Stillness, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Abstract Art: Saturday Writing Sagas 8

He asked me, ‘What do you think of abstract art?’

I replied, ‘I don’t have a background in art. I’m a storyteller. But I do like to photograph patterns in nature – ripples in water, how nature becomes abstracted art’

I was thinking how much art fascinates me, and yet I don’t know all it’s history.  I don’t feel equipped to comment about art as if I’m an historian or art specialist/expert. Yet I can comment about it from my heart, from a meditation with the art piece, that is by being with it in a state of grace and seeing what it speaks to me.

What’s this have to do with my writing journey?

This week has been a time to connect with artists in other art forms, such as Alesa Lajana, a song writer, currently learning about weaving , Doris Kinjun, local elder and weaver,  Lyn Marshall a painter, and photographer depicting the creative process in words and reflecting on inner and outer journeys in landscape, and Buffy Sainte-Marie an amazing songwriter (through blogged interviews.)

It’s been a time of conversations, listening,  reading, and taking in the essence of how others create things.

I find myself thinking about the creative writing process as Marshall writes of it, as being in a state of flow, grace, meditation and worship and realise to do this one often needs stillness.

I ask myself – where do I find stillness in my day? I find it in the early morning, before other demands and realities of motherhood, and family, and so much more catch up with me.  It’s before I open diary, facebook,  email – and its connecting to the tablet of heart rather than the tablet of communication.

The time of stillness – time to float, daydream, connect with the messages of memory and experience – and think well what do I really want to say, and why – is precious in the making.  It insists on a space where there are no demands, but a free fall from a plane above life, above meaning; yet it requires diving into the essence of life, contemporary challenges for our society;  for analysis, and creation of pieces that can connect to others.

In today’s time of stillness a free form write for a new poem occurred.  It felt like unpacking dreams, hopes, aspirations.  It became a time to connect with Buffy Sainte-Marie and think about the power of music to add emotion to words, and to consider the power of journeys of people like Lajana, who look for the hidden histories – and the people like Marshall who look for the essence of things like nature – and represent that in abstractions and deep and meaningful titles.

This is the space I need to be in when writing and thinking.  It’s a space where my blog cannot always follow me.  In that space of stillness I enjoy solitude and the sense that no-one is watching me.

The other space where I find inspiration to write is being in the thick of life, experiencing it, being with people, in conversation, and knowing about their journeys.  In this space, I free flow in my google searching, and  can find  Sainte-Marie as easily as Lajana or Marshall, and yet my meetings with them in real space offer something different.  

Another writing Saturday saga meditation perhaps, for another time.

Where do you find stillness to look for your creative flow?