also strive to create experiences that are both free + paid, and happen in both private and public spaces. We believe that opportunities for conscious creativity should be accessible to all.
you (+ we) can create anywhere.
LOVE LAB STUDIO happens in different spaces.
We believe ‘studio’ is wherever you create. (the sidewalk, the forest, your kitchen)
For us, studio + lab is also a space claimed to work, play and research. Honestly, for us it’s all process. And trusting, with faith, that our intentions – with action – will lead to flow, learning and healthy outcomes, is for us very much what creative process is all about. We try to keep it real, as simple as we can – …the creativity thing. Our work is grounded in creativity as a social and public practice, one that adapts to both space and scale And we love to work in different scales, from the very intimate (one child) – to a workshop scale – to a more global project – engaging hundreds (or thousands).
creativity is good for us.
Do you feel more joyful, even healthier when you are creative?
We believe creativity thrives when nurtured, and that it is good for us.
It’s not that we all have to think of ourselves as artists, but what if we feel more empowered to act on our potential to co-create a better world? Imagine too, that creativity is an essential life ingredient for wholeness – to open up life, beautify it, slow it (or us) down + support the shine. I’m talking about engaging in creativity in a way that supports us to pause, get more connected to nature, ourselves, both the material/form (and unseen/spirit/other) parts of our world. The idea that “everyone is an artist” means to some that you are by nature of being human, creative. Yes. Forget anything you ever heard about yourself doubting that.
You are also creating, right now. This very minute.
We want to mirror that creativity back to you, so we can all have more beauty.
And empower us all – all ages, to work together to create something more evolved then we have now. Can we co-create a better world?
Yes. Let’s do it!
conditions for creativity to blossom is something we try to do.
“We” is me – (Christina) plus the amazing folks and organizations I/we collaborate + co-create with. I make my home in Maine with my daughter Melu (age 5 xoxo), Pippy + Coco (our kitties) and my winter-surfing-tech-advisor-sound-recording-husband Pete.
bio.
(kind of nerdy)
I’m an artist, mama + teacher who has created + taught in all kinds of spaces. Gardens, churches, fire stations, art/architecture colleges, elementary + pre-schools, community centers + lots of spaces in-between. My first teaching job was as a Montessori School Art Teacher, and from there I taught at University of Detroit School of Architecture and area schools, Kingswood Academy of Art, Interlochen Center for the Arts, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Advent School in Boston while doing other community based, public art teaching gigs in community. Most recently, I was Associate Professor of Art at Maine College of Art here in Portland (before I had my baby + shook up my life!). I’ve got on the ground knowledge + studied some diverse art/creative pedagogies including Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Waldorf inspired, Social Sculpture. I’m grateful to have studied many of them in places like Mexico, Italy, Germany, France and Detroit. I have a background in textiles, sculpture and public art from studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and Weimar Jena Akademie. Collaborative leadership work as a facilitator, consultant and supporter of folks in the fields of creativity, teaching and service/public engagement has taught me so much. As an artist, I’ve shown my work both nationally and internationally, and have been fortunate enough to receive awards and grants to help make that possible.
OH + I love color, pattern, being a mama to Melu (my 5 year old!), things that are made my hand, drinking tea, an organized home (it often isn’t!), the color yellow and wearing scarves. (that’s me below, dressed in blue.)
We like to make things happen.
I’m deeply grateful for all of my opportunities, teachers + co-creators.
I create spaces for our collective creativity, stories + courage to shine.
My own art practice has embraced a material based sensibility, aimed to address the potential of human creativity, through installation, facilitation and public art processes.
“If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.”
(Albert Einstein)