About

Creative Artists & Writers (CAW)

provides workshops designed to cultivate imagination and create a community of writers & artists.

Currently, all our workshops are offered online in our Virtual Studio (via Zoom).

Our offerings include:

At CAW, we believe every person is inherently creative, with art and writing worth sharing. Workshops are founded in the values of equity, generous listening, and reverence for all life.

photo by Kathleen Nyberg

Workshops are led by Cleo Hehn (she/her), a workshop facilitator, editor, fine artist, and poet.

Cleo incorporates her expertise as a visual artist, her spiritual curiosity, and her passion for the natural world into her carefully curated workshop prompts.

Since 2008, Cleo has written with PDX Writers, a writing community grounded in the Amherst Writers and Artists method of workshop facilitation. In 2017, she was the first person awarded the Cecilie Scott-Betsy Milligan Scholarship, and shortly after she began facilitating her own writing workshops. She founded CAW in 2023.

Cleo also works as an artist for McMenamins Pubs, Breweries and Historic Hotels, where she paints portraits of local historical figures and decorates properties in Oregon and Washington. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Lake Forest College, where she studied creative writing and public sculpture.

–––––––––––––

Saturday Writing Practice workshops are occasionally facilitated by Dominique (she/her).

Born and raised in Poitiers, France, Dominique came to the US when she was 19, both to escape and explore. English, now her daily language, revealed itself to be simpler than French and allowed her to express a new side of her personality, and it is still her preferred writing tool.

A masters degree in adult education and a certificate to teach English as a second language led Dominique to teach refugees and immigrants for 29 years.

Upon retirement in 2017, she became a volunteer with WriteAroundPortland, where she has facilitated workshops both in-person and online. Their writing model is prompt-based, and their writing guidelines are loosely based on the AWA method. Dominique has been an integral part of CAW’s writing community since its inception.

“Whether you’re new to creative writing or have experience, Cleo’s writing workshops are for you. She creates a positive, safe space for everyone. My favorite parts of her workshops are the prompts and spending time with other writers. Cleo’s workshops are among the bright spots in my week!”

–– Cheryl

“Cleo's workshops put me in the mood to write, even after a busy day at the office. The centering exercises at the beginning of each workshop put me in a space to reach deep. The prompts always have something in them that helps me develop the characters in my stories, and the poems she chooses are alway the perfect end to each session.”

–– Stephanie

“I love the multidisciplinary prompts! I love how [Cleo] incorporates ekphrastic writing, where we write based off of visual art prompts. I enjoy [her] calm, smiling presence, and I also love listening to [her] writing.”

–– Clara

“Cleo always creates a warm and welcoming space. I feel inspired to let my writing go anywhere!”

–– Jennifer

“CAW writing workshops allow me to explore writing from a place of experimentation and play without fear of judgement or pressure. The writing prompts always surprise me and engage areas of my creative soul that I didn't know were there. I've cried and laughed and felt seen in these workshops and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that Cleo's writing workshops were a significant part of my ability to stay positive and hopeful during some of the darkest periods of my life.”

–– Madeeha

“Her Saturday workshops are a rejuvenation for my writer’s voice after the long week. Always present for whatever arises, Cleo is compassionate, funny and insightful. Her use of poems, random lists, and paintings all as prompts serve as a wonderful guide into the unknown.”

–– Claire

“I could write a book about how wonderful the CAW Saturday workshop is. The prompts are imaginative and inspiring, the leader is the best, and the participants are diverse and interesting. I give this workshop five stars. Please join us and see for yourself.”