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Editor’s Note: Sheri Abel has developed a six-session monthly class experience that intentionally draws together spirituality and intuitive art around the four-step process she first learned at The Open Studio Project in Evanston, Illinois. The sessions incorporate intentional setting, art making, writing, reading, and listening as a pathway to deeper self-and God-awareness in the supportive presence of others. Participants learn to trust the creative process as they experiment with various mediums in a focused way. My Creative Group friend Deborah Keiser and I had a chance to take Sheri’s class recently. (See the article “Creative Expression, Spiritual Connection, and Friendship” by Cindy Bunch for more on the Creative Group process of spiritual formation.[link]) What follows are the guidelines that Sheri has written for a two-hour experience.

Begin each session with a time of silence as you sit with the Lord.

1. Degunking/Brain Dump. Five to seven minutes or longer

To help you settle in and quiet your mind and your heart, take five to seven minutes—or longer if you need to—to write down in your journal the thoughts and feelings that are talking the loudest at the moment.

 

2. Intention. Five minutes or longer

When you are ready, formulate and write an intention for your art making. This grounds, focuses, and guides the art making. It’s a way of owning our intention and stepping into it. Intentions are written in the present tense, are concrete, and are in the affirmative.

Ask yourself:

• “What would I like to receive from the Lord during this spiritual practice?”
• “What does my soul need?”
• “What would I like to experience during this time, later on. . . ?”
• “Is there a mindset, a thought, an emotion that I would like to explore? to shift?”

 

Examples of intentions:

• “I relax”; “I play with color”; “I enjoy making art.”
• “I explore my anger, my frustration, my doubt.”
• “I gain insight into the conversation I had with __________ .”
  • “I understand gently and at my own pace ______________ .”
  • “I receive _________ ”;
• “I’m open to receiving ___________ .”

 

3. Art Making. 1 hr. 15 min.—1 hr. 30 min.

During the art-making time, music is playing in the background. The music is a combination of instrumental music and world music in a language unknown to the participants, so as not to be a distraction. Music helps to short-circuit the inner critic.

Before engaging in the art-making, release your intention to the Lord as an act of trust.

You are invited to pray:

 

I trust you, Lord, and how you have designed my mind, body, and soul to work together. Thank you for your constant presence beside me and for your Holy Spirit, who will do what he has been designed to do in me. Lord, I entrust my art-making to you. What would you like to see expressed? What needs to be expressed and experienced, tonight? Whatever needs, wants to be expressed and/or experienced, Lord, may it be so. Let’s go have some fun. Amen.

 

The art-making process lasts between one hour, fifteen minutes, and one hour, thirty minutes. It takes time for what needs to be revealed to surface. The initial artwork that we create is a way of getting ready, a type of journaling with colors and making marks on paper; thus the need to hold it loosely. It is often in the last ten to twenty minutes that a truth or thought or feeling that one’s soul needs to hear or express starts to take shape.

The art making:

• It’s about play: play is restorative.
• It’s about following your impulses and curiosity, being willing to let what you’ve started creating to morph into something else. This can take practice since, for most of us, our minds desire results right away and want to label what we see appearing on the page.
• It’s not about skill. The art that you make is a souvenir of the process and what came through your work. It’s about journeying with the Lord as we learn to relax and go with the flow of the creative process.
• It’s about stepping into creating without an agenda, without trying to control what the artwork looks like. It’s the process that leads us on the journey of discovery.
• It’s about being in a place of vulnerability, of showing up with the intention of openness.
• It’s about trusting and surrendering to the flow of the creative process, how God has designed our body, soul, and mind to work.

 

Some suggestions to help you relax before and during the art making:

Before you begin the art making, put on some music that has a rhythm you enjoy. Then, start making marks on the paper with your dominant hand. After a few minutes, switch hands, and use your nondominant hand. Then, use both hands. Then, close your eyes. Follow your next impulse. Do you want to dance? Do you want to move your hand to the rhythm of the music? There is no right or wrong way. Experiment and see what works for you.

Remember to breathe. The breath is grounding, and it brings us back to the present moment.

Throughout the art-making process, give yourself permission to start fresh in any given moment: pause, smile, take a few deep breaths, and invite yourself back into the moment. Bring a quality of gentleness, regarding with kindness what arises. No judging.

For me, when I sense the critical mind wanting to dominate the conversation, I pause, breathe deeply, and say: “I’m here, Lord,” or just “Here,” or “You’re here.” I often smile, “Sheri, lighten up. Breathe, smile, the Lord is at work. He wants you to have fun. He’s your shepherd.”

You can step back, look at what you’ve been creating, and thank the Lord that he is part of the process and working without you having to do anything.

You can walk around, see what others are doing. If something they’ve done catches your eye, try it.

Dance to the music.

 

4. Witness Writing. 15–20 min. (or longer if you so choose)

Witness writing is a record of an intimate moment between you, your soul, and the Lord. It is the state of being present to what you have just created and to use it as a springboard to what needs to come to the surface and be expressed.

Suggestions:

Sit in stillness in front of your artwork for a few minutes.

Ask the Lord: “Lord, is there something here you would like me to see? to notice? Is there an invitation? Is there anything relevant between my intention and what comes up in the work? Be my guide.”

Then write quickly, spontaneously, without censoring or editing.

You can:

• Start by describing what you see—“to describe is to honor and to really look, really notice” —Pat Allen.
• Then describe your emotional response—as you look at it now or while you were creating.
• Write a story or poem or prayer in response to it.
• Engage in dialogue with it—ask it a question.
• Get your intention back out: what are the connections between your intention and what you see, what you feel? Does your artwork give insight into your intention? and vice versa?

 

5. Reading and Listening.

In this last step of the process, we each show our artwork. If you choose to read, you can read your intention and what you wrote during the witness writing phase. You may choose to read a word, a phrase, a section, all of what you wrote, or nothing at all.

Reading is different from sharing: You read without explanation, sharing, or commenting.

Reading aloud is a simple step that can take our experience to another level. When we read aloud, we blend the words of the left brain with the emotional experience of the right brain.

You’re engaging another sense. It allows you to hear for yourself what you wrote. What does your sense of hearing notice? What does your heart experience?

Those listening hold the space for the other to hear themselves reading aloud. There are no comments or questions. Comments can interfere with a person’s perceptions and feelings about their own work. Their artwork, writing, and reading are sacred moments between them and the Lord, and the listeners honor that moment.

Those listening can pray silently: “Lord, may ________ hear you, sense your support, see what you’d have her see, notice.”

 

Closure: Sit for a while in silence with the Lord. Thank him that he has been with you every step of the process and will continue to work in your soul. Release to him the artwork and witness writing you have witnessed—yours and the others in your group.