Experiment #11: Seeing as Creation

Experiment #11: [Complete] a spontaneous drawing [eyes closed]… take some time to look at it. Can you be open to the lines and shapes as though they were sounds, letting them enter not only through your eyes but into your whole body? Let them coming through your breathing as well… let them come inside, let them influence and inspire you. When seeing is listening, we allow the rhythm of the lines, the power of the shapes, and the vibration of the colors to be felt inside. Right now, in this moment, can you feel these lines and shapes just as sensation? …You might feel expansive or compressed… This conscious interaction with what you see can be a moment of rich communication with your own work, a creative event as vital as the act of drawing itself.

What a great exercise. I looked at this piece for awhile, first thinking in words, by habit: “rhythm, 3D, paths, travel, movement, dancing…” and then I shut down the conceptual mind to really feel the piece, to “listen” to it. There was definitely music there. I put a lot of movement into the piece, and it felt like movement.

Viewing it activated what felt like a brain-around-my-brain. Some Buddhists call it the Sambhogakaya, I believe – “the enjoyment body.” At any rate, I had out-of-body sensations looking at this piece. I also felt it in my tummy. I liked it.

Experiment #11: Seeing as Creation, 18 x 24 newsprint,” $25…