Tag Archives: art

Creating with Meraki, Wisdom and Joy – Eudaimonic Design

Posted on by Standard Reply

In this essay three words will be presented the words are Meraki, Wisdom and Joy, I will then discuss how these words can join together to lead to a further research question to explore in my final year project.

MERAKI

The first word I am going to discuss the word Meraki. “According to NPR, Urban Dictionary, and Darling Magazine, the word meraki (pronunciation: merak-kee) is a Greek adjective that describes doing something with soul, creativity, love and passion. The Modern Greeks describe this as putting yourself into whatever you are going” (Miller, K, 2021) The word is not directly translatable into English bur can be described as doing something with the essence of yourself or soul and leaving an impression of yourself in the work. This can apply to anything, such as organising a home, looking after a restaurant but when it applies to the arts and creative endevours such as art, poetry or design it is especially poignant. In the arts we can do things with passion and soul when we create putting our whole selves into the work. When artwork is done with meraki it could be argued the contents or fhe self or soul of the artist and their innermost passions and dreams are reflected in the artwork.

To produce art with meraki is to operate from the place of optimal experience or as M. Csikezentmihalyi, 1990 explains, as flow. “When a person is able to organize his or her consciousness so as to experience flow as often as possible their quality of life is going to improve”

In design work produced with meraki the guiding light of the artwork is the inner self or soul. Which leads us to discuss the nature of the soul. The Bible describes the soul as “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.—The spirit of man, breathed into him at first by the Creator (Genesis 2:7), and afterwards quickened and illumined by the Divine Spirit, is the “candle of the Lord,” given to man as an inward light and guide”(Proverbs 20:27) In eastern philosophy the soul is known as “Atma” and it too is full of light consciousness and bliss (Sat Chit Ananda) For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Bhagavad Gita 2.20)

If one was going to approach the question on what is the self or soul

that is reflected in the artwork from a more scientific perspective, one may look to Psychology. Psychology was originally the study of the soul – as the word Psyche which is in the words etymology comes from “Classical Mythology. a personification of the soul, which in the form of a beautiful girl was loved by Eros” (dictionary.com,2023) which is now in modern times more commonly thought of as the totality of mind self conscious and unconscious and -ology as the study of.

The soul (inner self) and mind has been studied by numerous philosophers and psychologists throughout history but for this essay we will focus on the work of Carl Jung. Carl Jung described the self as the totality of the whole psyche in order to distinguish it from the ego which constitutes only a small part of the psyche – see figure 1

FIGURE 1 – The Self according to Carl Jung (Von Franz, M.L 1976)

The soul or inner centre of the self can also be called the daimon of man. “throughout the ages men have been intuitively aware of such an inner centre. The greeks called it mans inner daimon; in Egypt it was expressed by the concept of the “Ba-soul” and the Romans worshipped it as the “genius” native to each individual” (Von Franz, M. L,1976pp 161) So it can be said that the self that we express when we do things with soul or meraki comes from a spiritual part of ourselves which could be considered to be full of light and wisdom, is older than our physical lives and is comprised of much more than just simply our conscious self or I (ego)

In design work the artists style could be said to come from this part of themselves which is independent of any exterior objects drawn. “The poet and potter M.C. Richards describes the experience of the daimon well when she says, “There lives a creative being inside all of us and we must get out of its way for it will give us no peace unless we do.” (Jungian centre for spiritual sciences, 2023)

Carl Jung fully explored the psyche and his daimon or genius which he felt could be represented by archetypes such as the wise old man in his artwork (see figure 2) and his work in his Red and Black books are invaluable to explore the sort of images which come from the depths of the soul.

FIGURE 2 – The wise old man Archetype as a personification of the Self.

Carl Jung is not the only pioneer to explore the inner self or soul in their art and design work. Modern artists and designers such as Catalina Estrada, Alena Hennesey and Laura Hollick use the soul for inspiration in their work choosing images in their designs which has come from the free expression of the soul so the artwork is done with Meraki. Catalina Estrada runs a design course on an online platform called Domestika called “Patterns with Soul” and in this course she explains how she gets her images using the expressive imagery from children’s poetry. These children have expressed their inner spiritual self or soul in their poetry which is done with meraki and this is used to design Catalina Estradas designs which she also does with meraki . (figure 3)

Figure 3 – An example of Caralina Estrada’s soulful designs

WISDOM

The second word we will be exploring is Wisdom. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2012 defines wisdom as “the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgement 2 the body of knowledge and experience that develops within a society or period”. In design wisdom is different to knowledge or information, its not just having the right information or knowledge to complete our design work but having the right application and wise insight on how to apply the knowledge effectively to the greater benefit of the designer, the world and those we design for,

Design itself can be thought of as “the wise regulation of dynamic elements such as flow, integration, awareness, and value.(J. Woods, 2023) So wisdom is essential to design but there raises “the question as to whether wisdom can ever be transferred, therefore whether it can viably be represented as ‘data’ or ‘information” (J.Woods, 2023) Wisdom comes from experience but if we want to be wise before we become old we can start by emulating the wise, finding someone with good judgement and discernment in their design work and becoming inspired by their work.

To design with wisdom, not simply knowledge would be to design for the highest good of all and is linked with virtue. “In looking for a North Star to guide practice, I’d like to offer the old Greek term eudaemonia . In its original and ancient context, it was an ethical and political notion to refer to the highest human good and often linked with the ideas of virtue and practical wisdom” (Dalladay-Simpson, J, 2022. pp 42) So to be wise in design would be to be ethical and to benefit humanity in some way.

