This is your registration page for Shifting Ground, my in-person wintertime class that is part climate change primer, part apprenticeship to the animate world, part deep dive into what it means to be a human in today's changing world.
 
We will meet on 8 Sunday afternoons in my art studio in the South Toe area of Burnsville, NC.  For a place in our cohort of (no more than) 8, I am asking for a tuition of 300-600 dollars sliding scale.  Each class will be 3-4 hours mid-day, something like 11am-3pm with a half hour break in the middle of that period.  I say "something like" because I am leaving some flexibility around the common denominator of scheduling needs and capacities of the cohort.
 
What you will pay through this link is a deposit of 200 dollars to secure your place in the cohort.  I ask that you bring the remainder of the sliding scale tuition to the first class.  One partial scholarship is available.  Please contact me if you can demonstrate need of financial assistance.
 
This course will ask a lot of your attention.  There is pre-requisite reading for you to complete in December and January.  You should expect 2-3 hours of additional reflection, personal exploration, and/or reading each week in addition to our in-person class time.  You will need a journal or a voice recorder.  I recommend, because of the nature of the material we will cover, that everyone in this cohort seek out one to two trusted friends or family members who will be willing to listen and reflect with you about your experience as you navigate the class.  
 
I am not a licensed therapist, nor do I posses an academic degree in the disciplines we will explore together.  Since it is normal and appropriate that conversations about the uncertainty and instability of our planet's future would stir big feelings, I cannot emphasize enough that you will need a support system.  I recommend employing the services of a licensed mental health counselor if this is at all possible.
 
 I have a BFA in Fine Arts and Art History, and it was by way of my research for my paintings that I began, more than a decade ago, an independent study in climate change and (historical, present, and possible) human roles in earth's ecology.  Art school  taught me to always try to deeply understand the rules, and then to question and experiment with every last one.   My career as an artist has taught me how to see, with intense attention, whatever is in front of me.
 
I have invested thousands of hours to try to understand the concepts I'll be sharing with you.  I spent those hours reading, listening, writing, painting, traveling to specific ecosystems, shadowing and interviewing professionals, encountering the sentient beings of landscape through all seasons and in many climates, and engaging in experiments in how I live and work in place.  I currently live off-grid, growing most of my winter vegetables in a garden, foraging our more abundant local foods in the forests, chopping wood for heat, carrying water from a spring, and seeing by home-dipped beeswax candle-light after the sun goes down each night.