Bradley Morris 8 years, 12 months ago-
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I just loved tonight’s campfire on the Art of Transformation. So super inspiring,especially since I can feel the difference the kind of approach the Great eCourse adv. has compared to other models, and THIS is the kind of thing that helps me learn and take action.
I teach art, which is so much more about psychology than it is about talent it is ridiculous. Resistance is like the horned and hoofed diablo in every potential artist’s head, and he arises at the mere thought of putting pencil to sketchbook. To be an effective and transformational art teacher I’ve got to get them through that, not just tell them how to do it. There are a million free art lessons online out there for that.
So as far as the transformation I’d like to see in my students, it would be to help them fortify their creativity with daily routines and a kickass mindset. I’d want to help them see how far they are coming and keep the big picture in mind as they take small steps. Eventually, I’d like to see them take their creativity on the road and make art as they travel, using visual art as a new lens to experience the world through.
Jessica, it is posts like this that are the reasons we created this adventure. You absolutely nailed the point we were aiming to make. There are a million courses out there on ‘art’ or ‘meditation’ or ‘whatever we are all here to create.’
However, bringing the art form of facilitating transformational experiences is what makes our offerings so unique. You’re gonna love as we go deeper into this subject later down the path.
So my question (and perhaps a bit of homework if inspired) is, what exercises, games or activities can you create, make up or write down that will help fortify their creativity in the ways you speak.
Let the brainstorming begin!!!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with everyone.
I love your approach here Jessica and can totally relate to resistance. We often use the term crafternation for crafters procrastination when you do anything to avoid working on that project, even housework! For me it hits when I’m not really sure how to do what it is I have in mind or I don’t have a clear direction I want to take a project in. I can get overwhelmed with decisions and uncertainty and then things stall for a bit. Thankfully somehow, something pops and off I go again. Getting started with a blank sheet in front of you is often the hardest thing and I’ve found playing with doodling exercises to be a great help in getting the hand moving across the page. Artists tend to be messy and hoard lots of bits and bobs – sometimes a good tidy up and a blank working space helps me get started again too and once in the flow of things the messiness that starts to gather feels comforting and productive rather than overwhelming. Funny how the mind works!
We’re here to help with that overwhelm Ruth. Hoping the entertainment and adventure vibe keeps you motivated to keep the schedule uncluttered so you can take all the necessary steps forward 🙂
Go team!!
I work with writers and the psychology of writing is soooooo much the same. All that resistance with fear and anxiety as a natural byproduct of being creative. Love that you are claiming the need for transformation and not just technique.
I teach Photoshop to designers. I am much more pragmatic than spiritual but I am also trying to get them to transform from doing what they know and think they “have to” be able to do to thinking about the process of using Photoshop as a tool to explore what is possible in design without being constrained by what has been done before. I do teach techniques–I have to or I would fail in my primary aim, which is to accustom fingers to using Photoshop.
I stress file structure a lot to encourage people to build libraries of parts they can recombine in many ways (or at least edit without loss at any point in the future) but it is really a different way of looking at making digital art. I try to get the students to think about creating something new and just digitizing old methods of working.
Exactly what you’re describing IS the transformation @prancingpixel !!!
Doesn’t matter what kind of course we’re creating, there is always a form of transformation that can be facilitated.
Thank you so much for sharing.
There’s a cluster of us doing this, through various media. . . . It will be fascinating to see all the different ways we manifest our ideas.
Yes Deb it will be fascinating to see how we all do this through various media.
For myself I want to set up a couple of music courses and a sexuality course. I think i am leaning towards the music first.I want to help people connect to the measure and time of natural cyclical laws through training their heart and brain to pitch, tune and tone. I want to help people understand that music and sound and the laws of harmonics are fundamental tools for self understanding and growth, that to resonate with unspoken beauty through active discipline of music making can have a massive impact on evolution. I also want to link music to higher learning/spiritual growth. that learning/playing music helps the brain and soul develop, to evolve and to help us have harmony in our lives. Demythifying theoretical western harmony to make it easy and accessible will be one way to do this. Simple fun playing through pitching toning tuning and helping people establish vocal practice akin to a regular meditation will be another.
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the ideas I have and the three different projects are still jostling a bit with each other for primacy but the more I write the clearer it becomes. I am both terrified and excited.
Thankyou all for sharing
xxStay in the flow of inspiration and idea land right now @calliope6. When you get to Architekt Forest, it will become clear WHICH ideas to move forward with and then at Creatora Heights you will full understand hwo to ground the vision and make it all happen 🙂
One step in front of the next!
have fun and thanks for sharing.
