A Creative Support Partnership

Rosey
a Sister Pool picture
by Sally Swain

Last week, we looked at the Handala – a small mandala with carry-handles.

The Handala arose while I waited for my sister to ring for our creative conversation. An Art and Soul Space blog reader (thanks, Gallivanta) loved that my sister reads me her writings. Inspired by my dear reader, let me tell you about … ta daa … Sister Pools.

For the past year, whenever we can, my sister and I form an interstate telephonic dual Creative Support Partnership. We read each other our writing-in-progress. We talk about current glitches, hitches, joys and successes in our creative process. We divide the time fairly equally.

I paint while she talks or reads.

She writes (or doodles) while I talk or read.

I might paint a preliminary shape on one page of the art journal, then squish the pages together, forming a Rorschach-type mooshy print. (Squish and mooshy being highly technical hoity-toity art terms).

I develop each page differently. Intuitively, spontaneously, I listen to her words, thoughts, feelings and to my own art desires and intentions. It’s a type of Response Art.

Here’s what emerged

in our very first meeting.

The Origin of Sister Pools
Sally Swain © original art

We decided they look like pools.

Sister Pools.

That became the instant name of our Creative Support Partnership. The waters of creativity run deep. *We are similar, yet distinctively different. We pool ideas.

The Heart of Valour
a Sister Pool picture
Sally Swain

Together, we help each other flow.

Hey, just in case you are seething with envy at the idea of sisters being so kind and aligned, I’d like to say that

1. I am grateful for this nourishing partnership and realise it’s rare.

2. It has taken a long time for it to emerge. Fifty something years.

3. It is not always hunky-dory. We are sisters after all. Sibling rivalry does exist. We are sometimes irritated with each other, or disappointed.

Little Broken Things
a Sister Pools picture
Sally Swain

But mostly it’s fabulous and I highly recommend all manner of

Creative Support and Encouragement.

Writers’ groups, artists’ groups, therapy, supervision, Creativity Coaching…it’s helpful stuff.

As I like to say,

A little encouragement goes a long way.

Swimming into Joy
a Sister Pools picture

*My sister, upon reading this post, tells me she does not call us Sister Pools. This outlines our similar yet different approaches. I am the hippie and she is the cynic.

with love, art and soul from Sally