On Monday, I brought small pumpkins into my class at the Sophia Center. But instead of simply handing them out, I had everyone close their eyes and hold out their hands to receive one. The goal was to bypass their minds’ pre-stored ideas about pumpkins and invite them into a wordless, sensory experience. With their…
I’ve always been drawn to the idea of creating space. For years, a note on my computer reminded me, “Create Space for Spirit to Speak.” Without space, it’s impossible to bring anything new or creative into being because our lives are already too full. Take writing, for example—you have to create physical, mental, and emotional…
In Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards shows us the transformative importance of noticing negative space when drawing. By focusing on the background—the space around an object—and drawing its edge, we naturally shift into right-brain mode, enabling us to draw with far greater accuracy. (I never believed I could draw until…
One of my favorite art quotes comes from the philosopher Herbert Marcuse. In The Aesthetic Dimension, he writes: “Art breaks open a dimension inaccessible to other experience, a dimension in which human beings, nature, and things no longer stand under the established reality principle…The encounter with the truth of art happens in the estranging language…
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