15 May, 2006

Clay in the life of a LIfe Artist

A snippet from my playful Expressive Art weekend: three days of playing, creating and self- expression together with six other " Life Artists ". Painting , directing , and " sculpting" multidimensional kinetic forms using fellow participants are all on the agenda .Finally ,working with clay and creating of a huge mandala painting together. The mandala is my height , painted on paper and gracing the only still empty white wall of my living room.

I've worked with clay before , but not quite like this. Anyway , Sunday morning found me sitting with a two pound slab of clay in my lap wondering what to do next.

" Make friends with it "" Talk to it. Listen to what it says "come the instructions.

It's the first time I've sat with a two pound lump of clay in my lap and I decide to jump in and give it my all involving the whole of my body in the shape - giving process. I decide too that this particular lump of clay will remain whole. First thing to do is to get this heavy lump of stuff into to a more manageable pliable state.

I've no idea of what it was going to be and I don't want to know either , just yet and I resist the urge to make it into something practical like a bowl or vase !!!
" trust the process "" allow "
come further instructions this time from my higher self as I sit there with my lump of clay , the parent creator responsible for breathing life into it, for birthing it. As in creating your life trusting is easier said than done. So I knead, I squeeze, I pull and pummel this lump of grey stuff. Bits of it fill my nails as they too dig in.Sweat starts to appear on my brow from the sheer effort of it all , the concentration and the focus, Then it starts to become malleable .. pliable ..bendy and formable .

First a container appears , then a chair or is it a throne but that disappears too and I know that that's not what is going to be .Next , the whole lump goes into a plastic bag and I knead it from the outside before taking out and inspecting the result . This is such fun !

Tiny cracks have appeared in its parched " skin ". It looks like an elephant's skin .
I add water .. smoothing surfaces . This is as sensuous a process as moving oil paint around on a canvas and soon the thing starts taking on a life of its own .A snake appears ....and compartments.. chambers.. rooms and more clay gets stuck under my finger nails but who cares .I'm hooked and creating , totally immersed , lost in the process of giving birth .... and then .. time is up. Voila ..... a work of art is born !

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