Art Practice Commons^™

Poetry And Nature, Judy L. Todd

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Poetry reaches in and touches the felt sense of awe, of grief, of sacred space; it is the crucible within which loss sparks renewal and trauma transforms into initiation. The author offers two poems with narrative context to illustrate its role in her personal experience.

Ciudad Juárez–El Paso Biennial 2015, Anne Giangiulio

Selected Works Temporary Series

Catalog designed for the 'Ciudad Juárez–El Paso Biennial 2015', on display from November 6, 2015 to February 7, 2016 at the El Paso Museum of Art. 130 pages.

Lay Your Burdens Down, Whitnee Levon Davis

CGU MFA Theses

I’m not of this world, but since I’m here I will do everything I can to live out my purpose; to tell stories that validate, affirm, and make people that look like me visible. Every culture has its storytellers. I translate written stories into images. Those stories can be in the form of a poem, song, novel, or play. The stories are works that I create. I often find my greatest inspiration starts from reading literary works. I am constantly seeking ways to make sure that Black people, especially Black women, are visually represented. Since my background is in poetry, …

The Fragile Bee: Nancy Macko At Moah, Kathleen Stewart Howe, Carole Ann Klonarides, Stephen Nowlin, Nancy Macko

Pomona Faculty Books

“The Fragile Bee” was exhibited at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA and is an outcry to the plight of the bees in relationship to the environment. This accompanying catalog critically examines the work in the exhibition beginning with a foreword by Andi Campognone, museum manager and curator at MOAH. Artist Nancy Macko established a garden for native bee-attracting plants in order to document them throughout the year. The resulting series of photographs, "Botanical Portraits", are the subject of the essay by museum director Kathleen Stewart Howe. Contemporary art writer and curator Carole Ann Klonarides writes in …

Clay As A Spiritual Practice, Kat Mciver

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

art, expressive arts, spiritual practice, clay, clay as a spiritual practice, art therapy, Mary Magdalene, interior light, surrender, Divine Presence

Japan Dreaming, Jill Mellick

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Art has its own voice, and demands that the artist listen, feel, and give it birth. This account relates the artist's experience of creating two works in a series entitled, "Japan Dreaming," works that evoke Japanese scrolls, fabric space dividers, paper streamers, kimono, and gates into sacred space.

Altered States Of Consciousness And Creative Expression, Micah Linton

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Hypnagogia, a state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, provides a palette where conscious awareness intertwines with dream images. This state is compared with synesthesia, the imaginal realm, and Jung's active imagination process as inspiration for artistic creation.

The Art Of Observation And Experience, Andrée Salom

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Mindfulness practices aim to develop intentional awareness of the present moment. This paper touches on two of the difficulties that may arise in the course of such practice. On the one hand, the present moment may be overwhelming if there is an over-identification with the content that the practices uncover. On the other hand, the present moment may seem excessively foreign if there is an over-identification with the witnessing of such content. Art can prevent an over-identification on both poles of this equation by acting as a container for content, a source of somatic discharge, and a facilitator for observing …

Exploring Soul Loss Through Arts-Based Research, Jacqueline Linder

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Arts-based approaches to scholarly inquiry are becoming increasingly common in qualitative research. The research presented here examines the psychospiritual impact of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and a spectrum of soul loss was identified including soul wounding, soul withering, soul shattering, soul flight, soul theft, and soul murder. Part of the data set consisted of 24 mandalas by participants and the researcher, as well as one integrative drawing based on the use of imaginal resonance. The art data permitted a depth of insight into the psychospiritual impact of sexual abuse that went beyond what had been provided by other data streams. …

Poetry And Consciousness, Diana Raab

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Poetry is more than words—it is a state in which internal and external worlds come together in awareness and give birth to something more true than what either can reach alone. The author offers two poems along with their context and reflections on the function of poetry.

