My fourth book is a collection of creative prompts, teachings, stories, and illustrations used to illuminate age-old spiritual truths and new creative ideas in the spirit of living our lives with more wonder and deeper joy. I'm still working on it.
Today in his blog, author and artist Danny Gregory, relayed an article published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that said people may register symptoms of fear, uncertainty, meaninglessness, a loss of hope, even terror when they are exposed to abstract art.
I loved Danny's response. It's in line with what I'm writing about:
“But art has the power to go beyond confirming what we already know. It can stretch us past our comfort zones and prepare us to face the unknown. And facing the unknown is a crucial survival skill, one we have to exercise every day if we are to survive.
Get used to the fact that you can’t control everything in your environment. That there may not be an explanation or a code for all you encounter. Some things are strange. And instead of feeling helpless in their presence, empower yourself with the knowledge that you are resilient and resourceful, and trust that you will find you footing even on new ground.” http://dannygregorysblog.com/2014/12/08/the-art-of-being-afraid/
An abstract painting by Wassily Kandinsky entitled Composition X inspired me to write a poem a few years ago. (I pasted it at the bottom).
Expressing feelings about my relationship with my mother gave me some equilibrium in the form of processing feelings about a relationship where I had lost footing a long time ago. I didn’t gain control over the relationship, I didn't need to -- letting go of the need to fix it was liberating. Maybe we didn't work that well as mother and daughter, but we do work as art. It was a comfort to free those feelings to the page.
Creativity does that. It liberates us. And paradoxically it can give us power to control the words, the images, the musical notes, the dance movements where in life we must relinquish control. Yet, at some point we also need to surrender to the process and let go of any attachment to the way our work needs to look. That requires a courage that then becomes useful in other areas of our life.
The creative process requires trust and perseverance, resilience and patience. In practicing those qualities while engaged in an artistic pursuit, we are also cultivating them in the interest of living a life filled with more grace and peace. Which is an art in and of itself.
^ Wassily Kandinsky Compostion X ^
There is a page in my mom’s art history book,
with a background of black,
hosting red and blue and gold
and green squares and points.
Negative space connects
what looks like a fish tail, a book, a hot air balloon
and a bubble, but one can't really be sure what
occupies this, Kandinsky’s abstract Composition X,
a funny name for a painting that has no X to mark the spot
so that you know where you are
in relationship to the world
or fish tails …
or your mom .
In the painting, there ‘s also an
alphabet made of half moons, clotheslines, and empty tic tac toe grids.
When I squint my eyes I see two shapes come forward.
I see my mother and I, floating on the negative space,
trying to communicate with each other in checkerboards and squiggles
and clotheslines,
a language so abstract that neither one of us can be
sure what we are really trying to say.
But it’s clear … we want to say something.
But then I notice that I am the fishtail swimming out of this painting,
I am the fishtail traveling over the negative space,
of Kandinsky’s Composition X,
looking for the painting that tells y.
Wanna go further with this subject? Find an abstract painting in a museum or on-line
- Let go of control by free writing about it.
- Or write a list of questions about it
- Or fill in this unfinished sentence at least five times:
- It’s strange that…
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