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November 7, 2006
artist's way: week 8
by gl. at 8:00 am
we had to move artist's way last week because it fell on halloween, so you'll see two artist's way posts closer together than normal.
we met on nov02, which is the day after day of the dead. so i asked each participant to bring in a photo or object of someone they had lost. i said they could interpret this as broadly as they felt comfortable with: the person could be lost through death, distance, misunderstanding, or time. using anything they could find in the studio, they each built small altars for the people they lost (not shrines: there was no gluing and nobody took anything home, though i did take pictures i'll develop for them). since so many of the altars used candles, i turned down the lights while they wrote a prayer for the person. then we burned the prayers, releasing them. this exercise often produces tears, even when the lost souls aren't necessarily the most emotional ones the participants could have chosen.
after the cluster ends, one of the participants wants to start her own group close into belmont, in part to cater to other mothers of young children, modifying the process to "accommodate, embrace and explore mothering as a component of the artistic process." hooray! i love it when people see far enough into the artist's way to know it is an adaptable path, suitable to a wide range of different approaches and audiences.
center (connection): i don't really know what this was about, but i liked the keys. the keys to the underworld?
music: loreena mckennitt's the visit. she's got a wonderfully haunting, lonely voice, especially on this cd.
posted by gl. | November 7, 2006 8:00 AM | comments (2) | categories: artist's way
Comments
Keys to the underworld sounds about right -- that was what I first thought of.
In that context, the beaded necklace makes me think of Haitian/Voodoo art. There's a Haitian art form of covering bottles with seed beads... If you haven't seen this stuff (I forget -- did you go to the San Diego exhibit back a few years ago?)... If you haven't seen this stuff then I should show you some books I have. It's really inspiring work!
And. It always makes my heart go soft when you give the participants copies of photos that you take. That's just such a wonderful touch...
Posted by: sven at November 7, 2006 10:19 AM
thanks, sven! i don't like to take pix of the artist's way creative clusters unless i'm giving them copies. they're paying, in part, for a sacred experience, and i don't want them to feel exploited for my own gain. (unlike, say, pix from the open studio or guided art nights, which are distributed via the events list.)
Posted by: gl. at November 8, 2006 2:18 AM