“copyright © March 7, 2003 by Jennifer Wagner – All Rights Reserved”
Meselech
Amente at The Healing Arts Studio, 2002 |
Synopsis:
This experience is for enjoying yourself! This simple,
and often surprising, technique invites you to you leave
‘chronos’, or chronological time, and to enter
that time outside time, ‘kiros’ time, where
being present, being engrossed, is all there is.
Here,
you can experience yourself at the level of your uniquely
exquisite personal and mythological field of being. You
may newly mirror familiar and new perceptions of your
current quest, of your life’s journey.
This
experience is not about making art as a product. Yet,
often this experience inspires non-artists to discover,
or recover, being an artist. It’s about experiencing
your self deeply, through line, color, shapes, and thoughts. |
| The
Process: The directions below add steps to this
experience. Basically the technique of ‘stepping into
the face-vase image’ centers around tracing around
your own face looking one way, then the other. Studying,
completing, and reflecting on each of the two facing countenances
you create is a magically reflective time. By imagining
and journal-writing about their conversation, relationship,
and response to a particular personal question, you may
clarify or bring news to inner and outer personal conversations
– and, to your life’s quest! |
Face-Vase
Perceptual Puzzle
|
As
in all relationships, the intangible or invisible relationship
between these characters is a transformative space.
As is the ‘kiros’ space-time in which you are working
in this technique. This is the space of abundant possibilities
and so, reflective of the generosity and regeneration attributed
to The Holy Grail. Interestingly, in Buddhism, the archetype
of The Mother is expressed as “ma” – the principle
of the pregnancy of negative space.
Materials:
On a tabletop or floor, arrange a candle and matches,
a ballpoint pen and writing paper, art paper and colors –
crayons, watercolor pens, tempera paints, brushes, cups of water,
and paper towels. A 14” x 28” poster board allows
both characters to be placed on one page.
Ancient
Wisdom Systems: As a second lens for reflecting on the
characters you create, you might wish to have at hand an ancient
wisdom system - an indigenous text such as the Mayan Calendar?
The Bible’s Old Testament or New Testament, the Bhagavad-Gita,
I-Ching, Kaballah, Rune Stones, or Tarot? Selections from these
wisdom systems are available on this site. Some selections follow
a chronological order; some do not.
Women at The Festival of the Goddess - a Day Celebration in Tacoma,
January 31, 1998
Time: For an individual experience, set aside
an uninterrupted, silent hour and a half for preparation, completion
and art supplies clean-up. For a group experience, set aside
15 minutes more for each person to optionally expand their experience
by sharing. And, more set-up and clean-up time.
Setting
Safe Space: Determine that you may choose to, or not
to share the drawings with anyone. This is deeply personal work,
and freedom to contain the information for assimilation, or
completely, will assist your freedom in the art experience.
For a group experience, be sure it is clear that sharing the
drawing is optional. It would also be helpful if the group agrees
that the person speaking about their drawing can invite, or
ask for no comments on the drawing from others in the group.
Remember:
This art process is deeply self-revealing. Its power is in
assimilating, within yourself, information you receive in
the experience. I recommend sharing these drawings only
with those people whom you know will respond lovingly. This
experience is not about producing a piece of art, it’s
about experiencing yourself – and, all artists are sensitive!
And, I recommend assimilating information for a while before
sharing the drawings, or not asking others what they see in
your characters’ faces. If you ask, know that each person
sees everything through their own life story’s lens,
so what they see may not be your truths.
Becoming
Centered, Setting a Question: 1) Light a candle for
focusing and for setting sacred space. 2) The process is best
completed in a continuous flow of silent time. 3) Begin by journal
writing about a life question or situation, or to become more
present. 4) Sit quietly for a 5-minute silent meditation, breathing
deeply and easily, relaxing body tensions, letting the question/situation
settle in, change, or disappear. Trust that what emerges in
the art experience will be congruent. 5) After the meditation,
and anytime during the art experience, taking time for journal
writing may be helpful.
Reflections
Using a Wisdom System: Before or after completing the
art work, you might randomly choose reflections from a passage,
card, or stone from a favorite wisdom system. Perhaps, note
these references at the corresponding points on your drawing.
Before
the Art Experience: Choosing to reflect on a passage,
card, or stone before doing the art work will influence
the art process. You may wish to journal write about these choices.
After
the Art Experience: By choosing to reflect after
the art work, you will enter the art experience free of outside
influences. After you create the characters, imagine and journal-write
their conversation about your question, and what they want to
say. Then - to achieve new perspectives, shift from a personal
to an impersonal lens. Perhaps there are other possibilities
the characters may represent? You may receive more information
about your question, more wisdom for your personal journey,
a surprising inspiration?!
