Chapter 10
Coming Home
Art enables us to find ourselves and
lose ourselves at the same time. -- Thomas Merton
lose ourselves at the same time. -- Thomas Merton
Sedona had become for us what we'd hoped, a new home where at the second half of life we'd reconnected with our muse. We'd found ourselves at wisdom's edge, members of a tribe of creative spirits who had come here for the same reasons we did. When we joined the non-profit Sedona Visual Artists' Coalition, a lively group of artist and other creative spirits, we knew it was time to dust off our professional bona fides and set to work as volunteers. Louis, a former professor and dean of students, headed up the student scholarship program and I offered my journalism experience. I met with Mike Upp, a clay artist and retired marketing whiz who spearheaded marketing efforts for the Open Studios Tour, a huge regional celebration featuring local artists in northern Arizona's Verde Valley.
Becoming acquainted with Mike and his artist/author wife Sharon, Louis and I were astonished by the similarities in our stories of how we'd ended up in Sedona. They'd arrived in Sedona in 2013, eager to reconnect with their youthful artistic roots and like us, were post-career boomers who'd been young and idealistic seekers of wisdom and truth over forty years ago. After raising a family and leaving careers in marketing and teaching, they were free to seize the opportunity to realize their dream of resurrecting a long held vision of life with the muse by opening a commercial ceramics studio creating art with beauty and purpose.
Mike had become the driving force behind the explosive growth of Open Studios which had in just four years expanded from 28 to 59 artists showing their work in studios all over the Verde Valley, including Sedona, Cornville, Cottonwood, Clarkdale and Camp Verde. The work was both a tribute and legacy, his own contribution to creating a solid and ongoing tradition that would long outlive his active participation. Little did he know, when he and Sharon had visited Sedona seven years before, they were about to meet their muse in a way that would bring them full circle from their beginnings as artists and spiritual seekers, both using their professional experience as a way to help others realize their potential.
In April, 2010 Mike and Sharon were vacationing in Sedona when by happy coincidence they stumbled upon the annual Open Studios Tour in full swing. They remember feeling like they'd been invited to some kind of huge block party, a fun and fabulous festival for art lovers who wanted to rub shoulders with lots of top notch artists in their personal studios. Immensely enjoyable and exhilarating, the whole thing reminded Mike of their wildly adventurous years when he and Sharon had been Arizona State University students. Her art studies in Mexico and his life in an artist's cooperative in Tennessee and later return to Arizona to run the Tempe Arts Festival were also very large pieces of their evolution as bona fide creative spirits. Finding Sedona many years later, both Mike and Sharon reveled in the Southwestern feel and ebullient friendliness of the people. They liked the art they'd seen and the spectacular red rock countryside, not a bad backdrop for an art show. Like so many others over the years who came, saw and surrendered, the Upps immediately moved Sedona to the top of the list for possible retirement spots and by 2013 had moved from California to Arizona to establish Earth and Fire Ceramics Design Studio, a living/working space on two acres just outside Sedona in nearby Cornville.
When we visited their studio, Louis and I both remarked on the unflagging dedication in Mike and Sharon's pursuit of their dreams, evident in their new home with its shape of a life lived with conscious attention to meeting the muse. They showed us the garden, which doubled as a space for Mike's need for meditation and nurturing. Sharon took us out to where she'd constructed a winding labyrinth for walking meditations, the focus for her art and spirituality workshops. They didn't talk much about themselves but it was obvious that as their new studio had taken off, producing large batches of what they called Art For Living ceramic dinnerware, both Mike and Sharon had blossomed again as working artists. The studio had grown into a respectable and satisfying business venture as well.
Friendly Mike was the outgoing entrepreneur with lots of funny stories to share with visitors, who were always delighted to hear all about the latest glazing technique or new pot in progress. Sharon offered a warm and welcoming presence that made visitors felt comfortable and right at home. The two accessible hosts were always ready to discuss their unique process and the creation of their regionally-influenced line of ceramics and eager patrons liked hearing about the amazing ideas the two artists had, literally, cooked up with their interesting ceramic processes. Visitors usually counted themselves lucky to have stumbled upon this delightful slice of originality in the high desert. Who even knew such a welcoming and creative place like this existed?
