The Internal Stories
Kelly Clark
“Everything in life comes to you as a teacher. Pay Attention. Learn Quickly.” - Cherokee saying
Today I'd like to speak on a different type of storytelling, of gathering narratives, of building image and tale into your art. We all have unique vision, highly personal internal stories, and by tapping into that, we can find an endless source of imagery. Let's chat on it, shall we?
To recap some of the ways to gather intuitive, internal story:
Dreams... Writing down dreams can be incredibly informative, both for recognizing the internal thoughts your subconscious is through (and for keying in on a deep level to your psyche), as well as providing you with a deep reservoir of images and narratives. I believe that writing down particularly potent dreams, marking or sketching out certain images I saw in my dreamstate gives me a rich and utterly personal source of ideas from which to create.
Meditation and Journeywork... There are so many different ways to approach both of these, and a well guided meditation can yield a host of really beautiful advances in the soul. There are many sources online, as well as plenty of local yoga studios that offer meditation hours (and of course, a great many other disciplines and spiritual practices that do their own versions - this is your work and your life, so please follow the truths of your own path!). When you engage with these type of practices, you are often guided to set aside some of the hustle-bustle of everyday life and quiet the external dialogue. The way we see things in this quiet state, in states of "other" or non-ordinary reality, are utterly our own - the way you picture your surroundings, yourself, the people, flora and fauna that appear is always unique to you.
Single-Frame Images... I consider these to be the pictures that pop up in the mind, seemingly unassociated with what you are currently doing, where you are, or even something that already exists. You may not understand them, they may seem random or even silly, but I always view them as freebies from our intuition. As we can write them down or sketch them out, we may learn more about them, or they may always be a mystery! Either way, they are yet another completely unique vision that you and you alone have had.
Week 5 Continuing Home[play]: Field Notes
I'd like you to look at some of the narratives you have to offer, to begin exploring them in word and image. On Monday we began by writing up a list of interesting moments (those things that we saw/felt/experienced/happened to us); on Wednesday we wrote up gratitude lists (those things outside of us that we want to acknowledge/notate/mark/give thanks for); today we looked at our internal and intuitive stories (dreams/meditations/journeywork/single frame images from our subconscious mind). Everyone of these could be a potential source for you to explore - as well as combine and overlap. Choose at least one moment/list item/dream/etc. and start playing with it with an eye towards your medium of choice. Tell yourself right now that this is Play and Curiosity, that there needs to be no judgement; we're just exploring the ways that we can tell our stories. If creating field notes in your sketchbooks is helpful, begin there. If writing down your story with words feels good, then follow that. And if you need to take a nap in order to dream, well by all means, follow that intuition!
If you're in the FaceBook group, I'd love to see the moments, tributes, meditations and dreams you might be working with! Share away!
Believing in your rich tales,
- K