For guidance, we can also look at the wisdom traditions around the world where known wise leaders have written down their insights and good judgements for the benefit of mankind and incorporate their wisdoms into our designs. Indigenous wisdom includes insights from observing and working with nature over many generations. Being curious about our world and seeing through different cultural lenses, wisdom can be gleaned for artistic inspiration. Some wisdom traditions to learn from include such gems as the japanese asthetic of wabi sabi of finding beauty in imperfection, which allows us to embrace our imperfections and the imperfections of the world and find the beauty in it. Of if we were experimenting with light and shadow and need to come to terms with the shadows in our world we can find much in the wisdom traditions in praise of light but we may too wish to explore some of the worlds wisdom around shadows which can be found in books like “In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki. Artworks designed and made with cultural wisdom are often more innovative and can help illuminate the minds of the viewers to different perspectives to their own, helping to enhance the wisdom, insight and better judgement of humanity leading to more prosperous lives for all.

It may not just be people we can choose to emulate for wise design but nature also. Nature has many wise designs in it having gone through billions of years of evolution- where errors in design and bad judgements have been discarded by natural selection. By looking at the designs in nature we can better see what works for our own designs, this is the wisdom of bio-mimicry. There are many examples of successful design from bio-mimicry such as the design of Velcro which “was invented by George de Mestral in 1941 and was inspired by the burrs he found on himself and on his dog. Being an engineer and entrepreneur, Mr. de Mestral examined the burr under a microscope and realized the small hooks of the burr and loops of the fur/fabric allowed the burr to adhere exceedingly well. This sparked his idea to mimic the structure as a potential fastener” (Micro Photonics, 2020)

This principle of learning from the wisdom of nature can be used to apply to modern design of the world especially sustainable design. Natures wisdom being used in sustainable design can be seen in the Cardboard to Cavier Project by Graham Wiles where it was observed in nature that one organisms waste products are another organisms fuel or food found in complex ecosystems. This was applied to a fish restaurants cardboard waste which was recycled to be used as horse bedding, which was in turn collected and used as compost for worms and then these worms were in turn fed to sturgeon which produce cavier for the fish restaurant. This leads to zero waste and a sustainable and prosperous future through the wise design of our waste systems via bio mimicry. (cited by Pawlyn, M, 2011)

Wisdom then comes from curiosity, keen observation and insight, mimicking the wise or with experience, coupled with an ability think critically about knowledge, to then design with courage, to make something new and innovative that benefits the world. It comes from being in right relationship with ourselves and the natural world around us. Knowledge and information can only take us so far where how to best apply it comes from within as a creative leap from knowledge to practical wisdom

JOY

The last word to explore is Joy. Joy is defined as “an emotion of great pleasure or happiness” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012) This emotion is especially important in design as this is a feeling that would be wonderful to evoke when a design is viewed and would be especially important for commercial success as a designer. Design which made people feel happier, healthier and therefore more productive would undoubtedly sell well and lead to greater harmony in society. So the question is how can joy be evoked in viewers and what kind of elements would a design need to include to bring about feelings of happiness and joy? This question was asked by Ingred Fetell Lee who is a design consultant and one of the leading speaker and writer about the power of joy. In her book Joyful she documented what she called the aesthetics of joy which include the following:

“Energy – Vibrant colour and light

Abundance- lushness, multiplicity and variety

Freedom – nature, wildness, and open space

Harmony – balance, symmetry and flow

Play – circles; spheres and bubbly forms

Surprise – contrast and whimsy

Transcendence – elevation and lightness

Magic – invisible forces and illusions

Celebration- synchrony, sparkle and bursting shapes

Renewal – blossomin, expansion and curves”

(Fetell Lee, I, 2018)

Joy is important not just in our pursuit of happiness in pleasure but because it relates to wisdom and virtue, more as eudaimonia In ancient Greek, the word for the highest degree of human happiness is eudaimonia,(Gilbert E, 2016) This is the joy not related to hedonism where joy is found simply in consuming things but in wise living and practical tasks such as making our environment clean and decluttered. Marie Kondo, the organisation expert talks of the sparkling joy of decluttering, where her KonMarie Method describes decluttering everything in the environment and only keeping minimal items which are meaningful and bring you greater joy creating a happy home environment.

Joy can be described as an inner state which is mirrored in the world around us, either the joy in the environment sparks a change within us or the joy within us is mirrored in the world in joyful design. “External conditions mirror internal conditions, so straightening your room settles internal disorder” affirms authors Charlene Belitz and Meg Lundstrom in, The Power of Flow: Practical Ways to Transform Your Life with Meaningful Coincidence.” (Cited in Fahkry 2018)

Inrid Fetell Lee in her book Joyful, 2018, pp 13 – 14 describes how Joyful design in the environment can inspire greater or wiser actions in people. She mentions the instance of a town which to all accounts was dead and grey and rife with crime but when the mayor started to paint the buildings joyful bright colours an inner change was brought to the towns inhabitants and they felt safer and paid their taxes and people started to care for the town better since the inclusion of joyful design. Joyful design helps people live happier, healthier lives and can make drab depressing or cluttered environments more inclusive to health. If all doctors surgeries and hospitals and educational establishments were designed with joy in mind, then real benefits may be harnessed for the people who used these environments on a regular basis.

