An Interview with Alan ArkinAlan Arkin has been a major star of stage, screen, and television for nearly fifty years. Best known for his roles in such films as Wait Until Dark, Catch-22, Edward Scissorhands, and Little Miss Sunshine (an Oscar-winning role), Arkin is also a master teacher. Along with his ongoing work as an actor/director/writer, he has taught retreats at The Omega Institute, Bennington College, and Columbia College. I […]
Art and Spiritual Practice
What is Photographic Vision?
Finding your Artistic Voice In any MediumWho are we? In teaching art and photography, I am always struck by the fact that we have reached adulthood without fully understanding how to see, without having discovered our intrinsic vision or voice. Human vision contains enormous potential that we have not yet fully realized. And how can we open our vision, open the doors of perception to the inner and outer worlds? […]
Creativity and Yoga
Exploring the Creative Process: Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center on MauiLaura and I are currently planning our Creativity and Yoga workshops for later this month at Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center on Maui. And we are asking the question: what serves what? Are we using yoga to stimulate creativity, or are we using creativity to assist in one’s yoga practice. The answer is neither and both. Both disciplines are equal […]
Paradoxes of Creativity
What is this state of being human? There are many paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the human condition, and by extension, in the creative process. Through creativity we are called to be more, not less, of what we are; to embrace both our angels and our demons; and to arrive at a larger perspective, one that contains many contradictory impulses. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the sign of true […]
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Reconciling the Dance of OppositesInner work is paradoxical. We are asked to delve fully into ourselves to see the shape of our inner being and the myriad manifestations of our conditioned selves. Yet we are asked to transcend ourselves and the unconscious, habituated parts of our nature. We need both discipline and surrender, assertion and receptivity. We are guided by the force of great ideas, but growth of awareness moves […]
Diamonds and Rust: Art and Inner Life
A Conversation with David Ulrich Art is a non-verbal communication between artist and viewer, and yoga is a means towards connection and wholeness within a field of fragmentation. And from the simple act of conversation and creative collaboration between two people can emerge a completely new entity. David Ulrich and I have shared many conversations about art, yoga, and inner work over the past year, which is in fact, how The Slender Thread began. […]
Learning To See
The Power of Direct PerceptionMy predilection is to see, because only by seeing can a man of knowledge know. —Don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda First I must look, then I must learn. —Theodore Roethke We have become a nation of specialists. This is a good thing since it allows all individuals to find an area of focused interest that corresponds closely to their talents and predilections. My specific […]
Creativity and Consciousness
Silence Bursting OutwardArt serves to reflect a society back on to itself; it reveals the shape of our inner and outer lives; and honors the beauty and contradictions of the world. Art can be an expression of our identity as individuals and as a culture. The arts of today reflect a myriad of social, natural, and political realities. However, beyond expressing what is, art may prefigure what can be. It […]