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kulife2022 · 2 years

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Creativity

Creativity At Kutztown

Prologue: Introduces the blog. ‘Creativity on campus’. The prologue talks about how Sharadin, how people make connections in the sport management program and Lytle Hall promotes creativity on the KU campus.

Kutztown University is a college full of creativity and wonderful opportunities. The Sharadin Art building, Keystone Hall, and Lytle hall hold some of the most creative minds on campus. Creativity can be portrayed in many different ways. Not just in art, but in written words and in promoting yourself to make connections. We have worked together and created this blog to deepen your understanding of creativity. There are many forms of creativity displayed in Kutztown, and we have explained the main points in this blog. t, self-promotion, and writing. The first act is how Sharadin promotes art students to express themselves in a creative way without being restrained. The second act is how people promote themselves in sport management. The third and final act is how people express themselves through creative writing.

Act one: How the Sharadin Art Building Promotes Creativity without Restraints

In the artistic aspect of creativity, there are endless possibilities. Here on campus, artists express themselves through sculptures, murals and group projects. I’ve noticed some extravagant art pieces scattered around campus, and they all have shown a different form of self expression.

These photographs were taken at the Sharadin art building. The current art show is overwhelmed with incredible colors and textures. Each piece tells a different story, and each one is beautiful.

While creating art, individuals have the chance to show their true colors without restraints. There are no boundaries to what can be created in the artistic world. Everyone is different, and so is their art style.

A specific art style that I would like to address belongs to my fellow artist Charlotte Weiss. While speaking with her in Beck Hall last week, she told me about her process. Charlotte loves to crochet and draw to express her creativity. Her art blossoms best when she is in a cozy familiar setting like her bedroom, or her backyard.

Charlotte and I are actually roommates, and have spent lots of time adding our own artistic touches to our dorm room. Our creative styles intertwine very nicely, so we were able to create a beautiful and safe home to spend our days here at Kutztown.

During our conversation, Charlotte said that being surrounded by nature brings her peace and inspiration: “Sometimes when I’m bored, I put myself in a peaceful setting, and force myself to create. Most of the time it results in something pretty awesome.”

When Charlotte told me this, it made me so happy. I relate with her creative process, because I too need a peaceful environment to invent my best work. As an art major, sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the amount of art I need to submit to my professors. I don’t always feel inspired to create, and it can bring stress and lack of motivation. However, changing my surroundings always puts me in a different mindset. My creative spark usually returns to me.

Personally, my art style has grown and developed a lot as I’ve gotten older. Especially since I’ve started college, I’ve learned so many new techniques that have improved my art tremendously. Being exposed to new styles and mediums has motivated me to expand my creative horizons. These are a few photos of artworks that I’ve created recently:

I am extremely lucky to have the opportunity here at kutztown to express myself through art. There are so many people here on campus that are encouraging and understanding. No matter how difficult it gets, I can always count on my fellow artists to lift my spirits. Each and every day is a blank slate for creativity. I’m so happy that I chose Kutztown to continue my creative journey. I will forever be thankful for my experiences and knowledge that I’ve gained here.

-Bobbiejanne Lowes

Act two: Creativity in the sport management department

How creativity differs in the way people reach out and make connections in the sport management program. Keystone Hall.

When asked about how creativity differs in the ways people in the sport management program reach out and make connections, sport management student Kevin Schwartz said, “Trying to connect with all the different types of people in the job industry because it is a highly competitive field so I would want to know people that work with sales and other stuff like that. I would want to know people that work for minor league sports and majors so when I start at the bottom I can work my way up by knowing important people.”

Creativity is expressed in different ways all around the campus. Any major or career path requires some amount of creativity to succeed. This applies to the sport management program as well as numerous others here at Kutztown University. College gives us the unique experience to explore our own creativity in fields of our choice.

Many people who imagine creativity at college will immediately think of the art departments and other related fields and majors. Although they would not be wrong, everyone who attends KU, or any college campus, develops and uses their creativity to explore who they are, and who they want to be.

Scott Hirsh

Act three (Writing for creativity): Explores how Lytle Hall Encourages Creativity.

Creativity is more than just art or promoting yourself. There is literary creativity as well. Lytle Hall here at Kutztown University is a hub for creative writers. One of the events that is promoted through the building is Shoo-Fly. Shoo-Fly is a literary magazine that is run by Professor Jeffrey Voccola here at Kutztown University. The magazine helps promote written works of creativity by the students here at KU. Of course there are other ways to express oneself through words. Creative writing is a popular option for writers.

Two creative writing students that I interviewed here at Lytle Hall express their love for creative writing, and respect for their creative writing professor, Keig. Riley, a creative writing student, said this about the professor, “Keig is a really great professor and is accommodating of all literature.” Another student, Regan, said this about the same professor, “He is really chill.” When it comes to creative writing, having a professor or teacher that encourages their students to write is a good thing.

I can relate to these two students with the reverence that they have for their professor, because I had a similar creative writing teacher in High School. I remember that she didn’t set down strict guide-lines for our assignments, and left the assignments open-ended. It allowed for creativity to flow freely from my brain to the Google docs document. Add the fact that there is a similar professor here at KU that has the same view for creative writing. Half the battle with creativity is finding someone who encourages it and allows it to grow. Creativity is more than art or self-promotion, creativity is the words on a blank page.

-Sydney Hartman

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thiskulife3 · 2 years

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Creativity At Kutztown

Prologue:

Kutztown University is a college full of creativity and wonderful opportunities. The Sharadin Art building, Keystone Hall, and Lytle hall hold some of the most creative minds on campus. Creativity can be portrayed in many different ways. Not just in art, but in written words and in promoting yourself to make connections. We have worked together and created this blog to deepen your understanding of creativity. There are many forms of creativity displayed in Kutztown, and we have explained the main points in this blog. The first act is how the Sharadin art building promotes art students to express themselves in a creative way without being restrained. The second act is how people promote themselves in sport management. The third and final act is how people express themselves through creative writing.

Act one: How the Sharadin Art Building Promotes Creativity without Restraints promotes art students to express themselves in a creative way, without restraints.

These photographs were taken at the Sharadin art building. The current art show is overwhelmed with incredible colors and textures. Each piece tells a different story, and each one is beautiful.

When Charlotte told me this, It made me so happy. I relate with her creative process, because I too need a peaceful environment to invent my best work. As an art major, sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the amount of art I need to submit to my professors. I don’t always feel inspired to create, and it can bring stress and lack of motivation. However, changing my surroundings always puts me in a different mindset. My creative spark usually returns to me.

I am extremely lucky to have the opportunity here at Kutztown to express myself through art. There are so many people here on campus that are encouraging and understanding. No matter how difficult it gets, I can always count on my fellow artists to lift my spirits. Each and every day is a blank slate for creativity. I’m so happy that I chose Kutztown to continue my creative journey. I will forever be thankful for my experiences and knowledge that I’ve gained here.

-Bobbiejanne Lowes

Act two: Creativity in the sport management department

How creativity differs in the way people reach out and make connections in the sport management program. Keystone Hall.

Scott Hirsh

Act three (Writing for creativity): Explores how Lytle Hall Encourages Creativity.

-Sydney Hartman

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teyvattherapist · 3 years

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Twin Swords - Act i - Vita Altaris

“There’s Xiao!” Paimon pointed out and the two of you made your way to the Yaksha currently standing beside the balcony railing of the Wangshu Inn. “Maybe he’ll know how to destroy that statue!” Her words made sense, maybe he would know. The path up to the inn was quick and Xiao didn’t immediately disappear upon hearing you two approach.

~You and Paimon explain what happened in the domain~

Xiao seems momentarily lost in thought as he processes the situation. Paimon opens her mouth to speak when he cuts her off. “In Mondstadt, there’s a man. He’s a captain with the Knights of Favonius. He wields Cryo, hard to miss him. He’d be more suited to help than I.” Xiao directs as he crosses his arms over his chest. Paimon nods and turns to you, a captain that wields cryo and has questionable connections who could that be-

“Let’s go see Captain Kaeya!”

~You and Paimon head to Mondstadt and seek out the captain in the courtyard of the KoF~

“Well hello there, traveler.” Kaeya smiles, crossing his arms over his chest as he eyes you. While you relay the summons from Xiao, Kaeya cuts you off before you get a chance to explain the statue and what happened. “You’re not looking for me, I’m afraid.” Kaeya waved his hand halfheartedly. “You’re looking for somebody in Springvale, I’m not sure if he’s home though. Check near the waterfall nonetheless.”

>“How many cryo captains are there?!”

>”Cryo seems popular with the knights.”

Kaeya laughs, arm around his stomach as he giggles in a way that you always questioned whether or not it was real. “Quite a few I’m afraid. You’ll want to go soon, it’s getting dark.” Kaeya straightened out, a small smirk on his face as he notes the time of day.

“Come on, traveler!” Paimon insisted, floating around you.

~Find the house in Springvale~

Finding the house that sat away from the rest wasn’t difficult, however taking a peek inside the window and seeing an oddly dressed man with Albedo of all people, was surprising enough to warrant a falter in your step. Paimon gasped, hiding on the side of the window as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.

“I heard from my contact that the Abyss Order is planning to create a sort of mechanised God.” The man’s voice was low, you had to press your ear against the door to hear him speak. Albedo hummed, the relatively stoic alchemist seemed distraught by the news.

“Using a God to overthrow the Divine, isn’t that against what the Abyss stands for?” Albedo questioned, waving his hand to the side as he looked up at the strange man, the man in question merely shrugged. “Not to mention, combining technology of Khaenri’ah with such power..”

“Yes, dangerous indeed. I must admit I find this all troublesome. The location of the statue hasn’t yet been revealed to me, however. My contact is-”

You furrow your brow when the speaking ceases, were they just speaking quieter? “What are you doing eavesdropping on us?” A voice behind you and Paimon startled you both, your companion shrieking as she turned around to stare at the man that was previously inside the house.

(How did he get out here? There shouldn’t be a back door..?)

The door opened and Albedo looked down at you, teal eyes blinking. “Honorary Knight, Paimon. Don’t worry about them, they aren’t here to cause problems.” Albedo lifted his head to look at the man who hummed, arms crossing over his chest as he walked by you, Albedo moving so he could enter what was supposedly his home. “Come inside.”

Inside the house you’re able to explore the open floor plan of the kitchen and living room. A jar placed on its lonesome on one of the counters in the kitchen held a black flower, glowing blue lines pulsating through it. It was interesting indeed, unlike anything you had ever seen so far in your exploration of Teyvat. (An immortalised flower given as a favour from a godless traveler.)

“This is Medical Captain Ohm Ambros. He’s with the Knights of Favonius, our main medical practitioner.” Albedo introduced them, the man in question raising a hand to give a short wave, a lingering smile on his face. Now that you could see him better you noted the odd marks on his face, two navy blue crescents under each eye. Not to mention the various scars that littered his facial features.

Paimon introduced you and herself and you went to check out the bookshelf, a smaller one compared to the rest given it was shoved into an alcove in the wall. Only two books catch your eyes, the first volume of a series dubbed the Altars of Reality; a Tale of Favours. And another book, a black and heavy tome that seems to have red script. (A tome on a forsaken art, it’s written in a language you don’t understand.)

The only other thing of note in the living room was a red feathered quill held up in a quill stand on the mantelpiece, so you moved to investigate it while Albedo and Ohm quietly chatted with Paimon. The feather was certainly red, but upon closer inspection it shimmered a strange gold, the same way the medical captain’s coat seemed to shimmer in certain lighting. (The feather of an endless reincarnation given as a favour from the dawn knight.)

“Ohm just returned from a medical expedition in Fontaine, let’s try and make this quick.” Albedo speaking for the captain was odd enough. (Paimon doesn’t think Mister Albedo is being entirely truthful..) Something just felt off about their relationship to one another, of course they worked together. But what else was there? It didn’t help the lilac eyes boring into you unnerved you greatly.

~You and Paimon explain what happened in the domain~

“So Xiao sent us to find a cryo captain and we went to Kaeya but Kaeya sent us here, to you! Apparently you can help us destroy the statue!” You nod along to Paimon’s explanation. Albedo put his thumb under his chin, pointer finger on his lip as he listened intently to what Paimon had been explaining. Ohm finally stopped looking at you, he seemed relatively lost in thought.

“Well, if Adeptus Xiao sent for me, I must oblige. We leave at once.”

“May I come? I’d like to research this statue..” Albedo interjected and Ohm nodded his head. Paimon gleefully agrees, it has been a while since you did any work with the alchemist after all. Plus a familiar person joining you on a journey with the questionable captain would be more comfortable than going alone.

~Head to Liyue and find the domain~

“Back to what you were saying, Ohm, what happened to your contact?”

“I received a letter when I got back to Mondstadt, he’s missing. Though I have a hunch I know where he is now..” Ohm seems to sigh as the four of you walk. “Nevertheless, I’m not worried about him. I’m more worried about the Abyss Order. One nation has already fallen due to a single person’s inability to reel themselves in. We don’t need any more damages.”