As the studio grew, they found it particularly rewarding to show off the possibilities inherent in sculptural and functional creations designed for everyday use in the timeless culinary tasks of mixing, baking, serving, even microwaving. We asked them what they liked best about this new life, what would they want to be remembered for? Both said it was knowing that people would be using and enjoying their work every single day to make their life more beautiful and functional. It was a point of pride that their artistic legacy would be that the best pots and dishes they could create would endure and provide enjoyment and beauty for their owners in the years to come. When we broached the question of whether they felt they'd come full circle to wisdom's edge, the response was not surprising. Like most questions best answered through contemplation, this one would find its answer within the sacred space of the labyrinth walk.
Meeting Your Muse: Walking The Labyrinth
| Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for
the heroes of all time have gone before us, the labyrinth is fully
known;....where we had thought
to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence;
where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
--Joseph Campbell
|
An ancient symbol, the labyrinth walk signifies a journey that begins, meanders, learns and observes, comes to center, then returns by a similar path to where it first began. It signifies a coming home full circle with something new, different, better, perhaps a treasure or bounty that can be shared with the tribe. It signifies the story of many who travel to wisdom's edge represents the spiritual journey we all make whether we even choose call it that or not.
Sharon and Mike Upp had followed similar spiritual paths over the years, he as a younger man in the 1970s exploring the teachings of Swami Kriyananda, a primary disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and the Self Realization Fellowship. Sharon was a student in the Vedanta tradition and led a Course In Miracles group for a decade. Through writer Kay Lindahl (The Sacred Art of Listening) she'd become involved in the interfaith dialogue process, a powerful life altering experience in learning how to listen deeply and be present with people of varying beliefs.
As their lives had come full circle as artists, so had in many ways their spiritual journey. The labyrinth was a graphic symbol for the meandering path of two artists committed to making an impact in the world by helping other artists and spiritual seekers to find their creative path and potential. The sense of connection to the earth had always been important and for Mike working with clay or in the garden was a wakeful meditation. For Sharon, constructing the labyrinth opened an enormously meaningful personal and spiritual growth path that in time she would share with others exploring ways to merge art and spirituality.
Visiting this beautiful and sacred space, Louis and I walked the labyrinth for both instruction and inspiration, marveling at the complex conceptual framework Sharon had laid out. There were markers for the four directions, inspiration ceramic tokens with spiritual symbols sprinkled here and there among the rocks. In the center she had placed a gift from her friend Phoenix, a local spiritual healer. The magnificent clear crystal was rooted and standing tall among testaments representing still other concepts that made the walk so meaningful and creative. Among the reminders of how art for living can be achieved, were two words side by side: Hozho and drala both of which, from the Navajo and Tibetan traditions respectively, meant beauty. As we walked the labyrinth, it became a lovely and inspiring metaphor for our journey to wisdom's edge. Sharon told us that in her art and spirituality workshop, participants reported a sense of having completed a momentous journey as the walk concluded. Afterwards she helped them validate that by showing them how to hand build a clay piece to both symbolize and commemorate their journey.
Sharon suggested looking up Walking a Sacred Path by Rev. Lauren Artress, author and Episcopal priest, one of the best books on discovering how to use this ancient tool to discover your own sacred space. Unlike a maze a labyrinth has no dead ends and there is just one path so it's not possible to become lost because even though there are twists and turns, the entrance is also its exit. This imagery of wholeness (holiness) combines circle and spiral into a meandering but purposeful path, reflecting the process of traveling to our own center and back again. It's good to remember that when entering a labyrinth (whether it is an actual circumscribed template on the ground or whether it is within your own heart and mind) you're placing yourself in a container within which to travel. When you're done traveling to the center and back, the meaning of what you've experienced will be fully realized leaving you a different person, even though it may take awhile to grasp. Marking sacred time and space within ourselves by physically entering an ancient physical form has the power to bestow new insights about our lives, and perhaps, our relationship to the muse.
How? Because this place has been a safe container for you to recall your roots, see the past, experience the present and face the future, providing structure for your new story with an ending very different from what you thought it would be when you entered the labyrinth. As you exit, don't be surprised by a new ability to relate past, present and future to make a bold new statement about what and how you define yourself in the second half of life.
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