Explore creativity for wellbeing with the DAX Centre! Weekly creative activities throughout October

[Ru-bee]

Activity: For each artwork we share, we will provide three creative prompts. You can choose to engage in whichever way you prefer!

1) Holler about Hope!

Comment on this thread about what gives you hope! This might be your dreams for the future, a kind act performed by someone in your life, a “good-news story” that made you feel optimistic, or your thoughts on the Margeret Chapman pictures and poems shared here!

2) Hope looks different for everyone!

You’ll see in the images above – Margaret Chapman’s two reflections on hope and optimism look different. One is very colorful, bright and abstract, and one is greyscale with a solo figure.

Using pencil and paper, as Chapman has done, draw an A4 drawing of what hope and optimism looks like to you today. This might change day to day. Therefore, you might choose to participate in this prompt over several days, posting how it changes throughout the week.

Post pictures of the drawings you create – remembering to follow community guidelines for anonymity.

3) The Poetry of Hope

For the final prompt, we encourage you to respond poetically to Margaret Chapman’s artworks and poetry. In doing so, also reflect on her artist statement:

“My art and writing are cathartic, venting my emotions and thoughts, positive and negative. They give me a sense of purpose and expression, of communicating, of meaning and purpose and self-worth.” - Margaret Chapman

What gives you a sense of purpose? Of meaning? Of Self-worth?

In contemplating this, develop a short poem of 2-4 stanzas, and share this will the thread.

If you would like, combine prompts 2 and 3, and share both together as Margeret Chapman has done with her artwork and poetry.

Please remember to follow community guidelines when sharing poetry.

[rav3n]

loving these prompts!! @Ru-bee reading those poem's has inspired me to give it a go... i haven't written a proper poem before (unless you count the haiku poem i made about ice cream in primary school) so apologies in advance if the poem's not up to standard 😅

In moments I feel all consumed

by the fear of life being too big for me

I remind myself of the universe and all the other galaxies

Gazing at the starry night sky

Hearing little bats flutter by

Watching ducklings waddle into the river and the ripples they leave behind.

To be alive today and see all the flowers bloom

To hear children laugh while the scent of mum’s cooking fills the room

Perhaps my purpose is not to ‘be’ someone or to ‘do’

I simply exist to experience all that life has to offer,

The painful, the beautiful, the new.

not sure if my poem explained it well but i do think hope is so powerful. i used to think that my purpose was to help others and that this would keep me going, but recently found that i don't have a 'single purpose' and sometimes just experiencing the world and having the ability to experience a range of emotions, meet different people, try new things, etc is part of my purpose & helps me feel like my problems aren't as big as i make them feel. gives me comfort 😊💗

[Ru-bee]

Thank you so much for sharing that @rav3n, I would not have guessed that it's your first go at writing a poem! I think you captured that idea perfectly and it was really lovely to read

[Jynx]

You've reminded me of one of my fav tweets:

Got me in the ring

Life's throwing hands

They deffo got that sting

Dodge n weave, no use

Life is immune

And really wants no truce

Don't care tho, not me

Life throws me strife

But what I got comes free...

My belief, my potential,

Setbacks ain't consequential;

No doubt, it's essential;

The power of hope is evidential!

First attempt at a poem in a HOT MINNIT lol and idk if it flows as well as I'd like but here you go anyway 😊💜

[Bon_courage]

Reflections:

Hope lives in the future but influences the present. 

With hope I move ahead.

With hope I smile in the face of adversity.

With hope I hang on waiting for better days to come.

Hope reminds me of who I am. 

I hope for sunrise. I hope for ocean swims. I hope for starry skies and warm embraces.

The glance of a friend. The smile of a child.

I hope for community and kind souls.

You may not know it, but you've given me hope.

With much gratitude

[StanD]

Ok.

Wow.

@rav3n I really loved your poem. It was so easy to understand, & gave me beautiful pictures, smells of roast dinners, and warm colours. It was soft & gentle. Upon reading, I felt uplifted. I am always shocked when this happens.

Hello @Ru-bee I wish I had known about this earlier! That's is ok, I am here now. Thankyou so much for organising this. Actually, I feel like, if I could go to an art class in person, that was like this, once per week - it will be very fun for me. I haven't had any experience with art therapy. I really do believe it is the most powerful form of healing, as important as the meds most of us take everyday. Thankyou for inviting me.