To link the three words Meraki, Wisdom and Happiness we can see both wisdom and happiness are a state of the soul or true self and a way of being called Eudaemonia. “It “is a key concept in ancient Greek ethical and political philosophy…eudaimonic well-being insights from the Greek wisdom tradition equates well-being with living a virtuous life; that is, a life lived in accordance with four cardinal virtues – wisdom, justice, moderation, and courage.”(Dhiman, S 2021) ) The etymology of this word being Eu meaning good and daimon or genius. To have meraki wise joyful design is to have an eudaemonic design and this can come from within, while being influenced by and being in right attitude with our environment and world. It stems from a state of flow and having a curiosity about our inner lives and the natural world, learning practical wisdom and virtue from them which leads to joy and benefits the world. To this end, for a final project question I would like to further research,”How can we create Eudaimonic design as ethical designers for a better world?

REFERENCES

IMAGES

Figure 1 – Psyche according to Jung – Jung, C.G. and Franz, M.-L.von (1976) Man and his symbols. New York, NY: Doubleday & Co. pp 161

Figure 2 Wise old Man Archetype as symbol of self Jung, C.G. and Franz, M.-L.von (1976) Man and his symbols. New York, NY: Doubleday & Co. pp 198

Figure 3 Catalina Estradas designs (2023) Colorfull illustrations of Catalina Estrada. Available at: http://coralicon.blogspot.com/2009/11/mimo-tego-ze-ze-o-ilustracjach-tej.html (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Biomimicry – the burr and the invention of Velcro (2021) Micro Photonics. Available at: https://www.microphotonics.com/biomimicry-burr-invention-velcro/ (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Cross, N (2006) Designerly Ways of Knowing London.Springer-Verlag Limited Available at: 1 (springer.com) (Accessed: April 26,2023)

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008) Flow The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Dhiman, S. (2021) “Being good and being happy: Eudaimonic well-being insights from socrates, Plato, and Aristotle,” The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being, pp. 3–32. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30025-8_1.

Dictionary definition & meaning (no date) Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dictionary (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Fahkry, T. (2020) Why life is a mirror reflecting your inner world, Medium. Mission.org. Available at: https://medium.com/the-mission/why-life-is-a-mirror-reflecting-your-inner-world-a7ad344be6c0 (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Gilbert, E. (2016) Big magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear. London, London: Bloomsbury

Hennesey, A. (2023) Art becomes you – Soul Painting, alena hennessy. Available at: https://www.alenahennessy.com/ (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Hollick,L at TEDxHamilton (2014) You are the art YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSJDvLxi2Rc (Accessed: April 26, 2023)

Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences (2015) In the grip of the daimon. Available at: https://jungiancenter.org/in-the-grip-of-the-daimon/ (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Jung, C.G. and Franz, M.-L.von (1976) Man and his symbols. New York, NY: Doubleday & Co.

Jung, C.G. (1977) The archetypes and the collective unconscious: Transl. by r.f.c.hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Lee, I.F. (2021) Joyful: The surprising power of ordinary things to create extraordinary happiness. New York, NY: Little, Brown Spark.

Lee, I.F. (2018) Where joy hides and how to find it, Ingrid Fetell Lee: Where joy hides and how to find it | TED Talk. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ingrid_fetell_lee_where_joy_hides_and_how_to_find_it (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Pawlyn,M (2011) Using nature’s genius in architecture (2011) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZp6smeSQA (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Proverbs 20:27 – The spirit of Man (no date) Bible Hub (Holy Bible). Available at: https://biblehub.com/proverbs/20-27.htm (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Mukundananda, S. (no date) Bhagavad Gita, the song of god, Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God – Swami Mukundananda. Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog, USA. Available at: https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/ (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Simpson, J.A. (2012) The oxford english dictionary. Oxford, Englans: Oxford University Press.

Stein, M. and Arzt, T. (2020) Jung’s Red Book for Our Time Searching for soul under postmodern conditions. Asheville: Chiron Publications.

Tanizaki, J. (1977) In praise of shadows. New Haven, CT: Leete’s Island.

Uribe, C.E. (2023) Online course – illustration for patterns with soul , Domestika. Available at: https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/1266-illustration-for-patterns-with-soul (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

What does meraki mean? (2021) The Word Counter. Available at: https://thewordcounter.com/meaning-of-meraki/#:~:text=What%20does%20the%20word%20meraki,into%20whatever%20you%20are%20going. (Accessed: April 26, 2023).

Wood,J(2002) Metadesigning Designing in the Anthropocene,Taylor & Francis Group, . ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trinity/detail.action?docID=6955538. Accessed 23/04/23:23

Woods, J. (no date) The wisdom of nature = the nature of wisdom; – ub.edu. Available at: http://www.ub.edu/5ead/PDF/8/Wood.pdf (Accessed: May 8, 2023).



Our Collective Dreams Create the Future

Posted on by Standard Reply

With the news being as bleak as ever with even more wars and collective disasters hitting the world. It can be easy to turn a blind eye to all this and just switch off the news while increasingly living in your own safe bubble at home, work and study. We may be spurred into action in different ways by taking part in protests at the collective insanity of our politicians and corporations but also I feel we are called to dream a better future for ourselves and the world.

