Not long ago I was delighted to find a stack of compositions produced by placing objects on my scanner/printer, then manipulating it further using Photoshop. I originally created them in hopes of getting into a show, which I didn’t get accepted in. But the images are worth sharing nonetheless!
Enjoy!
For years, I’ve been explaining to people that daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating and (eventually) fun.
A collection of daily bloggers I follow have passed 1,000 posts (it only takes three years or so…). Fortunately, there are thousands of generous folks who have been posting their non-commercial blogs regularly, and it’s a habit that produces magic. – Seth Godin
You can read the whole post at: https://seths.blog/2018/10/the-first-1000-are-the-most-difficult/
I’m on my way to 1,000.
Hope you enjoy it!
What motivates you to put your work out there?
The mini-retreat’s full title drew me in: “InVisioning and Emergence:Trauma-Informed Art & Nature Healing Immersion.”
Our small group walked up to the bluff that overlooked the Pacific and looking down at the beach there were about twenty or so seals sun bathing. One Kodak moment I saw a baby seal eagerly scooting up to it’s mother.
It was one of those splendid cloud-free blue sky days on the coast, fog-free too.
Lisa I already knew since she’s a fellow Chinese American female artist. I find her one of the most driven people I know tackling the sticky issues of the ancient wounds of women, especially Asian-American women, and at times particularly Chinese women.
When Ann Sullivan she said she was a “modern day mystic” I immediately resonated with her since she explained that it’s a way to say she’s a person seeking a spiritual path in modern times.
Jovani brought musical instruments to play, as she’s an “improvisational sound healer.” She brought a HAPI drum, a small cast iron drum was about ten inches wide and eight inches tall, that made deeply resonant sounds I thought were from a much larger drum!
We took time to introduce ourselves as we sat in a circle. Then we listened to healing music, free to make any sounds we felt like making.
For the next hour we roamed about the woods in silence and could make any sort of art we chose, they brought the materials.
Thinking was discouraged yet I found myself doing exactly that.
There’s no right or wrong though.
The music and sound, art making, breathing, walking in Nature soothed me.
Sitting under the canopy of tall trees quieted my inner chatter.
I was practicing just being.
Being with Nature.
Being natural.
What a gift.
I thought how can I create a new habit of ending each week with a bit of Nature?
Nature refreshes me.
Making sounds was healing.
An afternoon of sensory immersion in Nature reminded me that even if we only can spare minutes, an hour, or once a week or month, it’s urgently important to give ourselves the gift of quiet moments in nature. You don’t have to attend a workshop to do it.
But it doesn’t hurt.
At first it consisted of hundreds of his favorite dream stories and paintings.
Since 2000 Chris Wayan’s main project is the World Dream Bank.
“Some narrative dreams just require prose; shorter more emotional narratives may work as poems; stories with striking visual elements or strange creatures or settings are a natural for comics; intensely emotional dreams may work best as songs,” he said.
Dreams, according to Wayan, help resolve issues or offer advice.
“This week they pointed out where a leak in our roof had to be, though my consciousness had missed it for two years! I don’t see how people can ignore their dreams–they’re a huge, vivid part of my life. Only seems natural to do art about the fascinating places and beings I’ve seen.”
Now his World Dream Bank is up to 2500 pages, and nearly half the dreams and art are other people’s contributions.
Wayan also writes poetry, prose, and songs in addition to painting, sculpting, drawing and making comics.
Mostly he creates dream art.
He’s lived on Bernal Hill over 20 years and always considered himself a San Franciscan though he grew up its suburbs.
His biggest non-dream art project is Planetocopia – a series of sculpted globes with online tours of their lands and cultures playing with ecology, feminism, pacifism, and Utopia.
From his website you can also figure out how to make your own planet! Visit Planetocopia at http://worlddreambank.org/P/PLANETS.HTM.
“Go to http://www.worlddreambank.org to share your favorite dream, or show a drawing of that one dream you can’t forget…” said Wayan.
