Then I had a week in which people from my long-ago world kept surfacing. In person, on social media; some were alive; some were not.
Emotions stirred, swirled, whirled.
I walked at night past an inner city shop – Dove and Lyre Fossils and Crystals. There was a dinosaur footprint sitting in the window.
Dinosaur footprint
in
Dove and Lyre shop
A dinosaur footprint?
Magic Close-up Tree 1
In my fifty-six year old world, I was horrified.
Tree Truth 1
A lovely Psychodrama person rings me from far yonder. She requests my arty input into a banner for this week’s Australia/NZ conference in Sydney.
I hum. I ha. I say
I didn’t.
But I do now.
What do I know?
(Read on for Art and Soul Queen Sally’s Creative Christmas Message….)
I now know that Brian Eno is elegantly, eloquently wise. He recently rocked my paint-splattered world. He speaks with both divinity and great ordinariness of the value of creativity and the arts.
Fabric Swirl by Sally
just the ordinary beauty of clothes soaking in the bath
I recommend
OK folks. I’m gonna get all formal on you. Well – a bit more – how to put it? Staid? than our usual chatty approach.
Can you cope?
I’m sharing with you a piece I wrote for the Australian and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association newsletter. I hope you gain something of value from reading it.
SAATflower
It’s all about the ecotone.
The what?
The ecotone. A place full of life, bubble and vibrancy.
Read on if you feel inclined…
Swoosh, trickle, sputsput, ebb, flow.
Where the Sand Meets the SeaWritten with gratitude for Lynn Kapitan’s ‘Arts Therapies in the Ecotone: Contact, Collaboration and Creative Entanglement’ ANZATA conference keynote address
Swoosh, trickle, sputsput, ebb, flow.
What happens where sand and sea meet? Do they decide they don’t like each other, only to end this encounter? Does the sand lose its sense of self as the sea rushes in? Does the sea sacrifice its watery essence? I’m no scientist, but it seems the constant contact leads to elemental connection, interdependence, change and aliveness. Sand and sea affect each other, yet
I’m ripping my way through a magazine, literally, seeking yummy shapes and textures for a collage. I chance upon this quote:
Language is very linear; you have to say one word after the other in order to get somewhere. The good thing about art is that you can say several things at the same time, in many different languages… but it’s still comprehensible.
I love it. I have to make a new collage featuring these words. String loops itself onto the page too – very non-linear.
Artlanguage Sally Swain collage
How to bring yourself into the present, even for a microsecond? And feed your creativity at the same time?
One approach is to go for a texture walk. What’s that? If I happen to be walking anyway, I attempt to find a tiny space of light amidst the VeryClutteredBrain by practising specific mindfulness. It helps to focus on a something.
Paperbark
(Melaleuca)
I love the texture of this messy, soft, papery Australian tree
I might say to myself:
From where I am (here) up to that park bench (over there), I’ll bring my attention to textures. Or shapes. Or light and shadow. Or colours.
It’s not unlike playing ‘ Continue reading
Via the miracle of Skype, we chatted intimately across the miles and miles of ocean between Australia and England.
Talking of oceans, Val sails a proud boat of creativity. She paints, prints, writes, mentors.
Her book, ‘Art for Happiness – finding your creative process and using it’ comes highly recommended.
So now for the tricky bit.
Is it OK to share the interview with you? Do I dare?
Am I blowing my own trumpet? Well, yes, I guess.
I tentatively make my brassy sounds in the hope that they…
do be do be daa daa…
might inspire and fire your own creativity, whether it’s in a Big Band Glen Miller parp parpeedoo way, or a little lone trumpet on a soulful pink hill fweee way.
Art and Soul Space 