Button Beads and Squashed Creativity….

My Mum came around the other day to paint the button beads we had made for a top she has knitted.
The beads are inspired by regular buttons and we are also making necklaces from them:

…we enjoyed spending time painting them, making a mess, ruining a couple …and talking…

Something happens when you sit and create together…stories begin to flow and memories are remembered as the peaceful, alpha-wave state of creativity inspires the busy mind to slow down … it is a form of open eyed meditation…

Mum was telling me stories from her childhood during the second world war in England. Educated by Nuns who had little time or tolerance for the self indulgence of ‘art’ and ‘creativity’…Mum drew me an image of the only avenue there was for creative expression…to copy a pattern within a pre-existing grid!

Thankfully Mum was able to live a creative life in spite of the repression of teachers viewing creativity close to sinful, artistic passion as selfish indulgence and individuality as yet another flaw in an already suspect Soul.

My two sisters and I are blessed to have both parents alive and well, married 52 years this year…and we are equally blessed beyond measure that our Mother did not lost her creative self in the shaming and vilifying atmosphere of an institution that today is having to face its many flaws and past errors.

It’s official….’ProsperArty’ has been named, signed and sealed!

Last year I began the process to trademark the name “ProsperArty”…a name I created to define my ART of Change tools and programs.

ProsperArty = Experiencing Prosperity by using the mediums of Art / Creativity.

Prosperity as I define it, is  to develop, grow  and flourish in what ever areas we value and consider to be  important…ProsperArty is a personal journey on a Universal theme that recognises the balance and harmony of nature and the creative state.

I had an afternoon tea with some of the Women I have worked with in the past, currently work with or have projects emerging throughout 2009…

It was a wonderful afternoon with some great food… unfortunately in  the images below  my ProsperArty guests are absent, as we were too busy nattering and chattering in our talking circle and eating and laughing to remember to take photos.

However I did capture the food!…and the flowers…and a few other things from the day…beginning with the Zebra that pulled up out the front just as we were getting under way…a noisy Zebra that came to trim trees and chomp branches! Before long we were noisier than the tree munching Zebra of course!

 

Sal made chocolate mousse that I decorated with mint and twelve white chocolate buttons…representing the Clock..because “It’s Time” for ProsperArty……

 

Sa’s gorgeous daughter Gemma made lime and lemon tart…I made peanut crunchie biscuits and apricot with white chocolate and almond balls…What a high calorie, yummy launch!

 

I chose the Celtic triple spiral theme (Triskele)  for the ProsperArty gift …we had a lot of fun threading them onto elastic to create a pendant. The 7 purple dots represent the 7 Sisters…that cluster of stars that has birthed  mythology and Dreaming stories right across the planet.. There were 7 Women present at the time, more guests  arrived later …

My recent trip to Matariki bay- bay of the 7 Sisters in Aotearoa (New Zealand) is a significant part of the essence of  ProsperArty…

 

I liked how the river stone-shaped  pendants looked in their circle before sharing them around. (Made with air drying das clay, painted with acrylics and sealed with high gloss varnish. I drew the design with permanet marker)

 

My Trademark Certification…ProsperArty…

 

Pilawuk made a gift of the most breath taking silk wall hanging based on some of my ProsperArty designs…if you look closely you can see the Warrior Woman image in the centre..and on the sides forming “Yesterday, today and tomorrow”…a theme from my invitation…      

Magic!!…thank you Pilawuk…Silk Queen Goddess!

 

Here is a side view…aren’t the colours just deliciously  ProsperArteous?!

 

Thankyou to my former colleagues Cathy, Desi and the Malvern Place team for the flowers and words of great encouragement and good will…

A lovely afternoon with a group of Women who live and breathe the essence of ProsperArty’s highest hopes and dreams…..

Let the Magic begin!

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“ProsperArty” was dreamt and created on traditional Aboriginal Land and I acknowledge the Kaurna people as the custodians of this part of the country and recognise the authority  of the  Dreamtime as holding the key to many of the challenges we are facing in Australia today.

Create New Dreams…Seeding the Future Vision

We had a wonderful weekend camp…thanks to the gorgeous Goddesses who came from two Communities up north to join us in the Riverland.

