Inspiration: Creating Beauty using Nature, Dedication, & Wisdom

Blogging about creativity, I find myself really considering the process of inspiration. For me, inspiration is fully engaging with something beautiful outside the self, bringing that beauty in, and then putting it back out in a unique way. It is a focusing on something in the natural world. It is a dedicated attention to seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, moving, or sensing beauty. It is a wise integration of the experience. It is a sharing. The creative form, when placed outside the self, is a future source of inspiration.

Creativity is a process of renewal. 
Creativity is doing the Hokey Pokey:

You put your whole self in, you put your whole self out, you put your whole self in then you shake it all about, you do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about!

So, today I am sharing a view from the Hubble telescope which I find inspirational. It shows the birth of thousands of stars in a galaxy. I love this image for its archetypal form. I see it as the symbol of movement found in so many cultures from the nautilus to the native to our now. Spiraling in and out, up and down, a coming and going. For me the image is a fluid process where two sides meet in movement. I share it as the image I will use as the start of a future Singular offering, which I am entitling Peace of Prose.  The vision for this project is a collaborative artwork to inspire Peace by words and images. The artwork will be passed hand to hand for people to see and share then possibly extend in image and word, if they are so inspired.

In the meantime, here's a link with beautiful imagery, celebrating the Hubble telescope's 21st birthday. We see the universe through the mighty eye of the Hubble.  Notice the connection and interaction of two galaxies, which is perhaps the best outcome when stars collide.

http://www.batangastoday.com/hubble-space-telescope-stunning-image-of-arp-273-by-space-telescope-science-institute-released-to-celebrate-21st-birthday/12011/

Marching Out Another Singular Offering

Marching out an offering, I have been contemplating creativity.  Here is a short version of my creative process:
If you immerse yourself in something outside the self that you truly enjoy and take that whole experience in, then the creative force flows, fast and furious. Immersion can be either external observation (bringing in by sensing out) or internal relinquishment (bringing in by sensing in).  For example, sometimes, when I am writing, I calmly open my sensory awareness to bring in. I sense in to bring in.  Other times, when I am starting to create visually, I look outside the self for inspiration. I sense out to bring in.  For me, creativity becomes a process of both outside and inside observation, which could be a process of inspiration and respiration. In short, a process of experiencing the senses and breathing. Most people might call this LIFE.

So here is my singular offering for March posted in April...Foolish me. The singular offering is two collages from a series I call Iconic Animals, honoring important animals in our lives. These two images reflect the beloved dog of a healer and the beloved cat of an artist. The icons are dedicated to Heidi and Mezzo, who are still loved by their owners,
beyond the beyond.

Creativity - Slowly Add in Nature #8/8

Today I am reminded of the power of nature in a good way. After a stimulating discussion last night with close friends about meditative approaches, I took a mindful eye outside this morning. I watched the birds singing, I watched the cat watching the birds. I watched the eating of the seed and the inspection by the cat of all that is botanical. In this watching, I felt the natural world all around and relaxed, despite urban noise, into what neuroscientists might call a dorsal vagal resting place. From rest, my thoughtfulness expanded. I grabbed my journal and immersed myself, digesting my experience by writing a circular poetic and drawing its form in minutes. Nature gave me the gift of rapid creative inspiration, a rarity for me. 

Patty Carpenter in her song entitled A Thousand Hands of Compassion writes of giving and receiving in this way. She sings, "New energy in giving, the power of receiving, openings in time." It may be that the energy from the gifts of nature, if we can receive it, opens us into the timeless flow of creativity. To receive a gift of nature, try meditative listening to the bird songs on this 5 minute link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL4Z9d9oObY