Creativity; a letter to friends.

Emerging from the Festive Fog with a chest infection, I am reckoning the one is caused by the other i.e. the chest infection caused by the Festive Fiasco, not the other way round which would be rather implausible. Unless Father Christmas himself had suddenly recovered from an infection of the right lung and was able to get Rudolph onto his feet and get on out there
The above doesn't make any sense I know but it is just to paint a picture of my current state of being; grim!
All this coincides with correspondence from two dear friends who are asking me about creativity; specifically how to slip into it and start producing work.
Of course I know the answer and have endeavoured all my life to adhere to the maxim 'If you don't do it, you can't teach it' So I shake off the mental sloth which is currently haunting me after these ten days of inactivity and lock myself in my studio and start work on four paintings, coughing and spluttering all the while. And then the same old magic kicks in. The everyday takes a step back (and then disappears from my head) and I re-enter that parallel world which works by itself with me as a sort of co-conspirator.
I fuel up too with quotes from favourite artists. Here's one from Sean Scully..

An artists may have a vivid memory of his completed works, but there's little clarity in advance “I’m not in control of it: I don’t know how a painting is going to come out. For decades, I never used green in a picture, and suddenly I’m using it all the time. But I’m really not conscious of making those decisions.”

Hmm, that hits it right on the nose. So of course we make the first mark. Read this gorgeous advice from Van Gogh..

 “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, “You can’t do a thing.” The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of ‘you can’t’ once and for all by getting to work and painting.”

There you are then, my friends, you have learned the magic secret 'Stop coughing and spluttering about all the things you can't do and just get on with it, because the painting will tell you what it wants just as soon as you let go of you' Got it?

It's a good idea to keep a sacred book where you can keep all such little treasures (and it must be a beautiful book by the way).

I would add to this, if I might be so bold, that it is a good habit to make marks every day; finger splodges, scratches. Anything which links hand an eye to the creative flow which is hovering nearby on standby

I'll finish this compendium of quotes by one from the artist Teresita Fernandez whom you can learn more about by clicking on her name.
' For some inexplicable reason, we seem to believe most strongly not in the actual formal lessons, but rather in those details that get into our heads without our knowing exactly how they got there. Those pivotal lessons in our lives continue to work on us in subtle, subterranean ways.'

And I'll leave you with a this photograph of a hill above Assisi, in the mountains of St Francis where we run, as of course you know dear friends, our workshops over the summer months.

Michael

That Parallel World

On Saturday evening I was at the opening of a friend's new Art Gallery in Ancona. There was a duet playing, a young lady flautist and her husband on piano.

the flautist

Lately I find myself drawn into music. A sort of (almost) total absorption might best describe it, whereas previously in my life I had always felt somehow detached as a mere listener. And I remarked to a friend at the show that in the next life that I will want to be born in this state of immersion. And yesterday evening we went to a concert in our nearby town of Civitanova Alta, the inaugural concert of the season where the English violinist Charlie Siem performed. He is a superb performer; looks a bit like superman.

I was feeling groggy from some sort of flu bug I was fighting and after the concert I suggested to lili that we should take an aperitif in the bar next door and that I needed a whisky (which I never usually drink). And instead of heading for the salone with all the other folk, we decided to stay in the bar area. I noticed a guy sitting behind us and Lili whispered to me that he was a famous composer and then at the other spare table of the three arrived two ladies and a young girl.

the young pianist

Then the world shifted. It was as if the little bar became the centre of the Universe.

The young girl brushed past me and sat at the piano and began to play Rachmaninov. I must tell you that I have never heard music performed so beautifully, so perfectly. Then having finished the piece she simply stood up and began to walk back to her mum at the table and I said to her as she passed ' But that was so beautiful and she was almost aplogetic that she might have disturbed us. I asked her to play again and she did for us. And then we were chatting with her, this beautiful little girl, and were joined by the composer who was entranced too and came over to tell her that her playing was beyond perfection and was from another world.

Then our three seperate tables became one held in the beauty of this moment and I said to the composer that I love these rare times where art meets art but that it was just by chance that we were here at all. But he said no, it wasn't chance, it was somehow meant to be; that we had all entered this parallel world opened by this young girl who in her innocence held the golden key to its access.

the composer

 Wow! I have been teaching and talking about this parallel world of art and creativity for years now but this was the first time I had heard it from the lips of another.

