In this workshop, we’ll learn how to slow down and tune in to our innate ability to notice what’s happening around us — a sense that often gets lost in the pace of modern life.

Our morning begins with a walk from The Last Straw to North Lake in Golden Gate Park, a haven for warblers, jays, wrens, and countless other birds that animate the trees and sky. Along the way, we’ll explore techniques for identifying birds by sound, color, and flight pattern, awakening both our eyes and ears to the subtle language of the landscape.

Once we arrive at the lake, we’ll settle into stillness. With sketchbooks in hand, we’ll translate what we observe into marks, words, and impressions — not striving for perfection or realism, but for connection. Even brief glimpses become material: flashes of color, the rhythm of a wingbeat, the shape of a branch. Through this practice, we’ll learn to record what we sense, and in doing so, rediscover how to truly see and listen.