One2ones

I popped down to I Cigni to check out some details for our summer programme, and this was waiting for me.

A present!

I love getting presents especially when they are paintings.
It was from Jiven Banghar, (she of 'Purplestars') who came on a One2one weekend with me in the summer. These fast moving, and deeply emotional snatches of time blast away any obstacles there might be, or could ever be, to being at one with your true creative self. 
In practical terms they are about whatever
medium of expression presents itself, be it painting, photography, poetry, writing, but especially they are more than the expression of any particular art form; more about the art of living itself. The Art of living creatively.
This was Jiven's first ever painting in her entire life. And I am proud to be the owner.
It's hanging on my studio wall already.
Oh, and this was her kind thank you message

Michael at starstone
email: michael@starstone.org

BIG PAINTING

                                    BIG PAINTING May 8 to 11
                                         With Michelle Rumney and Michael Eldridge

Creativity, as we all know, is something which the world, business, industry, education, is crying out for. Problem is, few people know how to get achieve it; how to loosen minds from the more rational corridors of constraint which restrict out ability to embrace it.They talk about it but do not know that it is a parallel world just waiting for us to inhabit. It's been there all the time. Some secret!

Let me explain.

Take as an analogy baby in the pool; those videos we see, where babies swim happily under water. The amazing thing is that they don't have to be taught; it's an instinct they are born with, this experience is like going home for them, and in turn gives them joy and confidence and also takes away the fear of they must at first experience at arriving in a harsher new world, so much harsher than the warm sweet water that they had become used to, floating inside their mothers' bodies. And this experience is something that stays with them all of their lives, a love for water and something which gives them confidence too, essential in their new quest to survive and prosper

Creativity is somewhat like this. It is something we are born with and something we would float within forever, if it weren't for all the abrasive things which happen to us as we grow older, the infrequency of play with parents, the exposure to rational education etc.

So our technique, if you can call it that, is a sort of psychological unlocking, facilitated easily through play and games and group dynamics where I take people back to the tailing off point in their childhood where their natural creativity began to be squeezed aside and give them once again permission to be carefree and playful and thus creative; swimming once more in the warm pool of the creative unconscious.

Our BIG PAINTING weekend is a direct and powerful way to immerse yourself into this parallel world; to be released from the constraints of rationality and to float once more in the delicious flow of creativity which has been simply waiting for you to awaken to its presence. You will paint BIG and feel BIG and learn that art is life and that life is art. You will find that you can at last paint your life anew on every waking day of your lives.

So creativity is innate within us all, never leaves us, simply has to be re-awakened. What we also do is give people a sort of survival kit to take way with them, allowing them to source their rediscovered creativity at will and whenever in whatever form this make take; and not necessarily art but also in the art of living itself.

Michael

return to site... Starstone

Hunting the Heart of the Deer

April's weather will be just fine, surely it will, simply because I am flying over to England for the Breathing Space creativity weekend in Norwich and need sunshine because even one day of rain makes me feel depressed. Then I'm zooming over to Turkey for a Photography exhibition I'm sharing with Stephen Bray and Colin Tracy and then double zooming back for Eleanor Darley's retreat at Montefiore at Easter time, which I'm now going to tell you about now..

It's called Hunting the Deer and is a powerful quest into nature and your inner world to experience the healing that comes from observation, creativity, the heart and imagination.
This workshop is your chance to hunt down truths in your life and soul - using the artistic process. 
Eleanor writes;
'That it is inspired by the Mexican Huichol traditions, at the center of which is the practice of understanding the living archetype of the blue deer (Kayumari) which brings messages to the people from Spirit, a deep connection with the universe, your self, and life force as love. We will explore this philosophy through a revealing creative process, delving into art techniques with colour, charcoal, and other materials to enliven the senses, bring warmth and trust to experience a conscious connection to the images within, and force by which nature herself creates.  Over the few days you will awaken new powers of self observation, and begin your journey of enquiry, to prayer, to vision, to art'
More details 

So Easter will be fun..with sun 

Michael

www.starstone.org

Norwich in Springtime

I used to work for the Open University and we ran summer workshops at the University of East Anglia in the eighties in Norwich. They were part of the Technology, Art and Design course (TAD). My fellow leaders (we couldn't be called teachers because we didn't teach a thing in the conventional meaning of that word) were musicians, performance artists, puppeteers, inventors, Tai Chi trainers, photographers (me); a circus of talented people who would always turn up first day with scarcely an idea between them. Instead we invented a programmes as we went along, working democratically alongside our students who are best described as fellow anarchists, if truth be told. Tadpoles they called themselves. Now, these workshops, which were awash with money (ask for it, you got it) were a necessary component of the three year course, fail it and you had to repeat it the following year. Problem was that these Tadpoles would deliberately fail so they could come back again as is was all such fun. This meant that numbers burgeoned and the these workshops got bigger and fantastically out of control. I loved them. Sadly they closed them down. This makes me smile now. They were parodied in one of the Comic Strip series where the Tadpoles ended up burning a tutor on a funeral pyre on the campus grounds.
Those eighties!

 a starstone creativity retreat in Italy

So back I am to Norwich in April to run a retreat at Breathing Space for Women. And this makes me think how life has changed. Yes, well of course it has you will tell me, but what I am really referring to is is fun. It was all such fun. Fun? A waste of time then you will say. But no! What folks learned was to create together, play together, to unleash torrents of energy and to uncover mysteries within themselves and to discover talents which they never believed they ever had. I suppose I could say that they were given permission to be children again but that isn't it exactly. Playfulness, risk taking, mess making and sharing joyful moments are not just childhood things. All these wonderful ingredients still reside in adults and it is my job to restore them to their rightful place in folks' lives. This is what my experiences and my teaching has taught me. This is what I do.
Can't guarantee we'll get as far as the pyre burning exercise but I'll do my best.
The weekend is for women only by the way.
Except for me.
Sorry boys!

www.starstone.org

Zen & the Art of Photography

Don't know if you know this but our School of Photography at the then Bournemouth College of Art (now Arts University of Bournemouth) was referred to as the Zen School of Photography, not by us but by our educational rivals; jealous they were, of they knew not what. And you can read something about these times in Stephen Bray's new book 'Zen and Photography' which will be published soon and which I am writing a preface for (I think)
So here is some information about the perfect Zen Photographic Retreat for you this summer at Starstone lead by...

Natasha Lythgoe

She writes...

Zen & The Art of Photography

What is Mindfulness?

Bringing our full attention to anything is mindfulness. This kind of attention has no particular goal in mind and enables a sense of ease, playfulness and an openness to what is here and now.

How does it connect to Photography?

When we bring this approach to photography it leads us into a deeper connection with ourselves and the world around us – our subject.

Using mindfulness meditation and photography exercises you will learn how to approach and come into relation to your subject and how to make the best use of your camera and available light.

This workshop is open to all level of photographic experience and all kinds of cameras.

specific dates soon on our programme 

Michael
at Starstone

coming soon.. 

Arte e Meditazione with Mauro Magrini

Rackmaninov concert, pianist Lorenzo di Bella

Our paintings from the exhibition Isola dei Morti were projected onto a huge screen behind the pianist.
Here is mine, looks ominous on that scale which I think is nice.

Michael,
Starstone

Bocklin

This is a continuation of the exhibition at the Permariemonti Gallery where 14 artists, myself included have contributed work towards a 'Homage to Bocklin' the famous Swiss painter.
This concert is a recital of the music of Rachmaninoff by three pianists where our work will be projected during the performance. Nice idea, meet for a pizza beforehand?
And this is the painting I contributed

Refreshed Starstone site up soon.

Michael