But, come to think of it, you really enjoyed summer camp. And you could use a little bit of that carefree creative time in your left brain-dominated, overworked life.

David Behlke has just the thing: summer camp for grownups in the form of a series of "Center Your Creativity" workshops this month and next at Kapi'olani Community College.

The catalog is full of terms like "intensive" and "transformative." The faculty list includes many names you've read in the art pages or seen on the little cards next to pictures hanging in galleries: Sally French, Timothy P. Ojile, Esther Shimazu, Alan Leitner. They're teaching oils, performance art, sculpture, the history of 20th century art, mixed media. art as a means of healing and peacemaking.

But don't be intimidated. As Sally French's course description explains, it's all done in a "nonstressful, bioharmonic, liberating, insightfully levitating" way. Listen to Sheila Kriemelman, Hawai'i-born watercolorist and now a college-level art professor in New York, whose art workshops for teachers with no art background have been a popular feature of several Maui Arts & Cultural Center summer courses:

"It's amazing. People come in so uptight and saying, 'I can't do this,' and by the end of the week, they're throwing paint around and sitting on the floor and they're really into it ... This is not professional development. It's learning how to experiment, how to improvise, how to play, how to have fun; and through that process they're going to learn some very important things about themselves."

Kriemelman herself is experimenting and improvising with a gallery show that opened yesterday and hangs through July 9 in the Ka 'Ikena dining room at KCC. It's a collaboration between her and three Hawai'i-based photographer friends. They took the pictures and sent them to Kriemelman in New York; she spent the past 10 months creating paintings based on the photos. "It's brought me back to my roots," she said. "The first time in my life that I have painted tropical florals."

Behlke, director of the Koa Gallery at Kapi'olani Community College, assistant professor of art there and a watercolorist and stained-glass master, said the Center Your Creativity workshops are meant to serve as some mental fresh air. "Every time I've taken a class, I've gotten such a boost. It takes me to a new level of self-awareness and discovery," he said. "These workshops are really aimed at people who are trying to trigger their imaginations, whether it's to better move their businesses along, or teachers who need insight into ways to stimulate their students, teens who are at risk of turning off to learning — anyone, really."

Offerings this month and next range from Kriemelman's free evening lecture on the New York art scene (6:30 p.m. June 24, Ohia Room 118 at KCC) to Behlke's two-week intensive in stained-glass work. A few classes, like Esther Shimazu's one-week series on building stoneware figures, require previous art training. And a two-day "Art of Business" workshop is aimed at artists who'd like some help with how to market themselves and conduct the left-brain side of their lives.

But most classes are designed for anyone willing to open up to more creative ways of thinking.

"The thing I know about all of these artists is they love to talk about art, and they love to show others the joy of making art," said Behlke.

For Kriemelman, there's no argument: "We're all artists. What I'm good at is convincing people of this, pulling the inner artist out of them. And what convinces them is not me talking but them doing."

The format for her five-day Art and Peace Studies workshop, for example, is a lively discussion and video on art history each morning followed by lab time in the afternoon — meaning time to fool around with paints and stuff. "In the morning we learn how artists expressed themselves in a particular period and in the afternoon we make art. I lead them through it; they don't have to think, they don't have to take notes and it's fun," she promised.

Behlke said they're taking walk-in registrations. In some cases, you can even take one day of a several-day workshop. A 20-percent discount is available for University of Hawai'i students, faculty and staff, and for all professional art educators.

Center Your Creativity workshops

From June 14 to July 10, Kapi'olani Community College.

Courses:

• "Art and Peace Studies" five-day workshop, June 14-18.
• "Healing Power of Art", three-day evening workshop, June 21-23.
• Multiday art intensives with ceramicist Esther Shimazu, jewelry maker Catherine Cooper, painters Timothy P. Ojile, Kloe Kang, Sally French, Alan Leitner, printmaker Lynn Cook, stained glass artist David Behlke, performance artist Mark Kadota or lecture series in contemporary art history with Paul Levitt, various dates.
• "Creative Leadership Training" series with Tokiko Hiyama Desola (video, workshops, ending celebration), June 21-July 10, various dates.
• "Art of Business" lecture series on the business matters of professional artists, June 19 and June 26.

Course and lab/supply fees apply. Most intensives cost $200 to $250 for five days' instruction, plus materials or lab fee.