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

Equanimity and Art Therapy

Equanimity comes from the Latin word aequus meaning balanced, and animus means spirit or internal state. In creating art, and or our creating life we are often looking for internal balance. In therapy, when someone falls out of balance with a though of feeling and we attempt to cope with it by stuffing it down. We call this suppression. Sometimes we do the opposite, identification, which is fixating a thought or feeling and not letting it pass. A third possibility between suppression and identification is equanimity.
When the body or mind is suppressing or identifying it is often tense. Gently reminding the body and mind to release and let go; to stop clenching, tightening or holding helps us get back into our natural rhythm or flow. Certain patterns or states cause us to react or fall into or out of equanimity. Being aware of these states is helpful.
When we are in the flow with making art we are in a state of equanimity. We are witnessing feeling, thoughts coming and going, and we may be expressing them, but we are not clinging to them in a way that we have become them. We are present and curious about how a felt sense or thought wants to be expressed. There is a understanding and a release in exploring our experience this way. Creating art helps us find our own natural flow or rhythm and creating therapeutic art helps us find our flow through states that we have a hard time being equanimious with.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. - Carl Jung

Equanimity

Equanimity is one of the most sublime emotions of Buddhist practice. The Buddha described a mind filled with equanimity as "abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will." Equanimity means the ability to see without being caught by what we see. It can also refer to the ease that comes from seeing a bigger picture. In India the word was sometimes used to mean "to see with patience." For example, when we know not to take offensive words personally, we are less likely to react to what was said. Instead, we remain at ease or equanimous.
Equanimity, "being in the middle" refers to balance, to remaining centered in the middle of whatever is happening. This balance comes from inner strength or stability. The strong presence of inner calm, well-being, confidence, vitality, or integrity can keep us upright, like a ballast keeps a ship upright in strong winds. As inner strength develops, equanimity follows.
These two forms of equanimity, the one that comes from the power of observation, and the one that comes from inner balance, come together in mindfulness practice. As mindfulness becomes stronger, so does our equanimity. We see with greater independence and freedom. And, at the same time, equanimity becomes an inner strength that keeps us balanced in middle of all that is.