Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 6

Creative practice week 6 assignment was to make art while listening to music.  I chose to listen to Hydrated, one of my husband Steve’s piano instrumental CDs while drawing and painting my ceramic tile for a bench in The Garden of Oasis: Compassion Project. Reflecting on my creative experience I was inspired by the peaceful spontaneous and creative sounds of the music which relieved anxiety, stimulated creativity and released freedom of expression.

While I was gathering my art supplies I started the music and immediately I noticed how it relaxed me. This was great because I was planning to draw and paint on the tile which are not my strongest mediums; I am a potter/sculptor and prefer to work with clay in three-dimension. However as an AIR I now often create with all mediums in both dimensions. Honestly I was not aware of my tension until I recognized how quickly I was feeling relaxed from the music. It was wonderful to begin to draw so relaxed I felt freed up to explore technique and be more creative though out the creative process. The music was originally composed spontaneously, Steve started with the song title and created as he played the pieces/songs. I was inspired to explore creatively in sync with the music. Freedom of expression flowed through me as I relaxed into the creative process and the combination of creativity and the music I could feel enhanced my well-being.

Recently I have began, in my group art workshops, to play instrumental soothing music once everyone gets started on their projects. It has helped relax the participants and calm the atmosphere. I have also noticed a release in their creativity and it has helped them to focus in closer on their art project.  After my experience however I realize how significant it is for me to also play the music before we start, to relax the participants and me as we move into the creative flow.

Here is a link of a video for the Hydrated CD if you would like to listen and some images of the ceramic tile I created, start to finish, for this week 6 creative practice blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAA_HJANPSs

  

Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 5

            Reflecting on this week’s learning materials; I was inspired by the graphic heading depicting the golden rule for compassion with the world and symbols of the various religions.  The video, with Rabbi Shai Held, Compassion and the Heart of Jewish Spirituality, moved me because I was born and raised Jewish. Rabbi Held helped me to reconnect with my heritage and gain more spiritual understanding about my religious roots and compassion.

            Because of this stirring when contemplating my symbol for compassion I was drawn to the Star of David that represents the Jewish religion and the nation of Israel.  As a child I was drawn to the Jewish star, I loved it.  The star was so easy to draw, two triangles opposite directions put together, I would put lots of them on everything I made.  For my timeline artwork in the Arts and Human Development course, I chose to create out of clay and used the Star of David as the symbol representing my life. I placed the creative spirit in the center, each triangle represented a stage of my development and everything was within the circle of life.  Here is a photo of my timeline artwork: Circle of Life. 

            For my creative practice this week I created my symbol of compassion centered on the Star of David by graphically creating this image and placing the different symbols for various religions within it. An image of the earth was included representing the religions and people throughout the world. I chose to have all the symbols be shades of blue and white, these are the colors that represent compassion to me, I learned from week 1. While working on this I realized that blue and white are the colors of the star on Israel’s flag. In the center I placed the healthcare symbol for compassion representing my AIM practice. 

           Once the symbol was to this point I placed all the people of the world around it enclosed them in a circle border to represent unity and emphasize the compassionate act of loving your neighbor. This symbol exemplifies the compassion concept, The Golden Rule; In everything you do, do to others as you would have them do to you.  Once completed I felt strongly connected to this symbol of compassion I created based on my religious heritage and this week's course learning materials.  I hope you do too. 

Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 4

            
             Reflecting on Brandon Stanton’s website, Humans of New York (HONY) compassion project, I was inspired by the creative process of how his project developed along with his style of photograph and interview.  His story, how HONY started, with an idea to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants; a few months into the project began to take on a different character. He began to collect quotes and short stories from the people he met and included them alongside their photographs, this is a powerful example of how the creative process works in all mediums. One starts with the idea, however once you begin to create the art it takes on its own character and develops into its own creation through the creative process. It is so important, as an artist, to be open and sensitive to the ebb and flow of your artwork allowing it to become what it will be. This is what happened with Brandon’s project, HONY, when he was in the midst of the project, sensitive to his subjects, he began to compassionately listen to their story and put it together with their photograph.  The HONY project took off into a vibrant blog of over eight million followers and it became a number one New York Times bestselling book (Stanton, 2010).

            Brandon’s photographs and interviews are focused on telling people’s stories. For my Creative Practice Blog 4 I tried to mimic his style. My subject is Micaela who is now seven. Her mother is a longtime friend and I had the privilege of interviewing Micaela.  I decided to keep the stories for each photograph simple and short snippets since I was using several pictures of her, and I felt it would be quicker for me to imitate and learn Brandon’s process.

      Learning the process of combining photography with storytelling I really enjoyed and am inspired to explore creating more with other subjects. What I have learned about listening and telling ones story can easily be combined with all different art mediums.  Compassionate listening and communicating ones story through storytelling with the arts becomes an act of compassion. This Creative Practice exercise has opened up new creative concepts that I am looking forward to pursuing in my artwork and AIM practice.  

Stanton, B. (2010). Humans of New York. Retrieved November 15 from             http://www.humansofnewyork.com/about.

Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 3

Reflecting on this week’s featured artwork and course readings I felt inspired to contemplate on what gestures I considered expressed compassion. This was a new thought concept which led me to explore my own gestures throughout my life span asking the question, was it a gesture of compassion? I was easily able to relate and understand from this week’s featured artwork, a mother nurturing her child, as a gesture of compassion, since I am a mother of two children. However I felt directed to look at my lifelong creative practice as a potter creating vessels and sculptures on a potter’s wheel, uncovering the realization that it too is a compassionate gesture.