In Shamanic cultures they have a concept of dreaming the world into being, it could be said we are all living in a collective dream and we all collectively dream or create the world we experience. So what we dream is pretty important. So what do we dream? Many people are dreaming of more money, a better job, better life experiences, holidays etc. Some of the more religious amoung us are dreaming according to the dictates of their religion, perhaps where a saviour fixes the world for us and saves the day by returning and creating a new world some day, some are dreaming of a spiritual world which we can escape to when we die. Still others are caught in the collective dark spell of the media spin, and dream whatever we see on our screens, whatever we are fed as news on current affairs. This all seems so passive and is very much dictated to by others. Many people have handed over the power of our collective dreaming to someone else, the religions, the politicians, the journalists and so on

However this handing over of our dreams to the dictates and spells of others is disempowering and very much leads us into victim consciousness as the collective dreams dictated by the powerful few are often quite negative. So like the shamans who dream their world into being every day through art, song, poetry, dancing and ritual, maybe we are meant to do something similar.

We can take charge of our collective dreaming by imprinting the universe with our own frequency of what we would like to see and dream in humanity – these dreams and visions of a better future can help transport us over disaster both personally and collectively. If we all starting dreaming something great for ourselves and the world every day thats beautiful meaningful, a world where life wins, love wins, and benefit is given to the many not just the few then what a world it would be

It all starts with IMAGINATION and imagining the world or our lives different to the way it currently it is, then creating our vision in some way through creative means, then when we have seen how wonderful it is – starting to put this vision into action.

The negative spells of the mass media can no longer touch us when we are collectively creating a beautiful world rather than just passively reacting to the latest drama we are given. The negative experiences can be seen as opportunities to grow as people in different directions rather than just a bad experience, and then we can all grow and create together – a life that is both beautful and meaningful and well worth living.

So what are you dreaming? Because this dream helps shape the future for all of us.

Collective dreaming

Dreaming of a better way and a new world is my vision

where reality and imagination make a harmonious collision

The ashes of a dark night has gathered around

A collective nightmare we have created and found

But its in our dreaming wonder power 

To create a new future from seed to flowerI

ts starts with asking what have we have chosen to believe?

In religions and media sorcery is what we are meant to serve

To the world who just wants to grow and thrive

In responsibility – are we doing whats right or do we dive   

 Into gruesome shadows – where is our spiritual gold?

That we can release on the earth in exchange not sold

For the heavy energy and negative spells

Collective transformation one by one to dwell

In harmony and recopticity, not separation and hate

But love and understanding and compassion a better fate

For all the world for you and me

Let it be so and blessed be

Eco Printing – working in harmony with nature

Posted on by Standard Reply

Yesterday I discovered eco printing as an art technique which I loved. Basically you print on paper from real flowers you may have collected from your garden or a friendly local flower farm. The act of going out into nature and collecting the flowers is therapeutic in itself – flowers are beautiful and they hold a healing energy all of their own. You can spend time with the flowers communing with them and asking their permission to be part of your sacred art project – selecting the ones with the most vibrant colours and interesting shapes to be part of your page. Flowers, like all plants communicate something of their essence to us in their scent and vibration and its usually all positive and uplifting – a real peaceable break from the cares of mundane life or the latest sad happenings in the news. Nature provides, she has all we need to create beauty, harmony and abundance in our lives.

Once the flowers have been selected then you can place them in water ready. Then the paper needs to be prepared by soaking trimmed sheets of heavy duty watercolour paper in soya milk in a tray for about 30 minutes. Then you prepare your workstation, 2 kitchen tiles, a piece of cloth cut to the size of the 2 tiles when their placed side by side and the paper that also fits the dimensions and length of the two tiles.

First you place the 2 tiles down side by side, then the cloth goes on top of that, and then the paper on top of the cloth in layers. You then fold the piece of paper to match the size of one tile and then open it out again ready to receive the flowers. You place the flowers, leaves, petals (nothing too bulky) on the paper in a design. Then you fold the piece of paper with the cloth around it, place the tiles around that also in a “sandwich” – then clip the tile, cloth paper flower sandwich together.

You then place them in a cauldron with a little water in the bottom on a medium heat to steam them for around 30 minutes also. Once the steaming has finished you can open your tile sandwhich and the print is revealed inside. Pealing off the petals and leaves, the paper should hold an impression of the flower and leaves.

Then once all the debris is removed and its dried some – you can then start to go over the design in pen to pick out interesting details, black fineliner or posca pen is ideal for this

These peices of paper are ideal for cards or framed on their own – but if you want to make pattern images for digital printing, like the images I have made shown in this blog, then you can take a photo of your work, then trim the photo so its cropped clean, then use something called a layout app to make a mirrored repeat pattern of your image. This is then ready to print onto fabric to make scarfs or cushion covers of whatever your imagination can set sight on.

The petals and leaves can be collected and dried for other projects or composted – making this a truly eco friendly and beautiful project.

The Mystery of Creativity and Innovation

Posted on by Standard Reply

Creativity is a beautiful and amazing thing. So many people really love and admire true creativity when it becomes responsible for an amazing piece of art or a new innovative design, technology, fashion, books or a new product.

However, not everyone finds it easy to accept the new, when the new comes along. Often if a culture is not ready for it, it can be shunned, labeled, locked away, hidden or otherwise removed from society as an aberration.  Sometimes in the case of technology, we have to wait for the infrastructure to change to accommodate the new as often networks of all kinds remain outdated. An easy example of this would be the fax machine – a really common item may be a bit outdated now but most offices do contain the fax machine somewhere – but when was it invented? it was actually invented in 1843 well before it was needed or could be accepted by the culture and also because it needed new infrastructure. Education too always takes a long time to catch, you may not know it but our education system is often hopelessly outdated and often fails to prepare people for jobs in a fast-paced changing world. New jobs become available and exist due to the rate of change and innovation, that nobody is equipped to fill because training hasn’t caught up.

