Sacred Breath of Editing

April 26, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

motor block reclaimed by sea

I question the concept of relying on divine intervention to complete a finished work. I have heard many times from writers, painters, photographers, musicians and gardeners that their creative muse works through them and it is not them creating. It is the divine, the muse, their sacred self. However, I believe it is a mistake for us to stop there. Allow me to explain beginning with this quote:

“When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe.” – Koryu Osaka

I admit to slicing through ego thinking and allowing intuition, my muse, the divine to “have its way” with the page, the brush, the lens of my work. It is this first blush of inspiration, of whole body mind and seeing that comes from a still point where we connect with all that is… seeing, hearing and being as if for the first time. However, that is not the end point. As John Daido Loori, author of The Zen of Creativity, confides, we must continue our journey straight ahead from the mystical peak “down the other side of the mountain, back into the world. It is in the ordinariness of our lives that this intimate experience of the self merging with the absolute can begin to express itself.”

view from the top

This is why we need to learn the sacred breath of editing. Creative work is rarely ever completed in a single session or in the first instance it comes to us or is given to us. We receive or are inspired by the essence of what must be expressed. Now we must also complete the work. We must edit, taking away the extra, closing in on the core essence of what we intend to convey. The sacred breath of editing is the breath that allows us to reconnect with the resonance present when we first created the work. Then we remove what is not absolutely necessary. If we lose the resonance we know we have gone too far.

all that is - reclaimed

So just as your muse, the divine, your sacred self has a role to play in your creativity so does your critical mind applied to the sacred breath of editing. To bring your gift of creativity into its fullness requires a critical viewing, a reviewing and shaping. We must bring our whole self to our work. Trust your critical mind and strengthen its ability just as you have learned to listen to your muse. Yet remember not to invite your critical mind too soon. Savour and complete that first blush of creativity without review, editing or engaging in critical thinking. Allow the work to rest then breathe it in again and begin editing. Ruthlessly edit – with purpose, care, passion and regard for the essence which inspired you in that first instance.

Sprout Question: What might your sacred breath of editing sound like?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Summer is coming

April 23, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Creative Potager’s summer blog schedule begins the first week of May

budding possibilities - wild rose

The first post for Creative Potager was December 27, 2009. I have been posting a blog Monday to Friday, except for power outages caused by windstorms battering our little island in the Pacific Northwest. Including today, there are 83 posts each with their own sprout question. There are 1,165 comments documenting our creative conversations and 8, 596 times you have come to visit. Creative Potager has become an enjoyable habit to wake up to during the week where I say to myself “what shall I post today?” However summer is coming. I yearn to be outside in the garden, tramping the trails and painting on site rather than inside snuggled up to my laptop. Like the summer wild flowers in this post, I bloom best in untamed places.

each day is precious - wild tiger lily

So after giving it some serious thought, I am changing my posting schedule to twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from the beginning of May until the beginning of September. I may on occasion post an additional submission. But these will be bonus or value-added posts rather than an expectation.

petite lady slipper

I am hoping you can live with this change and that we both will benefit from my scrambling around in the valleys and on the hills and down the beaches of Mayne Island and afar. I am hoping that we can still have rich and engaging conversations between posts even during the long days of summer. I am hoping that the sprout questions will be juicy enough to keep us inspired for the in-between times. I am hoping that you will trust that winter will come with its short days and unpredictable weather and we shall again be glad for our Monday to Friday sprout conversations fueled by the fruits of summer experiences.

drops of rain on white fawn lilies

Please let me know what YOU are hoping and what you think of this change – because most of the fun of this blog is my conversations with you!

Sprout Question: Does your creativity have a summer schedule?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The ART of Home

April 19, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Early this morning sitting on the sheepskin in our window seat, looking out at nothing in particular, I think “I have nothing planned for my post today.”

I observe the lived-in comforts of “home” in la casa de inspiracion musing over possibilities.

Then I remember a stunning book in my bookshelf by Lloyd Kahn, Builders of the Pacific Coast published in 2008.

Here are a few pages to inspire you to think about “the ART of Home.”

work of Michael McNamara

work of Jan Jensen

There are 250 pages of stories and photographs of some of the most stunning aesthetically warm, natural or salvaged material homes I have ever had the pleasure to become acquainted. The morning slips away as I browse through the pages…

With only a little effort I find Lloyd’s Blog with a list of a few more of his books as well as an interesting article on the future of publishing.

Sprout Question: Is there a connection between your home and your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

More than Chocolate Covered Strawberries

April 16, 2010April 16, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 29 Comments

I have for you some chocolate covered strawberries.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

While you are making a choice on which one you will munch, before passing the plate along, let me show you the tulip I found in my garden yesterday.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Between showers I grabbed my garden gloves.

Put on my hiking boots and began turning the sod.

While I was working the soil I thought about spring. I thought about summer and I thought about the business of creativity. You see, I have accepted a first right of refusal for the oil painting “East Point Cliffs.” My first participation in the BC Ferries showcase has netted a sale for a canvas print of “witness.” I have 100 beautiful cards ready in little envelopes for the farmers market this summer and more canvas photo prints arriving any day. Then there is the deciding of how many books to bring for the book reading of Leading Raspberry Jam Visions and Mona’s Work with Mayne Island writers at the Overleaf in Victoria Saturday April 24^th. Plus, my solo art show “Sea, Land and Time” with the local Arts Council is confirmed for “September 2nd to 22^nd. Is it any wonder I am turning over the business of creativity as methodically as each shovel of sod?

