“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”
Connecting Circles.
Summer 2021.
Quiet Moments of Contemplative Eco-Art.
Nature Circles.
In recent months I have been reflecting on my experiences and connections through a daily eco-art practice. One day, with a ‘lightness of being’ savoured by receiving some unexpectedly good news, I went out to create using natural materials and to relax in my garden—my sanctuary.
Hope emerged in its own rhythm, as I began to create art and to establish a personal grounding within a much needed daily practice during these stressful pandemic times. This rhythm has helped to provide me with time for reflection and processing as personal challenges gained momentum and losses piled up. My daily practice has also granted me a new perspective on the complexities of my life, both glorious and tricky with glimmers of resilience and joy emerging like new growth – budding, bursting through the cracks of my well-trodden path, previously weighted with Covid and life worries.
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.”
Intention.
Sometimes I stepped outside with a person or relationship in mind. At other times, I emerged with just a feeling or the need to be in a soothing space for a moment’s pause in my life. Letting my eyes wander around the garden gently resting on the colours, forms and textures of foliage and florals, ideas formed and nature became my companion in savouring meaningful memories, or moments.
Quietly sinking into meditative and contemplative states, I reflect on connections – whether moments spent previously with those I hold dear, or the colours and forms related to meaningful connections I have made, both fleeting and fixed. These connecting circles support a gentle nod to the essence of that person and their impactful presence: the influence of that friend, peer, or connection in my world specifically and also in how they touched the larger world, transforming our relationship to one another and making it tangible to behold.
“The people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our most ordinary moments.”
Capturing Moments of Connection & Intention.
…nature moments
… favourite colours
… symbols of celebration
… remembrance
… rich conversation
… shared eco-art
… gentle and comforting colours
… delicate flower patterns
… unexpected visits
… community connecting
… art and care
… mark making
… gratitude
… bridging distance
… dynamic and bold designs
.. savoured and shared garden harvest
… honouring lives lost
“Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens.”
Art Notes
The nature circle photos and process can be seen in different places. Links below.
Instagram • @connectingcircles.april.
Ongoing gallery of nature circles, materials and progress + The 100 Day Project
AP Connections Blog Stories
The full story from above continued in my blog post.
CATA-ACAT Envisage Magazine • Volume 4 • Issue 3 • Fall 2021.
• My Connecting Circles reflections story and many more amazing art therapy related stories can be viewed in the Canadian Art Therapy Association’s online magazine.
• Link to my 2021 story page here: ‘Connecting Circles: Gentle Rhythms of Connection, Association and Reminiscence through Daily Eco-art’.
Toronto Art Therapy Website • Art Therapist Gallery Wall.
• Part of the new cover-art for the TATI website. All artists and artwork listed here.
“No, we don’t need more sleep. It’s our souls that are tired, not our bodies. We need nature. We need magic. We need adventure. We need freedom. We need truth. We need stillness. We don’t need more sleep, we need to wake up and live.”