Along with the Mandala art and making clay beads, we work-shopped the Vision for the Womens groups…then painted terra cotta pots and planted the Sunflower seeds that will grow along with the new changes..

Thankyou to the Women for allowing us to photograph the art work and capture the many wonderful moments where Nanas and great grandchildren, Community leaders and members sat and enjoyed the  creative processes  together….what better way to spend a weekend in the Riverland sun?

Deanna Nungala and I feel very privileged to have been invited to host the Celeberating our Community camp and look forward to our Miminis Nopin Inc ventures in 2009 when we can return the gifting by visiting the Women and seeing how the Sunflowers have grown….

Miminis Nopin – Women on the Move…

 

We think we have found art based activities that everyone- young and old -can enjoy together…and sme1954 …you may find new pathways open when you get creative too!

 

Deanna and I wearing the clay necklaces we made during the Apology week, to honor the Mothers whose children were stolen from them.  Nungala is a Stolen Generation survivor and a Warrior Woman of the heart in the truest sense….

 

Our Vision Workshopping Board….

 

Painting the clay beads they have rolled earlier in the day is wonderful for concentration for the little kids and fun~creativity for all ages…

 

Little sister can create and paint her own beads too!

 

 

This pot-painter will seed some fantastic changes for her  Community I am sure…

 

 

The gorgeous goddess with the smile that lights up rooms and hearts…

 

Our Chef extraordinaire took time out from her delicious food-making to paint a pot of her own…

 

 

Lady birds for good luck turned up on the top of this artists work….

 

…as you can see….

 

Mother and Daughter creating together……they have a vegie garden at home and the new Sunflowers might fill that garden one day! One single  seed births the seeds of many new flowers over one single season… 

 

…seeding the Vision is a journey of process, attention, watering and ….patience….

 

…all pots are sealed with varnish and the upper torso lean, with head titled upward is a spraying skill learnt after accidentally inhaling a nostril full of varnish dust on the first ever pot.  Interesting shadow cast on the ground there….

Another “Bead Happy” process completed…

They say that you are living  your passion if you answer  ”Yes!”  to the question…“Would you still do the work that you do if you were rich enough not to have to work at all?”….My answer is “Yes indeedy-do!!”…I’d just drive a different car to the venue!

To spend time creating Personal Development art with Women who are walking through journeys of change, healing and Creating New Dreams…is such a privilege……and a whole lotta fun!

Here are a few images from our 5-week “Don’t Worry- Bead Happy ART of Change program 2…

We begin with a formless lump of air-drying clay, thinking about what we would like to create in our life…how things would look and feel in the ‘ideal’ world. We roll and twist and shape and from beads and add a pendant that defines the shape of things to come…

By week 5 have created our own Vision jewellery with our own unique fingerprints pressed into the clay…completing the process by spraying the beads with gloss sealer and hanging them in the afternoon sun to dry.

Rolling the beads is a form of meditation, very relaxing and as the process gets under way, the brain waves relax into the alpha rhythms as the rhythmic, repetitive actions slow down the busy mind chatter and return one to a more centered, present moment focus. It is a very enjoyable, highly effective way for people with mental health issues, stress, anxiety and depression to creatively activate a different ’state’ and access positive creativity over the negative forms of creating thoughts that are anxiety, stress related images.

We think about color and form once the beads are made…. with  relaxing music in the background and conversations around change, personal development and creating the life we want by over coming past patterns and limitations our learning and sharing is focused on  the “How” of change not just the reasons ‘why’…and all what has happened in the troubled past…

 

 

 

 

Mandalas as tools for Staff Training and Development…

The Mandala- the Circular form, which I have shared in other sections of my blog – is a great tool for inspiring right brain thinking and reflection during Staff training sessions.

As people engage with the rhythmic movement of adding colour and meaning to the individual black and white templates, the process is akin to a mind-massage that gives access to parts of the brain we have often lost touch with in this , predominantly analytical western system that has so much influence on how we Think and Create……or not.

