Artist’s date
“Golden Hour” by Sophie Ryan at Strathnairn Arts. These paintings presented a compelling exploration of colour and light.
The arts centre itself is in old farmstead buildings that are now close to very new housing – the contrast was striking.
Reflections
The theme of Week 3 is “Recovering a Sense of Power”.
One of the tasks for this week is called “Inner Compass” – the idea is that certain artistic activities can help us listen to the part of ourselves that intuitively knows what’s beneficial and right for us.
The idea of the inner compass is interesting to me. It makes sense that if we’re constantly distracted or stressed, we can lose track of the insights given by slower, deeper thought.
But what’s the best way to hear these insights?
I’ve seen a number of recommendations: journalling, walking or sitting in silence, and the Jungian idea of active imagination. The morning pages recommended by The Artist’s Way provide another approach that’s widely discussed.
My own experience is that artistic activities don’t necessarily lead directly to any insights apart from ones related to the activity itself. But perhaps they do create a mood that’s more conducive to later insight.
A technique that involves writing (or capturing insight in other ways) seems to me to be a good way to build on earlier insights. I’m interested in testing a journalling process that includes a step of revisiting earlier entries. This could be a good experiment for next year. (But I’ll need to get into the habit of writing slowly in the journal to give myself a better chance of reading my own handwriting.)
Related posts
Introductory post: “The Artist’s Way” diary: introduction
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