"How do flowers experience life?
What do humans have in
common with birds, or water or grass?
How does the body carry and interpret
consciousness?"
These questions opened the draft blog post of my guest host, my amazing friend Lori Landau. The rest of the post is coming to you, soon, below.
These questions opened the draft blog post of my guest host, my amazing friend Lori Landau. The rest of the post is coming to you, soon, below.
But first a bit about Lori.
Her poetry, essays and articles have been published in books, magazines, and online, and she has shown her art in a variety of venues in the tri-state area.
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| My full of love and light friend. . . |
In addition, she's a certified yoga and meditation teacher, and offers experiential writing workshops that are deeply inspired
by her connection to poetry, spirit, and elemental materials like water, earth, branch and stone.
She's also currently an MFA candidate in Interdisciplinary Arts, and is working on a book about contemplative creativity.
Whew!!!
Whew!!!
I have known Lori since we were young (young) adults, have always admired her art and poetry, and have even featured her at least a few times, like here, on my blog.
But with all that said, she's never hosted Friday Feedback before.
Then, a few weeks ago, we were out to dinner with my family. My husband, who is a beautiful singer, was lamenting how he doesn't really sing very much any more. He gave her a bunch of lame reasons that made me sad. I backed away from the conversation, it being one he and I have had before.
Then Lori asked him, "When was the last time you just enjoyed it all? Played with your music? Had fun with your craft?"
The question was so pure and simple and perfect (and different than anything I would have come up with to say to him), it got me thinking how wonderful it might be if she pursued the thought a little bit more here. With me, her and YOU.
So without further ado, and springing off from her above three questions that opened this post, here she is. Lori Landau:
So without further ado, and springing off from her above three questions that opened this post, here she is. Lori Landau:
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| Daily Drawing Practice |
Rilke advised the young poet to “live the questions.” I read
that line when I was seventeen, the same year that I had my first poem
published (in Seventeen magazine). From an early age I experienced life as a
series of mysteries and the questions themselves have become a part of my
cellular being, and my creative practice which is writing and making art.
I have written poems, essays and made art since I was a
teen. (Including trading poems with Gae, who wrote gloriously even before she
graduated high school). In my attempt to be the best I can be, I have studied
art, writing, yoga, meditation, Buddhism, and countless other things all in an
attempt to learn as much as I could about myself and my crafts, and still I
struggled.
I was the quintessential, perfectionist procrastinator, better at distracting myself or making myself wrong than actually sitting down to do what I loved.
I was the quintessential, perfectionist procrastinator, better at
distracting myself or making myself wrong than actually sitting down to do what
I loved.
That is, until I realized that in trying to be perfect, I
was going about it all wrong. I was losing out on what I loved best about making art and writing: the process of discovery.
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| Daily Drawing Practice |
That’s when I began to apply all of those meditation lessons
and downward dog epiphanies to my writing. I realized, if I want to write and
make art without all the pressure I was putting on myself, I would have to make
it fun.
Remember fun?
It’s hard to allow ourselves to cultivate a sense of play
in our culture which puts a high value on productivity.
My tutelary spirits. . . have all given me ideas for how to put the emphasis on process rather than product.
But my best work happens when I can get out of my own way
and just do what I love. Making my art and writing fun means getting curious
about myself, and about the craft of writing and art. I study how other writers
and artists create, by regularly reading the work of my tutelary spirits. John
Cage, Jenny Saville, William Kentridge, Lao Tze, Ryokan,
David Hume, Martin Heidegger, Anselm Keifer, Bell Hooks, Yoko Ono, John Berger,
Twyla Tharp, Mary Oliver, Walt Whitman, have all given me ideas for how to put
the emphasis on process rather than product.
Now, I bring a sense of exploration to my own practices. I
am deeply fascinated with how elements like chance and intuition affect the
creative process. Focusing on that fascination means allowing myself to try
things without an expectation for a fantastic outcome.
I have found that allowing myself to just enjoy what I am doing yields much better results than over-efforting.
For instance, if I want
to draw a portrait and don’t like the way it is coming out, I try drawing it
with my left hand (I’m a righty) in order to unleash the intuitive mind. If I
can’t come up with a brilliant poem or paragraph, (yes, I do still struggle
with perfectionism sometimes), I set a timer and “free write” for 15 minutes. I
have found that allowing myself to just enjoy what I am doing yields much
better results than over-efforting.
One practice that really works for me is to make a drawing
or write a poem as soon as I wake up. I make it a daily ritual to “gift” myself
20 minutes to draw or write while drinking my first cup of coffee. Admittedly
that was harder when my kids were little, so eventually I figured out how to
find little pockets of time to draw, such as when I sat in the car on the
pick-up line at school.
A large part of my practice is wandering, literally and
figuratively. I let myself daydream, I carry a journal everywhere I go and
write ideas down when I have them, and I get myself outside as much as I can. I
believe we mirror nature, so I find it helpful to get as close to the trees and
water as possible. The more I see myself through the lens of a larger world,
the more connected I feel to myself and that world, and the easier it is to
create.
For me, finding a sense of fun also requires slowing down.
My practices allow me to question myself. I regularly tune in to figure out
what my subtle body is asking for. Sometimes all I need is a deep, full breath
to get going. Other times I have to discipline myself to stick to my intention
and creative routine before I get to the fun part. Finding the fun in any kind
of creative practice is itself a practice that like anything else, gets easier
over time.
Can you remember when you just purely
loved writing?
How can you change the way you think about writing so you can bring a sense of wonder and enjoyment to what you do?
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| Daily Drawing Practice |
Can you remember when you just purely loved writing? How can
you change the way you think about writing so you can bring a sense of
wonder and enjoyment to what you do? Today I’d be so curious to read a passage
that was fun for you to write. Maybe you can try something new. If you usually
write fiction, try your hand at a poem or a free write about something you
love. No matter what you choose to share (or not), bringing a sense of play to
your writing will free up your imagination. You might even surprise yourself.
The passage I’d like to share with you here is a living
example of a piece of work that was really hard for me, until I allowed myself
to just have fun with what I was writing. It’s an excerpt from a book that I am
working on about consciousness and creativity. It is a book of poems, artwork
and critical writing.
I’ll be checking in all day to read your excerpts and comment. I always find it an inspiration to see what others are working on.
“The unpredictable arithmetic of being human means that at
any moment something can be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided from us.
That’s why the great sages teach us to cultivate practices that help us let go
of our attachments and find the middle way. The middle way allows us some
flexibility, and the ability to be intimately “present.”
In viewing our endless balancing act as opportunity, we can
step out of our conditioned perspective that tension in relationship is a
problem. In doing so, we create a small space between emotion and reaction, and
in that space we can empower ourselves to make choices that serve both
ourselves and the other.
Being willing to co-exist in the moment-to-moment
fluctuations of relationship creates openings through which we can more deeply
experience how intricately we are tied to everything and everyone else. All of
the things that exist as form, the body, with its blood, bone, veins, the
natural world consisting of trees, grasses, clouds, water, soil, stone shapes
us. Form is what makes essence visible.
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To connect further with Lori, you can follow her at @LoriElleLandau on Instagram, where she often posts her drawings, or a small slice of life. You may also email her at Jesart@aol.com