Sadly many people are living their life with the belief of “I am not Creative”, in spite of the fact that we all started out as creative, imaginative, ‘magical’ children.
You can read a little story about what happens to the ‘magical child in exile’ by clicking here..

Feedback after the creativity based training often contains statements like “I was amazed at how much more information I absorbed even though i was not always looking up” and “thankyou for giving us permission to go in to our own creative space and contribute without having to sit still all day in the one position”...”wow…I am going to share these tools with my daughter and grandchildren”…

The indoctrination to sitting completely still, STOP fidgetings, eyes to the front “look at me when I’m talking to you!!!’…”stop day dreaming”…. model of learning and education has resulted in many people disconnecting from movement, flow, kinesthetic engagement and imagination that defines the Creative State…

Is it any wonder so many people feel let down by mainstream education and leave it believing absolutely that “I am not Creative”….Very sad! …..and not without significant mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health implications….

The following are samples of some of the work that was created during a series of Cultural Inclusivity Action Plan workshops.
The four themes that were central to the day were “Team” “Community” “Our Place” and “Balance”….you can see the theme is written on the Mandala and the individual creative input is an unique and diverse as the participants and the Community they serve….

We honour the traditional owners of this great land when we implement processes that ‘Aborginalise’ the western mindset by engaging with traditional cultural practices of art, creativity, story sharing, talking circles and….FUN! ….a long way from chairs lined up with backs to one another, sitting motionless for hours through slide shows, pie graphs and talking, talking, talking…;)

CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS ARE VERY DIFFERENT THAN THE ‘BORED ROOM” APPROACH..

OUR PLACE

TEAM

BALANCE IN THE WORKPLACE

Each Mandala has a developmental theme and is used as individual process, in the small group talking /action plan group and as a larger group we have poster size replicas which, by the end of the day…become the centre of action-plan installation art.

You can see how wonderful it is to create the ART of Vision / Action over the tired old butchers paper sheets that tend to be rolled away and disappeared forever once the workshop is over….

NAIDOC 2008 – Adelaide

Here are three gorgeous gals who caught up with one another during the NAIDOC march and Family day on the banks of the River Torrens.

Katrina Power, Pilwauk White and Jo Rigney…

“I AM at Home with Peace and Prosperity”

This was the theme for our empowerment art work this week…to become comfortable with Peace and Prosperity when there has been a history of chaos and poverty….

I am ever amazed at the completely individual and unique creations that emerge from the same black and white template……..

The Winter of content…

It was raining yesterday afternoon and after the months of drought and over 10 days where the temperature reached 100oF a few months ago, the winter rains and green-sheen everywhere are very welcome in this desert state.

I was sitting under the back verandah with the two semi-homeless garden cats, Gabrielle- [Gabi] and her daughter Shima. You can see how gorgeous they are:

The garden was humming with rain drops and birds and leaves blowing down from the Cedar Trees
late autumn fall:

…and I remembered back to when I first moved in here and all I could see was a barren, dry patch of soil…

…..and how this piece of Mother Earths blank canvas taught me more about process, time, holding a vision, weeding and seeding, than I could ever have imagined when I first moved here during a trials-and-tribulations winter of discontent….

In our ‘outcomes’ driven, western society I learnt that the answers we are seeking about sustainable change and growth are to be found in Mother Nature’s process of Time, cycles and seasons….

……and how wonderful it is to create a room with out walls and a fireplace whose only chimney is the sky….

Adelaide in South Australia is traditionally named ‘Tandanya’ , home of the Red Kangaroo.

Living and growing and learning and sharing on traditional Aboriginal Land, Kaurna Country has its own special strand of environmental magic and possibility….As my good buddy Nungala reminds me:

“It can happen so much better and so much faster if you acknowledge the Ancestors and remember the Dreaming”…..

Drama Detox Unit open for Business…

DRAMA DE-TOX UNIT

A Cautionary Tale Dedicated to the recovering Dramaholic in all of us….well many of us.

This is a fictionally true transcript from Dramaholics Anonymous, held at a venue….and a venyou…. nearby………..

Trouble ~ “Hi my name is Trouble and I am a Dramaholic.

