I created this image at an Expressive Arts Conference in Sarasota FL over the weekend. Each of the facilitators, therapists and artists in attendance wrote an intention asking for an archetype to appear in the art we were about to make. With open mind, we then engaged with the art materials, surrendering to the image that wanted to come. A basic and beautiful studio practice I have engaged in for years thanks to the example of one of my virtual/biblio mentors Pat B. Allen.
This, however, was one of those times when I REALLY didn't like the image that came! This lady in the boat made me painfully aware of the fragile, vulnerable and somewhat blind place I have been in during the process of navigating towards what I hope will be the perfect, juicy spot for a new expanded studio!
As you can see-- we (the image and I) are still on a journey and the studio has just not appeared yet!
In the Open Studio Process convened by Pat B. Allen each image is dialogued with to learn its message and gift, even if the message takes quite a while to receive.
Today the "boat lady", I've come to call her, asked to be cut away from the background of the stormy sky she had been painted into it and brought outside. I did as she asked then laid her in the grass, letting the wind fluff her spirit feather and breathed. Staying in dialog with this image I don't like, being willing to do as she asks, forced me to slow down to the tempo of the archetypes, the tempo of the imagination, the tempo of LIFE, that if I trust it, is delivering me exactly where I need to be in ITS time, which may be a lot different than the timeframe of my ego.
Slowly then I begin to receive the message of the "boat lady" and surrender the image of the "ego-dragon lady" within that has been trying to run the show!
I tell you all this to share how the process of engaging with art and imagery in the spirit of Process can work, and help us individually, and collectively.
AND I invite you this month, during this time of transition, to create with me and experience it for yourself in a public workshop on Saturday March 21st at the Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth FL. Come for a 1/2 day or full day of Art Journaling and SoulCollage® -- see all the details