The Healing Spirit of Drawing and Color

The forthcoming book, The Healing Spirit of Drawing and Color, builds on the creative sources of the first two books, but extends the focus beyond our Eastern and Western Art traditions into the primal beginnings of art—the shamanistic traditions that invoke elemental forces to restore health and well-being. In a parallel way, The Healing Spirit of Drawing and Color addresses specific life issues using the power of drawing and color, along with moving, sounding, writing and dramatization to balance elemental forces within us. This transformative aspect of art has run like an underground river beneath the earlier books. Now this healing aspect emerges in its own right, bringing visual expression into the heart of our everyday lives—our losses, conflicts, fears and hopes. As we express our life issues with drawing and color, this intimate language can fulfill its unique purpose—to bring us to life and restore balance in the world.

THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK

Review of the Basic Processes: From the creative sources just described we will review the basic visual processes, with a special emphasis on healing. We begin with the process of Sensory Awareness and drawing—discovering an elementary language of self-communication. We will then explore ways of understanding our drawings through contemplative seeing and movement. Following this, we will explore color as an inner language that can immediately reflect energetic states. To clarify these states we will express the four elements—air, earth, fire and water—in drawing and color, reclaiming our familiarity with this universal language. This will be followed by color theories of Johannes Itten that link these elemental modes to the evocative power of masterworks.

Self Guidance: From this familiarity with the visual language we will translate life events and/or personal polarities into drawing and color, naturally revealing our instinct for balance and integration. Following these experiments we will introduce a form of inquiry called “Self Guidance in Drawing and Color” The structure of this process can clarify issues, such as decisions and healing, and support our natural tendency toward resolution.

Other Creative Modalities: We will augment this process with movement, sound, writing and drama, further supporting intuitive knowing. Examples of this integrative process will be shown—relationship dilemmas, dealing with loss, trauma, and health issues. These examples are not only personal, but can move into in the world community—the dilemmas of war and peace we all face.

Imagery: Later, we will explore the expressive possibilities of images, and the integration of abstraction and representation. The possibility of creative expression in daily life will be considered as well, including life passages in family and community. We will address the question of mastery, and its relationship to the healing process. At the end we will describe materials for both the healing process and continuing work in creative media.

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