Studio Habits
of the Mind
A course in place-based creativity, with Chelsea Wills
"Your studio was never four walls. It's the land under the floorboards, the plant on the sill, the weather coming through the window."— Chelsea Wills
Over five sessions we build a practice — not a technique, a practice — for making art, writing, and ritual objects in relationship with a specific place. Your place. We move through four thresholds: Elements, Allies, Grounding, and Inhabitance, and close by carrying the work forward on your own.
Four thresholds, crossed in order
Elements
Earth, water, fire, air, and the fifth thing that has no name. We get specific — this clay, this light, this creek — instead of generalizing about "nature."
Studio Practice — The Material CensusAllies
Working in relationship, not extraction. How to approach a plant, a stone, a stretch of creek as a collaborator with its own agenda — and its own right to say no.
Studio Practice — The Ally OfferingGrounding
The place as it lives in the body. Breath, weight, and a somatic check-in before any mark is made — so the work comes from the body, not just the idea of one.
Studio Practice — Grounded Mark-MakingInhabitance
Dwelling versus visiting. A visitor takes photographs; an inhabitant knows which window leaks. We build a record meant to be returned to across a full season.
Studio Practice — The Dwelling RecordThreshold & Continuance
Every good course has to end; a real practice doesn't. We close the circle and build a small, sustainable form for carrying the work forward on your own.
Studio Practice — The Continuance PieceWhat to expect
Format
- Five live sessions, once weekly
- Two hours per session
- Teaching, studio practice, and closing circle
- Recordings if you miss a live class
What you'll need
- A notebook and something to make marks with
- Access to an outdoor place, however small
- A jar or small container for gathering
- Willingness to get a little dirt or dye on your hands
Who this is for
- No prior art or herbalism experience required
- Writers, visual artists, gardeners, the simply curious
- Anyone ready to slow down and pay attention
Reserve your seat
Kept small on purpose — the circle is capped at fourteen, so the closing session can be a real witnessing, not a webinar.
Chelsea Wills
Chelsea is an interdisciplinary artist, clinical herbalist, and flower essence practitioner whose work moves between visual art, natural dye, and writing. She is the author of the newsletter The Re-enchantment, and her teaching draws on years of herbal apprenticeship and land-based studio practice.
Her approach treats place not as a backdrop for creative work but as a collaborator in it — an orientation she brings to every session of this course.
"I don't think of place-based creativity as a genre. I think of it as a form of honesty."
Reserve Your Seat