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One-Point Perspective

2/22/2014

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PictureOne-Point Perspective Illustrated.
I'd had a few art classes go really well. One of the student's had actually been very excited about her new understanding of perspective declaring, "I get it, I was trying hard to understand this and now I get it!" It's hard not to let something like that go to your head! How often do you get a student express such excitement about a class you taught?

I guess it was inevitable that the very next class on the same subject went totally south! How could this be I wondered...and on the very same subject matter, which I'd even adjusted to make it more palatable, at least that's what I thought! I was frustrated with my failure as a teacher. 

I had just made a point that through this class we would gain a new "perspective." That we would never see the world like we did before. We would begin to see with an "artists eyes."

I realized that I needed to adjust my own perspective, that it is actually true that it's in weakness that we are made strong. That this experience of a class not going well will cause me to work at making it better. It is in pain and trouble that we grow and develop. The tree in the centre of the forest, due to the shelter there, becomes the weakest tree. The seed has to actually die for a plant to grow. The lion has to be hungry to get food. He has to make an effort, he has to work to get his supper. Plus he must risk injury and even death in the process of getting this supper. Just as the one being hunted has to work,  think and plan an escape, plus risk injury to survive. The worm has to die to become a butterfly.   

This is not what I heard when I was a  young man. Nor in our culture today. Things not going right is not acceptable. It means failure. I heard that in response to pain, real men don't cry. Survival of the fittest was taught as a life-style. The stoic, the strong silent types were the hero's to follow. In fact, failure, weakness and pain were bad. What we were trying to develop was actually some kind of a just, painless and perfect society.  Weird eh? Where did we get such ideas?

Our culture looks down upon those who do not succeed. This brings shame and/or depression, attitudes of anger and un-forgiveness. We do not measure up. We play the blame game. Or, we check out and don't even try. All of these options are destructive, and if we do not deal with them we slowly die physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

All of us are in fact one second away from major disasters and difficulties. One betrayal, one job loss, one illness, one natural disaster, can drastically change our lives forever. We really do not have much control at all. We are not enough in ourselves to make everything right and or prevent experiencing difficulties in life. Even the ageing process cannot be controlled. It's inevitable, we will not be able to live a perfect life of complete success and control. It is impossible. The fact is that if we do have control we make bad decisions and bring even more trouble on ourselves.

All of this sounds very negative and hopeless, but it is just this that brings us to understand that there is a bigger plan. We need a new perspective! We must understand that the pains of this life are there for a reason. They are there to force us to look beyond ourselves for help and assistance. They are there to bring us to our knees, admit that we cannot do this ourselves, and look for help. When we feel inadequate, that's perfect, for in that we will search and find where real help, power and strength lies. That these inevitable challenges of life are there specifically to help us understand this unique perspective we must have on life. 

For me this life giving perspective begins with my faith. We are spiritual beings and that side of us cannot be ignored. My faith guides me in a perspective that says I must rely on my creator, who is not the creator of evil but who meets me in the midst of all that is wrong and evil in this world. He has proven to me that his greatest gift to me is the power to forgive, as he's forgiven me. I am paying it forward in like manner, forgiving as I go along. When a curve ball comes my way, I work at forgiving the person, their wrong perspective, their upbringing, the circumstance, the organization, the others who were part of it, the ones who did not report it,....etc. etc. This may or may not solve the problem but it frees from the bondage of anger, frustration, and not only revenge but the mental energy and time used up in revengeful thinking and planning. Forgiveness gives me the gift of life. It is from this foundational one-pont perspective that healing can begin to happen.

Because we are then "free" we will have the mental space and energy to work on the issue. We will then have the mental energy to think outside the box, try creative things we've never done before. Plus we will begin to heal as we discover ourselves through the various creative ways we employ just to survive. This perspective will allow us not to be to proud to for example turn to friends, to family and relationships for nurture and help. We might go to counselors and/or self help groups. We find will ways to express and tell our stories through creative means such as writing, music, art, discussions, physical activity and so on. We may even begin doing something we know we have a gift for. What the amazing and surprising thing is that as we do these things and get creative, we find that the process continues to heal us. One day, we will look back and realize we are not victims anymore. We will actually look back and see our "scars" as preciouses as we realize form where we've come. As we keep moving we will continue to change, mature and grow.

What we must avoid is getting stuck. If I have stopped moving, that's a problem. 

If we can come to the place where we can begin to understand this and even welcome problems, troubles and trials, we will solve many of life's issues in one sweep. We must deal with the faith aspect of life, then all will fall into place. It all has to do with perspective, one-point perspective.

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." James 1:2-3


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A Decision I have no "Doubt" About.

2/15/2014

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Picture"Doubt" A work in progress, Porcelain
I met a good friend who pushed me as to what I was doing right now in my art. We had a great talk which went something like this.

I told her how over a month ago I began a piece in response to the ruling of the appeal court, which dismissed our 5 week trial verdict due to a technicality of omission, by the judge to the jury. I explained how I'd been writing about this piece, generally ranting about "truth," "irresponsible doubt" and so on.