We all left the bar at about the same time, not sharing visiting cards or contact details. It just didn't seem to be at all important. But the thought did occur to me that maybe this planet contains, in some strange way, Paradise itself (a word of ancient Persian origin, which originally only ever meant 'a place of great beauty and happiness'), that it does exist, in this very present moment, running alongside this so called world of normality which we inhabit, and that art, in all its forms, is the magic vehicle which takes us to its gate.


michael@starstone.org 
STARSTONE

Minu and the poetic

'The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable'

....Robert Henri

This is a photo of Minu. She is one of three kittens we gave away some five weeks back, Minu to a family in town who live in an apartment. We were a bit apprehensive as Minu was born in our tool shed and had spent her first two months of life playing amongst the flowers in our garden. However they are a nice family and we though it would turn out OK as they had a big terrace. Well, the mother of the family called us three days back to say she was worried that Minu buried herself away all day and crept around with her tail between her legs and never played with the other older cats. So Lili went to bring her back and she said she was a sorry sight and utterly depressed, and what's more was locked in a bedroom every night with the other cats and put in a carry cage. But the story ends in a happy note because after three days back home she has refound her sparkle, is back with her mother (lots more to learn) and has been revisiting all her old hang outs; this afternoon she went back to the shed to the very spot where she was born. I have come to the conclusion that four months with here mum was what she needed and we know now that she has recovered her true nature and all is well in the garden

I love the remark by Henri at the top of this blog. It's my fall-back point and the one which I jump back on to every time I get intellectual hiccups about creativity.

So all my blogs from henceforth on this site will be on this theme; that to shift (back) in to the magical and parallel world of creativity is essential for the very survival of our species on this planet.

And it's such an adventure too. A journey, if you will, and one which is almost Hobbit-like in its twists and turns; and its labyrinths with monsters lurking around every corner to block you and gobble you up if you fall asleep and drift back to the dull world of rationality.

You see, creativity cannot be divorced from life itself. To be creative is to be fully human, fully alive. And our species has gotten itself into a right pickle because it has left the garden, the poetic garden of that wonderful state which Henri refers to above.
Image making is as old as our species. It is our nature and is fundamental to the very essence of existence. It is something we are born with and which never truly leaves us were we but to realise this.
So we need to vibrate again with fesh energy and re-connect with our unique creative poetic selves which have been patiently awaiting a timely re-awakening.
So what's the big question here? I'll tell you. It's to find a space, find a path, find a community of like souls to help us see again that which our culture has made us blind to.
On Monday next, I am running a painting workshop for a bunch of seven year-olds here in Italy. I love doing this. I do the same with adults who I magically turn into seven year-old by various tricks and games. You see, this is the age where children arrive at a critical junction in their young lives and are drawn away from the poetic creative by mainstream education and parental pressure. And to be creative with children at this age is a great reminder of how wonderful human beings are before the onslaught of dull rationality seeps in and sullies the soul.
But all is not lost, dear readers. Rescue is at hand. We will bring you back home to your true creative selves just like we rescued Minu, and free you from the dull corridors of constraint that everyday life has been forcing upon you.
Look out for our creativityworkshops in Assisi this summer
Write for more info for how where and when to... Michael

Malmo, the workshop on creativity

Coaching and the creative mind

Just as the world of Coaching broadens and deepens its involvement into social issues such as Recovery and Education (the coaching of teachers for example), my concern is that this is just an attempt to clean up a mess rather than avoiding it, and its consequences, in the first place.

So my talk addressed the issue of creativity and how this God given gift is threatened and virtually eliminated during childhood. And the paradox is that, currently, respected institutions such as the RSA and the TED series and business and industry everywhere are pleading the necessity of creativity in our daily and working lives, at the same time as (in UK) they have decided to test children at the age of 4 and 5 for competence in reading and arithmetic. (And its laughable and ironic that the younger the age at which they decide to force this tyranny on children, the worst their performance becomes.)

So I took my group at conference back to the age of seven in their imaginations and it is astounding how easily adults can and want to make this imagined leap. They are tired of being adults and want to play and laugh and work together...........And this is what happened.

They plundered materials, pushed each other aside, made a mess and produced images which were indeed almost exactly the sort of image children of that age would make. And how do kids of that age draw and paint? Why, exactly as their teachers have instructed. Shouldn't you put some birds in the sky Susan, and shouldn't your mummy be in the picture too? Dangerous stuff, because this interference programmes the child to conform and seek praise.

