What is Mindful Mixed Media?
Why add Mindfulness to Mixed Media?
What is mindfulness?
In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn launched his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School to help patients dealing with chronic emotional and physical challenges.The basic idea was to have a moment by moment non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts, physical sensations and experiences. By not judging our experiences as “right” or “wrong” we are open to the present moment, allowing thoughts, emotions, feelings to pass through us and disappear without clinging or aversion. (a Buddhist concept secularized by this program)
How mindfulness is an important part of the art process.
We all know that what stops us from creating is the fear of judgment by ourselves and others. If we are constantly concerned about that, how do we make our own authentic art?
How I have integrated mindfulness into my teaching.
If you have worked with me before, you will know that I do many exercises to help unblock and open up to the intuitive art process. Most of these have time constraints so that we don’t have time to second guess our work. Intuition is usually the first pass! Some of these exercises are in the form of:
Emotional prompts in the form of mark making
Quick collages
Mindful drawing
I call this the “opening of the creative faucet”. Authentic creativity flows from here! ONLY THEN can i start introducing some techniques and tips for successful abstract compositions.
Why is Mixed Media such a good tool for mindfulness?
Mixed media is about layering, covering and excavating using various materials. This lends itself perfectly to the process of self discovery. We don’t like something, we cover it up, but we let the history of the piece peek through so that we can see the artist’s process. That is the joy and fascination when we look back at our art and ask: “What was going on with me when I created that layer?”
Sometimes we spend so much time thinking and worrying about whether we are doing it right, we stop allowing the process to unfold. “We find our feet by walking!” One thing leads to the next and the flow begins.
How The Art Process Helps move us through Creative Blocks
I have a class called “Meditate & Create” . I start the class off with a brief guided mindful meditation and then we move into a contemplative art project. The art project is designed to free us from product orientation and move into process mode. In this way, we remove the self judgments and access our intuitive creative voice.
In a previous BLOG POST on Meditation and Creativity I explain Creativity and the Neo Cortex.
Do you need to be an artist to create art?
If we follow the reasoning above, it follows that ANYONE can be creative and make art given the right stimulation and circumstance. That is why The Art Process Method is so successful. It encourages and exercises that creative muscle, taking the self criticism out of the picture (a sure way to deaden creativity!) By incorporating meditation and self inquiry into the creative process, it opens the doorways to your unique vision and self expression!
