THE SPEED OF LIFE
How fast life goes by these days! We try to slow it down by recording it with camcorders, writing journals, scrapbooks, and diaries. We use whatever media is available today to capture the events of our lives and account for our past, which were the presents we missed as we moved into the future. And, while we’re busy showing our videos and emailing photos to all our friends, life is happening. Meanwhile, what about the present? Isn’t that what we’re missing by going so fast? The past and the present are always there, flickering back and forth. It is only the present moment that we can control. And how we do it? Not very well, because we are always looking to the past for clues on how to make a better future and looking forward with hopes and dreams, trying to figure out how to get there. We are perpetually out of time.
LIVING LIFE TO THE LIMIT
How can we live our lives to the fullest in the present moment? How can we get off the “fast track” and slow down enough to appreciate every minute? We can meditate, do yoga, or just spend a few moments sitting in a quiet place and letting our mind settle, trying to reduce the noisy and chaotic input that life throws at us on a daily basis. All of these methods are pretty good guidelines for enriching our present moments. But is there another way that is less passive and more active and enjoyable to fully engage in the moment? Yes, there is, and it is through creativity.
LOOKING WITHIN
Did you know that using your imaginative and creative skills you can slow down time and enrich the moments of your life? How does this work? Simple and easily. In any creative act such as writing, painting or drawing, you must look within. When you do this, you have a dialogue with your creative interior and time slows down. Every minute spent in this effort is a very rich minute. This dynamic can be compared to traveling through the longitudes rather than the latitudes of time. In this vertical movement of depth, you are investigating, exploring and discovering rich data in your brain with the idea of translating it into a visual experience that can communicate the amazing complexities of yourself to others. Through six creative projects you will discover the artist in you. These are two of the six projects:
THE ARTIST WITHIN YOU PROJECT: NUTRITION OF THE SOUL THROUGH SCRIBBING
Creating from your imagination, gathering your creative powers nourishes your body, mind and soul. Heartbreak, anxiety and stress can be released by doodling. And there’s a lot to discover what you doodle with, just by making lines and scribbles on the paper. Are they meaningless? Not in a heartbeat! Doodle projects completed by groups of students reveal images that resonate with personal goals, concerns, dreams, and beliefs. Doodling is a powerful and revealing learning context that leads students to tap into their own creative powers.
The project requires just a pencil or pen and a few sheets of paper. Make swirls, dots, dashes or lines, whatever you want on the sheet of paper. Take three minutes. Look carefully at your doodles. Do you see? faces? animals? An ocean? Often the image is about something you have been thinking about. Now, emphasize the images by darkening the lines around them. Add lines to lighten the images.
Now make another doodle. This time she closes her eyes. Take three minutes and make whatever kind of marks and lines you want. Now open your eyes and examine your work. Do you see? Be sure to turn the paper over to see other images. Highlight images you’ve found with dark lines, and add lines or marks to lighten your images. If you are in a group, pass your doodle to the person on your right and ask if they see anything in their doodle. If you’re working on being yourself, ask a friend or family member to help you view additional images. Ask the person to add darker lines to make what they see clearer.
Write about one of the images in the doodle. You can relate the image to something you have been involved in, a dream, a nightmare, or an idea. Whatever it is, attach a meaning and definition to the image. Explain your writing to the group, friend or family member. Ask them to write a meaning and a definition about their image.
THE ARTIST WITHIN YOU PROJECT: VERBAL/VISUAL/WRITING SKILLS
The project requires three photos of you (1) When you were young (2) When you were older (3) A recent photo, plus some sheets of paper and a small bottle of glue or tape. Write on each photo: how old you were, what you were doing and what, perhaps, you were thinking. Work to clarify and condense your information into three separate paragraphs.
Take three separate sheets of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper. Paste or glue a photo to the top of each sheet. Write the corresponding paragraph under the photo. Then, below your paragraph, draw a series of symbols or icons that communicate the information in the photo and sentence. Imagine that the symbols or icons you put up will describe the information to someone who can’t read.
Writing a clear and concise definition of an image hones your communication skills in writing. Translating your memories and experiences into simple images familiarizes you with the creative process required to represent a given subject. Also, describing the photo in clear, simple terms that anyone can understand (you can share your description with a friend or, in a group setting, discuss the photo with others) builds your verbal skills. In a group, the exchange of this information is always interesting and highly interactive. If you do this on your own and share your experience with a friend, you will be sharing an intimate perspective of yourself that will enrich your relationship.
THE TIME LAPSE PHENOMENON
You may notice, when doing The Artist Within projects, an interesting time-lapse phenomenon. Often the session, which lasts for an hour, seems to go very fast. Students often comment that, at the same time, he seems very focused. They say they feel like they’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time (and, in fact, they have). They have been creating unique shapes, delving into their thoughts, activating their imaginations, and sharing their experiences verbally and in writing. to others.