Reflections and Refractions
Books are a doorway into our future.
DEAR ARTISTS AND THOSE WHO WANT MORE CREATIVITY IN THEIR LIVES
We know what it means to reflect: our process goes something like this:
We action something.
We find stillness.
We think deeply about the significance of that action.
To refract is slightly more complex. When we refract, as far as I see it in this particular context, we break open the significance of what we are revealing to ourselves and that breaking open may help us change direction.
Sometimes habits can stimy us, holding us to a certain pattern, a pattern that we are so used to, we hardly see it anymore.
So to deliberately bring reflective practice into the mix, followed by our refractive ability to change direction if need be, can prove very useful.
One of the exercises I love to do, and also love to share, is what I call the Fork in the Road.
The first task is to draw your very own fork in the road, or, as I did, take a walk and photograph the forks in the road on which you are travelling. If you are drawing your fork in the road, just begin with a loose line across the page. Build on that. You can then grow the image with pens or paint, noticing colour, texture, shape, line, tone, size etc.
Two ways, stay on the pathway or turn left…
Once you have depicted your road, draw yourself journeying along that road:
Where do you stand?
Where are you going?
Where have you come from?
Keep noticing things like the size of your depiction: are you tiny on the road or do you overshadow the road. Ask yourself the meaning of the size, shape, colour, texture, line etc.
Once you feel satisfied, begin to write, and you may wish to employ techniques such as:
“What I really want to say is”….(prompt borrowed from Natalie Goldberg, an author and writing coach from the USA with whom I worked years ago at a conference in NYC). In her book Wild Mind, Goldberg suggests that when we are engaged in writing practice, we often feel as though we are not moving forward “treading water, not really saying anything” (Wild MInd, no. 18). Her suggestion, and one I have engaged with over and over, is to insert the words “What I really want to say” right in the middle of a sentence to help drop into a deeper level. I will often suggest we start the sentence with it as well as insert it whenever you feel stuck.
“And by that I mean”…(this writing prompt is dreamed on from Proprioceptive Writing, a school of writing in the USA). What I like about this writing prompt is that it makes me go deeper. I am saying what I want to say, and suddenly I am forced to consider a deeper motivation or meaning of that story using “and what I mean by that is…” or something similar.
Once you have written about your depiction, share it with someone, or else read it out loud to yourself. Notice what happens when you read it out aloud, hopefully with someone to witness your work.
Have a terrific process!
Margi