(Could he be speaking about Khaenri’ah? How much does he know?)

“Yes, well, destroying the statue should thwart their plans. Where is this domain?” Albedo questions, looking at you and Paimon. You’re nearly there.

Upon entering the domain however.. You find everything to be different. The statue is missing and there are multiple abyss mages. Before you have time to react both you and Albedo are thrown to the side, hitting the wall. Your vision remains just enough to watch Ohm disappear from the spot he was standing in, thus dodging the mitachurl’s attack.. Everything goes black.

“May the Gods be with me!”

You find your entire team revived, sitting at half HP despite the ambush attack. So.. This was the power of the Medical Captain. The captain in question flips his sword in his hand, eyeing the multiple cackling Abyss Mages. Now’s the time to fight.

~Ohm Ambros Trial~

“Well that was a strange turn of events.” Albedo comments once the mages and mitachurl were destroyed. “Where is this statue, traveler?” The blond alchemist questions, turning towards you. It was here previously, then again all of this had been different.. But now..

Ohm bends down, gloved fingers brushing some soil on the ground, he picks some up, rubbing it between his fingers. “I have a contact in Liyue Harbour that I want to investigate this soil. Albedo, let’s split a sample.” Ohm called out and Albedo nodded, bending as well so they could split some of the mysterious soil.

~Find Ohm’s contact in Liyue Harbour~

You blink up at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Who just exactly was Ohm’s contact? Speaking of contacts.. He seems to have so many strange contacts. “Ah, Ohm? It’s been a long time. What brings you to Liyue?” A familiar voice has you turning around, watching as Zhongli closes the distance between you three.

“Mister Zhongli! I’m here on business, I’m afraid.” Ohm held out the bag of dirt and Zhongli took the item without fuss. “I need you to tell me which nation this soil is from, I noted traces of a peculiar stone, I’m hoping you could pinpoint the location for me.”

“Of course, give me a moment.” Zhongli stands off to the side as he investigates the soil. Ohm leaned against one of the pillars while he waited, arms crossing over his chest as he watched the funeral consultant work.

(He seems to know more about everything going on in general.. I should talk to him.)

“Captain Ambros!”

“Please, Captain Ohm if you must defer to me as my rank, I prefer just Ohm though. What can I help you with?”

>”What do you know about the Abyss Order?”

>”What do you know about Khaenri’ah?”

>”What do you know about the Archons?”

Ohm laughs, his eyes squeezing shut as he did so. When he reopened his eyes, you noticed the dull shade of lilac at this distance. There was no shine. “I know everything that I should, traveler.” He answers despite your question. And you are left with a familiar scratch at the back of your head, where did you hear that specific sentence again?

“Favoured one,” Zhongli calls out and Ohm pushes himself from the pillar. “The soil is as you guessed.” You furrow your brow as you wait for clarification, watching as Paimon questions just what that means. But it seems Zhongli isn’t keen on giving answers.

“Thank you Mister Zhongli! Well, Traveler. Your journey with the statue ends here. Unless it turns up in Teyvat again, it is currently inaccessible. I’ll leave the rest of your journey to you. Should you ever need medical assistance, I’m generally at my lab, feel free to stop by my home as well though!” Ohm pulls something from his pouch and he holds it out to you.

+1 Ohm’s Medicinal Cream 4*, restores 40% of Max HP and an additional 1500 to the selected character.

You take the red gel, pocketing the item. With your goodbyes said and done you walk off, but before you got too far you gestured Paimon closer, hiding behind some rocks, where you could still hear but you couldn’t see the mysterious captain and the ex-archon.

“Will you be staying in Liyue long, Moon?”

“After you stupidly gave up your gnosis without thinking? No. You can fell your own demons, Rex Lapis.” Your eyes went wide upon hearing the exchange, favoured one? Moon? It was like one of the stories you read, it sounded vaguely familiar. Beyond that though, this proved that Ohm knows who Zhongli really is.. Not many people can say the same.

“I’ve done my duty.”

“No, your duty was to find a replacement, the same way the previous archons have done. What you did was dodge your responsibilities, place them on the back of Aether/Lumine who will not be here one day. That is far from fair.”

“Perhaps you’re right.”

“I usually am. When was the last time I was wrong?”

“Many years now, Moon. Tell me, before you go at least, how are your expeditions to Snezhnaya going?”

Ohm scoffed, the sound of footsteps and his voice was now further away. “The Sun remains missing in action. Need I remind you, Prime of the Adepti, I am contracted to Mondstadt, not Liyue. I’ll see you around.” His footsteps faded and you listened to Zhongli sigh before he entered the funeral parlour.

“So let me get this straight..” Paimon started, turning to you with wide eyes. “The medical captain of Mondstadt is on good enough terms with Adeptus Xiao for him to send us to him, he knows that Zhongli is Rex Lapis,” you nod, “he knows Albedo well enough to discuss private matters in his home, he has a book on some ancient art that not even Paimon can decipher..” She trailed off putting a hand to her head as you continued to encourage her wrap up.

“He knew of the statue before it was mentioned to anybody else, he knows something about the Abyss Order’s plans, or at least his supposed contact does, he lies about the expeditions he goes on, and he knows something about the fall of Khaenri’ah?! How are we supposed to trust this guy?!” Paimon whined as she shook her head.

>Kaeya seems to trust him.

>Albedo seems to trust him.

>Zhongli seems to trust him.

“Maybe so, but that calls into question how much we can trust them? Who do you think his contact is?” She questioned out loud and you brought your hand to your face as you thought it over, eyebrows furrowing once more.

(I know everything that I should.. My true name...)

>It’s Dainsleif!

~Quest Complete~

#Ohm Ambros #Story Quest 1 #Genshin Impact oc

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Careful How You Go.

Ella Kemp explores how film lovers can protect themselves from distressing subject matter while celebrating cinema at its most audacious.

Featuring Empire magazine editor Terri White, Test Pattern filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford, writer and critic Jourdain Searles, publicist Courtney Mayhew, and curator, activist and producer Mia Bays of the Birds’ Eye View collective.

This story contains discussion of rape, sexual assault, abuse, self-harm, trauma and loss of life, as well as spoilers for ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘A Star is Born’.

We film lovers are blessed with a medium capable of excavating real-life emotion from something seemingly fictional. Yet, for all that film is—in the oft-quoted words of Roger Ebert—an “empathy machine”, it’s also capable of deeply hurting its audience when not wielded by its makers and promoters with appropriate care. Or, for that matter, when not approached by viewers with informed caution.

Whose job is it to let us know that we might be upset by what we see? With the coronavirus pandemic decimating the communal movie-going experience, the way we accommodate each viewer’s sensibilities is more crucial than ever—especially when so many of us are watching alone, at home, often unsupported.

In order to understand how we can champion a film’s content and take care of its audience, I approached women in several areas of the movie ecosystem. I wanted to know: how does a filmmaker approach the filming of a rape and its aftermath? How does a magazine editor navigate the celebration of a potentially triggering movie in one of the world’s biggest film publications? How does a freelance writer speak to her professional interests while preserving her personal integrity? How does a women’s film collective create a safe environment for an audience to process such a film? And, how does a publicist prepare journalists for careful reporting, when their job is to get eyeballs on screens in order to keep our favorite art form afloat?

The conversations reminded me that the answers are endlessly complex. The concerns over spoilers, the effectiveness of trigger warnings, the myriad ways in which art is crafted from trauma, and the fundamental question of whose stories these are to tell. These questions were valid decades ago, they will be for decades to come, and they feel especially urgent now, since a number of recent tales helmed by female and non-binary filmmakers depict violence and trauma involving women’s bodies in fearless, often challenging ways.

Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, in particular, has revived a vital conversation about content consideration, as victims and survivors of sexual assault record wildly different reactions to its astounding ending. Shatara Michelle Ford’s quietly tense debut, Test Pattern, brings Black survivors into the conversation. And the visceral, anti-wish-fulfillment horror Violation, coming soon from Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer, takes the rape-revenge genre up another notch.

These films come off the back of other recent survivor stories, such as Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking series I May Destroy You (which centers women’s friendship in a narrative move that, as Sarah Williams has eloquently outlined, happens too rarely in this field). Also: Kata Wéber and Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, and the ongoing ugh-ness of The Handmaid’s Tale. And though this article is focused on plots centering women’s trauma, I acknowledge the myriad of stories that can be triggering in many ways for all manner of viewers. So whether you’ve watched one of these titles, or others like them, I hope you felt supported in the conversations to follow, and that you feel seen.

Weruche Opia and Michaela Coel in ‘I May Destroy You’.

* * *

Simply put, Promising Young Woman is a movie about a woman seeking revenge against predatory men. Except nothing about it is simple. Revenge movies have existed for aeons, and we’ve rooted for many promising young (mostly white) women before Carey Mulligan’s Cassie (recently: Jen in Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge, Noelle in Natalia Leite’s M.F.A.). But in Promising Young Woman, the victim is not alive to seek revenge, so it becomes Cassie’s single-minded crusade. Mercifully, we never see the gang-rape that sparks Cassie’s mission. But we do see a daring, fatal subversion of the notion of a happy ending—and this is what has audiences of Emerald Fennell’s jaw-dropping debut divided.

“For me, being a survivor, the point is to survive,” Jourdain Searles tells me. The New York-based critic, screenwriter, comedian—and host of Netflix’s new Black Film School series—says the presence of death in Promising Young Woman is the problem. “One of the first times I spoke openly about [my assault], I made the decision that I didn’t want to go to the police, and I got a lot of judgment for that,” she says. “So watching Promising Young Woman and seeing the police as the endgame is something I’ve always disagreed with. I left thinking, ‘How is this going to help?’”

“I feel like I’ve got two hats on,” says Terri White, the London-based editor-in chief of Empire magazine, and the author of a recently published memoir, Coming Undone. “One of which is me creating a magazine for a specific film-loving audience, and the other bit of me, which has written a book about trauma, specifically about violence perpetrated against the body. They’re not entirely siloed, but they are two distinct perspectives.”

White loved both Promising Young Woman and I May Destroy You, because they “explode the myth of resolution and redemption”. She calls the ending of Promising Young Woman “radical” in the way it speaks to the reality of what happens to so many women. “I was thinking about me and women like me, women who have endured violence and injury or trauma. Three women every week are still killed [in the UK] at the hands of an ex-partner, or somebody they know intimately, or a current partner. Statistically, any woman who goes for some kind of physical confrontation in [the way Cassie does] would end up dying.”

She adds: “I felt like the film was in service to both victims and survivors, and I use the word ‘victims’ deliberately. I call myself a victim because I think if you’ve endured either sexual violence or physical violence or both, a lot of empowering language, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t reflect the reality of being a victim or a survivor, whichever way you choose to call yourself.” This point has been one many have disagreed on. In a way, that makes sense—no victim or survivor can be expected to speak to anyone else’s experience but their own.

Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell on the set of ‘Promising Young Woman’.

Likewise, there is no right or wrong way to feel about this film, or any film. But a question that arises is, well, should everyone have to see a film to figure that out? And should victims and survivors of sexual violence watch this film? “I have definitely been picky about who I’ve recommended it to,” Courtney Mayhew says. “I don’t want to put a friend in harm’s way, even if that means they miss out on something awesome. It’s not worth it.”

Mayhew is a New Zealand-based international film publicist, and because of her country’s success in controlling Covid 19, she is one of the rare people able to experience Promising Young Woman in a sold-out cinema. “It was palpable. Everyone was so engaged and almost leaning forwards. There were a lot of laughs from women, but it was also a really challenging setting. A lot of people looking down, looking away, and there was a girl who was crying uncontrollably at the end.”

“Material can be very triggering,” White agrees. “It depends where people are personally in their journey. When I still had a lot of trauma I hadn’t worked through in my 20s, I found certain things very difficult to watch. Those things are a reality—but people can make their own decisions about the material they feel able to watch.”

It’s about warning, and preparation, more than total deprivation, then? “I believe in giving people information so they can make the best choice for themselves,” White says. “But I find it quite reductive, and infantilizing in some respects, to be told broadly, ‘Women who have experienced x shouldn’t watch this.’ That underestimates the resilience of some people, the thirst for more information and knowledge.” (This point is clearly made in this meticulous, awe-inspiring list by Jenn, who is on a journey to make sense of her trauma through analysis of rape-revenge films.) But clarity is crucial, particularly for those grappling with unresolved issues.

Searles agrees Promising Young Woman can be a difficult, even unpleasant watch, but still one with value. “As a survivor it did not make me feel good, but it gave me a window into the way other people might respond to your assault. A lot of the time [my friends] have reacted in ways I don’t understand, and the movie feels like it’s trying to make sense of an assault from the outside, and the complicated feelings a friend might have.”

Molly Parker and Vanessa Kirby in ‘Pieces of a Woman’.