Person A ~Hi Trouble”
Person B ~”Welcome Trouble”
Person C ~ (Just nods head slightly…doesn’t like to welcome Trouble anymore)

Group Leader: “Welcome Trouble. It is so good you have decided to come along and we’d appreciate it if you would tell us a bit about yourself”

Trouble: “Well I was born into Trouble…my mama was a Drama Queen and my daddy was nowhere to be found.
Mama modelled Drama to us kids very well. She taught us to always pick the wrong kind of guy, make sure there was lots of chaos in our life before getting rid of him and then go out and find another one and get on with the whole dang thing again!”

Person A~ Praise the Lord I think we had the same mama
Person B~ Heavens above…I think I might be your mama
Person C~ silence….no longer even looks Trouble in the eye…

Group Leader“So what has made you decided to come to Dramaholics, Trouble?”

Trouble “Well there I was in the midst of wagging my finger at yet another person who seemed to just want to make my life more complicated..my latest boyfriend who proved to be just like the last three …and all of a suddenI looked up and saw my mama standing there in front of me”

Group Leader “Why was this a problem”?

Trouble “Well she has been dead for ten years but I tell you when I looked up in that bathroom mirror and saw my mamas familiar weary face and angry brow and recognised that disappointed look in her eye, barely concealing those unshed tears…….I KNEW I was in big Trouble!
I stood there looking in the mirror and remembered all the times I had fleshed out arguments in my life.
How many times I found myself bickering with people cause they were so wrong and I was so right and I KNEW I needed to make them see my point of view.
After all the Trouble in me had a very strong calling to point out to others their failings and how to correct themself so they would be just like me.
Then I remembered how many times I would get to a peaceful place and it felt REALLLL uncomfortable so I would start looking around and find someone to make a bit of Trouble with or criticise someone near to me for letting me down or not acting how I thought they should be acting!

Group Leader… “Well Trouble..you have come to the right place and the first thing we would like to do, after the big group hug , is give you a new name…((((((((00000))))))

So from now on we will all know you as:

“GrownUp!

”We reckon you have had enough Trouble for one life time and with your new insight…cause you have finally seen that you have been creating this Drama in your life for too long now…you earn your Brand New name…

Grown Up…..(blinking modest tears of appreciation and realistion how lonely she had been for so long whilst she was Trouble) “Well thankyou SO much for that…I am amazed that I only had to come here to Dramaholics once to finally really get the message……that when I let go of Trouble…then I really truly am all Grown Up!…

The End

The BE~ginning……

“Men occasionally stumble across the Truth but most pick themself up and hurry off as if nothing has happened”.

Hope your visit to Adelaide is a peaceful and productive one RW

“I breathe deeply”

“I release that which does not bring Peace to my Mind”….

“The Magical Child in Exile – Why Does the Creative Well Being Run Dry? ” is related to the “Drama Detox unit” and can be read by clicking on the dots here…………

Northern Exposure…

I somehow missed watching Northern Exposure in the 90’s and have had the delight of discovering it many years after the final episode.
Sal was a fan of the show and his daughters remember watching the show with dad when they were young.

So I was pleased to find that the Adelaide library has the full six series, 110 epsiodes…and for the last few weeks have watched from episode one through to the final, moving scene on the last show (see video clip “Our Town” below.)

The creators of the show were members of the Esalen Institute. Click here for wikipedia info on Northern Exposure and Eslan
“Northern Exposure’s flavor came from a combination of various influences. The show’s creators, Joshua Brand and John Falsey, were members of the Esalen Institute in California where an eclectically “spiritual” worldview was presented, best exemplified in the writings of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and American anthropologist/mythologist Joseph Campbell (whose works are frequently referenced in the series). There are also fantasy elements inherited from the works of Carlos Castaneda and the magical realism novels and stories of Latin American author Gabriel Garc’a M’rquez. Both creators were also conversant with classical Russian Literature. This characteristic is evident in the satirical elements from the show that are hallmarks of the Russian literary grotesque style of such authors as Gogol and Dostoevsky.”

The influence of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and the interplay between the seen and unseen realms along with Native American mythology and magic are unsurpassed by any other television series in my humble opinion..