Here I showed them a short clip about parents and teachers in Australia who leave their kids alone to paint without any judgement or interference-

look------- Aelita Andre painting http://youtu.be/23hWMvSrZx8

Then I launched the group into drawing and painting ferociously on the floor, turned them into animals with face paint and introduced them to their daemons (mystic creatures which watch over us and our creativity in our lives) and most importantly of all, watched them plunge into the parallel world of the Creative Collective; (what I call the garden of NOW) those magical currents of genius which await us always, if we were but awake enough to see.

Here I showed them a video of a murmuration, this is the Autumn flight of starlings in Europe where they fly in thousands making art in the sky and I likened this to the feeling and thrill humans get too when they combine their creative minds and work as one. That you do not lose any individuality when you work together with others. On the contrary, the experience heightens individuality and creativity.

Look------- murmuration http://youtu.be/iRNqhi2ka9k

The talk was all, and more , of this ilk but essentially it was a plea for Coaching to address creativity and about my intention to launch in 2015 a training course, in a small way at first, for those who wish to become Creativity Coaches; to take themselves firstly into the collective genius and to learn how to open this wonder to others.

Finally, it was a plea too (and this I hope to address in an Education Group with Martin Richards)

to launch a sort of underground concept/movement, 50:50 I might call it, which sees the value of both creative and rational learning as being of equal value; essentially play and innovation. Not as separate divided issues but merely representative of the two sides of human nature which should in no way be in conflict but instead blend and flow together.

Kids love this sort of learning

Teachers would too.

But keep politicians away!

To see Micheal's focus session at Malmo, click here

Michael Eldridge.

www.starstone.org micheal@starstone.org

Nomads

Yes that's what we are, or will be...Nomads! As in itinerant.
Have a peek at currently revamping StarStone site and all will be revealed.
Less programmed workshops but more specifically targeted as you will see.
What do we mean by Nomadic?
Simply this.That at the ICF Global Conference in Malmo (where yours truly spoke on the subject of creativity) I was asked by folks from Moscow, Athens, Istanbul, Sofia, Warsaw etc, to bring our workshops to them, Quiet chuffed I was but DONG! Struck I was too, with the realisation that it is so much easier for folks if we travel instead of them. So I am recruiting organisers. The idea is that an organiser can easily find a group of participants in their own City. And that these folks don't have to pay travel or accommodation coats. So a bargain all round.
Neat being a Nomad.
Of course we will still run our workshops in Italy, especially over summer, and you will find all the details on site by the end of October, after the grape picking.

Do write to Michael if you like this idea.
Or just write to me anyway. It's nice to do so.

A presto.

Michael

Daemons and Genius

I was focus speaker at this weekend's ICF conference in Malmo, Sweden; subject daemons and genius and mindfulness. But most importantly of all, playing with a bunch of lovely people making images of insects, daemons and telling stories about ourselves to others. Making rather than taking.
Took a nightime visit to Copenhagen with Lars and a group and really loved it, just drifting around and eating a very pleasant dinner together. Back home last night into the chaos of Rome. A stark contrast to the cool efficiency of Malmo.
Dream in anticipation of our programme in 2015, when STARSTONE goes global

The white rabbit saga pt 2

                     Mila

As I get older I am drawn towards people, events and ways of living which are not fast or immediate but which show passionate involvement and concentration on the job in hand; with more concern for quality of product than money.

And below is a lovely reaction to my Mila the angora rabbit blog from a linkedin friend Warren A Reilly.

'I am with you there Michael...
Perhaps there is a sentimentality that comes at a certain time of life, however I (like you :-) am also no luddite to modern technology or community, and yet as I get older the 'value' of those older traditions are being raised within my own eyes.

Yes, I am aware that there may be more efficient materials than angora rabbit fur...
Yes, I am aware that I could probably buy a garment for a third of the cost - made in a sweat shop in Indo-china..
Yes, I am aware that this is labour intensive and you could not possibly expect to compete in a global market with a garment made in this way....(blah, blah, blah..)

But that is the point - I wouldn't value a culturally neutral & optimised product made under duress by a stranger..
I want the jumper that took 4 weeks from start to finish. The one that lasts at least 10 years if looked after lovingly.
I want the one made a person who made it for me - as an individual.

I know it is more expensive, I don't care - I really don't care.
If I don't have the money to pay for it, then just have to work a bit harder for a bit longer and save up for it. The anticipation only adds to the value... :-)