I’ve always wanted to understand how adults learn in life. Even prior to receiving my PhD in Adult Learning from the University of Chicago, I spent several years in the Artificial Intelligence field studying how experts learned, so that I could program a computer to do the same. But no matter where my research has taken me, I always come back to the same thing: “art-making,” literally or figuratively, is how we learn in life.
As thinking humans, we need a way to explore deep questions and art-making provides that place. When we make art, we can wrestle with the things that intrigue, disturb, delight, or terrify us. It’s a place where we can raise questions about any subject, and receive an answer. Art-making, in whatever medium, is a vehicle that allows us to travel into possibilities that haven’t been realized, but might be. New solutions to complex problems only come about when we allow ourselves to play in imaginal space.
In Art is a Spiritual Path, Pat B. Allen writes, “As a path, [art] can take us more deeply into whatever place it is that our soul calls home whether that place is a church, synagogue, mosque, dance studio, soup kitchen, or a deep forest. Through receiving and giving form to new images, we breathe life into ancient scriptures and eternal teachings. Art also leads us to new places in ourselves, our work, our relationships, and our communities.”
In my upcoming workshop at Book Passage, we’ll explore the special role that image has in art-making. Images hold complexity and paradox. Words tend to be precise; but when we allow imagery to enter our writing, we create space for ambiguity. Through images, many facets of a situation can be present at once, including facets that we are not yet aware of. In this workshop, we will weave imagery into and through our writings, following where it leads us.
Click on the following link to register: http://www.bookpassage.com/event/class-kim-hermanson-visible-invisible-entering-imaginal-space or call Book Passage at (415) 927-0960.
Here’s the official description:
From the Visible to the Invisible: Entering Imaginal Space
The ancient Sufi’s believed there are three worlds: the world of the intellect, the world of the senses, and a world they called the “imaginal world.” It was the place where they received dreams, visions, and creative insights, and one could argue that the most powerful creative work comes from this place of the deep imagination. As we immerse ourselves in winter’s darkness, the portals to the imaginal are more visible and available. During this four-week course, we will employ myth, metaphor, innovative writing exercises and visual imagery to explore the imaginal realm. In the process, new voices and visions will be born. Writers and artists at all levels of experience are welcome.
Hope to see you there!
