Source Art

The first time I had distinct contact with a loving voice who was clearly not the ordinary me, but a mysterious and wonderful someone speaking to me through my art process was when I was around 25. 

I was living in San Francisco and in grad school for Expressive Arts Therapy at CIIS. I remember that era as a golden time, because it was our responsibility as students to process play a lot in all the art forms. Wonderfully, we were not assessed from the standpoint of "is this good art or not?" but rather encouraged to meditate on the question, "what is soul expressing in this work?"

That frame was healing and freed me up to experience a big flourishing in all creative channels. Probably because of all this unconditional support and encouragement to process play, this song, White Cloud, came through one day. 

I now see it as an early "hang in there, we love you" message that reached me at a time when I was still pretty young and full of drama, naïve about the dark forces in life, and very poorly prepared for what was to come. I had zero inkling of what type of being I am and what I am on planet to do. 

I had been through plenty of agony for one so immature, and still had a long sojourn through incapacitating darkness ahead of me, so I think this song was a little contact from Source, to cheer me on and give me the hint that I am not alone. (There was, incidentally, also to be a lot of joy, but this song is more about solace so I emphasize the dark right now). Over the years, I played White Cloud in different settings, to myself and sometimes to an audience, with and without bandmates, and always felt that it connected me to the loving Someone as if it were happening for the first time. 

All these years later, I am still comforted by this song. Maybe it's comforting to you, too.

My invitation to you: play with making an art piece from the point of view of Source or another higher guide who loves you. What type of message might a loving guardian have for you? 

I’m a long way down, like a southern town, but I know the sound of my name. Do I surprise you? You don’t recognize me. Well, I recognize you. Because you're mine, and in time, you will shine on me.
And I will bleed, if it’s what you need, to come on home to me.
Where you won’t feel that pain anymore. No, you won’t feel that pain anymore.

You are swollen, you are engorged. You are swollen with my blood. I am a soft mesh, I’m tenderness. I am the hand inside the glove
I’m more than you hope for, and you are encased in me.

I’m a white cloud, I am gold grass. I’m calling you home to me, where you won’t feel that pain anymore. 

~~

Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from Ruth Heller's Animals Born Alive and Well.