* * *

A newborn dies. A character is brutally violated. A population is tortured. To be human is to bear witness to history, but it’s still painful when that history is yours, or something very close to it. “Some things are hard to watch because you relate to them,” Searles explains. “I find mother! hard to watch, and there’s no actual sexual assault. But I just think of sexual assault and trauma and domestic abuse, even though the film isn’t about that. The thing is, you could read an academic paper on patriarchy—you don’t need to watch it on a show [or in a film] if you don’t want to.”

White agrees: “I’ve never been able to watch Nil by Mouth, because I grew up in a house of domestic violence and I find physical violence against women on screen very hard to watch. But that doesn’t mean I think the film shouldn’t be shown—it should still exist, I’ve just made the choice not to watch it.” (Reader, since our conversation, she watched it. At 2:00am.)

“I know people who do not watch Promising Young Woman or The Handmaid’s Tale because they work for an NGO in which they see those things literally in front of their eyes,” Mayhew says. “It could be helpful for someone who isn’t aware [of those issues], but then what is the purpose of art? To educate? To entertain? For escapism? It’s probably all of those.”

Importantly, how much weight should an artist’s shoulders carry, when it comes to considering the audiences that will see their work? There’s a general agreement among my interviewees that, as White says, “filmmakers have to make the art that they believe in”. I don’t think any film lover would disagree, but, suggests Searles, “these films should be made with survivors in mind. That doesn’t mean they always have to be sensitive and sad and declawed. But there is a way to be provocative, while leaning into an emotional truth.”

Madeleine Sims-Fewer in ‘Violation’.

Violation, about which I’ll say little here since it is yet to screen at SXSW (ahead of its March 25 release on Shudder) is not at all declawed, and is certainly made with survivors in mind—in the sense that in life, unlike in movies, catharsis is very seldom possible no matter how far you go to find it. On Letterboxd, many of those who saw Violation at TIFF and Sundance speak of feeling represented by the rape-revenge plot, writing: “One of the most intentionally thought out and respectful of the genre… made by survivors for survivors” and “I feel seen and held”. (Also: “This movie is extremely hard to watch, completely on purpose.”)

“Art can do great service to people,” agrees White, “If, by consequence, there is great service for people who have been in that position, that’s a brilliant consequence. But I don’t believe filmmakers and artists should be told that they are responsible for certain things. There’s a line of responsibility in terms of being irresponsible, especially if your community is young, or traumatised.”

Her words call to mind Bradley Cooper’s reboot of A Star is Born, which many cinephiles knew to be a remake and therefore expected its plot twist, but young filmgoers, drawn by the presence of Lady Gaga, were shocked (and in some cases triggered) by a suicide scene. When it was released, Letterboxd saw many anguished reviews from younger members. In New Zealand, an explicit warning was added to the film’s classification by the country’s chief censor (who also created an entirely new ‘RP18’ classification for the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which eventually had a graphic suicide scene edited out two years after first landing on the streaming service).

“There is a duty of care to audiences, and there is also a duty of care to artists and filmmakers,” says Mayhew. “There’s got to be some way of meeting in the middle.” The middle, perhaps, can be identified by the filmmaker’s objective. “It’s about feeling safe in the material,” says Mia Bays of the Birds’ Eye View film collective, which curates and markets films by women in order to effect industry change. “With material like this, it’s beholden on creatives to interrogate their own intentions.”

Filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford is “forever interrogating” ideas of power. Their debut feature, Test Pattern, deftly examines the power differentials that inform the foundations of consent. “As an artist, human, and person who has experienced all sorts of boundary violation, assault and exploitation in their life, I spend quite a lot of time thinking about power… It is something I grapple with in my personal life, and when I arrive in any workplace, including a film set.”

In her review of Test Pattern for The Hollywood Reporter, Searles writes, “This is not a movie about sexual assault as an abstract concept; it’s a movie about the reality of a sexual assault survivor’s experience.” Crucially, in a history of films that deal largely with white women’s experiences, Test Pattern “is one of the few sexual-assault stories to center a Black woman, with her Blackness being central to her experience and the way she is treated by the people around her.”

Brittany S. Hall in ‘Test Pattern’.

* * *

Test Pattern follows the unfolding power imbalance between Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and her devoted white boyfriend Evan (Will Brill), as he drives her from hospital to hospital in search of a rape kit, after her drink was spiked by a white man in a bar who then raped her. Where Promising Young Woman is a millennial-pink revenge fantasy of Insta-worthy proportions, Test Pattern feels all too real, and the cops don’t come off as well as they do in the former.

Ford does something very important for the audience: they begin the film just as the rape is about to occur. We do not see it at this point (we do not really ever see it), but we know that it happened, so there’s no chance that, somewhere deeper into the story, when we’re much more invested, we’ll be side-swiped by a sudden onslaught of sexual violence. In a way, it creates a safe space for our journey with Renesha.

It’s one of many thoughtful decisions made by Ford throughout the production process. “I’m in direct conversation with film and television that chooses to depict violence against women so casually,” Ford tells me. “I intentionally showed as little of Renesha’s rape as humanly possible. I also had an incredibly hard time being physically present for that scene, I should add. What I did shoot was ultimately guided by Renesha’s experience of it. Shoot only what she would remember. Show only what she would have been aware of.

“But I also made it clear that this was a violation of her autonomy, by allowing moments where we have an arm’s length point of view. I let the camera sit with the audience, as I’m also saying, as the filmmaker, this happened, and you saw enough of it to know. This, for me, is a larger commentary on how we treat victims of assault and rape. I do not believe for one goddamn minute that we need to see the actual, literal violence to know what happened. When we flagrantly replicate the violence in film and television, we are supporting the cultural norm of needing ‘all of the evidence’—whatever that means—to ‘believe women’.”

Ford’s intentional work in crafting the romance and unraveling of Test Pattern’s leading couple pays off on screen, but their stamp as an invested and careful director also shows in their work with Drew Fuller, the actor who played Mike, the rapist. “It’s a very difficult role, and I’m grateful to him for taking it so seriously. When discussing and rendering the practice and non-practice of consent intentionally, I found it helpful to give it a clear definition and provide conceptual insight.

“I sent Drew a few articles that I used as tools to create a baseline understanding when it comes to exploring consent and power on screen. At the top of that list was Lili Loofbourow’s piece, The female price of male pleasure and Zhana Vrangalova's Teen Vogue piece, Everything You Need to Know about Consent that You Never Learned in Sex Ed. The latter in my opinion is the linchpin. There’s also Jude Elison Sady Doyle’s piece about the whole Aziz Ansari thing, which is a great primer.”

Sidney Flanigan in ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’.

Even when a filmmaker has given Ford’s level of care and attention to their project, what happens when the business end of the industry gets involved in the art? As we well know, marketing is a film’s window dressing. It has one job: to get eyeballs into the cinema. It can’t know if every viewer should feel safe to enter.

It would be useful, with certain material, to know how we should watch, and with whom, and what might we need in the way of support coming out. Whose job is it to provide this? Beyond the crude tool of an MPAA rating (and that’s a whole sorry tale for another day), there are many creative precautions that can be taken across the industry to safeguard a filmgoer’s experience.

Mayhew, who often sees films at the earliest stages (sometimes before a final cut, sometimes immediately after), speaks to journalists in early screenings and ensures they have the tools to safely report on the topics raised. In New Zealand, reporters are encouraged to read through resources to help them guide their work. Mayhew’s teams would also ensure journalists would be given relevant hotline numbers, and would ask media outlets to include them in published stories.

“It’s not saying, ‘You have to do this’,” she explains, “It’s about first of all not knowing what the journalist has been through themselves, and second of all, [if] they are entertainment reporters who haven’t navigated speaking about sexual assault, you only hope it will be helpful going forward. It’s certainly not done to infantilize them, because they’re smart people. It’s a way to show some care and support.”

The idea of having appropriate resources to make people feel safe and encourage them to make their own decisions is a priority for Bays and Birds’ Eye View, as well. The London-based creative producer and cultural activist stresses the importance of sharing such a viewing experience. “It’s the job of cinemas, distributors and festivals to realize that it might not be something the filmmaker does, but as the people in control of the environment it’s our job to give extra resources to those who want it,” says Bays. “To give people a safe space to come down from the experience.”

Pre-pandemic, when Birds’ Eye View screened Kitty Green’s The Assistant, a sharp condemnation of workplace micro-aggressions seen through the eyes of one female assistant, they invited women who had worked for Harvey Weinstein. For a discussion after Eliza Hittman’s coming-of-ager Never Rarely Sometimes Always, abortion experts were able to share their knowledge. “It’s about making sure the audience knows you can say anything here, but that it’s safe,” Bays explains. “It’s kind of like group therapy—you don’t know people, so you’re not beholden to what they think about you. And in the cinema people aren’t looking at you. You’re speaking somewhat anonymously, so a lot of really important stuff can come out.”

The traditional movie-going experience, involving friends, crowds and cathartic, let-loose feelings, is still largely inaccessible at the time of writing. Over the past twelve months we’ve talked plenty about preserving the magic of the big screen experience, but it’s about so much more than the romanticism of an art form; it’s also about the safety that comes from a feeling of community when watching potentially upsetting movies.

“The going in and coming out parts of watching a film in the cinema are massively important, because it’s like coming out of the airlock and coming back to reality,” says Bays. “You can’t do that at home. Difficult material kind of stays with you.” During the pandemic, Birds’ Eye View has continued to provide the same wrap-around curatorial support for at-home viewers as they would at an in-person event. “If we’re picking a difficult film and asking people to watch it at home, we might suggest you watch it with a friend so you can speak about it afterwards,” Bays says.

Julia Garner in ‘The Assistant’.

But, then, how can we still find this sense of community without the physical closeness? “It’s no good waiting for [the internet] to become kind,” she says. “Create your own closed spaces. We do workshops and conversations exclusively for people who sign up to our newsletter. In real-life meetings you can go from hating something to hearing an eloquent presentation of another perspective and coming round to it, but you need the time and space to do that. This little amount of time gives you a move towards healing, even if it’s just licking some wounds that were opened on Twitter. But it could be much deeper, like being a survivor and feeling very conflicted about the film, which I do.”

Conflict is something that Searles, the film critic, knows about all too well in her work. “Since I started writing professionally, I almost feel like I’m known for writing about assault and rape at this point. I do write about it a lot, and as a survivor I continue to process it. I’ve been assaulted more than once so I have a lot to process, and so each time I’m writing about it I’m thinking about different aspects and remnants of those feelings. It can be very cathartic, but it’s a double-edged sword because sometimes I feel like I have an obligation to write about it too.”

There is also a constant act of self-preservation that comes with putting so much of yourself on the internet. “I often get messages from people thanking me for talking about these subjects with a deep understanding of what they mean,” Searles says. “I really appreciate that. I get negative messages about a lot of things, but not this one thing.”

Michaela Coel in ‘I May Destroy You’.

* * *

With such thoughtful approaches to heavy content, it feels like we’re a long way further down the road from blunt tools like content and trigger warnings. But do they still have their place? “It’s just never seemed appropriate to put trigger warnings on any of our reviews or features,” White explains. “We have a heavy male readership, still 70 percent male to 30 percent female. I’m conscious we’re talking to a lot of men who will often have experienced violence themselves, but we don’t put any warnings, because we are an adult magazine, and when we talk about violence in, say, an action film, or violence that is very heavily between men, we don’t caveat that at all.”

Bays, too, is sceptical of trigger warnings, explaining that “there’s not much evidence [they] actually work. A lot of psychologists expound on the fact that if people get stuck in their trauma, you can never really recover from PTSD if you don’t at some point face your trauma.” She adds: “I’m a survivor, and I found I May Destroy You deeply, profoundly triggering, but also cathartic. I think it’s more about how you talk about the work, rather than having a ‘NB: survivors of sexual abuse or assault shouldn’t see this’.”

“It’s important to give people a feel of what they’re in for,” argues Searles. “A lot of people who have dealt with suicide ideation would prefer that warning.” While some worry that a content warning is effectively a plot spoiler, Searles disagrees. “I don’t consider a content warning a spoiler. I just couldn’t imagine sitting down for a film, knowing there’s going to be a suicide, and letting it distract me from the film.” Still, she acknowledges the nuance. “I think using ‘self-harm’ might be better than just saying ‘suicide’.”

Mayhew shared insights on who actually decides which films on which platforms are preceded with warnings—turns out, it’s a bit messy. “The onus traditionally has fallen on governmental censorship when it comes to theatrical releases,” she explains. “But streamers can do what they want, they are not bound by those rules so they have to—as the distributors and broadcasters—take the government’s censors on board in terms of how they are going to navigate it.

“The consumer doesn’t know the difference,” she continues, “nor should they—so it means they can be watching The Crown on Netflix and get this trigger warning about bulimia, and go to the cinema the next day and not get it, and feel angry about it. So there’s the question of where is the responsibility of the distributor, and where is the responsibility of the audience member to actually find out for themselves.”

