This course will teach you how to manipulate and edit digital photographs and scans down to their individual pixels. This is useful for image corrections, combining photographs, polishing portraits, and creating original art. Levels, Curves, Sharpening, Drop Shadows, Layers and Masks will all be demystified. Transform your plain text with special Effects. Print and Web image differences will be carefully explained. This is a good introductory course for anyone new to Photoshop.

“We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love.” – Sharon Salzberg. Metta, or Loving-Kindness meditation, involves the repetition of phrases during meditation, such as “May you be happy, may you be safe …” to connect with the fundamental goodness in our own hearts. Practicing Loving-kindness meditation can help us to: Cultivate unconditional friendliness toward ourselves and others, Deepen our understanding of our habitual reactions, Explore our relationship with difference in an embodied way, Train to bring a more spacious, kind, peaceful awareness to our everyday lives. This series will include 15 - 20 minutes of gentle guided movement, 20-30 minutes of guided Loving-Kindness meditation, followed by discussion. No experience necessary, all are welcome. This Winter Session is ONLINE.

Join Robin, an experienced tai chi teacher for this ten-week series of combined tai chi and qigong lessons. Tai Chi Easy™ is a mind/body practice to improve overall health and vitality. Each of our classes will include a qigong warm-up and tai chi form practice, both standing and walking. Tai Chi Easy™ includes the Four Baskets: gentle movement, breathing practices, self-massage, and meditation. This class is for continuing students as well as newcomers. *No class on February 23rd.

Street Funk/Hip-Hop Dance is a dance fitness class that blends funk, hip-hop and urban street/club music. High-energy moves that follow the beats give you an upbeat workout combining cardio and strengthening/toning. The steps will be taught and cued by an experienced Zumba instructor to get you moving and grooving while boosting your energy and mood. Dance sneakers recommended.

A strong drawing and composition is the foundation for a strong painting. We will explore drawing both as the culmination of our in class set-ups and as a segue into ideas about painting. I will demonstrate how to measure and sight angles and we will visit the fundamentals of design. We will explore notan (light/dark harmony) by blocking in with value washes where we seek to make a drawing with structure, as well as practice drawing with our paintbrushes! All levels encouraged and welcome.

Have you wondered how to start your memoir? Have you started and don’t know how to move forward? Are you curious about what you might discover once you delve into your memories? In that case welcome to what it is like to turn memories into stories. There will be guided instruction on how the writing process works (setting a scene, use of dialogue, finding your voice, showing vs. telling, etc.) and weekly writing for class critiquing. Handouts with prompts (if you choose to use them) and highlights of what we will be covered in class will be sent via email five days before each class. Memoir writing weaves life experiences into a coherent pattern. It is a way of gaining a deeper understanding of yourself. Give it a try with Ann Kimmage who has taught writing for fifty years and is an author of two memoirs. ***NO CLASS: 2/21

Have you wondered what meditation is like and why mindfulness skills are recommended for managing stress? What are the stress patterns in your own life and what can you do to manage them more effectively? In this class you will get to establish a meditation practice, resort to calming breathing techniques, as well as practical skills for reducing and managing stress. Come and try out new strategies and techniques for mindfulness healing. Taught by a certified stress management instructor with a twenty-year meditation practice. Please bring a cushion or pillow for the meditation.

Ever wanted to take some time for yourself and play with clay, but you were too busy, too tired or too intimidated? Learn the basics of hand building, surface decoration and wheel throwing to create functional pieces and sculptures. This class is geared toward the beginner who would like to learn coil, slab and pinch construction as well as basic wheel throwing techniques and glazing. New demonstrations are given weekly, but students can also use this time as an open studio to work on their own personal projects. $55 for materials and studio fee, payable to instructor, must be paid on the first night of class. Additional clay can be purchased separately. Come work in the brand new studios at Morse!

*Disclaimer: There are only 10 wheels in the studio, so only 10 students can use wheels at any given time.