Finding the Space between Moments in Art and Life

“I Come Home To Myself”

 I stand firmly in the Truth of who I AM

 Learning to take refuge in the eye of the storm

I am no longer buffeted by the winds of fear or the waves of change

The ship of me takes on no water as I gain power and strength

The course is clear, the sail is set

Confidently sailing now through the storm of chaos

Trusting, knowing, seeing, feeling

The shore of TRANQUILITY lies straight ahead

written by Anne M. Delaney (C)

 

Have you ever been in a moment where you feel a part of the experience. Where you and your surroundings are one in the same? When you are there you lose sight of how long you are in this place where time seems  to stand still.There are different ways to describe this place of “flow” or “Zen” or space where you and life merge.  The moment may be fleeting but definitely memorable. For me it was, and a place I want to return.   Like a spiritual pilgrim who makes their trip to the holy land the trip can be arduous and painstaking journey. Or, it can be a visit to a place within a moment that is quite ordinary where you can take a sigh of relief and thank God for just how ordinary it can be.

I have had both experiences, the jaw dropping all encompassing moment and the everyday ordinary one too. They say it is most interesting in art to see things in contrast to each other. I think this is true of life. So, I will briefly tell you my story of both. After graduating from college at twenty-two I decided not to take the typical pilgrimage of most graduates and travel cross Europe. Instead, I signed up for a twelve day kayaking trip with a group to Aialic bay within the Kenai Fjords of Alaska.  As you can imagine, this was the difficult and physically demanding version of my first “moment” within a moment. As we made our way along the coast to Aialic bay the motion of our paddles were in perfect unison. The ebb and flow of our kayaks floating through the swells that would peacefully rise us up only to gently release us back down.  Until that moment, when the glacier came into sight revealing itself as this divine piece of nature’s work.  We were literally and metaphorically carried away by a current in a moment within time where everything was in perfect harmony. Everything made sense and the parts of life all came together and I could see and feel a natural being. Feeling “melted” into the experience or “flowing into it with the knowing I was to be there at that instant while contributing to it’s significance.

There is an actual term for this “vital engagement” a relationship to the world that is characterized by both the experience of “flow” (enjoyed absorption) and by meaning.  It has been studied and well documented by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Psychology professor who is best known for his notion of “flow” and his years of writing and research on the topic. Csikszentmihalyi interviewed all kinds of people he discovered a common thread to their stories, he found them all describing the same feeling of “flow”  when describing how it feels to be absorbed in a painting, or playing a difficult piece of music. Watching a good play, or reading a stimulating book also produced the same mental state. It was clear from his research that the outcome was not what was sought after but the process itself.  

This was so true, in my experience in Alaska. I believe it was the process of the monotonous paddling for hours at a time that eventually brought me to a place of heightened awareness. Or as my guide at the time called an “unmasking” where the beautiful moment was revealed. It reminds me of the “OM” sounds made in the process of meditation.  It eventually gets you there yet you can’t quite recall how you got there.

I think there are many ways to get to this place. For me it comes most easily with art. I can be so engrossed within the process I can lose time and my focus is intent as the painting changes, and I change with it. Up into the point where I put it down, look at my next blank canvas and start the process all over again. I think Csikszentmihalyi  is right when he says it is not the anticipation of a beautiful picture but the process of painting itself.  

So, now about my ordinary experience of flow.  Actually, It is quite boring but just as memorable as I caught a glimpse of it again the other day. It was as I was driving my kids to preschool. Don’t worry I did not have to pull over. It was quiet and subtle experience of sensing, as I was moving with the glistening colored leaves and for just a fleeting moment I found myself again in the space between moments.

Alisha K. Duckett

Artist, Owner Healing Art Images