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.