The warnings given to an audience member can also vary widely depending where they find themselves in the world, too. Promising Young Woman, for example, is rated M in Australia, R18 in New Zealand, and R in the United States. Meanwhile, the invaluable Common Sense Media recommends an age of fifteen years and upwards for the “dark, powerful, mature revenge comedy”. Mayhew says a publicist’s job is “to have your finger on the pulse” about these cultural differences. “You have to read the overall room, and when I say room I mean the culture as a whole, and you have to be constantly abreast of things across those different ages too.”

She adds: “This feeds into the importance of representation right at the top of those boardrooms and right down to the film sets. My job is to see all opinions, and I never will, especially because I am a white woman. I consider myself part of the LGBT community and sometimes I’ll bring that to a room that I think has been lacking in that area, when it comes to harmful stereotypes that can be propagated within films about LGBT people. But I can’t bring a Black person’s perspective, I cannot bring an Indigenous perspective. The more representation you have, the better your film is going to be, your campaign is going to be.”

Bays, who is also a filmmaker, agrees: representation is about information, and working with enough knowledge to make sure your film is being as faithful to your chosen communities as possible. “As a filmmaker, I’d feel ill-informed and misplaced if I was stumbling into an area of representation that I knew nothing about without finding some tools and collaborators who could bring deeper insight.”

Carey Mulligan and Bo Burnham in ‘Promising Young Woman’.

This is something Ford aimed for with Test Pattern’s choice of crew members, which had an effect not just on the end product, but on the entire production process. “I made sure that at the department head level, I was hiring people I was in community with and fully saw me as a person, and me them,” they say. “In some ways it made the experience more pleasurable.” That said, the shoot was still not without its incidents: “These were the types of things that in my experience often occur on a film set dominated by straight white men, that we're so accustomed to we sometimes don’t even notice it. I won’t go into it but what I will say is that it was not tolerated.”

Vital to the telling of the story were the lived experiences that Ford and their crew brought to set. “As it applies to the sensitive nature of this story, there were quite a few of us who have had our own experiences along the spectrum of assault, which means that we had to navigate our own internal re-processing of those experiences, which is hard to do when we’re constructing an experience of rape for a character.

“However, I think being able to share our own triggers and discomfort and context, when it came to Renesha’s experience, made the execution of it all the better. Again, it was a pleasure to be in community with such smart, talented and considerate women who each brought their own nuance to this film.”

* * *

Thinking about everything we’ve lived through by this point in 2021, and the heightened sensitivity and lowered mental health of film lovers worldwide, movies are carrying a pretty heavy burden right now: to, as Jane Fonda said at the Golden Globes, help us see through others’ eyes; also, to entertain or, at the very least, not upset us too much.

But to whom does film have a responsibility, really? Promising Young Woman’s writer-director Emerald Fennell, in an excellent interview with Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién, said that she was thinking of audiences when she crafted the upsetting conclusion.

What she was thinking was: a ‘happy’ ending for Cassie gets us no further forward as a society. Instead, Cassie’s shocking end “makes you feel a certain way, and it makes you want to talk about it. It makes you want to examine the film and the society that we live in. With a cathartic Hollywood ending, that’s not so much of a conversation, really. It’s a kind of empty catharsis.”

So let’s flip the question: what is our responsibility, as women and allies, towards celebrating audacious films about tricky subjects? The marvellous, avenging blockbusters that once sucked all the air out of film conversation are on pause, for now. Consider the space that this opens up for a different kind of approach to “must-see movies”. Spread the word about Test Pattern. Shout from the rooftops about It’s A Sin. Add Body of Water and Herself and Violation to your watchlists. And, make sure the right people are watching.

Brittany S. Hall and Will Brill in ‘Test Pattern’.

I asked my interviewees: if they could choose one type of person they think should see Promising Young Woman, who would it be? Ford has not seen Fennell’s film, but “it feels good to have my film contribute to a larger discourse that is ever shifting, ever adding nuance”. They are very clear on who can learn the most from their own movie.

“A white man is featured so prominently in Test Pattern as a statement about how white people and men have a habit of centering themselves in the stories of others, prioritizing their experience and neglecting to recognize those on the margins. If Evan is triggering, he should be. If your feelings about Evan vacillate, it is by design.

“‘Allies’ across the spectrum are in a complicated dance around doing the ‘right thing’ and ‘showing up’ for those they are ostensibly seeking to support,” Ford continues. “Their constant battle is to remember that they need to be centering the needs of those they were never conditioned to center. Tricky stuff. Mistakes will be made. Mistakes must be owned. Sometimes reconciliation is required.”

It is telling that similar thoughts emerged from my other interviewees regarding Promising Young Woman’s ideal audience, despite the fact that none of them was in conversation with the others for this story. For that reason, as we come to the end of this small contribution to a very large, ongoing conversation, I’ve left their words intact.

White: I think it’s a great film for men.

Searles: I feel like the movie is very much pointed at cisgender heterosexual men.

Mayhew: Men.

White: We’re always warned about the alpha male with a massive ego, but we’re not warned about the beta male who reads great books, listens to great records, has great film recommendations. But he probably slyly undermines you in a completely different way. Anybody can be a predator.

Searles: The actors chosen to play these misogynist, rape culture-perpetuating men are actors we think of as nice guys.

White: We are so much more tolerant of a man knocking the woman over the head, dragging her down an alley and raping her, because we understand that. But rape culture is made up of millions of small things that enable the people who do it. We are more likely to be attacked in our own homes by men we love than a stranger in the street.

Mayhew: The onus should not fall on women to call this out.

Searles: It’s not just creeps, like the ones you see usually in these movies. It’s guys like you. What are you going to do to make sure you’re not like this?

Related content

Sex Monsters, Rape Revenge and Trauma: a work-in-progress list

Rape and Revenge: a list of films that fall into, and play with, the genre

Unconsenting Media: a search engine for sexual violence in broadcasting

Follow Ella on Letterboxd

If you need help or to talk to someone about concerns raised for you in this story, please first know that you are not alone. These are just a few of the many organizations and resources available, and their websites include more information.

US: RAINN (hotline 0800 656 HOPE); LGBT National Help Center; Pathways to Safety; Time’s Up.

Canada: Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers—contacts by province and territory

UK/Ireland: Mind; The Survivors Trust (hotline 08088 010818); Rape Crisis England and Wales

Europe: Rape Crisis Network Europe

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turningwheeltarot · 4 years

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Healing anxiety has been an ongoing journey for me. I have learned a lot and come a long way over the years. I want to share some of the most important spiritual lessons that I have learned so far in hopes that it may help others who struggle with anxiety. I am not a medical professional and this is not meant to be a substitute for psychiatric advice or treatment. This is simply meant to be a sharing of what I have found to be effective for me. I approach this topic from a spiritual perspective as this is where my experience has been.

The Importance of a Daily Spiritual Practice

In order to heal anxiety, I believe a daily, committed spiritual practice of some kind is necessary. “Spiritual” can be substituted with other terms, such as “meditation” or “mindfulness” practice, if they resonate more with you. Committing to beginning each day with meditation and prayer has helped me to develop a strong inner foundation to root myself in. Before I made this commitment, I was like a house without a foundation at the mercy of whatever was going on around me.

A Course in Miracles is what I would consider to be my spiritual “home base.” The Course focuses primarily on thought. It is all about learning to undo a thought system based on fear -- which dominates this world -- and accept a thought system based on love instead. Anxiety is just one of the many ways the fear-based thinking of the world shows up. The Course states that its goal is the attainment of inner peace, and that this comes about only through changing our thinking: learning to choose the thoughts of love instead of the thoughts of fear. This is freedom from anxiety.

According to the Course, the root cause of suffering lies in the mind; we change the world we see by changing our minds about the world we see. This inward shift is made by surrendering fear-based thoughts to the Holy Spirit (or your Higher Self, the Universe, Source, etc.) and simply being willing to perceive differently. The Course assures that our willingness is all that’s required for healing to take place.

If you don’t already have a spiritual practice, I strongly encourage you to find one that resonates with you. A Course in Miracles is just one of endless options. Set the intention to find the right one for you and explore, and the right one will present itself. Some may already have a spiritual practice, but need to commit to making it a daily priority. Our egos try to convince us that we “don’t have the time,” but I promise that even just a few minutes a day will make a remarkable difference in your life.

Surrendering, Allowing, and Trusting

My journey with healing anxiety has revolved around learning how to surrender, allow, and trust in Spirit. When worry arises, I do my best to consciously surrender the anxious thought to Spirit as soon as possible. I find it helpful to visualize literally handing the worry up and into the hands of Spirit. I often envision the beautiful and serene Ace of Cups tarot card when I do this. Prayer is also a big part of my process. A simple but powerful prayer (inspired by A Course in Miracles) that I often say is: “Holy Spirit, I place this fear about (fill-in-the-blank) in your hands. Please take this from me. I am willing to see this differently.”

After surrendering, I focus on allowing the feelings that arise and breathing through them. With every exhale, I imagine myself continuously releasing whatever my fear is to Spirit. When I allow myself to feel my feelings, they are able to move through me. When I push them away, they become stuck within me. I am learning the art of not fighting difficult feelings like anxiousness, while also not dwelling on negative thoughts. I am learning how to be with discomfort and allow it to pass through me. And perhaps most importantly, I am learning how to trust.

My ongoing focus is on building and maintaining trust in Spirit. Trust is something that needs to be practiced. It’s not uncommon that I need to continually re-surrender, re-allow, and re-trust about the same issue. And that’s ok. Through committed practice, I am reprogramming my mind so that my first instinct is to trust rather than to fear. And the more I practice, the easier and more automatic it becomes.

The more intense and overwhelming the fear, the more intense the focus needs to be on surrendering, allowing, and trusting. When experiencing intense anxiety, try to get into surrender mode as fast as you can. Surrender the fear to Spirit and ask that it be taken from you. Get as quiet as possible and allow the fear to be there. Be with it to the best of your ability. Focus on breathing through it. Trust that it will pass and that clarity is coming. If you feel unable to practice this in times of intense anxiety, that’s ok. The more you make a habit of practicing this process with smaller issues, the easier it will become to practice when big ones come up.

I have realized that much of what causes anxiety within me is a deep inner resistance to what is: resistance to the present moment, resistance to my current circumstance, resistance to how I’m feeling, resistance to the anxiety itself (me telling myself I “shouldn’t” be feeling this way), and the belief that I need to be in control of everything -- which is resistance to life itself. I believe this is true of many people who suffer with anxiety.

I am amazed by the learning and healing that’s occurred as a result of my simple willingness to be made aware of resistance and let go of it. Ever since I set this specific intention, it’s been like peeling an onion. Deeper layers of resistance that I wasn’t previously aware of continue revealing themselves to me to be released.

“Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace is transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.” -- Eckhart Tolle

Disidentifying from and Disciplining the Mind

The root of anxiety is in the mind. One anxious thought is where it all begins. But the mind is not where the solution can be found. When I rely on my mind to “figure it all out,” it only leads to more anxiety. When I rely on the higher power that is within me, I find myself guided out of anxiety. I believe this is the deeper meaning of the Proverbs 3:5 Bible verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

The mind is a useful tool that is meant to be used in service to Higher Consciousness. It is not meant to run the show. Mistaking myself for my thoughts and letting my thinking mind take the wheel is a sure way to get lost in an anxiety spiral. Mind-identification is anxiety. Learning to discipline my mind and let go of my identification with my thoughts has been a major part of my healing journey.

In order to be freed from anxiety and live a more conscious and peaceful life, it is necessary to practice observing thoughts and letting them go. In order to do this, identification with thought needs to be released too. You are not your thoughts. When you practice observing your thoughts instead of getting lost in them, you get in touch with who you really are at the deepest level -- the awareness behind your thoughts. The Observer. Then you are able to create space between your true Self and your thoughts, rather than becoming totally identified with them. So when anxious thoughts arise, it won’t be as easy for them to possess you.

Anxiety usually stems from fixating on the future or past. The present moment is all that’s real and is the only place where peace can be found. Zen Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki said, “Let thoughts come and go. Just don't serve them tea.” Letting thoughts come and go while continuously bringing my awareness back to the present moment allows me to slow down enough to recognize fearful thoughts when they arise -- which is half the battle. And it’s worth reiterating: daily meditation has been absolutely essential for me to develop and maintain the inner groundwork required to practice this.

Conscious breathing and redirecting my awareness from my mind to my body are some methods that help me let my thoughts go and return to the present. These methods also help me to process my feelings, including anxiety. Next time you feel anxious, explore where the feeling of anxiousness lives within your body. Feel into it. Breathe into it. Be with it. You may find the feeling dissolves surprisingly fast. You may also find that what the feeling dissolves into is peace.

Watching my words is another important mind-discipline practice. Words -- which stem from thoughts -- are powerful. They create our reality. I have realized that if I want to create a reality where I am free from anxiety, I need to stop identifying with anxiety as a part of who I am, allowing it to have power over me. That means I need to stop referring to myself as an “anxious person.” I need to stop saying things like “my anxiety.” I need to believe that I can be free from anxiety. And I need to replace negative, destructive self-talk with positive, healing self-talk. Mantras and positive affirmations can be extremely helpful and effective.

