Make a collage from the images that call to you. Then write your way into what it’s trying to tell you.
An online workshop you do at your own kitchen table, at your own pace. No art or writing experience needed.
8 video lessonsPrintable workbookLifetime access14-day refund
I’ve taught this practice live at women’s retreats in Bali and in workshops at home in Austin and online. This is the recorded version, so you can do it whenever you’re ready.
“What I experienced here personally was a lot of creativity that I didn’t realize that I had.”
Lynette · Bali retreat
This is a small way back in.
Most writing classes start with a blank page. This one starts with a stack of old magazines. You cut out whatever catches your eye, before you know why. You arrange the pieces until something feels right.
Then you sit down to write, and you already have something to say. It’s on the table in front of you.
“You think you’re describing the picture, but you’re actually describing yourself.”Ana Beij
A guided meditation to land at the table and leave the to-do list in the other room.
Choose five to seven images that catch your eye. Cut around them, move them around, glue them down. Follow what pulls you.
Step back and look at your collage the way a stranger would. Which image did you place first? Where does your eye keep going?
Simple prompts move you from what you see, to what you notice, to what the piece might be saying. You finish with a draft that is yours.
Three pieces from my own practice. Each collage came first. Each poem came from sitting with it afterwards. Yours will look nothing like mine, and that’s the point.
“This piece reflects my relationship with my shadow.”
I sow seeds in my shadowAnd watch what dares to grow.From that inhospitable dry soil,Blooms a harvest plentiful.I pick an apple of deception,Lure perfection into temptation,Knowing death as a transitionI escape my own damnation.
Standing on a pile of lessonsI look upThese experiences have made me whole.The masks I’ve had to wearShowed me who I’m notMy inner-most essenceis still intact.Standing on a pile of memoriesI remember who I lost,who I was,and who I’ll always be.This pile has broken me down,but has also brought me up high.The flower that grows from itMay sting sometimes,But it’s always in bloom.
I rest and trustIn the love from GodIn the wisdom of natureAnd in the knowingthat I’m a part of them too.I’m the lesson and the learner.I’m the observed and the observerBecause what I see in the skyIs being seen with my own eye.From the shooting star to the forest sounds.The healing that I look for is already found.All that I need is already mine.
“Where you decide to position one image versus the other, that’s all information.”Ana Beij
More of my collages, my sketchbook from Bali, and the long table where I first shared this practice.
From the Greek ἔκφρασις. Say it “EK-fruh-sis.”
It’s one of the oldest ideas in writing. Almost 3,000 years ago, the Greek poet Homer was telling the story of a war. In the middle of it, he stopped to describe one thing: a warrior’s shield.
He described it so closely, with its cities, weddings, farmers and dancers, that people could see it just from his words. Centuries later, an English artist used those words as instructions and actually made it. That’s the shield you see here.
Poets have done this ever since: look closely at a piece of art, then write what they see and feel. In this workshop you do the same. The only difference is that the art you write about is the one you just made.
The first video of the workshop, filmed in Bali, exactly as you’ll see it inside.
Pronounced like “beige”
Artist, retreat host & creative guide
I grew up in Brazil, watching my father draw portraits in graphite. He taught me when I was about eight. As a teenager I forgot all about it. Years later I was in law school, surrounded by law books, when I drew a portrait of John Lennon. My roommate said, “I didn’t know you could draw.” I said, “Oh yeah. I forgot that I could draw.”
I left law for art. For years I designed art-based experiences for teams in Silicon Valley. Then my husband and I traveled through more than 30 countries, and Bali changed everything. I held my solo exhibition, Within, in Ubud in 2023, and today I host creative retreats for women there. I live in Austin, Texas.
Collage and writing was my own practice long before I taught it. When I journal, I write about things that are already in my mind. When I started writing about my own art, I found things I didn’t realize were there.
The first time I shared it with a group was at my first women’s retreat in Bali. We spent an afternoon making collages at a long table, and the next day a poet friend from Bali guided us as we wrote from them. It became a lot of people’s favorite workshop of the week. Since then I’ve taught it in Austin and online.
At those retreats and at my workshops, I kept seeing the same thing. So many women had lost touch with their inner artist. Collage and poetry brought her back faster than anything else I teach, so I recorded it for every woman who can’t fly to Bali right now.
Ana
Filmed at my women’s retreat in Bali, where this workshop began. Collage and poetry were part of each week.
“I learned to dig deep by using poetry and the steps, the small steps.”
“I have no artistic ability. But it’s all about expressing yourself.”
“Even if you don’t even know what that is.”
“A lot of creativity that I didn’t realize that I had.”
“The session was about noticing what was already inside me. I was still thinking about what I created and what I wrote after it was done.”
Manuela C., Texas · Ekphrasis online session
“I’ve watched women unexpectedly uncover grief, loneliness, longing, freedom, reinvention, aging, identity, or unresolved memories through images they felt instinctively drawn toward without fully knowing why.”
Some notice an image they keep choosing. Some find a want they’ve been ignoring. Some find out they were creative all along. Some cry. Some laugh at what they wrote. Most tell me it was easier than it sounds.
This is a creative practice, not therapy. When you slow down and look closely, feelings sometimes come up. You can pause anytime, and keep any part of it just for yourself.
In Bali, this practice is part of a week-long retreat. Here it’s filmed in Bali and Austin for you to do at your own table, as often as you like.
Secure checkout with Stripe. Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. 14-day refund.
Try it for 14 days. If it isn’t for you, email me at ana@anabeij.com and I’ll refund you in full. You don’t have to explain.Ana
Yes. You cut out images that catch your eye and move them around until something feels right. Nothing is graded and nothing needs to look a certain way. The process matters more than the final piece.
The prompts start with small, concrete questions: what you see, what it might sound or smell like, what you noticed first. You answer one at a time, then gather your answers into a draft. Your first answers are usually the ones to trust.
Tap Join the workshop and pay securely with Stripe. You’ll get a receipt by email right away, then an email from me with how to reach your lessons and workbook.
There are eight lessons. Do it all in one sitting, or make your collage one day and write the next.
Old books, catalogs, calendars, brochures and free newspapers all work. The workbook has a page on where to find images for free.
You don’t need to like them. Choose the ones that pull your attention.
No. What you make is yours.
It can happen when you slow down and look closely. Meet whatever comes with gentleness. You can pause anytime. I’m not a therapist, just someone who has benefited from creativity my whole life.
For life. Many people come back to it when something in their life shifts. A new collage tells you something new.
Yes, it works well with a friend at the same table. Each person joins with their own access so you both get the workbook.
Dear you,
You don’t need to know what your collage will look like, or what you’ll write. You only need to follow what catches your eye, and be curious about why.
Women already know who they are. They just have to remember it. Sometimes a few pieces of paper are enough to help.
I always light a candle before I create. Light one too if you like, make some tea, and I’ll be with you one lesson at a time.
Ana
8 video lessons · Printable workbook · Lifetime access · 14-day refund
Ana Beij
