Humans are creative. They make art. If you have humans, you have art. It’s not always good art, but perhaps that’s not the point. Creative acts are good for the human spirit. The making of art is often contemplative. A way of putting aside our intellectual filters and being open. A different type of knowing comes through the hands and the heart, the voice and the soul.
Nebulas
Nebulas are a contemplative art practice that I designed based on the ancient practice of mandalas. I wanted a practice that was less detailed and more free-flowing and abstract. The idea was to capture the meditative benefits of mandalas without the temptation of perfectionism arising from attention to precision and detail. I decided to call them nebulas because the shapes that emerged reminded me of the amorphous dust clouds that make up cosmic nebulas. Cosmic nebulas are also known as stellar nurseries, and so much is born from contemplative practice. As an artistic bonus, I love to play with color, so filling in the nebulas provides the childlike joy of getting the big box of crayons in elementary school.
The practice is fairly simple. You will need a piece of paper and a writing implement. Choose a word or phrase that will be your focus. Clear your mind and enter your heart center or soul place. A few deep breaths usually help.
The only rule is to create a single, unbroken line that only touches back upon itself once, i.e., a circle. The circle should not be smooth but should take as many curves and detours as flow through you. Once you’ve created one circle, you may choose to do another. Perhaps it will be around the first one, inside the first one, or even next to the first one. Again, the only rule is that the second line does not touch the first and only touches itself once. Repeat as often as you like or until you run out of room on your paper. Thoughts will arise during this process, and when they do, return to your word or phrase to help center and ground you back into the contemplative space.
Feel free to express yourself. You can add color by doing the lines with a colored pencil or pen right from the start or by tracing over the original lines once they are complete. You can fill in the circles, or perhaps the negative space speaks to you more. Below are several examples of nebulas that I have done, with the phrase that was my focus during their creation.
Sing holy holy, forever, Amen.
Let Go and Let God
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Storytelling
“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.” ~Hannah Arendt
I love being a storyteller. My dad and my maternal grandfather were great storytellers, and my mom still is one. I’ve dabbled in writing fiction since I was a teenager. As a camp counselor, I loved telling stories to my campers—ghost stories, folk tales, and one I’m particularly proud of: The Princess of Dishwashing (there was definitely a moral to that story). I fell in love with telling true stories when I was worshipping at Gilead Church Chicago. While studying at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, I focused my Arts Practicum project on telling some of my true stories. My theme was Sacraments. The project presentation was recorded, and that video can be watched below.