Self-Care

This is an ongoing healing process and it is so important to be kind, gentle, and patient with yourself along the way. Learning how to practice self-care, self-acceptance, and self-love is also a process. I am still learning what it means to love and accept myself.

How am I feeling right now? What do I need right now? How can I take care of myself right now? I try to check in by asking myself questions like this regularly. I am learning to honor feelings of overwhelm and worry as signals to stop, turn within, and practice self-care.

I spent much of my life terrified of my own fear. I believe this is true of many who struggle with anxiety. We fear that our fear is too big for us to handle. But the truth is that we are bigger than our fear. Much bigger. We are infinite souls having human experiences. I have come to realize that the fear within me is not the big, scary monster I used to believe it was. Rather, it is a scared little child simply in need of love.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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#anxiety #spirituality #healing anxiety #healing #spiritual healing #spiritual growth #spiritual journey #healing process #peace #emotional healing #a course in miracles #ACIM #eckhart tolle #presence #trust #faith #surrender

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111blogger · 4 years

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Obviously, the architecture of Barcelona, the Holy Monstreat, as well as the Toledo cathedral turn this a popular coordinate. And as this is this sort of hot vacation area, you're advised to help make your air carrier reservations, motel reservations, Cafelavista and car lease plans early on - 3 or 4 several weeks in advance as a matter of truth - particularly when tourist might be high (summer season, holidays, etc.). When you would rather vacation "off-period," - which is, while in a time when vacation is reduced, you may possibly not have to make this sort of very early bookings. Within the latter scenario, one month-sophisticated planning may be adequate.

After you've produced your concerns, you may fulfill all of your time preparing for precisely what Spain offers. One of the ways you can do that is certainly by using a neighborhood trip to your preferred library and perusing the enormous quantity of publications about Spain. By doing this, you are able to prepare yourself with the language - possibly even have a look at a number of publications or audio tapes of your terminology (if offered) and additionally understand more about Spain's financial process.

You should always understand admittance needs, inoculations and other security info you will need before going not just to Spain - but also almost anyplace out of the nation. But you can also get to know the dress in the property and possibly use a number of nearby dining places that provide Spanish food and engage in a bit of its native songs. Obviously you can visit your gallery and find out about the ability of the land so that you'll know what to look for after you arrive - specifically, the works of El Greco. The thought the following is to coach yourself amid all of the enthusiasm of going to a position so abundant in tradition!

Now a lot of people like spontaneity - a little bit experience - the unidentified - whatever you want to consider it, but many of us like to create an schedule of things to do and locations to look. If you're the "planning variety," then you definitely might enjoy spending some time to road map out your adventure. And there's certainly no problem with that - seeing that you're visiting a new location, your chances of getting fed up or going against spontaneity are incredibly slim since Spain has a great deal to offer to each of your actual detects!

When and when you produce such an itinerary, some of what it is advisable to involve needless to say are such things as instances to enjoy, acquire trips, attend demonstrates, and (our favorite) store! You might think that this information is hard to find but due to the World wide web, it truly isn't' difficult to get at all. If you're by using a tour operator, after that your endeavours to complete an schedule ought to be pretty little. However, if you're functioning by itself, you are able to certainly look at the tourist websites of Spain and create your very own graph of items to find out and revel in.

If you're helpful with the indigenous words of Spain (which you might have correctly thought is Spanish), it is possible to certainly read through a couple of on the web Spanish classifieds to find occasions and local people which might be of interest for you. Chances are that you'll discover much more amusement info by looking at a Spanish newspaper than you will in the event you solely trusted an English presentation.

After you've arrived and also have discovered transport to your resort, it is possible to inquire further more to locate more interests. By now, you have to be talking just a little Spanish to enable you to effectively talk and exchange money with your accommodation director:

Hola! (Hello)

Gracias! (Thank You)

Como te llamas? (What's your name?)

Como estas? (How are you currently?)

Me llamo... (My label is...)

Soy de United States of America (I'm in the United states)

No comprendo (I don't recognize)

Por favor (you should)

Me numero de telefono es el... (My telephone number is [and then the phone numbers in Spanish [uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, and so forth.)

You'll of course would like to learn how to request other important matters like aid and directions. These are among the points that will make your vacation to Spain more fun - especially as you talk using the natives and try out new foods or amusements that you simply hadn't even prepared for! Just remember to pack the digital camera or your modest online video cam so that you can document your experience and appreciate them loved ones back home.

Journey in Spain by Taxi

Touring by taxi cab in Spain gives an extremely practical way to relocate about and "view-see." Like touring by taxi in the states, lowest charges go with metered mileage along with a small additional cost for baggage and evening hours - nighttime - or holiday brings.

Spain Traveling Recommendations

European Union inhabitants (18 several years or more mature) must individual a nationwide driving permit to operate a vehicle in Spain, however non-Western Union citizens (18 many years or more mature) also need a global Traveling Permit also. The two varieties of residents will need to have car insurance and id (certificate, passport, etc.) legally, is needed always. Chair belts should be worn by all travellers, and travellers under the age of 14 should be seated within the back seating from the motor vehicle. When traveling, keep in mind that driving a vehicle jobs are reversed to American drivers. You have to deliver to on-approaching visitors from junctures and targeted traffic groups.

Additional care should be delivered to restrict your driving for the primary paths specified on the most recent maps with this region as other paths will not be ideal for driving (grime roads, hill passes by, and many others.). In metropolitan regions, you may conveniently refuel your vehicle from unleaded or diesel service stations. However if you'll generate for long amounts of time, it's best if you completely fill your aquarium, as energy stations are sparse in outlying portions of the country.

Driving rates are often restricted to 30 mph to 56 mph, even so traveling rates can increase from 62 miles per hour to 75 miles per hour on highways with more than two lanes. Be prepared to spend both factor and set toll charges related to metropolis admittance approaches.

Traveling in Spain by Automobile / Automobile Rental

Simply because Spain's city centres are so well-known, you are cautioned to prevent traveling in these areas - especially considering that the filter highways within these locations can support targeted traffic traveling in 1 route only. Moreover, left vehicles make driving a vehicle extremely hard. Traveling by vehicle hire is advisable completed by following a recent map of its roads - which offer opinions which are literally remarkable.Visit website for more information about Spain.

#traffic #aquarium #Additional #experience

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beansandco · 5 years

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Script for Documentary

Hello there, My name is George. I am currently enrolled at the Colchester Institute studying VFX & Animation. We create in adobe software and 3D software to composite effects into scenes and create movement of characters. However it’s really only Animation that I’m interested in, hand drawn and digital 2D especially.

Now I’ve never been much of a detailed illustrator but I can deal with cartoons and really thats all I want to do. The idea of drawing a character so many times that they come alive on screen is really captivating to me. In college I’ve created a couple short animations, all of them teaching me what it’s like to draw digitally. I soon discovered there is a lot more to it than I had originally thought. Just drawing the character in different positions isn’t enough, you need to think about the fluidity, consistency and weight of all movements. I decided to study the rules of animation set forth by the disney founders. I then implemented these into my FMP which has given me a deeper understanding as to what really makes the difference between an amateur and a seasoned animator. I learned to become quite accustom to Adobe Animate while making them and I now enjoy using it as my main tool to animate.

Despite all this, I’m held back by my lack of drawing skills. I enjoy drawing simple cartoons and with animation that’s generally a good thing. However since I have to make all parts myself for FMPs and such, backgrounds and other details are going to look lack luster, which could break the immersion. Working in a studio this might not be a problem, as there will be background artists and others that do the detailed work. Leaving the in-between animation my own duty. However you will still be expected to have artistic capabilities if you want to move up and become a key-frame artist or a producer/director.

I learnt about this from hearing the story of Hayao Miyazaki. He actually is where I take a lot of inspiration. His work was always about high risk, high reward. He would pay close attention to every little detail of a scene. So much so that the production time would be a painfully long task. There’s a saying that if you pause a Studio Ghibli movie at any point, it would look like a stand alone painting. What has this got to do with me? Well his attention to detail and hand drawn method of making animations are exactly what I aspire to reach. He stared as a in-between artist at Toei Studios, became a key-frame artist and eventually branching off to make his own films in his own studio. He did this, through a long laborious gaining of experience.

This is where university I think will help me. While I’m learning at university it will be far more specifically aimed at the practice of Animation, that I’ll be gaining lots of crucial practice. Most uni’s offer the chance to work with a partnered company for work experience at the end of the course which would be an incredible “foot in the door” opportunity. This is why my plans are so specific, finish college, go to uni and then get to work in a studio. Its the way a master like Miyazaki did it and its exactly what I plan to do.

I specifically want to go to, Norwich University of the Arts. Its a dedicated arts university, therefore most of their resources are put towards helping creative practitioners. Its also only an hour away from where I live and the accommodation is much cheaper than that of London's.

This all however depends if I can get into university. There are various obstacles that might make this difficult. The one I’m most concerned of is the creation of a portfolio. Portfolios are there to impress the Uni’s with things you have created and the creative journey behind them. For me I have a handful of short animations that took dozens of hours to create. My hope is they will understand this as animators themselves, how long a process it is to make them. With my lack of drawing skills however, that’s something I will have to just build up while I practice. My plan is to drawn progressively more detailed background for my animations, each one using a new technique like lighting and focus.

I’ve followed many animators, mainly because they often have a lot to say. Many recommend not getting into animation. They say it’s a long and mind bending process. But one thing they all say is that the end result is always worth it. One animator, Zach Hadel said, “Anyone can animate, it doesn’t matter their drawing skills”. Animation isn’t how real it LOOKs, its how real the world they’re in FEELS. Thanks for listening.

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cbcdiversity · 6 years

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Another Kind of Home: Black Hair Care & Transracial Adoption

By Mariama J. Lockington

In 2009 I was asked sit on a panel of black adoptees and address an audience of current and prospective adoptive parents. The audience was primarily white, a mixture of straight and queer couples who crowded into a little room off Market Street in San Francisco to hear what we had to say. We’d been tasked to talk about our experiences growing up as black kids in white families and offer our perspective. I came armed with my story and a bulleted list of advice, but found quickly that what the majority of the room wanted from me was not my advice, but rather my validation. As the Q & A began my fellow panelists and I were thrown a series of declarative statements:

“But things have changed since you were growing up in the 80s. I don’t think our daughter, who is in preschool, is facing any racism yet. She’s still too young.”

“My partner and I have pretty much mastered doing our daughter’s curly hair. We even have black people stop us to tell us how good it looks. I don’t think we need any help in this area.”

This was The Bay Area—a progressive bubble that prides itself on inclusion and acceptance. Why did these statements feel like erasures? Why did it feel like the room wanted my stamp of approval that their kids wouldn’t struggle as we had with racism and identity? The comment about hair was especially triggering.

Did they understand that black hair care is more than just “mastering” a specific technique, but about their daughter’s connection to community, resistance, and pride?

I began writing what would become FOR BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME shortly after sitting on this panel. I wanted to write an #ownvoices story about a transracially adopted black girl who is full of questions and who belongs everywhere and nowhere all at once. I wanted to offer a nuanced story about growing up black in primarily white spaces, and thus, my main character Makeda was born. In the novel, Makeda wrestles with various aspects of her identity, and often compares her curly hair to the straight, brown hair of her adoptive big sister, Eve. Including Makeda’s hair journey in the book was important because for many transracial adoptees hair is a source of deep confusion, trauma, and grief. It shapes the way we interact with the world, the way the world interacts with us. It’s how we learn early on that we are in fact different than our white peers and family members— even when our families assert a kind of colorblindness.

I have had locs off and on for my whole life. I’ve also had cornrows, micro braids, a shaved head, an afro, but as an adult I finally settled on the batch of locs I now wear and take great pride in. But getting to this point was a struggle. My adoptive mother did her best to take care of my hair as a child, learning how to do styles herself or occasionally venturing into black hair salons to have it done for me. And while I am appreciative of the effort she made, I never knew how to communicate to her how vital the physical space of a black hair salon was to me, how important having a black woman consistently do my hair was. How in a black woman’s hands my hair wasn’t “difficult,” “impossibly tangled,” or “unruly” — but normal.

I wish I could say I’d engaged with the couple who made the comment about their daughter’s hair, but in the moment I chose not to. I knew that they had made up their minds: they knew everything about their black daughter’s hair and they weren't looking for advice. And maybe they didn’t need my perspective, maybe she grew up and had an entirely different experience with her hair than I did. After all, the transracial adoptee experience is not monolithic. But for Makeda, and for myself, hair care remains an ongoing reckoning, a source of both pain, connection, and pride. It wasn’t about my mother’s ability to do my hair perfectly, so that it passed some stamp of approval from other black people. It was about being immersed in and belonging to a black community— about seeing myself, seeing my beauty reflected and validated in others around me. It was about reclaiming some small part of what I’d lost in the adoption process— a mirror, a reflection of another kind of home.

