Christian Crews: The Joy of Creation

     The jam session that took place at the back end of class was a very unique and cool thing to be apart of. As I reflect on it, I notice how it fulfilled many of the goals that were outlined in the improvisation portion of the reading.      "Typical goals of improvisation experiences include providing nonverbal communication; promoting    self-expression; exploring relationships; enhancing intimacy; acquiring group skills; encouraging creativity, spontaneity, and playfulness" (Malchoidi, 2006, p.48)     The nonverbal communication one is quite obvious as the medium used for communication was the music. We didn't speak or make a plan on what to do, we just tuned in and picked up on the energy that was being put out. The difficult thing was breaking through that intial barrier in order to contribute. It requires an element of vulnerability that many aren't used to and comfortable with. But once you're in, you realize that its not so bad...

     It continues to fascinate me how I keep discovering the art that is within me. And I say discover because that is how it feels. When doing the feelings wheel activity, it was as if the images I wrote down were already there, waiting to be found. They flashed into my mind like lighting and I felt compelled to portray them after that. Although, I found myself feeling frustrated at the inaccuracy of my depiction to the image that appeared in my head. Taking short glances at my classmates work, I was very impressed with their ability to create aesthetically pleasing work. I understand that we are all on our own path and some of us are "further" along than other but this still brought out something in me that wanted to do better. Not that I had something to prove or anything, but rather that I want to have pride in my artistic ability.       This feeling intensified with the other activity in which we depict our safe space. I had drawn out a sketc...

 My creative collage for the activity this week is titled "A Strange Path to Revelation" and I want to follow the creation of it using Golibersuch's  five stages of integrating spiritual emergency outlined on page 7 of the Visionary Art Therapy paper by Gupta.       For the first step, Stabilization, I began to look at my materials and see what I could craft out of them. I ended up creating a collage that depicted a fire divided in half with a bed of water in the center. Floating in the water were various frames with eyes inside of them. I only ended up making one because it took so much time to make it. I had trouble finding inspiration at first. The second stage, Understanding, had me take a step back to analyze what I had made to see what came up. And surprisingly, nothing did. I didn't feel proud of what I made and I had no pride in it. In fact, I was actually really dissatisfied with it. But why? This led me to stage three, Finding Voice. This had me a...

     Typically, when I do meditation I try to change in some way. Whether it is trying to relax my muscles, fix my posture, or refresh my mindset, it seems like I am trying to direct my experience into a particular direction. Often there is some goal or something I am trying to get out of it. In recent weeks, I have been trying to do a more goal-less and observational form of meditation and I am strangely finding more utility in that. It gives my brain a break from goals and progress. It slows things down and allows me to catch up with myself and in turn, gives me way more relaxation. Because of this, I was excited to do the 5 senses meditation when it was sent to me. And wow! It was a great experience. It was like a level up from what I had been doing recently.       After doing that, I engaged in the contemplative photography exercise. What I ended up photograpghing was a section of my dining room. The colors and shapes stuck out to me a lot more pos...

  This week's creative activity felt kind of simple but was somewhat profound in it's implications. We had to come up with 10 "fuzzy situtions" which were essentially vague situations that were somewhat flawed on some level. I actually kind of struggled to come up with 10 of them but eventually I managed. I came up with an ecletic set of fuzzy situtions ranging from "Social communication for people with autism" to "Airline companies." I was really just trying to come up with anything. It was quite cool really the rolladex of ideas that were spinning through my head during this process. After having 10 of them, I sat down and began to develop a couple of them out. As I gave each issue more thought, I was able to have the problem unfold naturally for me as I worked through things on each layer.  Afterwards, we went around the class and breifly discussed what each of us came up with. I was amazed at all the different and unique things people came up. ...

      The creative activity this week was a great example of how creativity can grow exponentially when there is collaboration in the process. I usually am a solo worker and don't care much for group projects. There have been times where in our first group meeting for a class project, I asked everyone if I could just do the whole thing. Unsurprisingly, most of them were happy to let me do so. But it defeats the purpose of the group project anyway. I'm not sure why I am that way. Maybe I don't like waiting on others, maybe I am a control freak, maybe sometimes I don't trust others to fulfill their portion so I would rather just do it than be anxious about it. Nevertheless, group work isn't usually my strong suit. But it was great to have it unfold organically during our creative activity. With two additional minds at work, it was easy to blow through many uses of a paperclip in a matter of minutes. Each person was bringing in their own unique ideas that the others wo...