Artist Journey to the Cortes Children's Forest Follow Up

Forest Light photo by Lisa Lipsett

I want to make sure you know about this lovely video about the Artist Journey to the Cortes Children's Forest that was filmed and edited by Rob Lowrie of Salt Spring. This event is a great example of making art work for local change.

Lots of beautiful artwork was created that weekend last August in an attempt to fundraise for and bring attention to the logging threat being faced. I share the Creative by Nature art process at minutes 2:13 and 8:18 on Part 2.  I think you'll enjoy these.

Part 1

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tZTv3qMpP0

Part 2 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QFuZJ8TCpcPart 3
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mLIhxEciDA

See my previous blog post for more details about this project. http://www.thedrivetocreate.com/2012/10/the-dream-of-cortes-childrens-forest.html

Connect here for more info about the work being done to save the forest. http://wildstands.wordpress.com/about/childrens-forest-trust/

The Dream of a Cortes Children's Forest Trust

Sometimes art gives nature the voice it desperately needs.

Beautiful forest light in the Cortes Children`s Forest

Last August my family and I traveled north to lovely Cortes Island for a weekend of creativity, community and nature connection. Along with a group of painters, ceramic artists, a videographer and a weaver we spent three days immersed in the lush beauty of this magical place. There is a struggle beneath the quiet exterior as residents and nature find themselves up against Islands Timberland in a bid to save a beautiful stretch of Carrington Bay from being clear cut.The artist's journey to the children's forest  has shape shifted into a pilgrimage of artists devoted to contributing artworks to see the children's forest preserved in perpetuity.  To learn more and find out how you can help visit www.corteschildrensforest.org

Artist orientation with Sabine Mense Leader and  Christine Robinson

Ruby working on her painting

Ruby`s painting

My inspiration was forest light and shadow

Our favourite spot under the grandmother trees

Shadow play

Painting in the forest

Meanwhile the artists are busy getting ready for an art auction to be held Friday evening November 23rd at Artspring on Salt Spring Island. My piece, inspired by and created directly with the shadows the upper canopy creates on the ground is entitled Light Play and will be up for sale that evening. Please come out and support this very worthy cause.

Light Play
24"x 16`"
mixed media on wood

Free webinar- Creative Nature Connection

Join me Wednesday October 24th 2012 at 7:30 (EST) for a FREE webinar on Creative Nature Connection. 

Learn the basics of this simple yet powerful nature-based art practice. 

Co-hosted by Creative by Nature Center and Green Teacher magazine www.greenteacher.com  

Register here

Description 

Sometimes in nature education programming there is a scientific bias that leaves out our most powerful human capacities. If we hope to transform our relationship to nature, we need to open our senses, access our feelings and develop our intuition in addition to carefully observing and asking questions. Ongoing engagement is a practice, a life habit, something we come back to again and again over long periods of time. To meet the need for simple yet powerful educational solutions I have developed Creative Nature Connection- a nature based art practice that harnesses the power of drawing and painting to move us toward full engagement with the living world. This practice draws us in to nature's beauty in fresh ways that create lasting impressions. This webinar will begin with a brief introduction to the concepts underlying nature based art practices, a description of Creative Nature Connection and include a short experiential activity together (have blank paper and pen ready!). An article with resources and references will be available for download. By way of background, visit www.creativenatureconnection.com to read my article “Transformation is in Our Hands” from Green Teacher’s Winter 2011 edition.   Suitability: All formal and non formal youth educators, especially those working with kids of elementary and middle school age. Also great for artists, educators and the creatively curious.

Ancient Light: Images from a Mayan Crystal Cave

 I've discovered that Light Painting can spark exciting creative journeys.

This first image is a Light Painting done in a Mayan crystal cave in Belize, Central America. Light Paintings are long exposure photos created by moving the camera around a fixed source of light in an otherwise dark environment. You can also mount your camera on a tripod and create a light show. The three key ingredients are light, motion and a camera on long exposure.