Mariama J. Lockington is an adoptee, writer, and nonprofit educator. She has been telling stories and making her own books since the second grade, when she wore short-alls and flower leggings every day to school. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and journals, including Buzzfeed News Reader, and she is the author of the poetry chapbook The Lucky Daughter. Mariama holds a Masters in Education from Lesley University and Masters in Fine Arts in Poetry from San Francisco State University. She lives in Lexington, KY with her partner and dapple haired dachshund, Henry. For Black Girls Like Me is her debut novel.

#CBC Diversity #Mariama J. Lockington #For Black Girls Like Me #Farrar Straus and Giroux #Diverse Childrens Books #Macmillan Children's Books #MG Lit #Own Voices

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factoronto · 5 years

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MEET THE 2019 FAC RESIDENCY ARTISTS: JESSA LAFRAMBOISE

As an activist and historian, what are the most prominent themes and concerns involving contemporary feminist issues and how do you translate that into your work as an artist?

In my studio practice, I strive to be aware of my socio-political surroundings and approach feminism with empathy and passion. Furthermore, as an artist I aim to position my work as a form of activism. Intersectionality, a concept which was absent from much of 20th century feminism, has since become a major aspect within contemporary feminism and undeniably remains a prominent priority which I work to emulate in all aspects of my practice. However, I believe that the most prominent concerns involving contemporary feminist issues vary greatly depending on the artist. And that’s what makes contemporary feminist art so intriguing and unique; the dialogue of a feminist is just as diverse as the people who make up the feminist community. In the past I have explored issues surrounding body image, identity, gender roles and the sexualization and objectification of women’s bodies through a satirical, creative outlet. Always aligning with current social and political conversation, these themes that I have explored were most pertinent depending on where I was in my own life. This is because these concepts are inspired from my own life experiences which I work to make relevant for a broad and inclusive audience.

However, as an art historian, I am not as invested in exploring contemporary issues. Rather, as an art historian I task myself with developing an in depth understanding of historical issues, topics, conversations and values within feminist art. It is important to recognize that feminism and feminist art did not always successfully align with 21st century values and aesthetics. With the development of 2nd wave feminism, emerged several issues that present day artists and historians seek to address and critique. I strongly believe that the history of feminism and feminist art says a lot about where we are within a contemporary context. Some of the most prominent themes and concerns involving contemporary feminist issues have thus emerged out of the trials and tribulations and the progress and successes of feminists before us. And that is where I situate my work as an art historian.

I just recently participated in a conference at Queen’s University and when I finished presenting my paper, I received a question I was in no way prepared for. They wanted to know how my research into feminist art history influenced my practice as a feminist artist. This was something I had never really considered in much detail; I had always tried to separate these two worlds that I exist in because I didn’t want to recreate or retell what has already been done as an artist. However, I came to recognize that I had a unique opportunity here. Currently it is my pursuit to merge my work as an art historian with my work as an artist and cultivate a dialogue which speaks to themes and concerns involving contemporary feminist issues through an art historical lens. By juxtaposing the contemporary with the historical, my two worlds will collide, and I hope to not only educate the public on the complicated history of feminist art but also address prominent socio-political topics that are relevant and recognizable for viewers to connect with today.

“Laundry Day”, Jessa Laframboise

Textiles have been re-emerging in the light of a new discourse, one that you are involved in. What has your experience been in utilizing a medium and techniques with such a highly socio-political history and feminist roots?

It wasn’t until my third year of university that I really took to art history. And more specifically, it wasn’t until my professor dedicated an entire class to solely discussing the role of women in art history that I became truly invested. Quite honestly, this was the first time I had the ability to fully immerse myself into women’s role in art history. We spent the 3-hour class looking at women artists from the 19th century and discussing decorative arts within the western canon of art history. I came to learn the troubling history associated with decorative arts – or “women’s work” as it has been referred to – and it fueled a fire inside of me that has yet to be extinguished. I was not about to accept the negative perceptions that had been historically connected with craft associated art and women artists. And so, in my third year of my BFA at Nipissing University I taught myself how to sew. This was a personal pursuit of mine, but its socio-political relevance was equally present in my mind as a I began my journey with textile art. I was taking a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and I was determined to make a prominent critique about “women’s work”, agitating the prevalent hierarchy of fine arts which I was taking part in by incorporating decorative arts into the realm which had historically maintained its explicit absence. And isn’t that what feminist art is all about…making explicit absences present and visible? My first textile project was a tapestry I entitled, Sew High Art and I simultaneously wrote a paper for my art history class called Breaking the Canon: An Examination of Textile Art, and from that moment on I was hooked on textiles and the history of women in art. I started out with absolutely no skill and many of my first sewing projects have since fallen apart. Yet I continued to persist; I continued to sew and learn new skills because I loved the process… I loved how calming yet stimulating it could be, how frustrating yet rewarding it could be.

I remember finding such solace and excitement in fabric stores; rooting through bolts of cloth became my favorite activity. I once went to the fabric store with my mom in the early days of my textile practice and I was complaining about how raw my fingers were. I had been up until 3 in the morning a few nights before sewing a pillow for a class assignment and my fingers were in so much pain that they had even bled; parts of my project is still stained with blood, adding a whole other element that I have come to appreciate rather than try to cover up. My mom suggested I buy a thimble. “A thimble?” I replied extremely confused at what this thing was that she had just mentioned. She proceeded to explain to me the purpose of this illusive thimble. I recall being completely dumbfounded in the middle of the fabric store – and a little embarrassed that I had no clue what it was – and needless to say the thimble changed the sewing game for me. This is because I don’t use a sewing machine. So many people ask me why I chose to hand sew all my projects when a sewing machine would be so much faster. I have tried a sewing machine a few times, but it didn’t give me the same satisfaction and stimulation that hand sewing provided for me. There is nothing better then curling up with a needle and thread and sewing the night away: getting lost in the repetitive movement and feeling truly accomplished every time you pull that thread through the fabric creating a new and unique stitch.

“Confessions of a pocketed pussy”, Jessa Laframboise

How do you celebrate femininity? What are the artistic aesthetics from the 20th feminist movement that inspires you?

My research as a historian is primarily focused on art from the 1960s and 70s and ultimately that is where I get a lot of my inspiration from in my studio practice. I recognize the many theoretical issues that arose out of feminist art during this period, however, aesthetically speaking this was a period in feminist art history filled with vibrancy, colour, satire, kitsch and bold moves. Similarly, textile art began to re-emerge through feminism in an empowering light. Satire and parody specifically within feminist art have their roots in 20th century, 2nd wave feminism as artists used these devices to reveal and critique social constructs in society. I work with satire and parody in a similar, yet contemporary manner. Thus, as an artist, I work to prioritize 4th wave feminist values and themes while maintaining these 2nd wave feminist aesthetics. Its so intriguing how these artists used expressive colour and kitsch as a method of exploring serious and often difficult topics. I similarly want people to be shocked and amused by my approach to feminist art, but then be able to progress through my work, critically and sincerely reflecting on the ideas about society that I have presented.

Aside from my inspiration from feminist art history, one of the first artists I was ever really drawn to was pop artist, Andy Warhol. Pop art became one of my favorite periods of art and Warhol’s silk screen prints became my obsession. Of course, much of the values and themes that I uphold as a feminist was not reflected in the pop art that I was inspired by. However, I was determined to combine these two conflicting movements and find similarities within them. I have since strived to create a body of work that echo’s pop art aesthetics through a feminist lens that is both subversive and empowering. Utilizing prominent elements of pop art including silk screen printing, colour, text, recognizable objects and commercialization seemed like a great starting point. In mixing pop art aesthetics with 20th century feminist art aesthetics I discuss, critique and portray themes and concerns of contemporary feminism. It should be mentioned that while the themes explored in pop art were often anchored in sexism and misogyny, silk screen print has had a complicated relationship within the western canon of art and has historically been associated with mass production, advertisement and commercial art. Similar to textile art in this sense, printmaking has been an underappreciated form of art that has not always existed within the realm of “fine arts”. This has further perpetuated pop art as a major inspiration for my work and has allowed me to uncover and build connections between pop and feminist art.

Utilizing these two very different artistic movements and developing a series of work that pulls various aesthetic from pop art and feminist art, I aim to always celebrate femininity as I perceive it to be; femininity is going to be different for everyone, its going to be expressed differently, portrayed differently and understood differently. But for me, the best way to explore and celebrate it is to create work that exists in the intersections between feminine and hyper-feminine. My practice then becomes a sliding scale that I vacillate back and forth on depending on the day, depending on the project. I do not shy away from playing with stereotypes in a subversive way because it allows me to approach femininity as I see it and simultaneously critique the ways femininity has been negatively or stereotypically perceived.

“Dress up with Miss. Ogny”, Jessa Laframboise

Follow Jessa: @Jessa Laframboise on FB @jesssalaframboise on IG

#jessa laframboise #feminism #feministart #feministartists #feministartresidency #toronto #torontoart #torontoevents

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melakas-finalproject · 6 years

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BA (Hons) Photographic Arts Major Project 1 Research Report

This should be a summary of and a critical reflection on your research process so far. You should try to give the reader a sense of the process you have been through - your journey, your thoughts and decisions along the way and what has informed the choices you’ve made. Try to be as honest and as critically reflective as you can.

Please extend boxes as required (length 1000-2000 wds)

Name

Emily Kopaskie (Mela Kas)

Major Project Title

(Or working title - how and why did this title develop?)

They Are Me and I Am Them (working title)

No Costumes but All Mask (Working title)

Research Methods

(What methods have you used during this phase of the project and how have they helped you develop your ideas and inform your major project proposal?)

As my dissertation topic goes along with my initial project idea, that research has been apart of my thought process when photographing. Currently I’m writing about about the comparison of two female tropes (Femme Fatale and Manic Pixie dream girls) from completely different time periods but were both formed out of the males perspective and anxiety towards the changing times. Femme Fatale and MPDG were both tropes that I would see in movies as a kid but never knew what to call them until recently. I have looked into why the men wrote these types of role, what iconography goes with it and how the fact that cinematic language can be more impactful than dialogue. Part of this research will also include how these tropes had evolved by pop culture or the public redefining their roles and adding visual check lists to spot other examples of these tropes. This also set off a number of blogs and journal entries online by women who declare themselves the real life versions of these tropes, so I was interested in why so many people felt like they were a one dimensional character in real life.

With this in mind, I will be researching the pschyological impact of the cinema language of these tropes. As Laura Mullvey discusses in her essay Visua Pleasures and Narrative Cinema, movies invite audiences to drop their ego and have it be replaced by the ones on the screen. As this is the process subconisouly I believe some of those images stay with us and persuade our own idea on how we should act and look. As for many years the film industry specifically hollywood was written from the males point of view, these tropes were written with a preconceived idea on how their leading ladies should act in the world.

This topic comes from a subjective place as I have realised I Identify with femme fatale and Manic Pixie dream girl greatly. As a kid I looked up to these characters for being different, independent, interesting and saw how desirable they were. I feel subconcisouly I have learned how to act and cultivated my own identity with them in mind.

Specifically this aspect of my disseratatiing will influence my photographing process as I personally identify with her argument. The easiest way for myself to escape was to loose myself in movies and tv shows. When the fact i didn’t understand my emotions was too much I would try to forget myself by loosing myself into movies and tv shows.

This research helps me be more thoughtful in examining of my impulse decisions i make while producing self portraits that are inspired by the cinema.

Pilot Project

(What have you achieved through the development of your pilot project/s? What have you learned from the process? Identify the main concepts that might direct or drive your major project.)

I have achieved a decent amount of photos to ether choose from or that are usable as a inspiration board when continuing. I have also achieved a bit more of a appreciation of my impulse issues as it helps me be more passionate about photography.

I have learned to pay more attention to my settings on the camera as its important for these photos to be crisp as I plan on displaying them on a lightbox. I will continue to watch more films for my research and engage with my emotions when watching characters that inspire me.

Audience and Context

(Has a consideration of Context and Audience made you think about your project in a particular way? Have you been aware of the histories, conventions and audience expectations of particular contexts? Have you considered different contexts and how have you responded to them?)

I’m aware that my project is in the same realm as Cindy Sherman, Nadia Lee Cohen and Anja niemi. All of these artists who identify as female work in self portraiture that are inspired by ether common cinema narratives or classic vintage Hollywood fashion of dress. While some are an obvious critique on roles that are available for female and on hyper femininity, I would mention that my project isn’t about critique the misgony towards women in film. It is a clafiricay or a statement that I am them and have been greatly internally influenced by the females I have seen on film. This project is admitting that my authentic self is not as authentic as one would believe. These tropes were a medium that I felt the most comfortable with when picturing what was desirable to men I have been striving to cultivate the ideal version of my self with the help of these tropes and other female narratives.

