I’ve worked directly with metaphor for 30 years, both professionally and personally, and there’s one image that has never let me go: I’m a plant rooted in rich, fertile soil. On a personal level, when I don’t know what to do or something in life is troubling me, all I need is to open myself [ Read more … ]
stanley kunitz
What image shapes how you see the world?
The French writer Albert Camus wrote, “A man’s life is nothing but a slow trek to rediscover through the detours…those one or two images in whose presence his heart first opened.” The poet Stanley Kunitz believed that writers have key images that captivated them as children, and they keep working these images over and over [ Read more … ]
Spending a lifetime developing one idea…and making it breathe
The artist has but one idea he is born with it and spends a lifetime developing it and making it breathe. –Henri Matisse Perhaps all of us spend a lifetime working a single idea, whether we’re conscious of it or not. Perhaps the dreams and images that continually speak to us are part of that [ Read more … ]
Do you have a guiding image?
I had a disagreement with an old friend recently about whether the images and metaphors that show up in our subconscious are “real.” I believe, just like with dreams, that when images and metaphors show up in our lives, they have something to teach us and I don’t think my friend would argue with that. [ Read more … ]
Making friends with your imagination
Imagination is indirect, nonlinear, and fuzzy. It’s more about taking you to a “new place” and providing a fresh perspective than providing a numerically clear solution or quick fix. Further, when we open up our imaginations, we challenge traditional norms. Our creative process comes up with ideas that are often at odds with standard procedures. [ Read more … ]