Like burning the candle at both ends, I'll jump to the most recent Reverb10 Prompts, on avoidance and healing.
The details are too personal to post on a public blog. What I should have done is water under the bridge. I can't do it over, and I hope there isn't a next time. The consequences were painful. The prescribed healing suggested by my counselor was in fact avoidance.
What I have going for me in 2011 includes a loving companion, and strong friendships. Avoidance contributes positively. New social networks are developing in creative arts. Soft pastels and drawing are new to me. More art workshops, and opportunities to display new works already are on my agenda. Writing faster and better, the goal of Extreme Writing Makeover, a 52-week online writing course, has 37 more lessons.
One thing we can all avoid in 2011, already on many political agendas, is short-term thinking. Everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph is relatively short-term. Ongoing, life-long goals and commitments remain the long-term framework. I don't mind lofty ideals and the label of idealist as part of my Taurus Id.
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Spiritual Memoir Practice: Journeys Part I
I posted to this blog on September 10, 2009 what I intended to be a weekly series on "Writing the Sacred Journey", by Elizabeth J. Andrew. I have handwritten many of her practice exercises to my personal journal, several times a week, often in the middle of the night. I can thank a Baha'i friend of Sufi background for the inspiration to write in the middle of the night. He might prefer prayer and meditation, but journal writing is like that for me.
I can also thank an eight year old girl who visited Split Rock Lighthouse this past weekend with her father, who proudly told me that she has been practicing cursive writing. I hope I encouraged her by praising her potential as an artist.
Art has been in the forefront of my community activities since October 5. Sandi Pillsbury Gredzens, who chairs the Grand Marais Art Colony board, led workshops in the School Forest in Silver Bay for students at William Kelley Elementary School. I assisted with the sixth grade. The weather turned cold and rainy the second day, so the final session was held in the Science Room. The subject was sketching landscapes, and within that, understanding how to view and use the horizon line.
I had taught the same students last winter in five weekly sessions as part of the Masterpiece Arts Program. They remembered the horizon line from an exercise in which they copied the Mona Lisa. (Remember what Dan Brown said about the Mona Lisa in "The DaVinci Code"?) I also reminded them about a local artist, the late George Morrison, who always sketched, or carved in his woodblock masterworks a horizon line a quarter of the way down from the top of the page or the block. It helps to remember such a useful rule, and then make up your own rules later.
What about the journey?
Here I am sixteen years after a short journey I made in 1992, the subject of last night's spiritual memoir exercise. The instructions: Recall a small journey. As I write the story, be aware of how the external journey mirrored my soul's journey.
That journey was in the realm of spiritual awakening, akin to my experiences of spiritual rebirth in 1957 and 1973. Born again and again. How many times are we allowed such a vision of our eternal spirit at work in physical consciousness? The object of my short journey was a four-day Visual Journals Workshop, led by Hazel Belvo at Grand Portage, MN.
Hazel is a key personality in the history of the Grand Marais Art Colony. She is Sandi Gredzens' current mentor. I count Sandi as my mentor, but it's not a formal relationship. If anything, the relationship will lead me into a serious commitment to the Grand Marais Art Colony. Setting my priorities to make that happen has been a problem for sixteen years.
Here is a link to the Grand Marais Art Colony website. Read about Hazel Belvo and George Morrison. Notice the list of board members, including Sandi and my Little Marais neighbor, Joyce Yamamoto.
http://www.grandmaraisartcolony.org/about.cfm
As with any creative effect, whether an experience of the living Word of God or a creative act of my own, there is mystical unity, an impulse that influences a vast community for years afterward.
Part II of this subject will be the exercise I wrote last night.
I can also thank an eight year old girl who visited Split Rock Lighthouse this past weekend with her father, who proudly told me that she has been practicing cursive writing. I hope I encouraged her by praising her potential as an artist.
Art has been in the forefront of my community activities since October 5. Sandi Pillsbury Gredzens, who chairs the Grand Marais Art Colony board, led workshops in the School Forest in Silver Bay for students at William Kelley Elementary School. I assisted with the sixth grade. The weather turned cold and rainy the second day, so the final session was held in the Science Room. The subject was sketching landscapes, and within that, understanding how to view and use the horizon line.
