The Body as Studio: Inside Ren Jeske’s Embodied Practice
When psychotherapist, somatic practitioner, and artist Ren Jeske took up residence at LANTANA Space, she arrived with a process grounded in movement and embodied awareness. Through clay, pastels, paint and mark-making, Ren translates her body’s inner language into visual form.
Ren works at the intersection of creative practice and service, offering one-on-one therapeutic somatic sessions, facilitated group workshops, and develops her own body of work, bringing her inner world to the forefront.
Movement is her first medium. She inhabits her body, accessing the present moment and follows where it leads. Sometimes that means sweeping pastel marks across large, unstretched canvases on the floor; other times it is clay shaped by instinctive hands. Each work is revisited over time, layered and reworked until it feels resolved.
Both in artmaking and in her client work, Ren returns to the body as a site of knowing, guided by it’s inherant intelligence. Her work holds space for what often escapes words, grief, shame, tenderness, and release. Through her workshops, she extends that same invitation outward, guiding others to meet their own inner landscapes and to discover, through creative process, a deeper sense of connection between body, mind, and expression.
From Studio to Workshop
Ren’s arrival at LANTANA coincides with the launch of her new workshop, Body of Work: Raw Mark to Sacred Story. Designed for anyone curious about creativity, expression and collaboration. The small program of eight participants guides people through a deeply embodied approach to making.
Large, unstretched canvases are placed on the floor, roughly the size of a yoga mat. “A blank canvas can be overwhelming,” Ren says. “So we start by creating safety, both in the environment and in the body.” The workshop begins with orientation, settling participants into the space, into the body, and onto the canvas. “From there, we follow sensation, movement, and the marks that want to emerge.”
Participants work with pastels and chalk, guided not by technique but by somatic awareness, noticing what the body feels and allowing that sensation to shape the mark. For some, this brings up hesitation or shame; for others, it is about clearing creative or emotional blocks. This approach sets Ren’s therapeutic practice apart, offering an alternative to traditional modalities of therapy by engaging the body’s intelligence directly.
“There’s no greater present moment than what you feel in your body,” she says. “When you approach that with curiosity, the body tells you a story you may not know you were carrying.”
Structured across two sessions, the workshop begins with movement and mark-making, before participants return to revisit and resolve their work. Each person leaves not only with a finished piece, but also with emotional tools to access clarity, navigate blocks, and approach both their creative practice and life with renewed awareness.
The Body, The Studio, The Community
Ren was drawn to the privacy of her workspace and the large multipurpose area that LANTANA offers. There’s ample room to create, space to connect with new audiences and ground her practice within a collective of other working artists.
This is where LANTANA’s value shines. Renting a studio here isn’t just about square metres of space. It’s about professionalising your practice, having a place that supports experimentation, risk-taking, and the sharing of ideas. It’s about belonging to a community that values both personal growth and professional development.
For artists like Ren, it also means being able to extend practice into workshops and public programs without the financial barrier of hiring external venues. The space adapts to what each artist needs it to be, a studio, a classroom, an exhibition space, or a meeting point for ideas. Studios become catalysts, turning individual practice into something bigger, something that connects artists with audiences, communities, and each other.
Ren’s presence at LANTANA feels emblematic of what the space is designed to do. Her work reminds us that creative practice begins in the body, long before it reaches the canvas. By bringing her therapeutic and artistic practices into the studio, she expands what it means to be an artist in residence, showing how personal exploration can ripple outward to a wider community.
Develop your practice within a supportive studio environment.
Learn more about artist studios at LANTANA
Reserve your place at Body of Work: Raw Mark to Sacred Story
Workshop 1: Sunday 2 November
Workshop 2: Sunday 14 December
LANTANA Space, 15 Allen St, Moffat Beach
Tickets essential
Photos by Jamie Davidson
