HUNTLEY – Growing up in New England, Catherine Redfern found her artistic side.

Her first endeavors were in calligraphy, which she learned at the tender age of 10 at her mother Terri’s knee. Between then and now, Catjia – as she’s known to her friends – began studying and practicing yoga, developed an interest in the culinary arts and more – some of which she’ll be sharing in coming months as a Community Education instructor at Eastern Wyoming College.

“I’m a renaissance gal,” Catjia said. “I work on some of the lost arts. I think that’s why I blend in well with this community.”

The agriculture base of the towns and people of Eastern Wyoming “are self-sufficient, with the ability to make things for themselves,” she said. “I’m in love with this landscape.”

Before moving to Goshen County, Catjia operated her own custom design studio in Denver, Colo., since the mid-1990s. Her specialty revolved around the use of sometimes-lost materials – clays, limestone, earth-based pigments – and techniques of applying plasters and paints to walls, ceilings and more to create elaborate decorative murals around the world.

But, through all that, Catjia came to a major life revelation, which eventually brought her to Wyoming.

“I don’t think it’s healthy living in cities,” she said. “There are certain things I do miss, but I’m an outdoor girl. I’m more comfortable with open spaces on the horizon.”

For now, Catjia teaches a handful of yoga classes at EWC. She focuses here on different techniques or styles – Yin Yoga and Nidra Yoga, sometimes described as “sleepless sleep,” she said.

Practitioners of Nidra Yoga learn to “relax consciously. We become very aware of our consciousness at a deeper level of awareness.”

Her other style, Yin Yoga, is different. It differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on the large muscle groups, moving – almost flowing – through several poses during a session.

Practitioners of Yin Yoga instead use tension within the body to reach deeper levels of their own connective tissues – tendons and ligaments – often holding fewer, specific poses for extended periods of time, Catjia said. 

The Yin style “is more restorative,” she said. “It gets into the deeper layers of connective tissues.”

Catjia became involved with EWC and the Community Education department there almost by accident. When she first moved to the Torrington area last summer, she decided to check out the college.

“I was pleasantly surprised to find a small yoga community there,” she said.

It’s a community she hopes to help grow. Catjia wants to get more younger students involved in the yoga classes and, eventually, would like to establish a family-based yoga program, where parents and children can practice together.

In addition to yoga and calligraphy, Catjia will soon be teaching a gilding class – the art of applying extremely thin sheets of metal foil – using found objects students can bring in themselves. A second class, beginning Monday, March 4, and running for four weeks, is called Mindful Doodling.

Everybody doodles, Catjia said, when talking on the phone or their minds are otherwise occupied. Instead of just something to keep the hands busy, however, mindful doodling focuses the mind to something intentional while helping the individual to relax.

“Instead of focusing on whatever else is going on, you get into a restful mental state,” she said. “You’re not too attached to the actual outcome – it’s more complex than just coloring in designs.

“There’s a rudimentary-ness to it that won’t intimidate people who aren’t artists,” Catjia said. “When you’re in your right brain, you’re in your right mind.”