Linda August 5th, 2008
Yesterday was warm-mid 80′s (finally-we’ve had rain for the last week and temps in the upper 60′s to low 70′s, ARGH!!!). I tootled out to the mailbox hoping my issue of Mary Jane’s farm was there (it seems to be VERY late in coming, hmmmmmmm). No magazine, but what I did find was better ;0) It was a check for $100 from Art Doll Quarterly–payment for printing pictures of my cat doll. Whoopee!!!! Scott has now informed me that I am now a “professional”…I have sold my dolls and art before but he seems to think that this adds extra stature to my resume LOL. Does this mean I have to act like a professional? What does that look like?? Should I buy a “Hillary Clinton” pant suit LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda June 11th, 2008
“Standing at Water’s Edge–Moving Past Fear, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power if Creative Immersion”, by Anne Paris, PhD
I highly recommend this book. The past year or so I have been reading books on art and creativity and I found out about this one reading a Somerset magazine. In it the author writes, “My fundamental assumption is that is that creativity (and the hope that is needed to fuel our movement) comes from a state of experience that I call immersion. The experience of immersion is one of total connection and engagement. Literally, to immerse means to plunge into something that surrounds or covers. We usually think of immersing into water: an immersed object is completely suspended in liquid but not drowned by it. Immersion means to be totally absorbed or engrossed in an activity.” That is Anne Paris’s description of being in the “art zone”, as others put it.
She goes onto discuss the nature of immersion and what happens if we starve our selves of this experience (depression, anxiety, underachievement, anger, isolation, addictions etc). When we immerse we are putting “our self” out of the way and entering into ameditative/spiritual experience. Now I am sure that some of you may find this kind of description esoteric but I truly believe that we all have a “creative” spark in us and that spark calls us to be fellow creators. One point of hers that I found particularly interesting is the idea that we need 3 types of people in our lives to keep us healthy (and yes, she purports that we need community contrary to what messages our cultures gives us!). We need “heroes, mirrors and twins.” A hero is a person real or imaginary who we “look up to, to admire, and to please….We want to be like them and to make them proud of us.” A twin is described as “being with a like kind…..Relationships with ‘twins’ help us feel understood and understandable; our feelings and experiences make sense and we find comfort in the awareness that we are all alike”. And finally a mirror is a person who “see(s) our specialness and…reflect(s) it back to us…these people (who) validate our strengths, and our talents and our uniqueness….” Dr. Paris points out that these people can be real or imaginary (this was a new thought for me!!)…a hero could be a dead grandparent and a twin could be a imagined person.