So what skills can we learn in the modern world that would be useful in these times? Creativity could be one such skill. What is creativity? its often considered a little bit mystical a mysterious force that brings an idea from the ether into solid reality as something new. Creativity could be considered thinking outside the box or its ideas that have value.

Creativity is used to fuel innovation which is something that’s really important in these times of transitions and change in all aspects of society and in the ways we evaluate what we think we know about the world.

You may not know it but theres different types of innovation

Theres sustainable innovation which is looking at ways we can care for and sustain our planet

Service innovation – which is innovation around services

Experience innovation – which is all about providing an experience, for instance, Apple produced a product with a  specifically designed a box that was slow to open to provide the ultimate anticipation experience upon receiving and opening the product. This innovation can be anything to do with the user experience in a variety of different ways.

Then there’s my favorite, impossible innovation this is innovation that is way ahead for its time that seems impossible such as the moon landing initially was years ago something that seems impossible now, but actually, it may become reality one day.

Creativity and innovation is also really important in our society because it fuels social change. A recent example we could look at on this is the recent amount of technological innovation which has caused mass changes in our society now everyone has a phone which has changed peoples habits and behavior.   The internet has caused huge changes in the way people do things and continues to do so with new ways now of earning money online and the new easy connectivity around the world that didn’t exist before

So what is innovation? innovation is applied creativity. Creativity, a mystical gift we all have to some degree, applied usefully to create innovation and drive mass culture change. Possibly and potentially world-changing.

Fluidity modernity is a constant flow of innovation that is changing the world every second of every day.

Innovation while being fuel for mass culture change around the globe is also quite lucrative. In the UK alone in 2007, 1.8 billion was spent just on innovation and the generation of interesting ideas.

So the nitty gritty… how do you do it? is creativity and innovation truly so mystical a gift that is for the creative few, out of the grasp of mere mortals. Well not everyone thinks it is, many people think creativity is something we all have and is something we should all be using and if we really utilized it well could potentially bring about some amazing changes in society.

Creativity is all about divergent thinking.. that’s our out of the box thinking. So how do you do that? Many people claim to not be able to see the box let alone think outside of it – but is that really totally true.

A really easy process and an example would be – just think of all the uses for something like a pencil.

You may think ok – you can draw or write with a pencil so these would be the ordinary every day uses for a pencil but then if you decided to think a bit more creatively you may think well really what else could you do with it – you could use it to put your hair up its wooden and burns so it could be used to start a fire it could be used to make holes in the ground for seeds a weapon chewing erasing.

So this is a really good start in our creative brainstorming – but then what happens if we add something else to the equation.

Didnt mention the size of the pencil or the material

so what could we do with the pencil now – build a house a rocket ship  titanium pencil used to sculpt, edible pencil

So what happens when we say it doesn’t have to function as a pencil

ok so now we get new possibilities – its a ruler, chopsticks, fidget spinner table leg tree support.

But then when we get truly divergent thinking – we may actually have to totally suspend our ideas of reality and what we think the world and the pencil should look like in reality to get something new.

So how could we do that? well an example would be to take the pencil to a totally fantastical place and imagine its uses there

For example – lets take the pencil to the land of harry potter – so if harry potter was going to use the pencil in his land – what would he use the pencil for?  In this example, we can begin to suspend reality and begin to think in ways that are not totally logical or linear to produce new results.

Examples could be as a wand as a mind-reading device, for recording dreams, records conversations, write spells, mind reading pencil, or you could use a giant pencil instead of a broom to fly with, in the game Quidditch

So there we have come up with quite a few ideas that are a little bit out of the box that could potentially become something new one day.

Creativity and innovation is not out of the reach of everyone –  maybe if we all applied a little creativity magic to our lives we could you come up with some amazing ideas to change your life, live with interest and colour and variety, and inspire the lives of those around you.

This blog post has been inspired by the talk by Josh Hart who used meditation and spiritual pracices to fuel innovation and design – given in the Tech hub, 3rd May 2018

JOSH HART
“The Mystery Behind Creativity and Innovation”

This is an interactive talk unpacking the mystery behind the nature of creativity by delving into the uses of divergent thinking. Cognitive barriers tend to prevent creativity being accessed whenever a person wants, there are structures and tools you can use to overcome this problem, to give yourself step by step innovative thinking, whenever you need it.

Josh Hart VA, author of Phenomenological Design. He has an MA in Design Futures. He is a Designer and Director of Mindfulness Design. “I am a multidisciplinary designer with a keen passion for design and mindfulness. I thrive off creative challenges and collaborative experiences.”

Mindfulness Design is a new company, based in Cardiff that promotes innovation and mindfulness within a business

Lockdown Art – Prayer Flags

Posted on by Standard Reply

In the Uk we are well into our lockdown by a couple of weeks. If you are like me then you may have been using this time to be more creative, do healing soul work, write poetry or take some courses in something you always wanted to learn

If you have a stack of paintings and drawings you have made during this time of crisis then this is beautiful and brilliant memento of being able to stay calm and collected during a world crisis and difficult time for everyone

So this could make a great book for your drawings or paintings OR

another thing we could do with this work once the lock down is over is turn them into coloured prayer flags as a memento of the pandemic of 2020 to hang in your home once all this is over.

So this is some of the art I have been making during this time.