These four images are mandalas I digitally created with the light paintings.

Then I incorporated the mandalas into mixed media paintings that meld creamy cave walls, turquoise waters and ancient light.

I shared these images at beautiful Cafe Talia on Salt Spring Island throughout May. Here is a pic of the showcard and the artist statement.

This series of photos and paintings is inspired by the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave system in Belize, Central America. ATM is known for its miles of chambers believed by the Mayan to be the entry to the sacred underworld of Xibalba. In ancient times only dancing torch flame brought this pitch black world to life where fifty foot stalactites and stalagmites inspired reverence and creativity. Clay offering bowls, painted urns and full sacrificial skeletons are housed in crystalline limestone chambers to this day.


By light painting with my Pentax Optio digital camera on 20 second exposure, I created abstract photo-graphic impressions of Mayan artifacts glowing with the play of light on textured walls. I digitally transformed these images into crystalline mandalas evocative of a microscopic underworld. Multi-media paintings marry the mandalas with a feeling landscape of creamy limestone, cool turquoise water and long loops of stratified underground chambers. These images aim to merge the ritual of ancient nature-inspired creativity with the habits of the modern day. As we line up for our lattes and sweet treats the Mayan crystalline cave world is still there- timeless, humbling and profoundly beautiful.

There are lots more images on the gallery website at http://www.lisalipsettimages.com/

Want to try light painting yourself Get ideas and inspiration here
Want to visit ATM cave yourself? Contact Mayawalk Tours www.mayawalk.com

Art as if the Earth mattered- Art Educators Conference

If you are planning to attend the annual National Art Educators conference in New York City this Wednesday Feb 29th, there is an exciting pre-conference symposium at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art organized by Peter London. His books Drawing Closer to Nature and No More Second-hand art are inspiring for anyone interested in the art-nature connection. The focus of the symposium is Art, Ecology and Education. Read more here.

I'm sorry I can't be there but I've designed a poster Creative Nature Connection: A nature-based art practice for schools especially for teachers. Here is a link to a video called This Little Bird. It is an artful nature encounter. Also click here for directions on how to make a folded Creative by Nature book. Here is the link for the Green teacher article on Creative Nature Connection.

I wish everyone an invigorating gathering. I'd love to see pictures and hear all about it of you happen to be attending.

Ocean Academy & The Grandfather Tree

Teachers- if you think you don't have enough plants and animals in your school yard to teach Creative Nature Connection, celebrate the various ways a diverse class of students connects with one particular plant or animal. Like seeing only the elephant's eyes, ears, feet, or tail in your field of view, each connection holds a lens through which to imagine into and learn about the elephant. Each connection is as diverse as we are. There is diversity in nature and there is diversity in our response to it.

Yesterday I headed out on a warm morning walk to the grounds surrounding Ocean Academy on Caye Caulker, Belize. Ocean Academy is a plucky upstart of a high school only three years in operation. It is a parent initiated and ultimately global community-sponsored endeavor that aims to provide this small island community with a high school of their own. I like to create with a plant or animal beforehand in the area near where I am teaching so I wandered about opening myself to what attracts.



Giant fig tree aka The Grandfather Tree

As I approached the school I noticed a tangle of roots and vines hanging from a tree on the corner where the sandy road meets the school driveway. I instantly loved this coarse hair-like material. In recent days I had been doing battle with my own hair's tendency to form dreadlocks if left unbraided. Untangling is something I know about. I loved the sheer number of strands and their seeming old age. Individual strands were long, coarse and weathered. So I got out my folded book and black fine liner and drew the texture with each hand. Then I focused on a small close up pattern on one strand while I drew with each hand and both hands together. I finished by drawing the pattern of a larger field of view- patterns of the old man's beard and variegated bark on the trunk. Soon I saw two lizards, noticed the white paint-like marks on the trunk and for the first time noticed small green leaves. I learned later that this fig tree is also called a grandfather tree, is beloved by birds for fruit, and humans for shade. What a wonderful tree to have nourishing the entry to a place of learning.

