Posts in Category: creativity growth
New Realities & Renewed Beginnings
During this time of new realities we are living in, one healthy way I have found to process the changes in our culture and find my way back to my creative work is by taking frequent walks in nature.
This spring and summer I have made repeated walks around and around the circular path of my neighborhood park planted with a wide variety of interesting trees and a small natural prairie area.
One Saturday night this spring at the end of a challenging week, I stopped mid-walk around the park as I spied one of the wood benches. I didn’t sit on the bench, I laid down on my back sprawled across the bench-feet dangling over the arm. This is not normal behavior for me. But, I’d had it. I was overwhelmed. I closed my eyes, listened to the wind, and took a moment to just be.
Eventually, I opened my eyes and looked up. There was a tree reaching its branches out over me. I thought “Those leaves are beautiful dancing in the wind. Are those leaves aspen leaves? Do we even have aspen trees in Iowa? I know they are prevalent across the mountains in Colorado, but here in Iowa?”
And, that train of thought led to words, and then more thoughts led to more words, leading to this poem.
Renewed Beginnings
Maybe the birds always sing at this vibrant level in the spring
Maybe the crabapple blossoms always smell this sweet
Maybe the trees always burst forth this brightly green
Maybe the breeze always brushes across my skin this freshly
Maybe the taste of grilled anything has been too overlooked
Maybe the Aspen leaves have always quaked this splendidly
Maybe my ears have not been tuned in
Maybe my eyes have grown dull by not seeing deeply
Maybe my nose has been too bent to the grindstone
Maybe my taste buds have been too quickly satisfied
Maybe my skin has been trapped inside for too long
Maybe my presence to reality has been misplaced
Maybe having the world stop for a while has allowed nature to awaken
Maybe having my world stop for a while has helped me to pay attention
Maybe having life interrupted has led me to profound observation
Maybe having new rhythms has helped me to calm incessant noise
Maybe having moments to ponder gratitude has revived empathy
Maybe having a new reality
is not the end of everything
but a shift to renewed beginnings
Melynda Van Zee ©2020
Unraveling Towards a New Reality
Enjoy a peek inside my studio process as I created the painting, “Unraveling Towards a New Reality.”
Here’s to shifting to new realities and renewed beginnings!
Stay well friends,
Melynda
New Inner Core Painting Series
After a winter season of painting in my studio, I’m pleased to share with you my new Inner Core painting series. Last year I found myself painting a recurring image of a spiral shape. These spiral shapes were different from other spirals I had painted in the past. The shapes began in the center, but rather than spinning counter-clockwise around a center point, the lines flowed outward and came back to the center again. This movement repeated itself again and again around a central point.
Because it had continually been showing up in my work over and over, I let myself be more curious and continued to explore this shape-especially experimenting with multiple spiraling and overlapping shapes within the paintings. And, I challenged myself to paint these spiral shapes on a much larger scale. The shapes were bold, flowing, overlapping, multi-dimensional and soothing. I began working on four large canvases by pouring lines of acrylic paint from bottles and then adding layers of translucent paint. Slowly over the time I’ve worked within this imagery, the more I’ve become aware that a theme of focusing on the inner core of life was appearing before my eyes on the canvases.
Freedom from the Core 48×48 Melynda Van Zee©2019
Speaking into our current culture
Simultaneously, I’ve also been thinking about the concept that artists are often responding to the shifts, trends and realities of the culture within which they live. Sometimes adapting their work to the cultural norms and sometimes reacting against or speaking into the current cultural flow. As I reflect on our cultural life together, I’m increasingly alarmed by the way our communication with each other and knowledge of our personal selves is being eroded right before our eyes.
Detail from Authentic Connections 48×48 Melynda Van Zee©2019
Awareness
Awareness is one of the first skills I teach in creativity classes. And, I’m still somewhat incredulous how important it is that I teach this- how important it is that I teach people to “look”, to really look at the world within and around them. As a culture we have forgotten what it looks like to really pay attention to our particular physical and non-physical world. We are so absorbed in what other people think, what other people are saying, how other people are reacting to current political and societal ills that we have forgotten how to slow down and look at what is happening in our own hearts, in our own personal relationships, and in our own backyards.
We are afraid to look too deep, because there we might find the things we don’t want to face. As a culture we are numbing out with reactive living, technology or other mood altering habits. These invasive habits are our escape mechanisms.
