Enjoy Your Problems
This week I have had a chance to reflect on how my love for mythology and my Buddhist training influence my process of making.
Evoking Story Mind
There are two kinds of journeys we all make. The first is the journey you can map. Your destination is clear, the map will show you the shortest way from here to there. The second is the journey where you go by instinct. Not even a compass will help you. (Nancy Willard, The Left-Handed Story)
Insecurity is Essential to Creativity
There is a lot of talk about the confidence it takes to be a maker, but Christoph Niemann points out the necessity of insecurity.
Fruitful Monotony
It has been a long time since I have read Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness and his reference to fruitful monotony. I am thinking of it this morning, as my period of retreat with my paintings will soon come to an end.
The Poetry of Handwriting
Handwriting is returning to its ancient magic– now that keyboards are dominant, young people are fascinated with hand written forms.
The Herald's Summons
The herald, or announcer of the adventure...is often dark...or terrifying; ...yet if one could follow, the way would be opened through the walls of the day into the dark where the jewels glow. *
This painting is part of a series I am working on. There will be 22 paintings representing each of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tarot, arcana means secret. The archetypal images in a Tarot deck, for example– The Hermit– have no fixed meaning, but just as in a dream, have a particular message for you each time you choose this card. One discovers the meaning of the image in a similar way that you go about unraveling a dream. A good painting operates by the same process: you discover something new each time you see it.
Leaping Greenly Spirits of Trees
I am not sure what prompted me to sign up for the Tarot Conclave in Philadelphia. My concerned friends asked me some pointed questions. My husband, fairly indignant at my having just touched down from Santa Fe, had some more. I normally travel for the art classes I teach, and they are carefully planned and scheduled well in advance. But, like work with the Tarot, this was intuitive and completely spontaneous. I simply packed my sketchbook and went; not even I knew what to expect.
No Praise, No Blame
William Stafford's philosophy of teaching, "no praise, no blame" is something I aspire to. He felt it is not our job, as teachers, to deal out praise or blame, but rather to create an atmosphere where, in the end, the teacher is envious of the work the students have done. I want to cultivate an environment that is not oriented to what others' think, or what the teacher thinks– but that arises from the inside, brings out surprises, and elicits the best each student has to offer. "I would rather be envious of my students' work than encouraging them." (Wm. Stafford)