Cycle of Circles
ᎤᎵᎮᎵᏍᏗ ᎢᏤ ᎠᏕᏘᏱᏍᎬᎢ U-li-he-lis-di i-tse a-de-ti-yi-s-gv-i /happy new year!
What's on your creative table in 2025?
For 2024, our pastor Erika Marksbury got a grant to use Bonnie Smith Whitehouse's lovely book, Seasons of Wonder, for inspiration and focus. The grant covered copies of the book for the congregation, plus supplies for our monthly Makers Meetings and funds for field trips; and we met in small groups for monthly discussion.
I really enjoy Bonnie's approach of interweaving gathering as a circle (!!), sharing creativity, connecting with nature, each other and the Divine. I've ordered her Kickstart Creativity cards for more inspiration.
In her introduction to Seasons ofWonder, Bonnie quotes Steven Charleston, 'It is all a circle, the ancestors said -- an endless circle within a circle. The drum is a circle. The dance ground is a circle. The earth is a circle. There is no us or them, no top or bottom, no beginning or end, no lines of division -- only a seamless embrace. The answer is within... the stars will make their great circle of the heavens to make their way home.' -Ladder to the Light (Steven is Choctaw and Cherokee, and an Episcopal bishop),
I began following Bonnie on Instagram, and near the end of December, she wrote, 'instead of injecting the news into my veins right after my feet hit the floor, I got up a lot of the mornings of 2024 and spent just a few minutes drawing or painting something inside a circle 🔴 ... Anyone else starting their day with a low-stakes creative play?'
Me!!
For the last 10 years, I've offered creative circles and classes, with a focus on process rather than perfection! I offer bimonthly circles via zoom, an invitation to stretch our creative muscles In a judgment free zone.
- Take a moment to center, pour a cuppa, light a candle, tug your Red Thread
- Work on paper, canvas, your Smashbook / art journal, or on a card
- Use a template to draw a circle (coaster, small cup, ...
- Invite insights for the day
- Metacognative drawing
- Neurographica
- Mandala
- Go through the Color wheel
- Choose a word for the week
- Collage ...
Oh so you draw a circle and then do something creative within it? I might want to try that. I love your spiral!
ReplyDeleteI have tried a process called morning papers. It is like a journal but its purpose is to sit and write whatever is on your mind first thing in the morning. It is not meant to be referred to later but only to release the creative thoughts that have been percolating in your subconscious mind through the night. Sometimes it began with a to do list or an I'm grateful for list. Often it was a recap of the waking dream I was having.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of reusing paper. I grew up in a town that had a pulp and paper company making newsprint from logs cut in the surrounding forest and floated through the lake to the mill. It was a dirty and dangerous business that polluted the environment. I am all for recycling paper. The bleaching of the paper to make it white was even more toxic.
Our church has talking circles to discuss books from indigenous writers. They are very enlightening and open our minds to more inclusive ways of thinking.
Thanks for sharing, Doug.
DeleteI've done morning pages as well - and journaled off and on for decades.
I always loved drawing, and my dad used to bring home the end rolls of newsprint, so I'd have Lots of cheap paper! It's telling that in early colonial days, folks with land were required to grow hemp, to fill the needs for paper (and Canvas)! Not as hard on the land as some crops!
Our church also has a bookgroup reading books by indigenous authors - Native Voices! We began in shimmer of '23 with local author and earth Steward, Randy Woodley's 'Becoming Rooted.' I co lead the group and we read a mix of fiction and nonfiction. It is all good way to broaden our horizons.
In the fall, several of us were invited to the birthday party for the plank house at nearby Grand Ronde Reservation - I wrote about it on one of my fall posts!
Hope you stop by again
Nadya
What a fun idea I think I will use with my son and husband to get them off electronics for a bit. Have a good day and I also will be looking for her book to read this year.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun - and good luck!! I used to bet my more 13 year old grandson to draw with me!
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