I am sure glad you enjoyed those strawberries.

Sprout Question: What does the business of your creativity taste like?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

sandstone slideshow

April 14, 2010April 14, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I discovered yesterday that I could make a slideshow for my wordpress blog and I have just the subject matter I want to test it on for us. The day is that very gray day when I took the sacred rock photographs. It is not a very interesting day when you look out into Navy channel but as I turn my attention to the large sandstone forms on shore, I become intrigued and lost in their wave-washed beauty.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sprout Question: What is your most inspiring subject matter this week?

Note: Here is the link to the tutorial by Jesse P. Luna I used to build the wordpress slideshow http://wordpress.tv/2010/04/14/using-slideshows-on-wordpress-com . The only information that is missing is when you click on the photo icon, make sure you then are using the “Flash uploader” not the “Browser uploader. ” Have fun!

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Early Easter

April 1, 2010April 1, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Looking at that big sky I am reminded that today is the last Creative Potager post until the morning of Tuesday April 6, 2010. Early Happy Easter to you as we take one last quiet stroll before departing to family and friends.

Bull kelp rests where it was thrown during a high tide, its long tail reaching back into the sea. Bull kelp has been the inspiration for many a child who spies it on the shore. It is an annual and can grow 80 feet long in one season with leaves up to 10 feet long. They grow together creating an underwater forest.

Spring has arrived to the shoreline…

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Here is my personal favourite view looking down on the grape hyacinths, iris stocks and snapdragons growing next to the shore.

But mostly I want to share with you one of my favourite arbutus tree….

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If you look way across the Straight of Georgia that is where Vancouver, B.C. is, just below the cloud covered mountains. On Saturday afternoon, I will be waving back to you from there.

Sprout Question: How do holidays fit with your creativity?

All the best of the Easter holiday weekend to you.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The Question of Who

March 26, 2010March 28, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

The sea snatches at sandstone mounds as gulls plead their case with the winds – which am I, sea, sandstone, gull or wind?

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Early morning – Flexible and Flowing… one of 64 cards drawn for today.

I can say more but this feels just right.

Sprout Question: Does the question of who come up in your creativity?

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The Soft Caress of Patterns

March 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

Do you ever just look at a pattern and know that it is telling you something? This happens to me often. When I’m painting or framing up an image I usually keep the pattern within its context so that it is recognizable and also “discovered” as part of the whole. But sometimes, just for me, I indulge in a mental soft caress of the pattern by itself. You know? – those patterns that your fingers run themselves over before you hands realize what they are doing….

Washboard glass in the historic Bedford Regency hotel bathroom window in Victoria.

Sediment stone washed by the sea on Mystic Beach, Vancouver Island.

Ancient stone work in Machu Picchu, Peru.

Winter clouds in Georgia Straight.

A monster size batch of cookies.

Okay, I guess you didn’t need the context of my kitchen counter to appreciate this batch of cookies but I bet you found your fingers reaching for them.

Sprout Question: Are there patterns or surfaces that attract your creative attention?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Photographic tribute to oldest Chinatown in Canada

March 22, 2010March 22, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 21 Comments

Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia

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According to the research of professor David Chuenyan Lai, Victoria’s Chinatown is the oldest in Canada and the only one in North America to retain its 19th-century townscape. It is the second oldest Chinatown in North America after San Francisco’s.

Retaining the townscape hasn’t been easy. As some parts are being repaired.

(These men are throwing, and catching, balls of cement to repair the top-side of this entry way.)

Other parts are awaiting new construction.

And still others are under construction.

The morning delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables…

has been happening for as long as the history in these roof lines.

The Gate of Harmonious Interest constructed at Fisgard and Government in 1981 seems most appropriate.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

The discovery of gold in the Fraser Canyon in 1858 plus famine, drought and war in their homeland led Chinese citizens to immigrate across the Pacific Ocean to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Chinatown grew steadily over the years until its peak in 1911 (3,158 people), at which time it occupied an area of about six city blocks in the north end of downtown Victoria.

Sprout Question: Is there an urban street that inspires your imagination and creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Rediscovered Love Poem

March 17, 2010March 17, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

View and purchase full resolution image rendered in oils here.

In the middle of a quiet afternoon, I rediscovered a love poem and some photos from our time in Arequipa Peru…

I have an image of your face. I came across it in a dream
the way you might find photos in a bureau drawer inside a haunted house…

Is it a negative? It shows the opposite of what the world could ever seem.
Nothing in the world could be so two-dimensionally luminous.

Is it a window? Endless space is etched out in the background scene.
Ice crystals melt upon the foreground glass as it reflects your warm essence.

I analyzed this solitary still… as I once studied sequences in streams
of long pi decimals, where every point is crucial and mysterious.

I believed in music waiting just outside the daily lockstep prison of my life.
These dots might be the stenciled notes a spinet box could play.

Or could this be your aura, passing through someone’s eyes of trouble and strife – prisms in reverse that cast your silhouette in dreams by night, or images by day.

Eventually the scattered tiles of metaphors turned sideways like a knife,
and cut one vibrant moment from my life… your name, your face, is what I finally could hear, see, say.

by David L. Colussi, February 14, 2003