{"id":2886,"date":"2015-01-20T16:10:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T00:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=2886"},"modified":"2016-02-16T14:03:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T22:03:10","slug":"january-20-2015-lifes-playing-field-safety-expression-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/january-20-2015-lifes-playing-field-safety-expression-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"January 20, 2015 &#8211; Creative habitat, safety, and freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_button\">\n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n                            <\/a>\n                        <\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/january-20-2015-lifes-playing-field-safety-expression-freedom\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\"  width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mickey.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2888 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mickey-e1455660173428.jpg\" alt=\"mickey\" width=\"600\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mickey-e1455660173428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mickey-e1455660173428-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mickey, in our Friday group, working on her painting of waterbirds at a special day last fall at Pam&#8217;s house.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to this post:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2886-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/20150120-Post.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/20150120-Post.m4a\">http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/20150120-Post.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Over the weekend I had a conversation with a watercolor student who had emailed me. She wanted to participate in a weekend workshop and was concerned that she was skilled enough to benefit from it.\u00a0 She shared with me that she had an art teacher when she was young and in school who questioned what she was doing in such a way that she felt criticized &#8211; which shut down her art making for decades.<\/p>\n<p>I shared with her a similar experience with a summer school class I took early in high school.\u00a0 I\u2019ve blocked out the specifics of what happened, but what I know I is that I was left with the sense that making art was not safe, that I was not an artist and would avoid any attempt at all costs.\u00a0 There was a Fine Art requirement at my high school and I took Photography, which seemed to me the least art-like of any class I could take.\u00a0 I now know, of course, I always have been an artist.\u00a0 When I was a pre-teen, I loved colored felt pens &#8211; I made these elaborate, colorful flower montages with them.\u00a0 But after that summer school experience, it wasn\u2019t until I was in my early 30\u2019s before I ventured back into making any kind of visual art.\u00a0 Whatever that art teacher said to me, or whatever creative environment he created, I had the clear sense that I was <em>not<\/em> safe.<\/p>\n<p>When I started leading groups of people in watercolor, I had the intuitive sense that my first priority was to have the environment be as safe as possible.\u00a0 The part of us that wants to make art can be a very tender sprout when it first emerges \u2013 and continues to be if we keep growing in our work.\u00a0 Every attempt we make seems like it is us and when it is judged, we are judged.<\/p>\n<p><em>And<\/em>, in order to learn something new, we have to open ourselves to allow it in.\u00a0 In order to explore new terrain, we have to leave our familiar one.\u00a0 Both of these things are inherently risky.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t have some sense of safety, we often stop ourselves.\u00a0 I\u2019m really talking about more than just making art.\u00a0 It\u2019s expressing ourselves, our truth, especially in any way that makes us vulnerable. Thinking back on to what I shared two weeks ago, about my evolution to live more in the feminine, and the image of resting in a hammock, this is not possible unless the environment is safe.\u00a0 Being feminine requires safety as well.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve not seen the movie \u201cSelma\u201d yet, but reading <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/movies\/article\/Selma-review-Very-good-movie-on-a-great-6002010.php\">Mick Lasalle\u2019s review<\/a> in the San Francisco Chronicle of the movie has me thinking also about how Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement related to freedom and safety too.\u00a0 In the review he wrote:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to Martin Luther King\u2019s vision and to the courage it took to pursue that vision. But it does something else, too. It shows the awfulness of being in possession of that vision, the terrible responsibility of it.\u201d\u00a0 Great figures in human history and evolution have had the courage to act, risking everything in the name of freedom.\u00a0 Maybe such people have a kind of <em>spiritual<\/em> safety they act out of?<\/p>\n<p>I believe that to be alive is to have the impetus to create \u2013 not just art, but anything. \u00a0And having the capacity to express it, to me, is freedom. \u00a0The Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris show another clear connection between freedom of expression and safety.\u00a0 \u00a0In some ways safety and freedom are in a direct relationship and in others, they are at odds.\u00a0 Huh.<\/p>\n<p>Much of what matters \u2013 maybe everything that <em>really<\/em> matters &#8211; that we create \u00a0and do in our lives requires us to risk in some way.\u00a0 We can seek out safety and supportive environments, but in actuality, living our life is a solo journey.\u00a0 Last week I was talking to an artist who was struggling with much larger scale painting than she\u2019d ever done before.\u00a0 I told her that I could offer guidance and encouragement, but it us each of us who must pick up the brush and paint our paintings.\u00a0 If I were to paint it for her, it wouldn\u2019t be her work, growing her capacities and giving her the satisfaction of having done it.<\/p>\n<p>It is each of us who has to get behind the wheel of the car for the first time, ask that lovely lady to coffee, raise our hand to answer the question.\u00a0 There are ways we can set life up to reduce the risk, but not eliminate it.\u00a0 There still remains the possibility we will fail \u2013 which in a way is a kind of death.\u00a0 In my life as a spiritual seeker, I\u2019ve read many times, that to really live we must let ourselves die. I\u2019m getting that this is what all the teachers I\u2019ve read are talking about. \u00a0Hellen Keller comes to mind. \u00a0She famously said: \u201cSecurity is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature&#8230; Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.\u201d Yet, what would her life have been if it were not for Anne Sullivan?\u00a0 She&#8217;d probably have lived her life locked up, \u00a0shut away. \u00a0We do\u00a0need each other in order to foster the environment where we can flourish. \u00a0\u00a0Yes, ultimately we must choose to act, but we don&#8217;t have to do it alone.<\/p>\n<p>To the adventure that is <em>your<\/em> life!<\/p>\n<p>Love,<\/p>\n<p>Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mickey, in our Friday group, working on her painting of waterbirds at a special day last fall at Pam&#8217;s house. Listen to this post: Over the weekend I had a conversation with a watercolor student who had emailed me. She wanted to participate in a weekend workshop and was concerned that she was skilled enough [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>January 20, 2015 - Creative habitat, safety, and freedom - Life in Full Color<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/january-20-2015-lifes-playing-field-safety-expression-freedom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"January 20, 2015 - Creative habitat, safety, and freedom - Life in Full Color\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mickey, in our Friday group, working on her painting of waterbirds at a special day last fall at Pam&#8217;s house. 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