@Jynx  Now, I know you freestyle. I was thinking, they didn't write this (I thought it was follow on C&p from twitter quote) wow, awesome. I love it. And you have talent for sure, if that is what you do, on the fly. Cool 😎 

@Bon_courage (good name) your poem is beautiful. When, I got to the line, a glance from a friend, the smile of a child -  this feels so special & meaningful. It makes me imagine, a glance from a stranger (who in reality is a friend, I am yet to meet) & that maybe, all of us, are all, always a child. At least, I don't feel like an adult, yet! And I think I have met others who feel the same, perhaps in their 90's! I love this about me. I feel like, perhaps, a few of us, never grow up. It certainly has it's drawbacks, - I like that I still get excited by simple experiences, like the shape of a cloud, or watching my shadow.....

Waiting, maybe one day, it won't follow me, or am I following? Who knows 

Hope is very interesting human condition.

I have thought deeply my reactions, & considered my  beliefs in this last cpl years.

I guess, to best describe - it is like the shock I felt & described above. I really enjoyed reading everything ....

and the suggestion that we have multiple purposes!! Yes, I love this. 

Perhaps they are mixture of one ultimate one? Everything seems to be connected.

I have been in terrible moods & then a lovely, kind person might call me, or, a small text, or big happens, & another person actually understands me.

I think that equals hope to me 

An unexpected joy.

[StanD]

The centre petals are covering main CPU, below, there is a spinal column or central nervous system that is, attached to couch, armchair. On either side of the chair are the hug activators. The black balls represent hope. Inside is filled with pure white light. The ball at the top is the source. It contains infinite hope, & then either side are the back up generators, so hope is guaranteed to the highest possible degree to always be available. The lighter colour balls are hope lost, false hopes, or hopes that have been fulfilled. The 2 little Pac-Man, hanging on the CPU, attract the lighter balls, & eats them. The false hopes etc, go through filtering system, & manifest as hope once again. There are knives at the top that open inwards for the balls to go in. They are protecting from any baddies. The wings on the side  fly to the next destination. I like that I can see a ballerina in the very centre.

[StanD]

 this is a picture I drew with charcoal. This is hope.

[Jynx]

Oh whaaaaat @StanD that is BONKERS COOL!! You have a style very reminiscent of the art I often see from folks who explore altered states of consciousness (have been to many an art gallery at doofs/festivals haha) - kinda like Alex Gray but yours is more... organic, fungal. This mushroom is the one that popped into my mind seeing your piece - the devil's tooth fungus! Since they have symbiotic relationships with their local conifer forests, I'd say they're a great symbol of hope!

Anyway, thanks for posting! I would love to see more of your art if it's something you enjoy sharing 😊💜

[StanD]

I am borderline too proud of myself @Jynx I held the charcoal pencil & stared at blank page saying to myself, I don't know how to draw, I don't know what to do with charcoal. And then a voice said, do anything, there are no mistakes, you don't have to post it. And I think I give myself freedom.

I like the end result. Artistically. I don't know what I create, I don't know what it means, I don't know if themes are very dark, or full of hope. My intention is to make the viewer feel Hope.

I wonder 🤔

I will look up artist you mentioned. Your feedback is awesome beyond. And, yes, I agree, there is this (I call it psychedelic) 'trippy' ness that comes out, naturally. Idk where it comes from. It surprises me, because I am a logical, rational.... maybe , that is only what I see .....I am not sure. Your feedback enabled me to see from entirely new perspective. I can estimate your age too! I am about a decade older than you. I like the new, cool perspective you give me. I forgot, I was cool 😎!

I get the 'much room' metaphor. I freaking love it! This is what art is about to me. Sharing different ideas, that really have nothing to do with anything. No right. No wrong, personal insights. I love it.

Salvador Dalí is artist I connect with. I saw a book with his paintings, none of it was and to be verbally expressed, at least by me. Surrealism. This is good term, although, I disagree. I think his art is beyond human words, real. Some people don't get it, that is fine. For me, I think, there is absolutely nothing 'to get'. Images in a dream, whilst being awake in reality.

Abstract... Impressionism. I have not studied art. I am interested to know what type I do. 

I think this thread by @Ru-bee has cemented, the importance of creativity, to me.

And, I adore your response & welcome all the praise!!

🙏🏾🫧🦄

Blessings Jynx & everyone