Welcome to the Artesian Well: Fall 2007

The Artesian Well Course in Creativity merges with the MDCC Creative Tent! How does this work?
You may participate in this course on several different levels. You may be a casual reader of this weekly blog and receive inspiration. You may be an active blogger and share your thoughts for the benefit of us all. You may choose to be a full participant and do the journaling exercises and take your weekly artist date and thereby experience the full benefit of the course. This I promise you, the more you put in, the more you will get out. This is about your growth, and the expansion of the creative gift flowing out from you. So, you decide – there will be no policing. I will ask each of you periodically to post a comment to a simple question. This will become a gauge for me to determine how many people are actually viewing this blog.

So what's involved in the course besides the Weekly Blog?

First, MORNING PAGES:
If you desire to get the most out of this course you will need a journal (I recommend a cheap one or just loose leaf paper and a manila envelope as you will be writing quite a bit). I will be asking you to write “Morning Pages” as close to everyday as you can. Morning Pages are 3 pages of your first morning thoughts and musings. They are your raw thoughts. They can address the journaling exercises that I will be giving. They can record your night dreams, your daydreams, your anxieties, moods, emotions, conflicts, joys, discoveries, insecurities, triumphs and tragedies. I encourage you NOT to use this as a prayer journal IF it will cause you to subtly edit what you put in there. This is to be spontaneous, raw writing. Morning Pages will uncover you. They will expose blockages and help you deal with them. They will get you in touch with dreams and desires in need of resurrection. They will show you areas of emotional drain. They will produce concrete steps toward creative growth. Yes, a simple exercise of journaling (sometimes guided, sometimes not) can accomplish this if you do it consistently!

Second, THE WEEKLY ARTIST DATE:
An Artist Date is time alone (or the rare exception of with someone else . . .) that is all about "putting into the well" images, sounds, poetry, plays, theatre, prose, dance, and music of all sorts. I encourage you to take in the work of other poets, musicians, performers, dancers to get inspiration --- you can also throw in splashes of time in nature --- but you NEED to be stimulated in creativity by established Artists, Musicians, Performers, Writers, in order to grow. As we continue I am going to be challenging you to set aside designated times in the week to actually begin to DO or express your creativity.

Check out the local papers or city websites for:
Jazz Festivals
Art Shows (either street fares or indoor shows)
Local Galleries
University Art Galleries (Grad Student Shows)
Concerts in the Park
Theatres
Chorale Concerts
Dance Festivals
Ethnic Festivals
Photography Shows
Poetry Readings

It takes some doing, but once your "in the groove" of prioritizing these things in your life, and looking for them, its not that hard. By the way, most of the above would be free.

That's the nuts and bolts of the course. Do you have questions? See the next post for a summary of what we talked about in Creative Tent last Friday. I will try to get a new post up every Tuesday night. Discussion in Creative Tent will include your growth and discoveries.

Lisa