Jennifer,
Vern, Priscilla (Chris in background)
The Festival at Jean Houston’s Mystery School,
2001
|
To
Use a Wisdom System: For points of reference,
make random choices from the wisdom system you use.
As a guide, 5 choices below suggest one or several selections
of passages, stones, or cards.
|
Number
of
Reference
Points |
Reflecting_______
|
| 1
|
An
Overview |
| 2 |
Each
Character |
| 3 |
Each
Character/ Their
Relationship |
| 4 |
Characters/Relation-
ship/Overview |
| 5 |
Characters/Relation-
ship/Overview/
Foundation |
Or,
improvise! |
|
| The
art experience begins by tracing 2 silhouettes of your
own face and head:
1) With your shoulder off the table, place your head on
the page, ‘ear to the ground’ – facing
left, or right. Feel the edges of the paper around your
head, to make sure your head is completely on the page.
Focus your sight on some far point; notice how you are
holding your face. Relax. |
“Kaffe”
and “Morgaine” |
2)
In the hand you are facing, remember to hold the pen high on
the shank, to be sure to keep your fingers out of the way of
the pen as you make the curves around your nose and forehead.
3) Beginning at your throat or the nape of your neck, gently
and slowly experience your face and head by tracing its silhouette.
4) Facing the other direction, trace similarly.
Kaffe
and Morgaine are characters I never completed, liking them as
they are. By the time I’d traced them I’d traced
maybe 50 sets of faces, so expect your first silhouettes to
be rough. Honor them, I had an extraordinary experience completing
my first, rough silhouettes.
Elaboration:
1) Take generous time to study and honor these countenances,
and your responses to them. Completing the first several countenances
may produce very rough images – the tracing process is
awkward and is always different, which is one of the reasons
it works. These first drawings may hold some of the most important
information you will receive doing this process. 2) Journal-write
about your first impressions. 3) Then, the next steps are wide
open for innovation….you may wish to complete each character
with features, hair, clothing, jewelry, perhaps a hat? - Perhaps,
use your trained hand to embellish one character and your untrained
hand to embellish the other. By expressing with each hand, you
will access different types of information. 4) As you embellish
these characters, honor both the intentional and accidental
lines, the colors and shapes you create, let what happens on
the page lead your next act. 5) Pay attention to developing,
or not, the space between them, in place and time.
Amplifications
After Completing Art Work:
1.
Journal Writing / Conversations: After completing the
art work, you might take more time to journal-write. Some questions
to consider answering are: 1) What happened in your thoughts
as the characters and their environment developed? 2) Who do
they remind you of? 3) What types of people do they represent?
4) Who are the characters? 5) Do each of the characters suggest
their own names? 6) How do each of the characters and their
relationship answer your original question? Perhaps, journal-
write their dialogue. Perhaps write for one character with your
trained, and one character with your untrained hand. 7) How
does their relationship address your life story? 8) Do the characters
pose questions or statements, themselves? 9) Ask these characters
to discuss any subject.
2.
Looking Again – see above:
Reflections Using a Wisdom System
? After the Art Experience
? To Use a Wisdom System
Wildwomen
Summer Solstice Celebration
Chinook Learning Center, Clinton, Washington, 1995
|
3.
Becoming Acquainted with the Characters, Over Time:
Pin and leave these countenances for a couple weeks,
or more, on a wall you often pass by, or that you see
from a favorite chair. You will experience more insights!
4.
Creating a Series of these Drawings: You may
wish to create a series of these drawings, using a favorite
wisdom system. Discovering this technique I experienced
my relationship to the Creative Cycle’s 22 aspects
of wholeness – and, perhaps, to the 22 parts of
the soul: The Journeyor . . . Inception . . . Birth
. . . Maturity . . . Harvest . . . Death . . . .Transformation.
So, in this wisdom system, perhaps you might wish to
complete a series around a 4- or 11-card Tarot reading?
In another wisdom system, improvise. I haven’t
completed a series except following Tarot, so I’d
be happy to hear from you about your experience of another
wisdom system.
Grounding:
After you finish the process, it will be helpful if
you can do something which will be grounding. Being
in ‘kiros’ time and space can be disorienting.
Perhaps take a walk, talk to a friend on the phone,
do the dishes, the laundry, something that will return
you to ‘chronos’ time, where we operate
most of the time.
|
Class: Michele and Alesia at Stonehouse Learning Center, Kirkland,
2002\
E
n j o y !
|
