Master of Liberal Arts in Creation Spirituality
ART AS MEDITATION SYLLABUS
PAINTING AS CREATIVE MEDITATION
CSP (AM)744 Number of Credit Units: 1
Instructor: Mari Marks Fleming Contact number: 510.548 3121
Class Schedule: Spring 2003, (Feb. 12-Apr. 30, 10 weeks), Wed. 1:30 – 4:00
Course Description:
Through a weekly practice of painting, participants will develop a personal relationship to materials and image as creative meditation. The course introduces the philosophy and process of creative meditation. Participants will develop technical skills in the art of painting and develop means of meditation and ritual essential to self-expression.
Course Objectives:
Experiencing the process of painting as a mirror of the self, discovering awareness of a personal "sense of rightness."
Personal exploration of materials, color, harmony, balance and touch. Focus on seeing and sensing while developing facility with materials.
Using a personal exploration of the four paths in developing a unified theme and body of work.
Engaging in dialogue with the image (self), with images of participants (others), and with images of the world (environment).
Course Requirements:
Attendance (One absence for serious reason allowed) 20%
Completion of all projects 40%
Participation in dialogues and class discussion 20%
Final presentation of work 20%
Supplementary readings: To be announced
Outline:
Wed. Feb 12: Experiencing materials. Through a "learning station" approach, a wide variety of drawing and painting materials will be experienced. Discussion of experience and using the material "right for you, today" to explore a persistent visual or personal theme. Note: bring an image or theme you would like to explore.
Wed. Feb 19: Image as idea. Depicting the event (time and place) of the image, the image as symbol, as fantasy, as emotional expression, as spiritual expression. 2nd painting.
Wed. Feb 26: Image as experience in time and place. Change in perspective, focus, relation to the environment, relation to culture, relation to time, repeating the image. 3rd painting.
Wed. Mar. 5: Image as personal history. Smell, sound, texture of image. Image with others or solitary. Changing the emotional climate or weather. Intensifying and unifying the emotional content. 4th painting.
Wed. Mar. 12: The desires of the painting, empathic connection. Dialogue with the painting. Truth telling. 5th painting.
Wed. Apr. 2: Painting as integration. Painting the shadow or opposite. Interacting with the shadow. Experiencing the stuck place. Finding a new solution. The 6th painting.
Wed. Apr. 9: Painting and communication. Interactive paintings, joint paintings. Opening to the visual dialogue. The 7th painting.
Wed. Apr. 16: Painting in collaboration. Dialogue with the world, with the environment. The 8th painting.
Wed. Apr. 23: Painting as a journey. Looking at the body of work, presentation as narrative, theme, or exposition. Final painting as the next step or the synthesis.
Wed. Apr. 30: Class exhibition, presentation of paintings. Responses to class members’ work.