I took some time Sunday afternoon to attend a workshop decoupaging shapes with colors and words personally meaningful to me. The idea is to have my own small set of oracle art - discs, rectangles, stars - whatever shapes, colors and designs spoke to me. It was a great break from sitting at my desk working on my latest book project and that creative twist brought me innovative changes in my writing when I returned home.
Art in all forms has the possibility to surprise, delight, shock, affront and transform my perspective. And that is a good thing. I live in a town along the Hudson not too far from New York City. My town has no MacDonalds but has a great local coffee shop (or two), a great homemade ice cream shop, a great bakery and walking paths along the Hudson River. Best of all, it has a history of attracting creative artists of all kinds.
As I turn off the main drag onto the road that leads to my development, I pass the home of an artist. Right now, the artist has created a large sculpture of the Pink Panther. The Panther has one hand resting on the mailbox at the end of the driveway, while he gazes with curiosity at the drivers going by. I would show you this charming sculpture but my attempt to take a photo as I drive by might end with me wrapped around a tree.
I cannot drive up that road and not smile. No matter how I’m feeling, my local Pink Panther cracks me up and speaks to the child in me. The same artist has a large replica of an Easter Island head on the property and on one large oak, there is a huge dragonfly climbing. Such delights. I feel lucky that this local artist has chosen to share her/his creations with neighbors unknown. Art matters in ways large and small.
This weekend I made what I call a collage to reflect where I am at right now in my life. Like the class I took today, the uninterrupted minutes of working with images gets me out of my writer-mind and into pure creativity. Those moments of presence seep into the rest of my day, replacing busyness with grace and ease. I return to my writing refreshed, inspired and open to creative sparks.
After all, it is the ability to imagine a world better than the one we are in now, that calls to the creative soul. It is the ability to imagine the next plot twist in the story (the one I am writing or the story I am living) that allows me to meet challenges with creativity. Creativity reminds me that change is the true constant. And if I travel the ‘way-back’ machine I find myself sitting at the feet of one of Greece’s well-known, and most pessimistic, philosophers - Heraclitus. He said there is nothing permanent except change. And he wasn’t happy about it.
What was true in 500 BC is true today. But I find a kind of permanence in the timeless moments of creative focus. In those moments, time disappears and I step through a portal into a space without walls or clocks, and in those moments I am ageless and formless. I am creative energy and that, in a mystical way, is permanence.
I invite you this week to work with your imagination and creativity. Creativity is inherent in your soul-self, so step away from ideas of perfection and into ideas of discovery, child-like play and self-expression. Your life is an expression of art, drawn with threads of experience. This week, embrace your artist self and see if, by doing so, you can shift your inner clock in a way that brings you peace.
With love,
Cathleen
So often, I forget that visual art can inspire my writing. Thank you for this reminder!