I explained how I was creating a silky cloth representing the justice system, rising upwards at one end, seemingly by some power of it's own. That it was actually an optical illusion. The million dollar question I said was, what do I place on the very top of the risen portion of this silk cloth? What would best represent the issue(s) relating to how doubt is being raised in the court system? What's a good metaphor/image for doubt? 

She was fascinated with the riddle and we both began kicking around ideas, like a pile of question marks, a broken gavel, the tree of Good and Evil with apples on it, and so on.

PictureA "close-up" detail of the DNA design.
As you can see, I have made a decision. I am going with an "everyman" symbol, a human figure that represents mankind. But with a design covering his whole body representing DNA. Despite the issues of what "truth" really is, DNA has a certain truthfulness that cannot be denied.

Secondly, I will be making the seat he's sitting on, a spool of rope. There are many symbols for rope. It  might be a symbol of how we are tied to something or someone. It can refer to a marriage and the tug of war that can happen there.  There is also the negative aspects of a relationship, feelings of bondage and constriction, taking place emotionally or in the communication, or possibly even physically. How about "feeling tied down?" Most of us have heard that phrase. There is also the idea of being connected to history, systems of old, ideas of the past that may or may not work now.

In my case the rope not only connects with our case where our daughter was hog-tied, it is also something that speaks to the actual court trial process. Are we "tied" to a system that "might" find the truth almost in spite of itself? For what I saw from the defense (and this is not a knock on our defense) it is the culture of the court. Namely a culture of presenting ideas and arguments, not just to make sure of a just trial, but to actually derail the trial itself. Lies, innuendos, mockery etc. were the order of the day. We are tied to a culture of illusions. We are tied to a system where we have to constantly question our trust of the "good will" of the defense. We all (judge, jury, crown, observers in the gallery) have to constantly consider, are their arguments and ideas based on validity? This development is actually immoral and unethical, right in our own courtrooms. It's another agenda we have to deal with aside from the actual case's we are involved with and trying to solve in truthfulness.

So, I need a rope and it will be wound around my representative of humanities seat and come out curled (knotted?) around his ankle, then continue down the slope of the rising sheet of doubt he's perched upon.

I will now be calling on my good friend, thanking for her thoughts and revealing my decisions. I'm very interested in her response.

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The New Medicine of Healing Trauma.

2/14/2014

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Picture
I'm still marveling at the experience of sharing at the U of Manitoba Celebrations Week on the subject of  how Trauma Inspires Art. I feel like Jonah above, and wonder were the holes are or were in my presentation. I'm a little nervous continually asking myself, 'what did I really say up there and will it stand under scrutiny?' I feel like there are holes in my boat and that I need to plug them up as quickly as possible.

I want to thank everyone for their support. Especially for the presence of friends and acquaintances at the event.  At the end I asked the organizer how I did as far as attracting a crowd and she responded, "Excellent for a non-celebrity." I decided to take that as a compliment! "And," she added, "you kept your crowd."

It is through trials, trouble and trauma that we as humans are inspired to create things both collectively and individually that tell the story. Sometimes we have no words for what we've just seen or experienced and so it becomes necessary to create something to tell the story, to make a memory of it, something visual that then also becomes a memorial of our experience. It of course helps if it can also have some aesthetic beauty of  course. Then, as time goes on these things we create speak to us again of new underlying messages we never realized at the time. New understandings of who we are as humans, of our resilience as we remember our thoughts and new levels of awareness as a during the very process of creating.

Therefore we must re-think our attitudes towards trials and trouble. Should we not  be glad for them? Should we not cheer when these gifts of reversals, illnesses, depression, accidents, deaths and such come our way? I know, that sounds rather ridiculous as we actually hate the bad things that happen to us. We want to put our trauma behind us, forget about it, hide it, if fact bury it if we can. The problem is they come back to haunt us. They affect our lives negatively. We don't always realize it but they affect us in weird ways haunting us and distorting our lives in the future.

Our only solution is to deal with them.

Therefore, should we not live in anticipation of difficulties for it is in the midst of these that our creativity explodes to new heights of brilliance as we seek to survive. It is in the tensions of grasping to survive, process, grieve and just live, that great creative efforts come to reality. Movies, books, stories, theater, music, visual arts, memorials of all kinds are created and celebrated because of all these things. And what do you know! We are healed by that creativity. The very process of creativity changes our thinking and attitudes for the better. We are feeling good, doing something. We are feeling like we are accomplishing something. We are amazed at the results of our creative efforts. We are engaging our right brains which also brings good feeling for us.

Because of what we have learned, how we have grown and what we've achieved we can in time actually love and appreciate those healed wounds, we can love those now beautiful scars of the past.

I pray we, every one of us, could all come to that place as a result of each of our challenges in life, whatever they may be.

Let's get busy, share that pain, tell that story in your own way, your own "creative" way and thereby experience the healing medicine of the creative process!
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    Cliff's Creations...

    Hi, my name is Cliff, welcome to my website where I share my life as an art teacher, ceramic artist, photographer, father, businessman, leader and disciple. Basically I'm just trying to keep up with an exciting creative life. Thank you for coming along for the ride. You know, that your reading my blogs will make me a better artist so thank you in advance.
    Later, Cliff

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