 

20200405_164201_20200405164527730

20200328_115526

spring1

The idea is to keep collecting these positive uplifting images with the intention of peace and harmony to ALL during this time and beyond and then going to the print shop once this is all over – printing them postcard size and transfering the images onto silky fabric using a product like image maker

If you wanted to make the prayer flags fancy you could even stich into them or add details like beads and then threading them onto a chord to hang as prayer flags from this time in quarantine

A bit like these prayer flags

 

prayer flags 014

You could even add bells or tassels to the bottom and it would make a wonderful memento of this time in history of the pandemic of 2020 as well as showing off the creative work from this time.

Happy creating 🙂

DURING THESE TIMES…….shamanic archetype emerging

Posted on by Standard Reply

celtic treeI haven’t written anything for some time and now I find that I am forced to pause and reflect since we are in the middle of a Coronovirus pandemic which means everyone must stay indoors as much as possible and away from crowds.

What have I been doing during this time – well I have been healing myself mentally and emotionally from whatever ails me, my wounds and shadows. Learning about Jungian psychology and the shamanic archetype which emerges during times like these to guide us through a crisis

Whats the shamanic archetype I hear you ask – well, its an archetype with clusters of facets which aid people in difficult times and comes to the fore building character when times get tough.

It has many facets which include the sacred clown (humor during tough times) the artist (art and creativity and colour to brighten difficult times) sacred musician (the musician) but also things like the witch, the priest, the magician, the trickster, the hero and so many others

If you feel any of these facets relate to you and your expression for getting through a crisis such as an ill health or an economic depression, or anything really, difficult relationships abuse, trauma then you may want to look at a course called the SHAMANIC WORKBOOK hosted by somebody called Andrew Carmago who runs the School of Modern Soul Science who can help people to navigate what happens psychologically during tough times and when this shamanic archetype emerges and can cause issues if not dealt with properly. https://theschoolofmodernsoulscience.teachable.com/

I have discovered my own expression of the shamanic archeype which emerged for me when I went through a health crisis and a difficult relationship and other real life traumas – include the artist, the sacred singer, the poet and the trickster, the technican of dream time and the dancer – there more and these facets overlap – but these are some  the facets of the shamanic archetype that emerged for me to guide me through crisis or just life in general.

You have to be careful that the shadow self doesn’t emerge and cause more of an issue or you get stuck in survival modes but there has been a great emergence of the shamanic archetype during these times and I guess its only going to get more prevalent as there appear to always be plenty of crisis for people to navigate and overcome.

For me my shamanic archetype has appeared as a tree of life as I meditate on life and the seed of life when everything seems to be going to death and decay. Spring time is a wonderful time for this mediation and Im going to embrace my shamanic calling and plant some seeds now during this crisis to honour life and I can watch something grow while everything is in turmoil.

For the last few years with a crisis in my health I have been training for times like these – if you want some ideas on how to navigate these personal crisis while we are all stuck at home then heres a list I came up with.

GET CREATIVE – find a positive healing expression you can spend your time doing instead of constantly staring at screens and panicking.  You can still check the news but it doesn’t have to be constant. It could be art making, card making, water colours (there are many free classes online and in books) My personal favouritie is Tamara laporte and she does a a Life book lessons with some free classes to get started to see if you get on with her style https://www.willowing.org/

GET THE BODY MOVING – during times like these its easy for the body to go into lock down sofa surfing and apathy but this isn’t really desirable – there is loads of great exercise videos you can do from home now during the crisis. Or you could do something called Chakradance meditation which is my personal favourite – basically you have the benefits of free dance and guided meditation as you visualise dancing through forests or crystal caves or round the campfire all in the comfort of your home = perfect for quarantine times. You can find chakradance for the minimum of 10 pounds for some basic dance meditations on daily OM https://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/courseoverview.cgi?cid=928  Chakradances main page is here: http://www.chakradance.com/

WORK FROM HOME – theres currently loads of ways to earn a living from home provided you have a phone line and a decent internet connection. Some great ideas to get you started are teaching english as a foreign language – a basic website for this is cambly where you can get paid just to converse in english to people around the world https://www.cambly.com/english?lang=en but there are MANY english language sites. Other ideas could include proofreading, copywriting, data entry and so on Also ARISE does customer service from home https://www.ariseworkfromhome.co.uk/

SING – now may be a great time to start dancing and singing to your favourite songs at home – we saw this in Italy where they had beautiful neigbourly singing together in the street – this could be done in the UK or whatever country your in during a cris – but a personal practise even of just singing in the shower will be great for stress relief and expressing your voice during this time. If you like mantras and chanting i recommend also chanting either poems or affirmations that are personal to you and you have come up with yourself to encourage yourself (maybe repeat them while your doing the hand washing) A GREAT website for hebrew mantras which I love to sing is http://www.rabbishefagold.com/hebrew_chant/

KEEP A GRATITUDE JOURNAL – sometimes we can be overwhelmed by the things that worry us or seem to be going wrong – but theres nothing wrong with focussing on what is going right today here and now as well and it can be a beautiful thing to look back on – you could start a gratitude journal today and your grand-kids could read about what you were grateful for during the pandemic of 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ephemeral Art, Impermanence and the meaning of Life

Posted on by Standard Reply

 

There is a lot of art”out there” and most leave the tracks and traces of the artist who made them but what happens when the artist deliberately sets out to leave no trace of their art? When it is an ephemeral piece swept up and destroyed by its creator or by the ravages of time itself – the only trace that may remain perhaps in the form of photographs capturing a temporal fleeting moment of beauty and wonder. Perhaps they exist only in the memories of those who saw it for its brief existence and perhaps it’s there as a history of the landscape in which it was formed. It existed for a time, it was here and then it was gone. There is a unique philosophy to the artists who choose to create such fleeting ephemeral works of art and in this essay we will look at the works of three artists in particular who choose to express their art in this short lived way and that is Andy Goldsworthy, Tibetan monks and Ryan Moule.