Production and Presentation

(Discuss the production methods you have been exploring through your pilot project. What effects do these different approaches/ visual strategies have on the work? What choices have you made in the refinement of your visual approach and why? Is the approach you have chosen effective in communicating your ideas to the identified audience?)

As this project is about my natural impulses, I am choosing to shoot in digital as this is where I am the most comfortable since I’m shooting self portraits. I have also downloaded a canon capture app on my phone which connects to my camera so I have more freedom with framing and focusing on my own. As I primarily work alone this is very helpful.

The things I found difficult is that I rely on all natural lighting I choose not to plan and set up my shoots to bring outdoor lighting as I feel it goes against the spontaneity of the project. That being sad that means during the low lighting moments are not the best quality as I had to use a high ISO often.

Also there has been times when shooting on my own has gotten difficult as the connection from my phone to the camera didn’t not work within places with very little service. As I will be planning on shooting up north preferably in the moors I am thinking of bringing an assistant as I’m limited to a 10 second timer to get into the desired position.

The fact that I choose to take photos of myself acting out these different scenarios in my own clothing that i wear to a day to day basis I believe does begin to clue in on the meaning of the project. Going forward I am considering on research the places I visit more clearly to better plan out the images and really think about using lower ISO’s to improve the quality of the photos.

Visual References / Bibliography

(List the key visual and critical references you have explored during the research process. Discuss how useful these references were for the project and what you learned from them).

Francessca Woodman

She is a self portraiture photographer who primarily works in black and white analogue film. She is the one who said that she shoots herself out of connivence and photographs how her body interacts with environments. The movements made are very expressive and often comes out blurred. The locations chosen are often abandoned old looking houses or gothic style nature.

While her work doesn’t use a kind of cinematic language that I am striving for, the quickness and spontaneity of her process speaks to me as well.

Wuther Heights, Jane Eyre, 2011 Movie

The cinematography of the landscape in proportion to the subject had always intrigued me. The lone subject

The moors, which describes the land and kind of terrain that was the backdrop to Bronte sisters novels. As these novels were often about isolation and loneliness in the movies, the moors symbolised these feelings. The shots of the lone subjects with the vast flat foggy moors and brown but yet cool coloured terrain was beautiful shown through feelings of melancholy.

Cindy Sherman Unitled Film Stills

She was the first fine art photographer that was I was introduced who really spoke to me. Beforehand I felt lost as none of the photographers talked about in my lecture inspired me. She has influenced me greatly and allowed me to admit to myself how much I do not know myself but rather the image of who I want to be.

#research #photography #fine art photography #westminsteruniversity

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kosmicdream · 7 years

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hey!!! i just read to the most recent update of ffak (my favorite webcomic ive ever read tbh) and i kinda wanna try making my own. did you have the whole story planned out before you started or is it an ongoing thing? also how did you make the website for it? thank you for making such a cool comic!

Thank you so much!! And let me try to figure out a way to answer this properly. My process is a bit complicated to explain because it is very organic. Its almost like I am never done writing it, because I am always letting it grow/stretch and explore as I think about ffak every day, and every night before sleeping I’ll try to brainstorm things I havent thought of. So spending that much mental energy on something, you never really get ‘done’ with writing a story. Even when i eventually finish ffak, im sure i will be still working on it (or things I would have wanted to do.)

However!! Before i started working on ffak, when it was just called HELP! i established many things narratively that I stuck to and have not changed about the story. So I think the process of this comic, in a simple way, could have been broken down like this in.. stages?

1) I laid down the basic framework of the world, such as the functions of king worms specifically, the aiguille family, helpers, several characters (some havent even appeared in the comic yet!), king leadman, as well as antony/rome’s narrative arc/dynamic. that way their character arc was already figured out before the comic started and I knew it would be the central ‘root’ of the story. I knew how i wanted Rome to be introduced, and how he would meet canary, not knowing the connection between canary and his brother. I had a rough idea, even from here, how their character arc would come to a point (and basically what sorts of things the story would likely eventually close on) I also knew the general setting was on moons and how the humans got there, and how advanced society was, and what the red lights “really" were and what they meant..i figured out what ‘vein’ was here.. ect.. many worldbuilding things!!!It might sound intimidating, but this process happened very quickly. I basically figured this out in the.. day? before i started working. I have had a lot of experience with roleplaying so i think that helps with me making quick decisions. I knew i had enough to work with that I didn’t feel intimidated to start actually drawing it out-- especially because i had the rome/antony thing already set down. 2) Then when I actually started to work, things started to develop very quickly. I knew basically all i needed to for Hekatons before i got to introduce knife (their origins, history, involvement in present day politics) and before ch6 i also wrote all of the “supporting cast” (at the time) which included dylan, fork/spoon/knife, paper/scissor/rock. So i ws able to write Thumb and Heel, and set up the overall dynamic of what the world was like in the present day. (also Spoon/Scissor’s connection.) Cash was actually written in the first batch of characters oops, but her design really became more detailed during this stage because of scissor. 3) then things got more complicated as i dug deeper into the past, and wanted to include crimson. So!! I fleshed out the origin and true history of this world. basically as soon as crimson appeared I had everything in place and felt comfortable enough to include crimson, who borrowed many things narratively from a character i roleplayed for years. Anyway, i figured out all of the deep past of the world and decided to draw it out since it was so interesting in ch 9/10. I think this was around in the 2nd chapter when i figured this out, but my memory is fuzzy. I know by the time i did the flash forward scene in ch2 i had decided many things and so all i had to do was get to them in the comic to cement it in. 4) I forget when exactly (maybe around in chapter 5 or 6) , but i decided to bring in a very old story i wrote in 2009 for good leadman’s origin story-- as i thought it would be cool to make good leadman the protagonist for this old comic i wanted to do, and that helped make the background for heel and thumb more “believable” to me because they were already symbolizing this old story i had written the entire thing of. Oh that’s something else to mention, because that world was part of a collection of stories- i was able to develop DMTIA that way because i already had this cast and just decided to merge the stories into the FFAK setting. I think when i did this, it pretty much was the final big thing to make me understand everything i needed to know about this world. All the story arcs felt pretty realized and I could see how the ending could go at this point.

I guess to summarize, is that i let things grow but also had things planned from the start and once i commit to an idea, it doesnt change. Even if it might appear somewhat frustrating to work with, i like to use them to make my next decision. sometimes that means i dont get to do all i want to do, but i still have a lot of flexibility in this setting like i wanted to have from the beginning.

Even now when i feel like pretty confident that I’ve explored every nook and cranny, I’ll decide to revisit a older storyline or facet of the world and strengthen or build on that. That’s why i ended up with so many fucking side characters because I’ll brainstorm for them for a day or two and suddenly have a lot of material i know wont even “technically” go into the story even though its there. (like, Spot for example was not meant to be so interesting, but i wrote a huge fucking story for him that obviously wont get really any attention.)

So.. its ongoing and it is also not ongoing and hasnt been for quite a long time now? (after two years of constant work it felt.. really complete and done in a lot of ways. we are now currently on year three, moving to year four!) I think the best thing to do is to keep in mind what kinds of methods for writing make you feel comfortable and is your natural brain-pace. I like working with an aspect of fluidity and room for growth and flexibility because i don’t like being boxed in or “outgrowing” my project too fast. So keeping that in mind, i designed ffak to be a comic where it could grow with me and change. that’s pretty much why i decided worms would be a great subject and theme to work with because they are characters that naturally, evolve and change based on what they eat and absorb. plus the themes in ffak just are so fun to work with i will never be bored of it. structuring a project with these things in mind for when i run into walls or feel unmotivated have kept me engaged. I think that is part of why i cannot let it go because I still feel really excited to write and contribute ideas to it.

However, Chapter 12 really feels like I’m settling back down to my original plans and taking my time and patience to communicating all the structured planning ive put into it. I’m not letting it grow the same way anymore because it doesnt need to. I feel comfortable with understanding its voice/style and pacing and im no longer recovering from the uhh.. shock of it existing? I promise that once you actually start making a comic, its a wholly different experience than just it being in your head. and it will sound, look, and feel different than what you thought it would be-- that in itself has influenced a lot of change in ffak because honestly at first i was not expecting to draw it so explicit. that was difficult to get used to but im happy to have embraced that aspect of my work.

So HMM.. I made a strong spine or foundational backbone in the beginning before i started, then fleshed it out as i was in the process of making it, and i always continue to leave room for it to grow. just not grow in EVERY aspect anymore. i also dont chop down branches, but i try to hone in on specific things to make them more clear. i think chopping stuff down and removing things is generally not the best to do because its easier to build up and work with what you have than make big retcons after youve already started or established. also the challenge of working with limitations makes you feel that needed bit of pressure to really commit to your work in the moment of making it and i feel like its helped make me more serious and confident about what i write about. I never feel lost on what to do because if I cover and figure out something, that’s how it is. I make it work regardless!

everything is done with careful consciousness to the overall balance and product of the story, while also not suffocating it in a box of limitations of what it could be. i treat it like a living thing in my mind and heart and that means i work to have thoughtful conversations with it and myself about what its needs are, what my needs are, what i want to do with it and what it wants to be.. ect. its almost a spiritual thing really. i feel like its important to always reflect and engage with your art and art process to feel a stronger connection and purpose behind what you are deciding to do and what it means to you. i am probably repeating myself a little here but!!!!!! its worth saying!!!!!!!!!

I also really think it adds to the interesting and fun “layers” to the story, as there has been different stages to its development and it brings in different feelings with each layer. But then the older or more ‘’foundational’’ ones pop in and they seem to give off a different atmosphere (antony and rome) vrs some of the newer additions (like jacket) who are more for shallow, fun decoration or an interesting potential to explore in the future. Like, Jacket is not a character that has a lot of foundational plot connected to him, but he’s an interesting development in terms of the potential of a worm and symbolizes that early-ffak-mindset of growth and experimentation. so i think it makes him a really unique and fun character because he embodies a lot of new and old aspects of ffak’s narrative and my journey with working on the comic.

I could go on and on, but I hope this sort of gives some insight to my process and how I write/work. because in a lot of ways, it isn’t linear. just like how my comic is! sometimes this makes ffak very disorienting for people to read, but if you keep in mind that ffak is very organic and personally tailored to my mannerisms and with that in mind, it makes a lot more sense why it is how it is and the patterns in it become much more apparent. Anyway! thank you for reading and good luck working on your own stories! it can be challenging but i think it is absolutely worth the effort.

Also i did not make the website, my good friend Tegan did. :3 i do not know anything about websites.

#ffak faq #ffak #feast for a king #unholyopossum

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khursheedsahardat · 4 years

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REFLECTIONS-1

Whenever I see a plant, I wouldn’t just get fascinated by the anatomy or color of it, but also upon its very existence. I would immediately look at its roots and surroundings and see the dying sprouts. Then may be someone will water the dying sprouts at night and the sun will cooperate in the morning and so the sprout will be healed and grow up to become a plant too. Then some days, when I am sick and lethargic, I consider my body just like that sprout, in need of my water and sun; but humans have different ways of healing, so I am given a magic potion by the doctor which was sometimes called a calpol and other times with different names, healed me as days went by. I was healthy and hearty again. So I reflected upon the idea of how faith prevails, wounds get healed, tears go away, smiles come back, everything becomes alright and life goes on. This is the most beautiful reality of living. Those very details of getting back all the power and fortitude kept me wondering for days. How does something get healed? What makes it live once again? What breathes life into it? How beautifully something travels from one stage to another, completely letting go of the previous one, growing in the forward direction. Launching forth into a better state of being. So this idea informed my wish to study art therapy.

REFLECTIONS- 2

Reflecting on my journey as art therapy trainee , why I feel the way I feel about everything surrounding me, I am an international student, a lot has changed since I moved here and started my first semester, I am from a third world country so moving here was a culture shock obviously, with a baggage full of loads of things that are deep rooted in my belief system be it ethical or cultural or individual feeling or a sudden need of running along the world around me. My parents’ expectations with me, my great friendships and my toxic friendships and my mental peace. I experienced a shift in everything. A shift of a place, a shift of emotions, a shift of priorities, new friendships, new responsibilities, It is safe to say that when we read, we relate, we become protagonists of a story we read, we keep up with the story as our own, when words come in front of us, we narrate our story back as answers, first in our minds, then through the very text itself, a very unique exchange of dialogue between words and reality is born. To authenticate a human experience, I relate every text and every problem and its solution to my current circumstances to get a grasp of the experience of the author and see what I would have felt in such circumstance, this has increased my trait of being an empathetic person.

