Week 3 – and the art works come marching in!

This workshop session started out with participants walking in with a spring in their step and heaps of enthusiasm. Some had completed multiple pieces, and it seemed they couldn't get them out of their bags quick enough to show me. Wonderful work! My intention to cultivate freedom of expression and experimentation seems to be paying off. Mixed mediums – even egg cartons (that no longer looked like egg cartons) were sculpted into wonderful explosions of colour and sculptural form in one piece. The confidence in the execution of this work was obvious and the participants knew it!

I continue to wing my way through this process and I continue to learn more and more about my self. For years I have been called "Arfer" (affectionately by my husband!). I have to say I am a visionary, and I do have the gift of being able to visualise vividly. I have visualised or imagined doing so many things – not all to do with the arts – but it usually involves creating something or the intention to embark on some endeavor! I thank my mother for this personality trait! A lot of the visions do in fact manifest (I guess I walk it every day) but a lot of them don't, hence my nick-name that comes from things "half done". Anyway, the fact that I came up with this workshop model for challenged people years ago, still scares the living daylight out of me. The fact that I am obliged to step over my intermittent agoraphobia into something that has gone from "in my head" to something that has manifested into something "real". It is rewarding, and it is somewhat alarming that I have got to mid life and this is the first time that I have honoured a new path and faced up to something a little radical without fear of judgement.

The beauty of this whole exercise, that I reflect on my self about, is that it is not all about me, but more about what I am observing in the group of people I work with. The reflection of my philosophy is real in these people. My idea of letting go of expectation; allowing free expression; and providing a safe place without judgment is proving to be fruitful. The people I am working with are already producing work at home on their own steam, and it is good!

Again, one of my stand-out participants continues to demonstrate her gift. For someone that apparently does not normally engage, I see only wonderful results within the model we work with. This person is producing works that she too is proud of. Take away any expectation around technique and structure, and you have a gift that is able to shine.

I am also extremely exited about another later arrival. I feel this person has much to bring to the group with their life experience and morals they have intention to use as leverage in their commitment to create something around the theme of "an object (or something) that means something to them". I see the theme evolving as it integrates the need to use a "someone" that means something to them, and not so much an "object".

Interesting that "others" make up who we are!

Thanks to my wonderful partner in this mission, Denise, for your help AGAIN!

I managed to forget that I did pack a better digital camera and so did only get these snippets of the collaborative mural with my dodgey mobile phone camera! These are amazing...please enjoy!