Elma Studio

Process Painting

Once or twice a year, I offer a free community Intro to Process Painting class. It always surprises me how courageous and willing people are to experience this process, sometimes without having an idea what it is. Each time, I am in awe seeing how far people are willing to go to explore the creative process and themselves.

Here is a blog entry written by one of the participants from the March 14 class:  

Amanda's Evolution Of Consciousness Blog (http://amandaspiral.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/process-painting/

 

iPhone Youth Photography at Fremont Art Walk

 

Fremont First Friday Art Walk

Venue: Fremont Coffee Company

459 N 36th St. Seattle

Youth Artists: Isaac, Deividas, Emma, Natalie, Lukas, Kale, Ben and Angus

Stop in and show your support for eight 4th-8th grade students from Billings Middle School, John Hay Elementary, Coe Elementary and Lowell Elementary who are exhibiting their photography in this group show! 

The students used iPhone and iPod cameras and a variety of applications to capture their unique perspective on the surroundings. Whether alley-side objects or capturing their take on well known sculptures of the Olympic Park, the fascinating visuals they've created give us a glimpse into the world they see: full of colors, textures, and light.  Curated by Elma Creative Arts Studio.

Isaac is an 8th grader at Billings Middle School. Check out more of his iPhone photography:

Stand Here

Atlantis

Pride Rock

 

Freedom to express – the Children’s Painting Class

We just finished the 5-week Children’s Free-Express Painting Class. It is amazing to work with kids. And by work in this context, I mean creating a safe space, a studio time, free of commenting, judgment, performance expectations or instruction.

What do I do then? I assist with the use of paints, brushes and the studio space. I tape new sheets of paper to the wall, reassure when needed, and support the process. Sometimes, it’s just a word, a nod, a smile. I ask questions, when one starts feeling stuck, bored or does not know what to paint. I ask questions about color or brush, and about what feels right; I watch images pop onto the paper when one is caught in the flow of spontaneous creation, and I am right there, when one struggles with the judgments about their painting.

What happens in the beginning is that children (and adults!) will start to paint very carefully, usually images they know well, images they’ve painted before. It takes time to trust that it’s all right to paint whatever comes, whatever shape it takes, and whatever color it needs. Soon, as we connect to our own creative source, our intuition, we start painting whatever needs to be painted, whatever is alive inside of us, and whatever brings joy, instead of trying to please or impress. Sometimes, it’s a flower, sometimes, it’s a black sky, sometimes, it’s a heart or a monster under the bed. Proportions might not be what is called “realistic,” but that’s not important! What’s important is that the painting is alive and so is the child.

When reviewing what we learned in the process at the end of the series, something an 8-year old girl shared was so great. She said, “I learned that you don’t have to paint just pretty things. You can paint things that are not pretty, you can paint scary things, you can paint anything you want!” And she was so alive! YES, that’s one way to experience freedom, thus the connection to oneself. Spontaneity comes only from one place – our intuition.

How do we support this connection to oneself in children? Most important, refrain from judgment (negative or positive) and they will paint what they need to paint, instead of painting for somebody else. It’s so natural for them to want to please the parents and it’s so natural for us to want to praise them. Children are very smart – all it takes, one not so genuine comment and they will shut down. Give them space and plenty of opportunities to draw and paint. Don’t even ask to name things in their creative exporations and why they paint what they paint. Ask about their lives and their experiences, instead. Teach them to trust their own process. 

 

Visions, Dreams, Little Deaths, and New Beginnings

We greeted the New Year with the theme of Visions, Dreams, Little Deaths, and New Beginnings at the January Open SoulCollage® Studio. For some, new beginnings were about making space, allowing old things to die, a kind of pruning. For some, it was about accessing what was already there, in the form of a seed, image or word. For others, it was about letting go what was and moving into the present. All of it was about movement of some sort, as the creative flow is movement.

 

Allen (2005) said "the Creative Source is trying to get each of us to paint our way clear, to learn how to have an aesthetic response to life's challenges, to learn to see everything as a puzzle to be solved, as a opportunity to high-five over and over and stay fearlessly in its flow, like a surfer on a wave."

Nicely said! I would add that the Creative Source is trying to get each of us to create our way clear, whether that is painting, collage, journaling, metal work, etc. 

Jill's SoulCollage® cards created during January Open Studio:

 

Balance 

Death

 
Warrior 

The next SoulCollage® Open Studio at Elma Creative Arts will take place February 26, 2011. Check the following link for details and registration.

  Allen, P. (2005). Art as a spiritual practice. Boston, MA: Shambala. 

Why Process?

In pursuing spontaneous and authentic art making, we hold the tension of the opposites: we seek that unflinching sense of self, while at the same time we are expanding the dimension of our being by letting go of what we know the self to be. Art making is also about meaning making at the same time as we let go of the familiar story and the limitations of language.

The objective of artistic process is to discover what happens to us while we create and the process of creating has the potential to wake up the unexplored dimensions of our being. Authentic art making is then about awakening.

Why do we focus on the process?

Because standards are the killer of the intuitive. Even comparison takes us out of being in the moment. Instead of judgment, we try curiosity. We try paying attention to what form the urgencies of our inner life take on.  Peter London, in his book No More Secondhand Art, asks a good questions: “Can a dream be wrong?”

A spontaneous and collaborative mixed media project by a group of Antioch University graduate students, November 18, 2010.  