Musical Creativity And Mindfulness Meditation: Can The Practice Of Mindfulness Meditation Enhance Perceived Musical Creativity?, John Z. Newton

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The relationship between musical creativity and mindfulness meditation is explored through a qualitative study of three composers’ individual experiences of musical creativity and participation in eight guided mindfulness meditation sessions. Through qualitative interviews conducted before and after completion of a mindfulness course, data was analyzed and categorized into themes in order to identify whether the practice of mindfulness meditation had enhanced participants’ perceived musical creativity. Themes from the first set of interviews (Expression, Harmony, Intuition) represent the participants’ subjective experience of musical creativity, while themes from the second set (Enhanced focus and awareness, Nonstriving) outline subjective changes reported by each …

The Lost Dialogue Of Artists: Negotiating The Conjuring Of Art, Diane L. Meyer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article examines the nature of the duologue between artist and creative source, as a lost interplay and negotiation within the gestation of the work in a uniquely individual language that can never be fully revealed, translated, or understood by a viewer. The author, an elder, late career studio artist, draws comparisons to sacred language and interpretation positing that the conversations and relationships that form between artist and art are very different from those between works of art and humanity and have never been appropriately examined from an insider perspective. She offers reflections and writings of master artists as an …

Connecting To The Sacred Through Contemplative Gaze, Diane L. Meyer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Visual contemplation can do more than convey images, it can transmit to the soul in ways that both inform and inspire. The artist shares the experience of empathic connection with another artist that may be cultivated by engaging with pieces that evoke emotional and somatic responses, and then entering into creative conversation with the artist by following their gestures, brush strokes, movement, marks, and color decisions.

Of The World That Freely Offers Itself: An Exploration Of Writerly/Artistic Rituals, Geri Lipschultz

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The author, a fiction writer, explores the relationship between the writer/artist and the so-called Muse, especially with respect to working rituals that precede the artist’s creative expression and make it more accessible. She takes an informal approach to a collaborative inquiry and experiments with her own musings as she navigates through her colleagues’ responses to a questionnaire in which she asks them to qualify and self-analyze their pre-writing/painting rituals and ensuing working habits. Her attempt to deepen her own experience by understanding the experience of others unfolds in this lyric essay in which linguistic strategies serve to differentiate inner process …

Songwriting And Transformation: The Subjective Experience Of Sharing Self Through Song, Hilary F. Beech

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This qualitative heuristic study explored the subjective experience of transformation resulting from the practice of songwriting in nonclinical populations, through semistructured interviews with 12 songwriters, 6 men and 6 women, aged 35-69. Thematic content analysis yielded 6 top-level themes: Connecting, Communicating, Wellbeing, Affirmation, Personal Growth, and Making A Difference. Subthemes of Connecting reflect a wide variety of transpersonal experiences. The Communicating subthemes capture ways in which songwriting afforded participants a language superior to speech for Expressing Feelings, Sharing Self, and Sending A Message. Participants reported Personal Growth, expressed through subthemes Processing Experience (making meaning of painful material) and Empowerment. Learning …

Mystical Poetry And Imagination: Inspiring Transpersonal Awareness Of Spiritual Freedom, Dorit Netzer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The author describes the philosophical and empirical aspects of an intuitive inquiry that explored 24 individuals’ (ages 30-80) mental images and creative expression in response to selected mystical poetry through a three-step procedure named Imaginal Resonance. Participants’ imaginal encounters with the poems inspired transpersonal awareness of spiritual freedom—a participatory, co-creative experience of self-awareness beyond personal concerns. Intuitive examination of the data and a hermeneutic analysis uncovered participants’ symbolic expressions of qualities such as awakening, personal development, introversion, expansion, connection, and liberation. Imaginal resonance facilitated a temporary glimpse of spiritual freedom, which was soon hindered by reasoning, questioning, commentary, comparison, anticipation, …

Introduction To The Special Topic Section On Arts And Consciousness, Dorit Netzer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Transpersonal Art—Does It Bite?, Judy Schavrien

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article addresses the question of whether or not political perspective and content enrich transpersonal art and studies. The artist’s argument for making the range of the transpersonal inclusive, not just transcendent but also immanent, employs examples from her art as well as descriptions of her process. She sets the discussion in three contexts: that of art criticism, contemporary and traditional; that of art production; and that of the field of transpersonal studies. In regard to the latter, she both defines and examines the role of spiritual bypass, and argues the importance of resisting the temptation to take refuge in …

Blanket Statements, Issue 122, Winter 2015–2016

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 122, Winter 2015–2016

Greek At Chartres, William S. A. Dale

Visual Arts Publications

This study of the so-called Headmaster of the West Portals of Chartres Cathedral attempts to demonstrate that this sculptor was probably a Greek, as suggested by Revoil.

First, it describes the present setting of the West Portals, and reviews the evidence for their change in location. Next, it distinguishes between the hand of the Head Master and those of his associates in the carving of the column figures of all three doorways, and describes his illusionistic use of low relief and a form of linear projection in the Maiestas Domini of the central tympanum.

A brief demonstration of the difference …