 . |
 Finding refreshment for the soul
workshops use art and dance to spur creativity, personal growth
By Leslie Harlib
Excerpted from the Marin Independent Journal, June 11, 2001
Art and soul, art and self, art and therapy – they all combine in a unique subculture of Marin workshops that are attracting people seeking creative routes to personal growth. Many participants have no artistic experience or formal training. Painting, dance, theater and writing are simply tools for self discovery.
"Everything I do in workshops is to empower people to become their own source of creativity," says Fairfax resident Stewart Cubley, a geophysicist-turned-artist who has led workshops called 'Life/Paint/Passion' for more than 20 years. "My intention is to awaken people’s passion for questioning, encourage their inherent wildness and make a space in which they feel they can be less self-conscious and more daring."
Cubley is one of at least five individuals or organizations in Marin using art as a catalyst for personal growth. Participants discover that know-how is less important than willingness to surrender to the process, whatever it may be. And artistic training may actually hamper a participant's ability to get the full impact of the experience.
Take San Rafael resident Annie Danberg, for example, who found her professional background as a graphic artist. After studying with Cubley for two years, Danberg says that she now sees that artistic training can be sort of a crutch. "To know how to make things look the way you want to look gets in the way. You have to be willing to go beyond aesthetics to get to the heart of the work. You go for the journey, not the results".
At a two-day Life/Paint/Passion workshop last January held at the Romberg Conference Center in Tiburon, a sun-gilded view of mountains and bay was upstaged by a table holding 22 pots of vibrant tempera watercolors. Participants worked silently, at separate easels, going back and forth for paint and an assortment of brushes. There was no music. No cell phones rang. Every few hours there was a break, either for lunch or to discuss individual processes in a group. No feedback was given. There were no murmurs of 'that's great' or 'why don't you add this'" Everyone was actively discouraged from looking at each other’s work.
As the two days progressed, the freedom from judgments meant that people relaxed more deeply into their experiences. Some painted only one painting. Others came up with seven or more paintings, splashing, swooshing or daubing color like impulsive kindergartners, moving from brushes to fingers.
Cubley and his associate, Sonora Beam, pitched in when someone asked for help or appeared stymied. They gave help through questions, such as asking what the participant was feeling or needing.
"Everyone has ‘oughts’ or ‘shoulds’", says Cubley. "This work is really about discovering your own oughts and shoulds. Through finding out what they are, you dare to put them aside and see what happens when you step beyond them".
"One thing that's been wonderful was just watching my brush and the paper meeting", said Pamela Cavanna, a Larkspur resident who's taken this workshop several times. ?I'm trying to have something that's been hiding from myself be revealed visually. Through painting, I'm getting right to the heart of the crossroads of my life right now?.
|