What story does the art tell from the artist who deliberately chooses to leave no trace except for photographs and memories. There are actually many forms of art by artists who do this everything from simple sand sculptures and beach art to environmental land art to light painting and the ancient intricate colourful sand mandalas of the Tibetan monks.

Firstly looking at Andy Goldsworthy, he is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist. He produces site specific sculpture and land art in a natural and urban setting. His work is made from leaves sticks stones ice and all sorts of natural material and is often completely transient in nature.

“Anthony Goldsworthy’s work”

He likes to create something from the energy of the landscape, something with rhythm, like a dance “a lot of my work is like picking potatoes you have to get into the rhythm of it” (Goldsworthy 2009). The philosophy behind his work is all about the dance of life which is fleeting and temporary in nature. Time plays a significant role in his work he creates a piece takes a photograph of it in its prime and then leaves it to the elements to decay destroy and “kill” the artwork leaving nothing permanent behind. To Goldsworthy this is important to understand the reality of birth, life and death.

His artwork also emphasises the connectedness of all things and the connectedness of the art and us to nature and the landscape. It and we are part of the natural world. Time is something that connects us all and the environment in which we live which is temporary and not eternal. His ephemeral artwork leaves no legacy except for photographs and memories but this is living the honesty of life on earth and how eventually even the most indelible mark fades to nothing in the end. Its also about treading lightly on the earth as an environmental measure and leaving only a gentle footprint on a delicate planet.

This concept is also found elsewhere in the world with the Tibetan Buddhist monks and their beautiful temporary sand mandalas

In Tibetan Buddhism they have a teaching on impermanence and how everything on earth in this life is temporary. The idea in Buddhism is to become conscious of this fact and live life well and in accordance with what are the known laws of nature. The teaching can be summed up in the phrase “this too shall pass” which is a jewish folktale where a king commissioned a ring to be made that would make him happy when he was sad and sad when he was happy. He was a wealthy man and money was no object to him, the ring that came back was a simple gold ring with the words “this too shall pass” engraved on it. (see story at the end) Which is the essence of impermanence, nothing lasts forever when you have all the riches and wealth in the world, this will pass when you are having the worst experience in your life this too shall pass and so it is with life itself, this too shall pass and whatever life you have carefully crafted for yourself all your achievements and reached goals will one day pass into old age and death. The Tibetan sand mandala reflects this – it is beautifully made and may even incorporate beautiful images of the inner world deities and archetypes but once it is carefully and beautifully created by an expert monk – it is immediately swept up into grey sand and distributed as a blessing to the local people or put into a stream to distribute the blessings to the whole world. This teaches the Buddhists monks and those who see it the lesson of how to live with impermanence in mind – like a beautiful sand mandala life should be a blessing and carefully constructed a beautiful thing for the world to behold, then it is swept away by death and decay. It teaches that although life is temporary it is ideally still worth striving for and a good life is to create a beautiful piece of art from it to bless the world leaving only photographs and memories behind.

These sentiments are also found and echoed in the ephemeral artworks of photographer Ryan Moule in his talk in November 2016 he mentioned how he realised that one day his photographs could end up in a charity shop somewhere after he had died and how he didn’t really want to see this happen so he decided to create a temporary set of photographs in an exhibition called deviated light showing the decay of buildings as a visual and conceptual analogy for the impermanence of photography. It also raises the question of collective memory and whether things are better remembered after they have been photographed. In his talk Moule was quite philosophical about life and he played an ipad air advert which showed his views about how like the Tibetan sand mandala life is an artwork or poem of a greater collective poem of the whole of life in the universe and we have this moment of life short as it is in the scheme of things is to contribute a verse, so he asks the question what would your verse be? His photography will fade to black eventually but that was his contribution to the great story or poem of life as it rolls ever on. The ipad advert was based on a poem found from the dead poets society

O Me! O Life!

BY WALT WHITMAN

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

 

  Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

 

Source:  Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51568

 

The common thread of all these artists are they are approaching and expressing what can be an ugly and uncomfortable truth for us all about the temporary nature of life old age and death, in a beautiful and profound way. It makes us think and reflect on this reality and how to best live our lives without shocking us too much. It also makes us think of those who have passed and the contributions they made before they died.  No matter what we do how wise or rich or skilled we become nobody escapes death and when it comes, our body will return to dust leaving only memories to those we leave behind. It helps us appreciate the transient and beautiful nature of life and perhaps makes us value our loved ones or even our enemies that much more because we know they have their time and they too shall be gone like the colourful artworks which leave no real trace behind them.

The King and His ring – jewish folktale

During the festive Passover meal with his ministers, King Solomon teased Benaiah son of Jehoiada, his arrogant Chief of Army.

– “Benaiah, I was told that there is a special ring that has special power. It can change the mood of a person. A sad person becomes happy when watching it and a happy person becomes sad. I know that you of all people in the kingdom can find the ring. Would you be able to find this ring and bring it to me until the eve of Sukkot eve, that is 6 months from now?”

– “If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty,I will find it and bring it to you”replied Benaiah.

King Solomon smiled as he knew that no such ring existed, but he wanted to give his minister a taste of humility.