Detail from Resting in the Shadows 48×60 Melynda Van Zee©2019
New Inner Core Series
My new Inner Core Series has arisen from my own journey of choosing an alternative path-a different way of showing up in the world. It is a path that involves focusing on my own inner core. My art practice is one of the crucial pieces of how I figure out who I am- who I am going to be in this world and how I am going to show up. Art gives me a healthy place to make all these explorations and process my world. It is a sensory experience-the intensity of the colors, the movement of the brush, the vibrancy of the creativity flowing through me.
It is in my art journals- in the gathering of visual information and sketching that I begin to quiet down the outside world and allow myself to explore my own unique visual ideas. I filter the ideas and sketches in my art journal and eventually some of the ideas end up as paintings. This process requires paying attention to my own heart, emotions, thoughts, decision making, responses and reactions.
Detail from Resting in the Shadows 48×60 Melynda Van Zee©2019
Creativity Research Project
This vulnerable journey feels like a giant creativity research project that I’ve been investigating for years. I don’t want to keep the results of this work to myself, so I keep sharing my discoveries and creations with you. Thank you for joining in with my on-going creativity research project. If you’d like to see more of the new series, the paintings are available to view in Paintings. Interested in purchasing a specific piece? Please contact me on our Contact page. Finally, if you’d like to see me at an art show this upcoming spring/summer season, the schedule is below.
Remember to Retreat
“Create Inside Out” painted live in San Jose, CA
Dear Creative Heart,
In January I found myself invited to share my love of creativity and art with the student body at San Jose Christian School in California. A couple of days before I flew out, the weather had sunk to -6 degrees here and I relished the idea of sinking my frozen Iowa toes into some green California grass.
I was delighted by so much more that just warmer temps and green grass- I was warmly welcomed by the beautiful community at the school who engaged my live painting and my personal journey to embracing creativity. I was blessed by the enthusiasm of the students, their thoughtful questions and our creativity conversations.
After my time sharing at school, I had the opportunity to sit by the ocean and watch the waves roll into shore. I strolled the streets and galleries of Carmel-by-the-Sea…taking in the feast of creativity, color and skills of so many gifted artists. I experienced the gift of warm hospitality and reconnecting with a dear friend and her family.
As I have reflected on my time in California, I’m struck by how blessed I was by the entire experience-the opportunity to fly across the country (I didn’t have to take a covered wagon like pioneer women of old), the opportunity to share my gifts with the next generation, the opportunity to see new sights, meet new people and think new thoughts.
These are the things that help keep an artistic life sustainable.
These are the things that bring a fresh breath to my soul.
Dear creative heart- remember to retreat, to travel, to do something new, to share your gifts again…your heart just may expand and your creativity just may blossom into new directions.
With Passion,
Melynda
“Create Inside Out” painted live in San Jose, CA
Saying YES
Look for the Beauty in the Chaos
48 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas
Painted Live during Christmas Eve Services at Lutheran Church of Hope West Des Moines, IA
Dear Creative Heart,
Over the past couple of months, I’ve had opportunity to practice saying YES…to say YES to things that were out of my comfort zone…to say YES to things that I couldn’t control the outcome of…to say YES to things that I didn’t think could be a reality in my creative life.
Did you catch that I said I had the opportunity to practice saying YES? As we head into this new year, I’d like to encourage you to ponder what you might be asked to say YES to in your own personal life and creative journey.
How might you get to practice saying YES?
Saying YES takes strength of spirit and character…saying YES takes releasing control of outcomes…and sometimes saying YES might mean further challenges…and saying YES usually involves some form of risk…which is…need I say it…RISKY people!
Oh…my dear creative friends…you will pick wrong sometimes, you might get hurt sometimes due to your choices…some people may not agree with your decisions…and risk is risky but, what is the alternative?
To quiet the voices inside of you that are whispering to your heart?
To shut down your creativity and the vitality of your life?
To miss opportunities to use your unique gifts and skills?
May I gently encourage you to find time to quiet yourself (you probably can’t quiet down your life and all the chaos that swirls around you), but try to spend some time listening to what is rolling around in your heart. I’ve found this is rather hard to do if you are super tired so taking a nap first or getting some extra sleep might be a first step for you. Designate a quiet place in your home for you to regoup and quiet yourself. Buy a journal to record some of your thoughts. Commit to making time to listen to your own life and heart.
Your creative heart will tell you, it will prompt you, it will whisper to you next steps, but you need to learn to listen and then practice saying YES to whatever whispers you hear.
With Passion,
Melynda
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