Creative Picnics and Pots of Tea

This day really began the eve before. My partner and I took ourselves on a river picnic to get the creative juices flowing. We were blessed by a visit from a little friend along the way.

This morning I woke up with a good idea. There is a pile of sketches in the corner of my studio that seems to multiply day by day. I can't find a place for them and yet can't bring my self to throw them away. I decided it was time for transformative action!

Anyone who knows me also knows that I like to drink a lot of tea. It keeps the creative juices flowing. A pot of tea, like creativity, is best shared with another and so I invited a dear friend to join me in making. Several pots later, we had made many paper beads out of the sketches. These beads are fun and very relaxing to make by tearing the paper in strips, wrapping them round the end of a paint brush or knitting needle and sealing it with glue.

I added words on some of them to tell a story. Now I can wear my drawings and carry with me the intentions, conversations and fun experiences I had in making them.

An afternoon's muse

Being in flux....feeling those parts in life that are constantly changing, and those that are always moving but shifting so slowly the movement is barely perceivable. Feeling the way in which these aspects of life move together, like in a dance.

This is a piece I am working on as I muse, made from leaves, seeds, rocks, flowers, earth and cut up images from around my home.



This morning I listened to a beautiful talk by Jaya Ashmore. It begins with this poem by Chinese poet Zi yi.

All night I could not sleep
because of the moonlight on my bed.
I kept hearing a voice calling.
Out of nowhere
Nothing answered,
Yes.

I really resonated with this poem and with Jaya's thoughts about this poem. Among many points in her talk she suggests Zi yi is speaking about tuning into what the most subtle voice inside of you has been saying all along. Lying sleepless in that still moonlight is about listening to that Something beyond comprehension that pulls you quietly away from habitual life. Allowing oneself to be carried by what can't be easily grasped. Resting in this support we can feel such a vivid sense of our potential for transformation. I'll be enjoying musing over this today...

Inter-generational arts in the lounge room

Part of bringing creativity more into my daily life is about what grows in the front garden. This is how it started....

...And 6 months later we are growing tomatoes, melon, corn, beans, capsicum, pumpkin, cucumber, carrots, silverbeet, strawberries and herbs! We wanted to make some home made baskets to grow hanging plants so we enlisted the help of my partner's mum, who is a guru of traditional craft skills. This has turned out to be a beautiful project to share together, and is rapidly leading to a regular arts day in her lounge room every Sunday.

Here is the first basket I have started with her...

Basket beginnings...

Growing...

Experimenting...


And still experimenting with finishing off...Think it needs another trip to the guru!

What is special about this story, is that this project has a certain therapeutic benefit for all of us involved. My partner's mum had stopped making a lot of these things for a long time, and our enthusiasm to learn has ignited her fire again too. It is wonderful to learn from her and to spend time chatting about life and art together. Art making, I find, has an intrinsic quality of being able to bring people together. Yay. I'm inspired!

Becoming a craftess

I've been enjoying getting crafty with recycled materials since moving to the country. This was my first go at making a soft toy. I'd been feeling an urge to learn some more traditional skills (including sewing!) to incorporate into my art practice for some time....So I took myself to a Soul Doll making class, facilitated by the wonderful Trace Balla....and now I am hooked!

These dolls are ones I have been making for a while from sticks on the property, wire, yarn and loved garments. When I want to invite a quality or aspect of something great into my life, I often make a doll around it....The intention works! I like to place a special object inside the doll's body that can't be seen from the outside, which is symbolic of the quality I am thinking about at the time.


My first sculptural basket making experiment using willow gathered from the local creek and recycled string and wire made in Trace's workshop.... The fun of collecting materials on a long walk through nature is half the fun.

Thoughts on companioning

These dolls are made of string and wire, with something unique inside the body of each one. I made them when I was thinking about this idea of being with another recently.

Beginning in Spring

This blog is about the process of integrating the experiences of studying and working in art therapy into my daily life. It is an ongoing exploration. Inspiration comes from being happily lost in the forest out back of my house, the beautiful experiences of collaborating and facilitating art projects with community groups, and how this is somehow always reflected in my friendships and personal relationships at the time. Things become richer. There is a sacredness in just sitting with and being understood by another.