April 2020
Professor Cheryl H. Hooks
With Students in Fine Arts Studio
The University of Mount Olive, North Carolina
Window Meditations
Hello Everyone! I pray you are well and enjoying your creative spaces!
Here is a statement for your consideration: “Don’t take anything personally.” *
To be sure, this may be a difficult meditation concept. “Don’t take anything personally.”
We may have a hard time NOT taking things personally or believing that what other people do, seemingly in response to us, is all about us. People hurt our feelings, frustrate us, confuse us or even seem to be the cause of our pain, or so we believe. As we have been discussing through the concepts of The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, our realities and what we believe are due to our “agreements,” the things with which we have decided we agree. We take these agreements into ourselves and we live life from the foundation of these agreements.
So how does this agreement, to not take anything personally, play out in our lives as creative human beings?
Would not taking anything personally nurture more creative freedom in our lives?
How can looking at this agreement with ourselves help us live our lives in a place of healing, growth and creativity?
The way we see the world around us and within us may be because we have made an agreement with ourselves that certain things are true about ourselves. So, how does this play out as a part of our creative freedom and self-healing?
I want to challenge you to claim within yourself that what other people say or do in response to your creativity comes from agreements they have made with themselves. These agreements may be positive ones or negative ones. What we may want to consider is how to achieve a deeper understanding of the agreements we have made with ourselves and how we can express our unique agreements on a path to self-acceptance. We can create and grow as artist without taking things personally.
This does not mean that we should avoid accepting nurturing guidance. We can learn from other experienced creative beings. We can gain insight and wisdom from others who are on a healthy creative path and, in so doing, further clarify our own creative potential.
So, how can the acceptance of this agreement, not to take anything personally, become a reality in a practical manner?
How does the acceptance of this agreement, not to take anything personally, help us in the “here and now”?
As we “stay in place,” to do our part to help fight the COVID 19 pandemic, we find ourselves inside looking out. In some ways this “inside looking out” is similar to what we experience every day as creative beings. We have discussed and made a part of our life-agreements that everyone is creative in one way or another. Creative beings are not limited to being an artist.
So, we find ourselves inside looking out.
One of my greatest enjoyments in life is to sit by the window in my studio each morning, coffee in one hand and a pen in the other, writing in my journal. As I pause to look out the window to my sacred garden, I have wondered about you and your views out your windows.
Here is my challenge to you . . . to spend some time looking out the windows of your home. Intentionally spend time at each window. Be fully present as you stand or sit at each window. Be conscious of your breathing and your whole being as you are before a window. You may want to take three deep cleansing breaths at the beginning of each experience.
Please be still and simply observe. Truly see what is outside. Consider how the light affects everything you see. It may be a sunny day, a cloudy day or even night time. Be with this vision out each window for as long as it takes for you to feel you have given yourself to fully seeing what is before you. I challenge you to repeat this meditation at various times of the day over an entire week.
Please write down what you see. Ask yourself questions such as what draws you to pay more attention to certain things or which window views “speak” to you more fully. This may change from day to day or at various times of the day. As you engage in your window meditations, please have paper and pen handy and reflect on these concepts:
1. I am here but I am a part of a larger whole.
2. What I see from this window is unique to me in all the universe.
3. No one else sees this view as I see it because I am unique in all the universe.
4. What other people are seeing is a part of their agreements with themselves and is not about me.
5. I agree with myself to celebrate what I see in my unique way, here and now, without self-judgement or taking personally that someone else sees things differently.
6. It is an illusion that someone else’s agreements are about me, for how can this be, as they are in another house, in another place, looking out another window.
7. I can share what I see, what agreements I have made with myself, in a loving, confident way, for I am unique, yet still a part of the whole.
Repeat this exercise, these Window Meditations, as many times as possible, and see if you agree, partially agree, or disagree with any or all of these statements. Reflect on these concepts and create your own concepts from these reflections for an entire week. Share some of your reflections by the end of the week.
