Many years ago I sat on a stool in the Art barn at Esalen Institute painting a paper mache mask. I’d originally signed up for some sort of contemplative workshop, but found it too cerebral and ended up here. I painted the mask magenta and then decided to paint a vine of flowers on the [ Read more … ]
esalen institute
Profoundly moved by the creative
Many years ago I sat on a stool in the Art barn at Esalen Institute painting a paper mache mask. I’d originally signed up for some sort of contemplative workshop, but found it too cerebral and ended up here. I painted the mask magenta and then decided to paint a vine of flowers on the [ Read more … ]
If there is no mystery, there is only propaganda
“If there is no mystery, there is only propaganda”…wrote the artist Keith Haring. Mystery is where our new learning comes from, which is why creativity is so important for learning. Our creative process, in whatever form it manifests, is how we access mystery. We’re all creative beings, because we all wonder about things in this [ Read more … ]
The Enchanted Loom
I feel moved to post this email from an amazing woman who heard me on the radio last fall. Her metaphoric images are full of spirited life, and I love her image of the culture being in the “neti-neti” stage of childbirth: “We are ‘not here nor there’ but somewhere in-between. Neti-neti is a time [ Read more … ]
Working the Soil: Social Change and Metaphor
Don’t look for me in a human shape. I am inside your looking. No need for form with a love this strong. The lines above from Rumi can be interpreted in more than one way. As I teach courses on the psychology of metaphor, to my mind, Rumi’s lines refer to the power that metaphors [ Read more … ]