The art/craft of pottery making on a potter’s wheel is ancient, could be considered an icon image and is symbolic in the bible as a metaphor, God as The Potter and his people/creation are the clay. Jeremiah 18:1-6 states the following about The Potter and the Clay:

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

² Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

³ Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶ O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel (KJV).

            The metaphor of God as the Potter and the clay, denotes immanence analogous to an earthly potter who shapes the clay intimately with his hands, carefully crafting a work of art. “If the clay did not achieve the desired shape, he did not throw it away. Instead, he patiently reworked it until it became the vessel he wanted it to be.”  One can picture the image of the potter leaning forward over the wheel of two stones, turning the wheel by foot and shaping “the rotating clay” into the desired work.  In this way God is portrayed as gracious, loving, long-suffering, merciful, and compassionate (Peckham, 2007).

            For my creative practice I chose to create the following two photograph collages depicting myself as a potter through my lifespan:

·         The Potter and the Clay: The larger image is a self-portrait painting, Cubist style, which I painted many years ago for one of my bachelor in fine arts degree course assignments.  The other photos were taken during various opportunities in my life to create on the potter’s wheel during church services, Christian conferences, schools and my Arts in Medicine practice. The images all show the compassionate gesture and the different stages of making a vessel on the potter’s wheel. 

·         Clay Arts and Compassion: The images in this collage are of a creative aging workshop at an assisted living community.  This particular workshop I demonstrated and taught about making vessels on a potter’s wheel,  and had the participants draw the shape of the vessel they wanted me to make for them. Once I made their vessels on the wheel they painted their piece with colored slips. This was their first time seeing the process and there were immediate positive outcomes, their well-being was enhanced.  One of the aids brought an older frail woman in a wheel chair to observe the compassionate gesture she was fascinated watching me create everyone’s vessels, a positive distraction from her pain.

I am humbled and grateful to the Master Potter, that He was compassionate toward me when fashioning my life as an artist/potter to create vessels and sculptures on a potter’s wheel, as a compassionate gesture toward helping others.  

Peckham, J. C. (2007). The Passible Potter and the Contingent Clay: A Theological Study of Jeremiah     18: 1–10. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 18(1), 130-150.

The Potter and The Clay: Jeremiah 18:1-6 King James Version. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2015,        from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+18%3A1-6&version=KJV

Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 2      

             For my creative practice blog week 2, I chose to listen to my mom who is still alive at 85 and write a poem from our conversations. I talk every night on the phone to my mom, my closest dearest friend, to check on her since she lives alone in her home in Oregon while I am in Arizona. This week’s prompt and learning materials had me questioning after all these years talking to her each night; do I take the time to really listen to her? Do I let her tell me her story each day? So I decided to focus on listening as an act of love toward my mom each night, letting her do most of the talking and I transcribed our conversations for 6 straight days.

            Here is some background on my mom: she is 85 years old, lives alone in her home since my dad died five years ago, has typical illnesses for her age, manages an online bookstore with over 3000 books, recently stopped driving and hired a caregiver to drive her around two times a week. She is aging in place, very well!

Alive at Eighty Five

Day 1

At eighty-five it’s good to be alive

no matter how hard it is.

I may have glaucoma, at least that’s what they say

eye drops prescribed.

I’m still going to fight.

It’s just one more thing for one more day.

I used to be afraid of using my walker

but it helps me to get around.

Used to be embarrassed; not now.

Day 2

I stir up memories of a trip to Texas.

My sight may be dimming

but reflections still remain relatively clear.

Another day another pill

more drops for my eyes.

Substitute caregiver drives me to the doctor

I found out my blood thinner’s too high.

Sold 6 books on the worldwide web

lots of things to do I’m tired.

Day 3

My daughter Linda came over to take me to the bank

I’m going to update my will.

But the bank told me it says I can’t move money without her.

I like the nice bank manager

he caught the glitch

now it’s back to the way things were.

Looking forward to tomorrow cause its errand day

I’ve got 5 more books to package up

when my ride arrives I’m on my way.

Day 4

Penny my regular caregiver came to pick me up

she genuinely cares about me.

Penny drives me to the post office and all over the place.

This running around is exhausting

but at least I’m moving

I don’t have any issues going at Penny’s pace.

I’m hungry now but can’t decide what to eat.

I’m tired but so is Penny

she seems worse off than me.

Day 5

I’m sleepy I was awake most of the night.

The smoke alarm kept chirping in my ear

my daughter Linda took it down but left the ladder in the hall.

She says I don’t do anything with my life

I should get out more.

That leaves me a little depressed and appalled.

I’m not going to listen to her advice.

She wants me put up in a nursing home

at my age I just need to be around people that are nice.

Day 6

Spring forward, fall back I forgot about that

I’m confused at what time it is.

The lawyer got my will worked out but no one explained.

This rain is relentless.

The cul-de-sac started to flood

but the drain was fixed when the neighbor came.

“Trick or Treat” I heard at my door from a cute little kid in a hat.

I love the kids and I love my home

I’m glad to be in my own home for that!

            
                   This week’s learning materials and assignments has brought immediate positive outcomes through a deeper awareness and understanding of how to listen as an act of love and compassion toward my family, friends and patients Taking the time to really listen, ask the right questions and genuinely care is effectively helping develop these valuable relationships.