After a week of window meditations and written reflections, choose a favorite window and create a work of art in response to what you see out the window. You may use the media of your choice. Create from your heart and soul, remaining true to yourself. By the end of this second week, share your unique window perspective work of art, celebrating your creative response.
As you reflect on other works of art and written responses, keep in mind this agreement: “Don’t take anything personally,” celebrate everyone’s unique perspective and realize it is not about just you. We are in this together. Dance in this freedom. Turn your face to the sun or moon and create without judgement.
If needed, here are some ideas for completing a window perspective work of art:
1. Draw what you see using crayons, color pencils, pastels, ink or markers.
2. Paint what you see using watercolors, tempera, acrylic or oil paints.
3. Cut and tear color paper to create a scene.
4. Use a number of materials to create a mixed media work or collage. This work could be created out of traditional art materials or object you have in your home. You could even use food, sewing items or natural elements such as sticks, leaves, dirt, and flowers.
5. Sew a design or an image with yarn, embroidery thread or material of different patterns.
6. Create a print.
7. Create a dreamscape based on your window meditations.
8. Create an idealized world based on your window meditations.
9. Create a story-book illustration.
10. Create a three-dimensional creative response.
Whichever approach you choose, be sure to consider whether or not this approach best reflections your experience and your true creative self.
I look forward to reading your written reflections and seeing your creative responses. Take care of yourself. From my window to your window, please remember, I am here for you!
*Ruiz, Miguel. The Four Agreements. Amber-Allen Publishing, 1997.
Student Creative Responses
Cindy
Candy #1
Candy #2
Candy #3
Candy #4
Candy #5
Malana
Hannah #1
Hannah #2
Destiny
Kayla
Interview by University of Mount Olive Director of Public Relations
What challenges have you faced in transitioning your art classes to an online format?
The primary challenge was helping the students to stay connected. The addition of weekly "meditations" was one way to help students achieve this connectedness. I created video mediations along with discussion forums wherein the students could share their experiences and creative responses.
What were you hoping that your students took away from this particular assignment? Was this achieved?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt it important to spend some time clarifying our individual strengths as artists and our responsibilities to and for each other. The students have resources of great strength within their creative spirits. I entitled this meditation "Window Meditations," as the students are now viewing the world from their individual windows, while hopefully realizing that collectively we are all the doing the same thing. I also challenged them to consider this statement: Don't take anything personally and how it relates to them as artists and in response to our collective current situation due to the virus. The statement was a part of a series of meditations I have shared with the class this semester from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
Here is what I said to the students:
__________
The way we see the world around us and within us may be because we have made an agreement with ourselves that certain things are true about ourselves. So, how does this play out as a part of our creative freedom and self-healing?
I want to challenge you to claim within yourself that what other people say or do in response to your creativity comes from agreements they have made with themselves. These agreements may be positive ones or negative ones. What we may want to consider is how to achieve a deeper understanding of the agreements we have made with ourselves and how we can express our unique agreements on a path to self-acceptance. We can create and grow as artist without taking things personally.
This does not mean that we should avoid accepting nurturing guidance. We can learn from other experienced creative beings. We can gain insight and wisdom from others who are on a healthy creative path and, in so doing, further clarify our own creative potential.
__________
I was very pleased with their responses! They were able to take a good look at themselves as individual artists, to support and encourage each other, and to clarify their individual and group connectivity with the whole world.
Can you give me a quote about your students and their tenacity to preserve through the face of adversity; Can you give me a quote about how art helps us process things we are going through?
As creative human beings, as artists, the students are accustomed to seeking creative solutions to complicated problems. They have experienced their collective connectivity, while finding and maintaining their individuality. These experiences, for the most part, are helpful in the situation the students now find themselves. Creativity, along with direct observation (mindfulness), help nurture healing and strength. Creativity, for me as an artist and as a university professor, is a sacred activity and a form of prayer.
