Evening Practice at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension

The first Saturday of every month

Everything we do—including sitting meditation—can be an opportunity to pay attention to life. The Plum Village tradition of mindfulness practice encourages us to wake up to life through meditation while walking, eating, working, and playing. Artmaking can be an activity in which to practice mindfulness, too!

In the Mindful Artmaking group, we experiment with bringing our full awareness to pulling a pencil across paper, dropping paint into water, forming words into poetry, moving rhythmically, and making music. In other words—making art—mindfully.

There are as many ways to express creativity as there are people. However, creative expression can easily be dampened by criticism and comparison. In contrast, the Mindful Artmaking group nurtures each participant’s creative spirit in the absence of evaluation or advice, regardless of the media being explored in any given month. 

How does it work?

After registering (see below for details), you receive a short list of inexpensive and easily accessible materials needed for the upcoming meeting’s guided practice. Each meeting begins with a short meditation followed—with video turned off for all participants to ensure privacy to explore freely—by a guided art-making meditation designed to access the joy of innocent, creative expression. Our focus during guided artmaking is solely on the direct experience of exploration. This is known as “process art” in visual arts and “improv” in music, dance, and theater.

The remainder of each meeting is devoted to dharma-sharing. In the spirit of “the journey, not the destination,” instead of displaying what we created during our artmaking meditation, we share how we experienced the act of creation itself. 

All are welcome and, because we are cultivating Beginner’s Mind in this group, prior experience with artmaking of any flavor is unnecessary. The only pre-requisite is curiosity and a willingness to try out the guided processes and follow our dharma-sharing and mindful manners guidelines. For details about these and basic information about mindfulness practice, visit the Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center website. https://www.stillwatermpc.org/weekly-practice/newcomers/ 

Mindful Artmaking is held via Zoom on the first Saturday of every month, from noon to 1:15 pm, Eastern Time. There is no fee to participate in this group, which is facilitated by Lynd Morris and assisted by Lynn Perlik. To register, please email us at mindfulartmaking@skypond.us and include a sentence or two about what is attracting you to this group.