That afternoon, I invited the students of the Graphic Design elective led by Isobel Melgarejo of the Art Institute of New York City, to draw the texture and patterns of their favorite part of this tree. I taught them S-L-O-W, the acronym for remembering the key components of Creative Nature Connection.

Ocean Academy students drawing textures and patterns

S is for solo, silent, slow drawing, staying still in the same spot


L is for love, following what attracts. Also L is for one continuous line

O is for open attention, drinking in the plant or animal

W is for whole brain-using both hands. Also W is for wonder and curiosity.


Many studemts worked with the beard, others with leaves, a particular strand, or bark. Students focused on their chosen leaf or root strand for 45 minutes, carefully feeling texture and observing patterns as they drew.

completed drawings

They said it was intriguing to work with their non-dominant hand and with both hands simultaneously. No one had tried that before. I explained that this kind of drawing is more about tracking our experience in the moment. This CNC session was not only a drawing exercise for some students who said they don't know how to draw, this was also a quiet connecting exercise for a boisterous group of adolescents who walk by this tree daily. I encouraged students to try other ways to draw and to give painting a try in much the same way. They will be using their drawings in a graphic collage of words and images abouth themselves.

Thanks so much Ocean Academy for the opportunity to create together. I can't wait to see how your work turns out!

One tree, one beautifully complex tree can be inspiration for a year of creative connection. Visit your special tree over and over again. What simple plant or animal would inspire you and your students today?

Solstice Communion

It feels so natural to gather together with others tonight to share the light, create ritual and make art. I partnered with a good friend to Touch Draw, attended a meditation gathering, then returned home to join with my family. I joined Ruby my lovely 9 year old and Kuno my life partner of over two decades, around our modest stone pond in the starry frost air to light three candles, one for each of us. Once lit we placed Ruby's candle on an oyster shell, and the remaining two in walnut shells. Then we launched our candle boats in the moody water and watched the light dance in the wet ripples as we held hands and sang- This little light of mine..... I'm going to let it shine....



Three Little Lights

Recently I discovered the pleasure of light drawing by setting my camera to a long exposure time and moving it around in front of a light source. This technique yields the most gorgeous images. For the following light drawing,
I moved my camera in figure-eights, first to the right, then the left.



Light Drawing



Then I filtered the light drawing through a Photoshop plug-in called Kaleidoscope which with some adjustments created the image Light Communion. I see an interweaving of energy and love in celebration of the precious light that makes our whole world possible.....



Light Communion



Happy Solstice Everyone!

Creative Nature Connection article

I'm so excited to be sharing this hands-on article published in the winter 2011 issue of Green Teacher Magazine. The process of Creative Nature Connection is clearly laid out so anyone can begin a practice of their own!

Tree-HEART Tattoo

Sap coating a Douglas Fir trunk

Oozing out of the heart of trees (especially Broad Leaf Maples and Douglas Fir) this time of year, is a sweetness so pure, so ancient that when hardened reveals a timeless amber, when boiled yields the same thick golden coloured sweetness and when boiled down even further yields a tasty crystalline sugar that melts on the tongue.The lifeblood of a tree can be tapped but can also be seen running down the trunk on its own accord. Whether injured and gaping, or offered naturally, Douglas Fir pitch is a mineral-rich, sweet, sticky substance that has been used by Native Americans as a powerful topical remedy.  (Click here to learn more about Douglas Fir pitch and its many attributes and uses.)

On an impulse last week I wondered what would happen if I purposely placed some of this oozing on my skin. This is how I came to make a heart tattoo.
 

How to make a Douglas fir pitch tattoo:
Go for a forest walk. Find a tree that is sharing its goodness and adorn your own flesh with its lifeblood. Rub in dark rich loomy soil. Then you can wear your design as a glyph connecting you to the heart of the forest.

Coat the end of a stick in sap

Draw a sap design on your skin

Rub earth into the design

Voila!

