My mother and I have been getting together for a date each month to do something fun together. This time we attended an "Art & Spirit" weekend at a favorite retreat house of mine called Avila in Durham, NC. My mom is a painter and I am a spiritual companion, so we thought we'd meet half way and do something that was a little bit familiar and a little bit risky for each of us at the same time!
There happened to be five mother/daughter pairs on this retreat for thirty or so people from all walks of life, faith backgrounds, and artistic abilities! We were greeted by our two enthusiastic and artistic fascilitators who led us through a variety of art forms to help us express our thoughts about God and about our inner selves. We used extemporaneous speaking, poetry writing, collage-making, painting, story telling, closed-eye drawing and song. And to all of this merriment, God added his own display right outside our workshop windows: thick, wet, giant snowflakes that fell all day long!
At the closing session we had to share a piece of our artwork with the group and tell what it revealed about ourselves. My mom said that she was impressed by how conceptual everyone's artwork was and wondered how she might incorporate more of herself into her still life water colors. Below is her self-portrait to which she added the words: "Take a flying leap!"
As for me, I enjoyed setting aside my usual left-brained activities in favor of indulging my creative side, which seems to have been arrested in development since I was the age of five. Although it was difficult to become inspired with ideas for the projects, I eagerly dove into my self-portrait by gluing tissue-paper flowers all over it. When I proudly displayed it to my mom, she laughed and said that my kindergarten teacher used to have us making things out of it all of the time! And then she added that she never did like that stuff :) Luckily with art, as with many things in life, it's not as much about the results as it is about having fun in the process.
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