I took the Creavity Workshop at California Institute of Integral Studies and wanted to share the written processes/products that I had previously shared with the individuals in my class in order to reflect on the level of vulnerability that I usually do not display in front of colleagues or otherwise. Being between half strangers, half friends, I felt a wonderful balance of risk and safety.
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A sensory experience- Five surprise bags were passed around the room, ready to open and be engaged in some olfactory-to-hippocampus goodness. Guess what was in the bag that I chose to write about!:
Drowning on my bed
Familiar angel sends me
Vapor lifesaver
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Context-Professor/facilitator asks us to start our process with, "I am from an island":
I am from an island,
from turnkey apartments and lonely TV's
I am from plumeria trees
welcoming young climbers
From, "Mr. Mayor, this is Sol's daughter,"
and, "Honey, you should get in touch with your father."
I am from school to school, 1-3 times a year
From ti leaves to redwoods
From 2nd place tiaras and singing different languages on a cruise ship
I am from the cafeteria waiting to go home and a graveyard of Hawaiian royalty turn perfect waiting/playing spot
From 20 pairs of slippahs near the doorway
From 20 cocoons of monarchs to guard
I am from ordinarily warm waters and dime-a-dozen waterfalls
From hot cookies and enriched bread
I am from, "I thought we were going to have a new boy in class."
From the smell of cardboard and sticky vinyl
From, "Hey blackjack, poker, like the card game right?"
I am from a single diamond in the rough.
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She-Who-Facilitates-One's-Creativity asked us to pick a line from a poem, to begin our process with, again, (can't remember title and author off the top of my head and citing resources is important to me!) and I picked, "There's a big stranger in town called the sun":
There's a big stranger in town called the sun.
They say he is a star, but I don't see it.
On bad days, he looks crazy
Out of control, brandishing a flame-thrower?
But on good days, he is like a father to all, being welcomed with picnic baskets and BIKINIS.
I see him all the time, even in pictures.
I like him when he wears sunglasses.
Sometimes he goes out of town, but I know he'll be back
Because I see his friend who waits around for him in the same place.
I hope someone will wait around for me like that.
It's probably just his drug dealer anyway.
Have~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Do~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Be
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Which way do you go?
My intentions after the workshop:
1. Act more on my creativity
2. Take risks OR feel safer
3. Lessen the dichotomy between artist and audience
4. Hope to spark creativity in others
5. Rid my perception of "art"
6. Continue to notice creativity in everyone, everywhere and in everything (yay i'm hella spiritual!)
7. Play more!
8. Start anywhere
9. Appreciate self more, respect (acceptance with no agenda to change) self more
10. Implement different approaches to test levels of participation in audience/artists/class dynamics.
In addition, the word "daughter" was a choice in a wordpile and after three intelligent, warm, strong, etc. women connected beautiful imagery, ideas and experiences in deeply moving ways about their love and awe of their daughters (intense), I decided to hold off on "the author's" interpretation:
What do you do when you are lonely?
Have a baby!
And if you have a daughter you can dress her up in cute dresses or a DIY style (if that's your cup of tea)
While you brush her long hair, you may find yourself dreaming about her becoming a doctor!
For the working mums, when she is still small, but big enough to know it is bad to not do everything her mum tells her to, you can tuck her in some corner of your cubicle where she can play with scraps of printouts and paper clips, all for free!
But wait, there's more!
When she is of age, she can drive you around while you make important phone calls and run important errands.
When she gets too old to be cute,
DOUBLE your fun by playing matchmaker and find her a nice professional man
So that when you are,
now old and lonely, you can
Have a baby!
I never said my shadow side wouldn't manifest itself. Of course it's equally proportional to my light side.
Sometimes I find it intense that I'm going to be ME for like, 70 more years.