 

The sharp spicy pine scent of this heart tattoo took me back to the forest every time I raised my hand to my nose. I also found myself absentmindedly caressing its suede-like surfaces. Even so it was surprisingly resilient and traces remained  days after I first applied it. At one point I took my writing pen and emphasized two eyes and a nose making a fox face.


What sweetness nourishes you at this time of year? What sweet sap at the heart of your being can you offer the world? What beauty can you create with golden tree juice?


* To get sap off your hands use hand sanitizer (it is alcohol based). If you get some sap on your clothing click on this link for natural cleaning options.







The Joy of Spontaneity

The joy of spontaneous body movement is renewing and builds connection. If we let our painted hands dance across the page or twirl our bodies in the forest we can feel this connection in our flesh. The tracings that result are universal, shared by all living beings yet each mark is uniquely ours, an artifact of our experience of communion with Nature.

Try it yourself. Grab two pieces of paper and a pen, close your eyes and let your right hand run freely across the page like a wild horse. Then turn over your page, switch hands and let your left hand out to play. End by drawing with your eyes closed using both hands at the same time. What fun! Follow where your hands lead. Truly savour this time and rest your attention on the sensations associated with the movement of your hands.

Maybe your images will look something like this...

                          Both hand drawing               Lisa Lipsett

Or like this...

                       Moths in the light                                    
by Steve Irvine   http://www.steveirvine.com/

A big thank you to Heidi Cowan (http://www.seven-ravens.com/) for sending the link to this amazing photo of moths in the light. What beauty they create with their spontaneous dance.

For more activities, videos and Creative by Nature events visit : http://www.creativenatureconnection.com/

5 Ways to Create Connection Over the Holidays

At this time of year it's so easy to get carried away by the exciting flow of gatherings, good food and good company, finding ourselves exhausted and overwhelmed when it is all over. Wouldn't it be better to take time every day to connect and create with what is personally renewing? I hope the following 5 suggestions will bring a measure of joy to your holidays. A key to success is preparing a small pouch or ziplock bag with a drawing pen, some small pieces of watercolour paper and a small palette of paints. Tuck this in a bag you can carry with you or place it in a visible area in your home. Now you're ready to act on creative inspiration.

#1 Walk and Connect
Go for a walk and open yourself to what attracts your attention in the moment. Let a natural being choose you. Take a few moments to be with this being. Whether it is a rock, a tree, an icicle, or a dog, take a moment to simply drink it in with all your senses. What do you hear, smell, feel in this moment?

#2 Draw and Connect
During a dinner over the holidays place a small piece of paper and a pen or pencil at each place sitting. Invite your dinner mates to doodle whatever they like. After a minute ask everyone to pass their drawing to the person on their left. Invite everyone to continue on with the drawing in front of them. Have them ask the drawing what it needs. After a minute pass the drawing to the next person on the left. Continue with as many passes as it takes until everyone receives their original drawing again. For a fun variation repeat on the other side of the paper and draw using your non-dominant hand.

#3 Stay connected to the sun
In this season of the return of the light, commit to connecting with the sun at the same time each day. Maybe it's 12 noon that suits you best. Simply take a moment or two and connect with where the sun is. If you can't see it because of cloud cover can you feel its presence? Then take a moment to reflect on what the sun means to you this day.

#4 Create with sound
In addition to being the season of light this is also the season of music. Have a small sheet of watercolour paper and a pen handy. When you hear a song or sound in Nature that attracts you (or repels you !) close your eyes and draw with your non-dominant hand. Simply rest your mind on the music and let your hand record what you hear. Go very slowly and let your hand record what you hear. Npw flip over the page. If you are inside then go outside and record what you hear. If you were outside then head indoors and draw what you hear on this fresh side of your page.

#5 Do a mini painting practice
Commit to painting one small image everyday for a week. In a ziplock bag or drawstring pouch place a small watercolour kit (check a dollar store near you), a pen and 7 small pieces of watercolour paper. Take time out everyday to write a few words about how you feel then turn over the page and paint with your non-dominant hand. with your eyes closed Try closing your eyes to choose the colours as well. Savour this quiet time of creative connection.


