An Intuitive Experience

Last Wednesday, I began sharing with you about my recent spiritual retreat. One thing I did not share in last week’s As Way Opens, was the other aspect of my retreat. For 2-3 hours each night, I attended an Art Retreat at the Indianapolis Art Center in Broad Ripple.  

The topic I explored was Intuitive Painting. If you are not familiar with Intuitive Painting, it is considered a tool for artists of all levels, where playful exploration and curiosity is encouraged. The goal is not to specifically make paintings for exhibition or to learn specific techniques. Rather, the goal is to allow yourself the space to be inside color, paint, and process while locating the inner core of your creative self. We were told it can be a wonderful mindful, meditative process.

At first this was hard to get used to for me, much like when people first experience Quaker silence or centering. Instead of setting out with a goal, concept, sketch, or developed plan, we began each day with considering individual marks, colors, emotions, environments, and non-traditional materials. Our instructor would begin class by reminding us of the four goals for the retreat: play, explore, share, expand.  

Since over the years, I have found my practice of art evolving into what I consider a spiritual practice and even an expression of personal worship, I found this retreat enhancing the experience in a variety of new ways. I could not wait to arrive at my class each night, to center down with my materials, and see where my curiosity would take me. I found that I was longing to play, explore, share, and expand.

During the week, I was reading Brian McLaren’s latest book, Faith After Doubt and it was obvious that his words were influencing my evening experiences. The last evening class, we were given a larger canvas to work with and encouraged to take all that we had learned throughout the week and put it into our process for this final piece. 

That morning, I had finished the final chapters of Faith After Doubt and continued to inwardly wrestle with all that I had personally journaled. The thoughts, concepts, and emotions were still very raw. As I sat at my studio space, I found myself choosing a color palette much different than my usual bright expressive colors. Instead of premeditating my marks or brush strokes, I allowed the process to become an expression of my overall week. Layer upon layer, scrape after scrape, and mark over mark unveiled an emerging new style for me. 

As my instructor and I stood back at a distance to look at what had materialized on the canvas for the past two and a half hours, I simply was stunned. She mentioned that each mark was clearly intentional, that the color palette emoted a specific feeling, and that the techniques each came together to present a theme. Being aware that I had been on a spiritual retreat, when she came across the single word I included, but was not easily recognized, she said, “You nailed it.”  The hidden word and title of the piece is Doubt.

I challenge you to think of your worship and spiritual practice in new ways this week. How will you play, explore, share, and expand this week?