Can you give me the full description of the assignment
I posted a video meditation (along with a copy of the transcript). Here are the instructions within the mediation.
_____________
As we “stay in place,” to do our part to help fight the COVID 19 pandemic, we find ourselves inside looking out. In some ways this “inside looking out” is similar to what we experience every day as creative beings. We have discussed and made a part of our life-agreements that everyone is creative in one way or another. Creative beings are not limited to being an artist.
So, we find ourselves inside looking out.
One of my greatest enjoyments in life is to sit by the window in my studio each morning, coffee in one hand and a pen in the other, writing in my journal. As I pause to look out the window to my sacred garden, I have wondered about you and your views out your windows.
Here is my challenge to you . . . to spend some time looking out the windows of your home. Intentionally spend time at each window. Be fully present as you stand or sit at each window. Be conscious of your breathing and your whole being as you are before a window. You may want to take three deep cleansing breaths at the beginning of each experience.
Please be still and simply observe. Truly see what is outside. Consider how the light affects everything you see. It may be a sunny day, a cloudy day or even night time. Be with this vision out each window for as long as it takes for you to feel you have given yourself to fully seeing what is before you. I challenge you to repeat this meditation at various times of the day over an entire week.
Please write down what you see. Ask yourself questions such as what draws you to pay more attention to certain things or which window views “speak” to you more fully. This may change from day to day or at various times of the day. As you engage in your window meditations, please have paper and pen handy and reflect on these concepts:
1. I am here but I am a part of a larger whole.
2. What I see from this window is unique to me in all the universe.
3. No one else sees this view as I see it because I am unique in all the universe.
4. What other people are seeing is a part of their agreements with themselves and is not about me.
5. I agree with myself to celebrate what I see in my unique way, here and now, without self-judgement or taking personally that someone else sees things differently.
6. It is an illusion that someone else’s agreements are about me, for how can this be, as they are in another house, in another place, looking out another window.
7. I can share what I see, what agreements I have made with myself, in a loving, confident way, for I am unique, yet still a part of the whole.
Repeat this exercise, these Window Meditations, as many times as possible, and see if you agree, partially agree, or disagree with any or all of these statements. Reflect on these concepts and create your own concepts from these reflections for an entire week. Share some of your reflections by the end of the week.
After a week of window meditations and written reflections, choose a favorite window and create a work of art in response to what you see out the window. You may use the media of your choice. Create from your heart and soul, remaining true to yourself. By the end of this second week, share your unique window perspective work of art, celebrating your creative response.
As you reflect on other works of art and written responses, keep in mind this agreement: “Don’t take anything personally,” celebrate everyone’s unique perspective and realize it is not about just you. We are in this together. Dance in this freedom. Turn your face to the sun or moon and create without judgement.
How many students were in the class?
Fine Arts Studio has 10 students for the spring 2020 semester. There are four levels of studio in one class setting. The students have assignments which are meant to help them stay connected, to grow as artists, and to support each other. Other assignments are individualized.
What medium were they asked to use?
Here are the instructions from the assignment:
The students were allowed to use any medium. These suggestions were given:
If needed, here are some ideas for completing a window perspective work of art:
1. Draw what you see using crayons, color pencils, pastels, ink or markers.
2. Paint what you see using watercolors, tempera, acrylic or oil paints.
3. Cut and tear color paper to create a scene.
4. Use a number of materials to create a mixed media work or collage. This work could be created out of traditional art materials or object you have in your home. You could even use food, sewing items or natural elements such as sticks, leaves, dirt, and flowers.
5. Sew a design or an image with yarn, embroidery thread or material of different patterns.
6. Create a print.
7. Create a dreamscape based on your window meditations.
8. Create an idealized world based on your window meditations.
9. Create a story-book illustration.
10. Create a three-dimensional creative response.
Whichever approach you choose, be sure to consider whether or not this approach best reflections your experience and your true creative self.