Wow, inspiring thread folks! Connects a lot of threads I’ve be weaving with… visual art, mythic writing, sound healing, spiritual awakening journeys…
Perhaps there is an inherent rhythm to transformation, like the natural cyclical patterns you are connecting with Caro. Like a dance of the push of desire and pull of resistance and the pattern our footsteps are making on the dance floor of our lives, or our brushes are making on a canvas, or the gestures of our thoughts made visible via software on our computer screens. Perhaps there is a generosity in the friction of resistance that sparks our creative expressions….
lots to consider and contemplate here in the meadow with you all 😉It is so beautiful to see the connections here and thrilling to hear what amazing courses everyone is crafting. I want to take them all!
For me this discussion crystallizes how learning to battle the dragon of resistance in the creative cycles teaches us how to use those same skills for self-evolution. Love your poetic description of this @lumasphera!
So as for my homework from Bradley: Brainstorm what exercises, games or activities can you create, make up or write down that will help fortify their creativity in the ways you speak.
I love the idea of gamifying artistic transformations…SuperBetter does a great job of this, as far as giving people badges or points or overcoming psychological struggles…. I don’t want to necessarily build a whole game-world or system, but I like the idea of people getting some kind of recognition for achieving intangible, psychological goals…
In fact, some of the most important transformations in learning to draw are so invisible and mental people don’t even know they exist. Such as being able to look at an object and focus on either positive or negative space.***maybe I could have a self-reflection checklist after finishing each drawing where they rate things like how often the inner critic was speaking in their head, what percentage of the time they were looking at the page vs the model, how much they felt in the flow, whether they were looking at both positive & negative space, etc.
-Many of my students often tell me they are too embarrassed to show their work, or they can’t draw if other people are around because they get self-conscious. Sharing their drawings in a semi-removed forum online might help them get over that…as well as learning how to politely give and take constructive criticism… which is also important for developing a positive vocabulary for self-evaluation.
– Let them pick a personal challenge, such as a drawing a day for X #of days, or only drawing in pen for a month, or doing a self-portrait once a week, etc. Encourage challenges that sneakily encourage the to make drawing a habit.
– creating a ritual around their drawing practice where they surrender the responsibility of being a genius to [insert universal/personal energy/muse here], and put on their lucky socks or some such, in order to find a healthy detachment from their work and create with less fear
…I would love to hear any other ideas or brainstorms anyone else has for practices or exercises we can use in our courses to help boost the creative confidence of our students. Gracias to all!
Great comment thread everyone. It is amazing how some of these themes such as “the dragon of resistance” can cross through so many seemingly different areas. The connection between creative art and the barriers ppl face in adobe was a great example earlier in this thread. My passion is helping people reconnect with nature, learning to read the signs of the landscape (tracking) and developing the physical and mental skills of resiliency in a ever changing world. This could be learning to make a fire from scratch in the pooring rain to helping the college students I teach understand how the principals of wildlife tracking can apply to tracking a new or potential employer and learning how to move up the ladder and get the job they want as.
Where I am going with this in relation to the conversation is that the “resistance dragon” is still a huge barrier in my work. It often shows up as why people were too busy to put in the adequate time to develop the skill or how they got stuck on very minor parts of the path which is often an excuse for a host of reasons as to why they are feeling resistance towards diving deeper into their own growth. I’m constantly thinking about how to help people dissolve this barrier. It is great to see how it manifests in other areas such as art or computer design. Lets keep sharing ideas, this is great!
What an awesome thread everyone!
On the note of Gamification, I just wanted to add this. The purpose of gamification is to simply make your course engaging and appears game-like. You don’t have to have badges to gamify their experience.
This can be done by:
Making your lessons more of a challenge or adventure. Like you said, with the daily challenge. The way it would be gamified is giving them a tangible thing to do or learn, then report back and share it with the community you’ve created (whehter it’s a selfie of them doing it or the actual project, or a video, etc…)My suggestion for you @jescantonelli, is to teach a lesson and then have a challenge for everyone to do that applies that lesson.
Example: A lesson on drawing two people eating spaghetti noodles. Teach the technique, then have them go off and draw a first draft in 30 minutes (as fast ast hey can). Then come back to the community. Then perhaps giving them two hours the second day and come back to the community.
I’d see your pattern being:
– Teach technique
– Give challenge or exercise
– Share it with the community
– Offer feedback and critiquesI agree with you, one of the lessons in your version of “Basecamp” or prep could be a lesson on giving and receiving feedback gracefully. That’d be really helpful for a lot of people I’m sure.
As for the dragon of resistance @chrisg, I meet it nearly everyday. Even with things such as golf, exercise, the funnest parts of my business, going to improv, meditation and so many other things I love. I still resist them (often). The practice for me is to simply love myself more and open myself up to experiencing more pleasure and more of what I truly want.
I’m more into making friends with my dragon than slaying it. 🙂
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