In this age of information we are bombarded with so much input. It comes from the outside and yet it has a profound impact on our inner world. How is it effecting you? We rely on science and media for information yet what do we do with it all? Exploring meaning making in our technological world is distilled and examined in a very different way through art. Creative practice has a wonderful way of slowing us down. Exploring life through art has always been an important part of humanity well before the days of technology and is a profound way of pondering and experiencing the human condition. One of the most profound functions of art is to interact with the experience of what it is to be human .
Making art, and beholding art made by others, helps us get at an essential, sub-conscious experiences of life. Art provides an alternate voice that engages with emotion, spirituality, and imagination - to things that are beyond the grasp of cognitive thought and the ordinary use of words.
Creative journaling is a way to contemplate, meditate, and make sense of the world around us ... and the world within us. It provides an existential way of knowing. We are not just cells and anatomy; we are emotion, story, spirit, and soul. At times we ache and yearn and we long to know why. We naturally quest and want to engage in the puzzles of life.
This is why I journal in creative ways. I have learned so much through imagination and art. I get in touch with my inner world; a world that is so effected by all the activity that happens in the outer world. I turn it over in colour, sound, shape, poetry, movement, form, essence, and explore the meanings. Socrates said 'the unexamined life is not worth living'. Examining life by engaging with the elements of the imagination provides perspectives that expand our understanding. Metaphor, symbolism, allegory, expression, illustration, image, movement, emotion ... these help us to get at the essence of what it is to be human and to be able to share it to make sense of it.
Most of what we are, what we know, what we love, what we understand, sits inside of us wanting to be engaged and given form. The arts provide a way to do this. The arts provide a way for the unseen to be seen. We are all creative. I encourage you to find your expression ... and to explore the art of living. This is the wonder of creative journaling and why I am offering the workshop again on December 12th. I hope you can join us!