Have a great holiday!

The Magical Shape of Things

Sometimes colour draws us in. Once connected we realize that it's the shape of things that captivates. Magic happens when we suddenly start to see our shape everywhere. That's when a new journey begins....

The BC provincial park Goldstream  was an inspiration to painter Emily Carr and for good reason. Its old growth moss covered trees and seasonal salmon run (mostly Chum) still draw visitors from far and wide. My daughter and I visited last weekend as part of a children's wilderness skills program. We came to see vibrant red fish tenaciously pulsing and thrashing their way up stream in an annual effort to lay and fertilize eggs, only to melt back into the earth to feed birds and trees. Unfortunately this year we were too late.

Their contorted cream coloured carcasses lay motionless in the gravelly river bed. The powerful putrid smel of rot did not deter the seagull feast. 

Dead Salmon



Fish Tail

I find my attention diverted from the salmon scene to the incredibly lush moss dripping from the ancient trunks and many spidery intertwined branches of fir and cedar. Like snakes these fuzzy green arms weave a mesh canopy overhead.



Mossy branches


One tree in particular calls me to her. She is a giant hollowed out Fir. She is female because I can sit inside her, cradled in her shelter, like a child warmed by a mother's loving embrace. I love the dryness and solid silence this space offers. 

Creating inside her

So I drew with this tree and her hollowed out knowing in order to share her world. I used each hand in turn first with my eyes open, then with them closed. I followed up by using both hands together with eyes opened then closed. Once I made the decision to draw I felt the soft support of the trunk and soft duff on my back and bottom. My eyes went to the patterned complexity of the burnt black and green surface close to my face. I connected with that and drew while holding that connection.


Lines and patterns inside the tree

 

Writing and drawing from inside the tree

The two handed drawing done with my eyes closed was  particularly compelling. It had such strong form.  Beside it I wrote: eyeballs, embracing wings, a strong base. Then on an impulse I flipped over the image and wrote: new growth from seeds.

Drawing done with both hands and eyes closed



Flipped drawing

Then I asked the tree: "what nourishes you?"

She replied: "the mist, the leaves the woodpeckers, the melting flesh, the endless drip, the blanketing moss, the smell of earthy brown."

My creating was interrupted by the children. They dropped by to tell me they were moving to a new location. I said I'd catch up and felt compelled to move to the shore to create. When I exited the tree I noticed its other side for the first time. The strong trunk with incredible mossy branching arms had bulbous round shapes at its base, just like in my drawing.

Back side of the tree



I had not noticed the rounded shapes at the base of the trunk before. Drawing sensitized me, opening to see this form.

Once I arrive at the river I found a fleshy skeleton I liked. It reminded me of the tree trunk with a strong base and many radiating thin protruding branches.



Fish bone

I loved drawing with this bone as my eyes traced the contours and ridges. It's the interweaving of complex little bones that attracts me most.



Drawing with the fishbone



While drswing my eye caught sight of a beautiful brown totally camouflaged little bird. Unlike the fish strewn and rotting every few feet he was swimming upstream. Dunking, diving almost, swimming in his plucky way up the ripples then just as quickly he popped up and flew away.

Little brown bird

I was startled to see this bird swim in such a forthright manner for it was not long ago that I watched a small bird die after having a near drowning experience in my pond. I made a video of our time creating together called This Little Bird. I will never forget him.

I finished the session by taking some additional fish photos.

Then ended my time in this magical place with one last sit in my favourite tree trunk. As I looked up to the sky through her cradled opening I saw not only branches interwoven in a cathedral-like window, I saw the shape of a fish! Simply lovely.

The simply beauty of creating can open us to Nature's beauty. It doesn't matter where we start as long as we are open to being led.

What calls to you today? Follow where it leads, create and watch your sense of the world transform in beautiful and magical ways.