I had taught the same students last winter in five weekly sessions as part of the Masterpiece Arts Program. They remembered the horizon line from an exercise in which they copied the Mona Lisa. (Remember what Dan Brown said about the Mona Lisa in "The DaVinci Code"?) I also reminded them about a local artist, the late George Morrison, who always sketched, or carved in his woodblock masterworks a horizon line a quarter of the way down from the top of the page or the block. It helps to remember such a useful rule, and then make up your own rules later.
What about the journey?
Here I am sixteen years after a short journey I made in 1992, the subject of last night's spiritual memoir exercise. The instructions: Recall a small journey. As I write the story, be aware of how the external journey mirrored my soul's journey.
That journey was in the realm of spiritual awakening, akin to my experiences of spiritual rebirth in 1957 and 1973. Born again and again. How many times are we allowed such a vision of our eternal spirit at work in physical consciousness? The object of my short journey was a four-day Visual Journals Workshop, led by Hazel Belvo at Grand Portage, MN.
Hazel is a key personality in the history of the Grand Marais Art Colony. She is Sandi Gredzens' current mentor. I count Sandi as my mentor, but it's not a formal relationship. If anything, the relationship will lead me into a serious commitment to the Grand Marais Art Colony. Setting my priorities to make that happen has been a problem for sixteen years.
Here is a link to the Grand Marais Art Colony website. Read about Hazel Belvo and George Morrison. Notice the list of board members, including Sandi and my Little Marais neighbor, Joyce Yamamoto.
http://www.grandmaraisartcolony.org/about.cfm
As with any creative effect, whether an experience of the living Word of God or a creative act of my own, there is mystical unity, an impulse that influences a vast community for years afterward.
Part II of this subject will be the exercise I wrote last night.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Masterpiece Arts
The Northern Lake County (Minnesota) Arts Board sponsors the Masterpiece Arts program in the Silver Bay area schools. I have been among the volunteer artists/teachers who provide art classes in elementary school classrooms at least once a month. I have concentrated on the 5th grade for the past five years, and have filled in for other volunteers in grades 3 thru 6.
My practice has been to do an overview Powerpoint presentation in December, and then four or five weekly sessions in January-February. My overview covers what I do as an amateur artist, and also recent travels that have current or historic art interest. My overall theme for the weekly sessions is color, starting with basics such as color wheels. Last school year, for example, several volunteers included something about the Washington Color Field of the 1950's. I brought in examples of current manifestations. The prior year, I concentrated on master artists who had lived or worked in the Provence Region, where my wife and I toured in October 2006. Each of the last four years, my classes produced a large canvas acrylic painting based on these color themes. Many of the other classes have several years of large canvas works on display on the hallway walls and at the main entrance to the school.
I have been gratified by the support and cooperation of the teachers, as well as association with the volunteers and guest professional artists. For a very small population, total 11,000 in Lake County where I live, and 8,000 in neighboring Cook County, we have an amazing resource of artists and a supporting wide community.
Attached are a few of my own works, never intended for sale.
I will use this topic in Dave's World to prepare for this year's sessions.
Cypress swamp pre-Katrina near New Orleans.
Rocky Maze, Superior Hiking Trail
My practice has been to do an overview Powerpoint presentation in December, and then four or five weekly sessions in January-February. My overview covers what I do as an amateur artist, and also recent travels that have current or historic art interest. My overall theme for the weekly sessions is color, starting with basics such as color wheels. Last school year, for example, several volunteers included something about the Washington Color Field of the 1950's. I brought in examples of current manifestations. The prior year, I concentrated on master artists who had lived or worked in the Provence Region, where my wife and I toured in October 2006. Each of the last four years, my classes produced a large canvas acrylic painting based on these color themes. Many of the other classes have several years of large canvas works on display on the hallway walls and at the main entrance to the school.
I have been gratified by the support and cooperation of the teachers, as well as association with the volunteers and guest professional artists. For a very small population, total 11,000 in Lake County where I live, and 8,000 in neighboring Cook County, we have an amazing resource of artists and a supporting wide community.
Attached are a few of my own works, never intended for sale.
I will use this topic in Dave's World to prepare for this year's sessions.
Cypress swamp pre-Katrina near New Orleans.
Rocky Maze, Superior Hiking Trail
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