 

 

The Alley

My art studio backs to the alley. I can see two garbage cans cushioning the neighbors’ Suburu against the world, maybe from acts of random alley violence? Or maybe from my suspect driving? Who walks in this alley? People with dogs, pre-teens, single people, groups of giggling girls and those taking a shortcut to the coffee shop on weekend mornings. I can’t help but compare this alley to the alėja of my childhood summer town that I just visited. There, alėja is the main pedestrian strip in town, where nature and culture meet you…  

   
 
    For the last six months I have traveled some, talked with people, interviewed them, tried to engage them in a conversation, did observations, and reflected on the work of teachers, facilitators, and those who teach the creative process. I was doing an inquiry, all on my own volition, in order to become more integrated, as Freire said, “with the spirit of the times.” Freire also said “integration results from the capacity to adapt oneself to reality plus the critical capacity to make choices and transform that reality (p. 4).”

 Both Here, where I live, and There, the place I come from, I have felt change, one epoch shifting into another. I have also experienced moments that conveyed a life understanding that stirred my sensibilities and pulled the strings of unity of my being.

What did I learn?

Here, how easily we relinquish our capacity to choose…

There, how easily we slip into intolerance of Other…

And in both places, I saw and felt the aliveness, the hope, an openness to live creatively, that innate and universal theme and task…

My interpretation is not complete, the meaning is not final, the insight is limited; however, it is enough to re-inspire me for action.  I can’t predict the November election or wave the magic wand and shrink class size in my child’s school down from 35, but I can paint with others. And while painting, I can listen to the stories that are shared, in images, words, and lines… 

Freire, P. (2009). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum.

 

"Art and Soul" - is this enough?

I have noticed a lot of “art and soul” type of events and opportunities popping up in the recent past in my area alone. What is going on?

Obviously, there is a need that is being fulfilled. Is this about seeking balance in life? Is this about the current culture not feeding the soul? Is this about social change?

Rollo May back in the mid 20^th century observed, “they (artists) are the frontier scouts who go out ahead of the rest of us to explore the future… For we will be better prepared for the future if we can listen seriously to them.”

Not the art where we learn the correct way of doing it and acquire the right type of skills to feed the ego and stay entrenched in the myth of individuality. And how many of us are conscious of the fact that the creative process is messy? 

For some people, a weekend workshop, a retreat here and there has become a way to supplement their creative life and to sustain their search for a soulful existence; for some, this has become a lifestyle. At least for those of us who CAN go to a workshop here and there because we don’t have to worry about the next meal and what the kids area going to wear to keep warm and that sort of thing.  

I am still interested in how one could take time in their life to actively explore and ask questions. What are options for a writer or artist these days who are not interested in cranking out something that they could hopefully sell? Where is their community? Where is the space for them to experience stillness, reflection and depth? The space that does not cost $400 for a weekend not including accommodations. 

Here is an invitation to an inquiry to those who teach/lead process-oriented creative endeavors… How is this evolving wave of many art and soul creative opportunities meeting the challenges of the world in which we live now? Beyond the weekend workshops…

Men and SoulCollage®

Lets dispel the mystery here and now. Men will do SoulCollage® and engage in other methods of inner explorations. Not in droves, but they are there and soul tending is something they will do. They might not be so hot about the names, the descriptions that contain words that trigger our gender conditioned selves. So we talk about a collage process that explores one’s identity and that works pretty well.

Here is a SoulCollage® card and description by Elma Studio student (thank you for the contribution!):

 

"This card reminds me that I am capable of being my own best obstacle to accessing the treasures in life; that I should beware of that tendency to internally cage up my true self. Its message to me is that self-expression is what facilitates access to life's treasures, not pushes them away, something that I somehow got backwards from earlier times in my life." ~ Elma Studio student, age 37

Exploring spirituality

I’ve been thinking about a way to dig into this without the topic getting too heavy or weighted down by all the opinions and strong biases that accumulate over the years. It’s a topic that is already loaded, closely tied to our sense of identity and worldview.

But despite it being loaded and all, what is it that guides us, gives us a voice, access to the intuitive, not-strictly rational processes, what brings meaning and clarifies the bigger picture? What is it that brings our focus to the center, like a fireman’s pole that stays solid in the middle during the chaotic flopping around of daily life? 

What comes to my mind:

• Walking
• Silence
• Nature and gardens
• Being with people (spiritual growth over a latte?)
• Artmaking
• Letting go
• Authentic contact

 

The month of the Fool

I have never liked April. It is that being in limbo, being in between, waiting, waiting, waiting for I don’t know what… warmer weather? the sun? to finally figure out the meaning of life? All that while those stubborn hopes of mine start sending out little shoots upward and it becomes hard to be patient. And then one day you get a day where you declare to the world that you have made it, that the winter is over, that you can go ahead and plant your tomatoes and for a moment you believe that your life is all about fig trees (in the Pacific Northwest and why not?), lemons and strawberries, and that you have survived the darkness once again... And then you get this arctic bone-chilling rain, and you remember that it’s the month of the Fool.

However bored I was with the month of April this year, I made three four SoulCollage® cards to honor the Fool. I swear I didn’t plan on it, it just happened. I don’t have 4 cards on any other topic.

  

Here are two of them. The one on the left is my archetypal (or universal) fool, the one who reminds me to lighten up, since we are all going to die anyway. The card on the right, is the silly fool who shows up when we remember to play and don’t worry what we look like.