Reflecting on Creativity

The creative person is one who can look at the same thing as everybody else but see something different. A creative act takes unremarkable parts to create an unforgettable whole.
- Denise Shekerjian

The common themes linking creative people is that they were all remarkly resilient at creating an environment that suited their needs, skilled at honoring their own peculiar talents instead of lusting after an illusion of self, capable of knowing when to follow their instincts, and above all, magnificent risk-takers, unafraid to run ahead of the great popular tide.
- Denise Shekerjian

The trick to creativity is to identify your own peculiar talent and then to settle down to work with it for a good long time. Everyone has a aptitude for something. The trick is to recognize it, to honor it, to work with it.
- Denise Shekerjian

Creative work doesn’t evolve simply from wishing or accident, or wholly from a mystical flash of inspiration. It also requires a sustained purpose and the discipline of trying over an extended period of time.
` Howard Gardener

What intuition provides is an inkling, an itch, a yearning, a mist of possibilities. What judgment provides is structure, assessment, form, purpose. Blend them together and you will begin to recognize the tiny, pert buds of opportunity, that, if pursued, may well lead to a dramatic flowering of the most creative work of your career.
` Robert Coles

Art Therapy: Group Therapeutic Art

In my Art Therapy work, I do a lot of group work. Here are the guidelines I set out for art making of group art when the intent is therapeutic.

* Trust yourself in your art making process- there is no right or wrong way.
* Your art is a reflection of what you may be feeling right now. You are always changing.
* Resist comparing your art to others. Your creative style is unique.
* Give yourself permission to experiment, play, take risks, and be curious about the process.
* Give yourself permission to reflect on and accept your real feelings before you engage the art materials.
* Don’t let preconceptions about what art is or should be interfere with the pleasure of creating.
* Allow yourself to let go of negative judgments from past experiences such as school: they don’t matter any more.
* Give yourself quiet time after to reflect on the experience of art making. This reflection may include journal writing or note taking or simply thinking about your experience.What is needed at this moment? It is important that we always respect our own boundaries of personal comfort and readiness to confront what may be difficult issues.
* Above all, have fun, invite pleasure and curiosity, and allow yourself to experience the simple joy of working with the art materials.

Reflecting on Creating Art in a Group Setting

I have been reflecting on why retreats for mediating, art making, etc., are so effective and rich. The simple answer is space. There is space for whatever we are focused on; art making, mediating, writing, etc. Everything else falls away. There is the intention, the desire to paint, and time and space to do it. It is having the luxurious benefit of intention, time, and space. Of course it helps to have like minded people around you doing the same activity. The group benefits from each others creative energy and spirit. Shaun McNiff calls this ‘participation mystique’. He says that painting in a group helps us relax our self-consciousness and become part of a larger group expression. This shows up the same colours being used by artists who work around your table, or maybe different expressions of the same images. A wonderful sparking of creative spirit can be felt in art groups working together.
Emily Carr wrote the following about looking at nature:
“ I begin to see that everything is perfectly balanced so that what one borrows one must pay back, everything has its own place but is interdependent on the rest, that a picture, like life, must also have perfect balance. Every part of it also is dependent on the whole and the whole is dependent on every part. It is a swinging rhythm of thought.”
I think this is what happens when groups create art together, there is a swinging rhythm that flows in the studio space.

Painting Retreat

I have just finished a week long painting retreat held in Bruno Saskatchewan at a monastery called Saint Theresa's. We had large studios with high ceilings, big windows and beautiful old fixtures. Everyday we painted, meditated, laughed, shared stories, cultures, and wine. I ran on the country roads in Bruno accompanied by bright yellow canola fields and a bigger then life baby blue sky. We had lots of workshops; a creativity workshop given by me, an encaustic workshop given by Ann, live models, opportunities to indulge in plein-air painting, singing and piano playing. It was divine. If I wasn’t already in love with the Saskatchewan sky and landscape, this trip sealed it for me. I can’t wait to return next year.

Patiently

“To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful "magic skills" that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition.”

—Elizabeth Gilbert (b. 1969), novelist, biographer, essayist