Creating and Art as a Perpetual Healing Meditation — An Exploration

With a little inspirational encouragement from @riverflows (thank you!), I decided to do a quick post using the Natural Medicine front end... and perhaps expand a little on my last post about creating "spiritual art."

Although my primary creative focus these days is on my mandala painted stones, I have — and continue to — pursued many forms of creativity over the past four decades.

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A group of "Soulmate Stones" from today's photography session

Whether it has been creative writing, woodworking or painting on stones, the common thread has been as much about having a cathartic outlet, as having a creative outlet.

In my 20's and 30's I would often joke with people that "my journal is my therapist." Writing as a form of healing can be incredibly healing and relaxing... and an excellent way to work your way through problems and challenges you are facing.

I would often carry on "dialogues" — in writing, in my journal — between my "imaginary" therapist and myself; the beauty of the process being that you feel more free to both ask and answer deeply troubling questions when you know that nobody is watching or listening.

Except, of course, your own "inner wisdom" IS present and paying attention!

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Stone designs we are working on for meditation on the 8th Chakra

Painting stones is also a meditation, in its own way.

My standard "Elevator Speech" when we attend shows and set up as a vendor goes something like this:

"The patterns you see come to me during meditation, and I merely try to give them form by painting them on a beach stone. I cannot tell you for certain what the SOURCE is, but I know that when I sit down to start painting I don't really have a PLAN; I just have a blank stone and some colors... and after some time — which can be from twenty minutes to many hours — I have created something I am not quite sure WHERE came from."

But that's only part of the picture.

The actual process of painting a very dense and — quite frankly — quite repetitive pattern is a meditation, in and of itself. And that becomes even more evident if I am creating a pattern with a specific purpose, aside from just being a general meditation stone.

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My wife likes to say that I "go into a trance" while I am working, and maybe that's true.

What I do know is that I come out feeling the same sense of balance I used to get many years ago, when I was just meditating, in a general sort of sense.

And I rather like that idea.

Thanks for reading!

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2020.01.26 AS-TXT-028



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17 comments
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Working with natural elements so rewarding, the stones each have character when you start painting finding an inner resonance with the stones. Must say these are perfectly rounded pebbles all in a lovely black.

Nice way to quieten the mind and spirit @alchemystones

@tipu curate

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Thanks @joanstewart! My wife and I beachcomb together and gather stones, and there are so many to look at, and so few actually end up coming home with us... a large part of the process starts long before I ever get to the painting part.

I has always appealed to me to use natural materials creatively... I did some pottery a long time ago, and would always go dig my own clay from an exposed hillside where rains would cause slides, exposing ancient clays that hadn't seen daylight since the last ice age. The stones, in a similar way, are ancient and part of the natural world... I am just borrowing them for a short while.

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You borrow them, then delightfully transform into something exquisite @alchemystones.

I pick up stones from different places to bring home with me, fond memories in rocks and stones all around my home and inside.

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Thanks for writing and posting from our front end - it was really nice to see this pop up via a bot in our Discord! I have always loved your work, especially as you tap into the source as you do so, coming from a meditative place and a place of loving intention as you create.

I used to go out with a guy who was the most impatient guy ever - honestly, he was so quick to temper (not violent, just grumpy). Yet he could sit for hours and hours doing fine ink metal/thrash album covers, really detailed and intricate, and be as calm as mustard. He always said without drawing he'd be a real asshole.

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Well, thanks for the kind words @riverflows, as well as for the "nudge" that got me over here!

"Intention" is a very important part of the process here... it's hard to verbalize, but there's a certain "responsibility" that goes with creating art that might also become part of someone's spiritual practice.

I'm probably the opposite of the guy you used to date... I'm quite content to sit and watch grass grow for days on end! I believe that without art, I would probably be far less inclined to engage and be actively involved in the world around me. I'm a sort of "quiet recluse," I guess!

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Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
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Very beautiful! Love that they are more than just beautiful pieces of art but can be used for meditation and came from a meditative state!
Thanks for sharing your art and journey!

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