Time passed and Benaiah sent soldiers and messengers throughout the kingdom, examined records, consult with elders yet he could not find even a hint of the existence of the magic ring. Spring passed so did summer. The last harvest of the year, and with it the Succoth festival, was approaching. Then came eve of Sukkot day. With only a few hours to go before the deadline, Benaiah was wandering in the streets of Jerusalem. The sun was setting casting a golden light on the city which until today all its buildings are made of stone. All the merchants were busy with the last sale and prepared to close their stalls. In desperation he turned to an old silversmith.

– “Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy person forget his joy and the broken-hearted person forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah. The silversmith listened carefully and smiled. He took a plain silver ring from his old and dusty box and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face lighted up as he knew he had found the right ring.“This is the ring!” he cried, and gave the poor jeweler all the money in his purse.“Come to the palace and you shall have more,” he added, “for I cannot thank you enough.”

The sun set. The time for the holiday dinner arrived. That night the palace was full of guests ready to celebrate with the king.

– “Well, my friend,” said Solomon, “Have you found a ring that can make a happy man sad and a sad man happy?” Everyone who knew about the search for the impossible ring laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

But to everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a ring and declared, “Here it is, your majesty! I found a ring. It has three Hebrew letters engraved on it: Gimel, Zayin, Yud. Then he whispered the meaning of these initials in the king’s ear.

As soon as Solomon heard the meaning of the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. He looked at the guests filling the banquet hall, the tables covered with shining serving pieces, silver goblets, and the finest food one can find. Tears rolled down his eyes. He felt sad. The entire hall was in total silence. A ring that makes the king cry?

Then King Solomon looked at the ring again and started to smile again then laughed so hard infecting the entire palace with giggles and laughter. Everyone wanted to know the meaning of the initials.

The King revealed to his guests what was written on the ring: “The three letters are ג,ז,י represented three words: Gam Zeh Ya’avor”. It means in English: “This too shall pass.”


In life everything is temporary. In fact, life itself is temporary. In between birth to death we all experience the roller-coaster of life.

King Solomon had everything – power, women and wealth then he realized at the end of his life the illusion to hold on to things as they are not the source of happiness. So he turned to a spiritual search and wrote in Ecclesiastes :

” The words of the Teacher,son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” … “What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

 

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141021084324-7280985-the-king-and-the-ring-this-too-shall-pass

 

 

 

Being an authentic human being

Posted on by Standard Reply

As I’ve mentioned earlier I have trained as a counsellor but due to life circumstances I’ve ended up becoming an artist and workshop/teaching assistant. I’m also a chakradancer but that’s another story.

Anyway one of the things that came up for me during training as a counsellor and something in still working on is being authentic or real.

what exactly does that mean? Well it means knowing who you are the good the bad the ugly the vulnerable the brave and being exactly who you are even in front of a wide variety of different people who MIGHT judge you.

simple! Or is it?

We all hide. We all have masks. For women it may be something as superficial as wearing makeup every day. Clothes and accessories. I’m not suggesting go naked but that it’s exactly what it can feel like to just be yourself.

 

stock-photo-16927327-naked-woman-in-a-cardboard-box

 

So what else do we hide behind? Jobs- occupation, our work title or roles mother wife husband son. Religion christian Hindu pagan humanistic none. Lifestle choices and hobbies biker sportsman crafter. Those are all things we do, they are part of who we are but they are not us.

So what happens when we lose connection with who we are and be inauthentic. We lose sponteineity, we may feel and act a bit like robots we may pose instead of just smile. Tears may be swallowed with “I’m fine” the world turns and we let others dictate our role and who we are. In short we never LIVE.

so this I’ve decided is something I don’t want to happen to me I want to be as genuine an honest and real as i can be. I want to fufill all my roles in life but not as a robot as an authentic fresh living breathing human being.

So how to do this? Good start is expression get creative! Figure out your favourite creative hobby art writing poetry and see what comes out of the hidden locked away recessed of your heart be it good or bad the results may suprise you.

then show others…bare that part of yourself to the world and don’t care what people think…

Journal. Spend time alone and with others and observe notice yourself and what you observe of others. Write songs! Dance! Next time I feel angry be angry allow it express it (in a safe way) glory in it all… see your life as a masterpiece in technicolour with all its sucesses fears and failures and at the end id it all know what it is to have lived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPIRITUALITY AND ART

Posted on by Standard Reply
L havnt written anything on here for quite a while but i have been busy. Ive been training as a artist!

My life is not perfect the same as anyone if their honest and reveal the hidden things in their hearts and closets but for me its a little more obvious. I have a mental health condition… its life limiting and has got me down and its meant ive had to give up work and my training as a counsellior but ive discovered the perfect tool to manage it and lifes ups and down and that is CREATIVITY.

Ive discovered that theres a place within and around me that is absolutely beautiful calm and tranquil even if it doesnt look that way at a material glance or on the surface. Its in this bountiful well that I tap into and informs my art. Ive been busy creating some good some bad art but it makes me well inside even on the darkest day.

So this blog will now document my progression as an artist. I have a name Hephzibah arts for my art and a facebook page but ill keep this page contented bumblebee.

Ill post pics of my art and progress and what happens as i bumble along :

Iaviary_1468956148941

Im a Christian or spiritual artist as the spirit is what informs my art and I couldn’t do it without Him

I’m currently doing a study on water lillies although have done lots of different work

20160722_124102_20160722144510035.jpg