Cycles Of Creation

 Stay hungry, stay foolish. 

--Steve Jobs, at Stanford University's 2005 graduation

Stan Kurth with his intuitive painting & me

                I heard about an intuitive painting class recently and decided to give it a try. Magic! I traveled downto Phoenix for the class, taught by an intriguing and talented artist named Stan Kurth (stan.kurth@gmail.com).  I learned a lot and  met some great people (whose fabulous paintings I'll share with you next week). After the daylong workshop, I was reminded of something Steve Jobs said about living the creative life. "Stay hungry, stay foolish," which I think is good advice not only for recent college graduates but for people like you and me, people looking to find ways to have a life more creative, alive and awake. It's at wisdom's edge, that nether place of eternal vigilance where the awakened people live (people like intuitive painters) and meet their muse. We're still hungry for creativity and foolish enough to go after it no matter what other people think.

The Creative Life

        Stan asked us to watch him as he dabbed helter skelter with a wax marker on a piece of heavy watercolor paper. He 'doodled' a bit, then with a house painter brush, he began splashing some watercolor paint hither and yon. Slap, dash, swoop, swirl. It looked pretty good by the time he decided to begin adding acrylic paint, after a suitable interlude to let the watercolor dry. He mixed sienna and ultramarine blue (hope I'm remembering this right) to come up with his special gray gesso which allowed him to create gauzy, evocative spaces in among the brighter primary areas he'd already laid down. He gave it a rest and I then set about trying to create my own version of what he'd done. I begin to feel a little frozen as I slogged through the sequential phases of laying down paint, apprehensive as I surveyed my work, evaluating and judging as I went along. Oh phooey, I thought, I'm making a mess. And I was. But it was a kind of divine mess that in the end gave me so much insight into myself and my creative process that it turned out to be a spectacular learning experience of how stark hunger and regal foolishness can take you a very long way towards wisdom's edge. What sort of person ("at my age?", I primly asked myself) does stuff like this? I do, I answered, I do this and gave a rousing Bronx cheer to myself.  

The beginning of The Enchanted Forest...

Frankly, I just can't bear the stifled ordinariness of a life in the safe middle of it all--protected, shielded, cosseted. I tried that and eventually started to lose that crucial understanding of why I was set here on earth in the first place. Namely, to give voice to the ineffable, to see through the obscurity, to contribute my small or large portion of enlightenment to help bring the world into balance. 
 Stan told me to live with the painting I'd started, watch it, listen to it over time and see what comes up. He didn't say it this way, but what he meant, I think, is to let that little seed I'd planted have some time to germinate, let it emerge through a cycle of creation as I tend to it with a little faith, respect and devotion. And then see what happens.

The evolution of The Enchanted Forest....

                  

          This intuitive painting workshop reminded me again that to not trust in the cycles of creation, to remain cloaked in a secure center, shielded from a yearning hunger for truth and the sacred foolishness that hovers just this side of wisdom, is a deadly way of life. That's all there is to it. The fat, soft and mushy middle tempts everyone to cling to the status quo, hiding treasured beliefs while denying our extraordinary perceptions. If your path is that of the creative spirit then get ready to camp out just far enough on the edge of it all so that you can stay hungry and insist on foolishness. Know yourself as that intrepid  observer, that wise fool who can't and won't ever betray the sacred trust for which you came into this often odd and sometimes silly but always interesting world. Here's something to help you hoist yourself out of the safe middle if you find yourself sinking in. Maybe it will boost you up so you can set yourself squarely on a new cycle of creation. Throw yourself heart and soul into trying this one thing and I can make you a promise that you will never, ever see the world the same again.
                                                                                          

       Meet Your Muse

Write about a place you’ve never been but heard about, a place you’ve seen pictures of, tasted the food, explored the culture, experienced the music, and especially, the people you've observed. Finish the story below by writing from the perspective of edge, from the perspective of one who is beginning to live awakened, aware, alive: “I saw them through the fence, the ones who shone with the ignorant bliss of children who remain outside the cocoon of the ordinary stream of life. They called me to join. I was afraid to succumb to temptation. The people of Edgeville were carefree, singing, dancing, feasting, frolicking and worst of all, coloring outside the lines! Well, I said all prissy and pursed, they just better watch out because tomorrow it will be a whole new world when they find out. Find out what, I thought, that they are alive and streaming joy? I set down my bags, opened the gate and went in....”