Part II Inuit Skeleton Woman Story as Metaphor for Creative Process:
Mindless or Mindful
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In the East, Mind is a field of intelligence which includes the entire physical body. the word mind is used as distinct from brain. Mind, like nature is vessel of being. Mindful is an engagement of knowing, feeling and sensing beyond the five senses. It can also be an engagement of the unknown. Mindless is an automatic reaction rather than response, because the mind is not embodied.
To return to our story, of Skeleton Woman and how it relates to the creative process. The snagging the of treasure begins the roller-coaster chase of delight and terror, the classic theme and traditional myth of creativity. To stand in front of your painting or in front of a blank canvas with emotional presence is the opportunity to be transparent in this adventure. The ego will ask who is the most beautiful, the most grand, or even the worst, always making comparisons to others. The small self does not want to know about the full cycle of creation which includes destruction. No, the slightest whiff of Death sends even the bold of heart into panic. It is no accident that the Buddha, archetype of lucidity, was said to have been tested with images of terror. Often in painting circle, the shadow is the first edge to surface, dragging in tow frightening stories that have been tucked out of circulation for years.
To return to our story, of Skeleton Woman and how it relates to the creative process. The snagging the of treasure begins the roller-coaster chase of delight and terror, the classic theme and traditional myth of creativity. To stand in front of your painting or in front of a blank canvas with emotional presence is the opportunity to be transparent in this adventure. The ego will ask who is the most beautiful, the most grand, or even the worst, always making comparisons to others. The small self does not want to know about the full cycle of creation which includes destruction. No, the slightest whiff of Death sends even the bold of heart into panic. It is no accident that the Buddha, archetype of lucidity, was said to have been tested with images of terror. Often in painting circle, the shadow is the first edge to surface, dragging in tow frightening stories that have been tucked out of circulation for years.
The part of us that we are least conscious of is the shadow. It is so fundamental that it is an aspect of every archetype. In painting circle I have seen how the shadow can shift an entire painting locked into conservative progression into the arms of the gambler who will throw it away in a moment bravado. Our most profound doubts of ourselves surfaces as we quickly project them elsewhere so that we can flee. Like the fisherman in the story who brings up the potential treasure, we don't recognize what we have snagged as we take off running.
A painter in one of my classes did very well in the engagement of the process, but then rejected the final painting, and began taking techniques classes madly. She ran from the simple language that her soul offered because it was not what she expected. She returned eventually, however, looking for the the lively images that she had discarded. Sooner or later, one must kiss the beast most feared. The fisherman is our model of entering into relation with Lady Death to find right order. To do this we must stop reacting in blind terror fueled by fears of the past and future.
To be present in the moment means to surrender: not to abandon, give up or give away, but to trust deeply yourself, NOW. Eckhart Tolle says NOW is the only place you can experience the flow of life, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is a place of acceptance, without judgment. Judgment strangles the creative process. You find quickly in process painting that when you are doing rather than being the life of your painting slips through your fingers. In the state of being you know immediately what needs attention. This painting process develops the 'muscle of being'.
Deena Metzger contrasts poem and story, describing poem as a penetration into the essence of something. A poem expresses the inexpressible. She says good poetry goes deeply. Jane Hirshfield says poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. This kind of intuitive painting, which embodies creative process is vertical in all its implications. Story and prose, Metzger says, spreads out, wanting to speak to the mind, to the intellect. The horizontal gathers information, technique, momentum, while the vertical is out side of time, it changes your life as participant. Poetry evokes, as does the process vertical creative process.