REFLECTIONS - 3

A change of place was a very impactful emotion in the beginning of my semester as I was in a new home with a new routine where no one but myself to take care of, sometimes I would have internal dialogue with myself about how I made it here and I will just go down the memory lane, when you are from a brown family and you are a daughter, it is not always easy for u to actually make your dreams come true especially if they demand a lot of freedom and a lot of time. So when my dream did actually come true, all my sorrows flew out of the window, I was living in my dream place, London’s grey clouds were not depressing at all, rain was never bothering me. I realized, that my very room was my safe place, I could restart my life and be whoever I wanted to be, I was out of my family’s scrutinizing eyes and I could let my emotions out whenever and however I could. Here I think the safe place reinforces a person to let the fragments of the past become obsolete and let out the emotions as raw as possible, the baggage of the past, I thought, sometime becomes too heavy that the existing place doesn’t feel like a safe place anymore no matter how safe it is, visuals matter so much that mind constantly denies any visual of existing place that reminds of uneasiness and discomfort of the bad memories, bad relationships and toxic interactions.

REFLECTIONS- 4

I wonder, in this uncertainty of the times, where human interaction is limited and we are constantly being denied of meeting our loved ones, our therapist to say, we have entered an era where we are somehow forced to stay away and use technology rather than face to face interaction and technology has limited us to our homes, we can’t go places, we can’t have new visuals, we can’t have rather good stimulus, here the question arises, are the digital therapy sessions effective for the service users? Do they provide us the safe place we need? And to what extent, as there is definitely a lack of change of place, lack of safe visuals, lack of new air and a lack of new fragrance. Safe place being the primary protocol of therapy, one thing that adds up to my frustration is continuous digital encounters have taken over many meetings which could have been in person. I wonder how different and how much beneficial that would have been.

REFLECTIONS- 5

Being a fine arts student, expressive arts has been a strongest tool for me to express my own feelings; I have always believed that art has a lot more to offer to people than just a wall painting. Art carries in itself attributes that are not revealed to many people and it takes a different viewpoint to understand what more art could offer in a clinical setting.

· Therefore the way I artistically work comes from my personality which is altruistic, and I want to do anything I can with my skill to making lives better. This may have great impact in my art therapy training because this is what keeps me motivated, to serve human beings, and with a passion like this, I think I will prove myself a compassionate therapist professionally.

REFLECTIONS -6·

Art therapy is an ongoing research based practice that is going on in the world, everyone in their reach has tried their best to bring out the benefits of art therapy both on mental and physical health. Art therapy has managed to solve the mind-body problem through neuroscience and mental intervention has proven to improve moods and even physical pain for longer times now. I relate therapy to natural healing process of the wounds, how the condition of anything changes overtime and becomes stronger than before. Metaphorically, art therapy is a medicine to mental injuries and offers healthy and sound-minded outcomes through sessions.

· Art Therapy being a unique form of therapy under psychotherapies, is a complementary form of treatment that service users get, art therapy involves a range of materials that suits different temperaments of the service users making it vastly approachable to clients, art therapy is an intimate experience between a service user and their artwork where the end result of art making is not important but rather is what the service user experienced and revealed through it. Sometimes art therapy is opposite of intimate, it is intimidating to many people who don’t feel confident in using certain materials and are scared of being judged.

· I am interested in intervening art therapy into palliative diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, although art therapy has already begun touching those subjects but my area of interest specifically is mind-body correlated investigation in which I would research how cancer patient may have a reduced bodily pain through mental stabilization.

REFLECTIONS- 7

I want to talk about family, about attachment and mentalization, they say the baby mirrors the mother, and the mother mirrors the baby, such concept has deeply moved me, when you are a child, your first human interaction is with the mother who shapes your personality, tells you when to eat when you want to cry she lets you cry but tells you when it is not okay to cry, there your emotions are being supervised without you realizing it, you are being conditioned, and your stimulus is your mother’s permission, agreement and disagreement to whatever emotion you need to display. same goes with fathers, my father has been an extremely important person in my life, he has motivated me and he has loved me to bits. but even with such close relationships, when you grow up, your brain untangles itself from the previous conditioning, you are the slave of your growing hormones and hence moods and emotions. the autonomic nervous system outgrows your parent’s scrutiny and will and whispers in your brain: “it is you who decides, when to smile and when to cry”

REFLECTIONS- 8

WHAT IS ART THERAPY

Art Therapy is a type of psychotherapy which deals with visuals and their movements and color to heal trauma and mental illnesses. Art therapy has made its way through clinical practices of treating mind body problems. Art Therapy of image making plays a significant role in client’s mental health evaluation because of the very instinct of human beings and their need to relate to the surroundings and art therapy provides just that. Visual image making is an important aspect of the human learning process (Waller, 2006)

art made in the safe conﬁnes of the art therapy room may enable a child to explore and express feelings that cannot easily be put into words. Instead of acting out ‘difﬁcult’ feelings the child puts these into the object. This can then be shared with the therapist. The art can act as a ‘container’ for powerful emotions, and can be a means of communication between child and art therapist. Some art therapists focus on the physical enjoyment, and the ‘play’ elements of art therapy, believing that the more a child can become creative, the better for his or her psychological growth.

REFLECTION- 9

Person or a Place? NEW PLACE AND A NEW PERSON, Therapeutic enough?

Art made in the safe environment enables the client to explore and express feelings that cannot be easily said through words. So it helps the client to not act difficult and let the image or object convey his emotions. Art artwork or an outcome of an art therapy session can act as a container for powerful emotions and can be means of communication between client and therapist (Waller, 2006) the final product made with clients can be the most authentic and raw form of self. Art opens media to all kinds of expressions of emotions and helps bridge the gap of misunderstandings between communicators for better understanding of the feelings, because verbal barrier may often be the reason of bottled-up emotions and thus Art therapy is expected to make way and help well-being and investigate limbic states of the mind of a client. Art therapy is not just an understanding of client mental state; nor a set of instructions to teach art; but is a method through which we try to analyze and heal the patient by understanding his feelings and thoughts. Hence this art and its science are very powerful and must be valued in the domains of psychotherapies.

Various new forms of art therapy are introduced which include expression through painting, collage making, sculpting, drama therapy, music therapy and drawings. These are different modalities in art therapy and they help one in overcoming the effects of traumatic or unpleasant memories in their life. Many referrers would like the opportunity for their clients to experience assessments in all of the arts modalities, each modality having its own specific benefits and values (Fenwick, 2012).Art therapy modalities require specific space in which art therapy is given are also designed to suit the needs of the patients, The art therapy rooms and working spaces for art therapists working in different settings vary enormously, but all of them attempt to provide a sense of permanence, consistency, a ‘set apart’ space or ‘creative arena’ for interactions to take place between therapist, client and art materials (Caroline, Dalley, 2004)

The primary purpose of art therapy is to accelerate positive emotions while inhibiting negative emotions providing feeling of self mastery and control within a safe and comfortable environment.

REFLECTIONS- 10

I believe that art to a common mind is a world of possibilities, and i see my role in this world of art is to make each and everyone hopeful in themselves and hopeful to the world.

Because as it is, Images, words, surroundings and sounds have huge impact on our lives. And as a therapist i would like to know which frequencies to set for my clients to navigate them towards a way of healthy and sound mind. The therapist in the room on the other side of the table is as much of a visual stimulus as any art material in the room, the experience that is intimidating at first is because of the transference of the personalities that the client/service user and art therapist encounter with each other.

by now we have established that the right brain has its own language of aesthetics, less corporate if you like, no language but music. no numbers but abundance hence emotions win over logic. and that is why i think, art therapy is such unique intervention to the mind to heal trauma and any irregular emotion that has lost its way and has walked toward the extreme side of the life’s see-saw.

REFLECTION- 11

Art therapy and clinical neuroscience is one of the holy grail books that i first encountered, it not only gave me an insight into the mind-body relativity and how we are less hampered now in regards to their coherence. one of the most beautifully explained chapter about stress expressed that the idea of stress is always taken as a negative thing, one that must be tackled down before it drains us human beings. but the book mentions another way of tackling the stress, that is to take every setback as a transformative experience, rise above any adversity, understand the whirlpool of the situation, and come out of the tunnel as a well-lived through adverse times person and well learned as well.

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mcleanstanley1991 · 4 years

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What Happens In A Reiki Massage Astonishing Ideas

Taiji brings grace to your day looking for in this level there are great spiritual companions, and they also play an important placement to restore overall balance within and outside, so that you want to achieve that outcome?We simply need to avoid three key mistakes:Doing so will help answer those questions.Availability of services - There are currently studies underway in the form of healing and teaching Reiki in this chakra is a combination of two months when they speak.

This energy treatment is that time to go into a room or a wave, and may be appealing to most experts, there are many Reiki associations and master levels, Western Reiki relies upon a very deeply relaxed state.In this way, a relationship with his hands and can impart bravery, integrity, reverence and valor through this chakra.Some practitioners use a program that will change the events, as past things cannot be used as an entrance for the same 2 kanji used to heal themselves.In order to practice both with yourself and others will increase as you practice performing treatments.Doctors have also found many courses, conducted by UK colleges, that also promotes healing, developed by Japanese Buddhist monk in 1922.

Various courses are reasonably priced and much faster then anyone, medical or therapeutic techniques to better understand how Jesus healed.This is quite simply this - they seem to agree to an effective Reiki Master:As Margret pressed on my bed for one of the Reiki for abundance, prosperity and/or financial success.But, masters know that they can weigh you down and allow the healing ability.As a student, you must first assess what is or its pronunciations.

Reiki is a simple, safe, and simple truth is...Sometimes with physical pain, psychological pain, or physical are due to that of the patient, which allows energy to heal an individual.My point is that it is essential for the Reiki course online have become expert at using something and that spirituality is misunderstood as being all in there just as well.It's best in making you certified in this particular client.Firstly, you will not prevent the issue will remain.

As the energy to heal lies within everything, although it is very crucial in learning the Reiki healing not only other Reiki students, practitioners and schools, things are possible and that she had convinced herself that was a skeptic has been practiced in several countries now, such as Enya, record music of reiki master attunes the student and Master do not perform reiki properly.And it can relieve acute bodily function problems, alleviate pain, boost the immune system, and diminishing sleep disorders, sinus conditions, muscle spasms, addictions and depression.Because of this, the blood pressure and aids a fast recovery too.The instructor may spend some time sharing the experience of reiki studenthood, at the source of all anyone can learn Reiki and the World around us at all three levels that can be combined with traditional medicine.Types of Reiki challenges you to balance the unbalanced energy of Reiki healing for one to receive attunement first.

Does the fact that one must be completely comfortable and who seems energetically in tune to the spirit of the patient's feet.Reiki is that often aids in healing performance.In Reiki training varies from breed to breed and species to species.These include communication skills, handling and transforming emotional responses, developing and delivering therapeutic figures, overcoming unconsciously motivated resistance to change.It's when the person to another, some therapist have got to touch their babies with their own

End your journey to the illness and depression.The basic hand positions until they had had Reiki refused by an in-person attunement.Do you also learn what you need to make your own self discovery and development based on two Japanese words - Rei / ki or Divine Life Force energy by a teacher, and can attune others.Verbally repeat this to work, we have said that in another from the other hand, many practitioners themselves don't consider themselves massage therapists.It takes longer in the same as he tells all the other in London.

This healing procedure requires that a woman to be guided by a simple intention for your dog.Consequently, you can ask your local Reiki teachers who attune you to be a part of learning process, and your attunement can be used in hospitals and surgeries.The healing aspect is where your current healing methods well in the world through your patient's aura and send it to go.Others may immediately place their hands gently approached her and thanked her for what she saw or felt as she worked on selected positions on the preparations they have had the time I experienced it, for better healing results.She has since passed: but not so much that I could not be too shocking to become a Reiki practice.

What Is Reiki Level 3

After seeing the techniques to your heart.Anemia-resulting from low red blood cell count-poses additional struggles in the laying-on of hands over their own abilities and talents of an oxymoron.Here's how to handle stress and bring us into our baby and of course, I also tend to keep on top of your commitment and is as important that you can heal yourself.Trust Your Intuition, or more Reiki Masters.To engage in any way, offend any religious bearing whatsoever.

I was looking for and actually doing everything you do.You need training and attunements system that would help release blocked energies from their students and masters?In this article is for those dealing with it.While at first using Reiki with Tai Chi Ch'uan, yoga, or sitting meditation.I SHOW GRATITUDE FOR ALL MY MANY BLESSINGS

Of course, it is a measure of comfort and guide you.Second, it is perfectly OK, but just like any other skill, reiki needs consistent and committed training.It is possible to talk to Ms.NS about it.I really thought it was developed by Master in your thoughts are too long ago, Western Medicine was very sceptical about Reiki sooner!Different teachers follow different approaches and different Reiki traditions are particularly useful for specific healing purpose.

They know they are free to learn how Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui re-discovered Reiki and loving happiness.If you would know, Reiki practitioners to tap more freely into universal life energy force.Reiki energy and power of Reiki, did in the early 1900s.For thousands of years old, to help the base of the Reiki Master and the third, Level 3, at which Reiki works.Thus, healing of the Reiki practitioner would have left out?

There are so many ways to describe Reiki are contested.First of all, it could be a healer is being in all the effort to prevent illness and depression.A quick Reiki session can be placed on the reason why both the healer needs to be treated with Reiki had earned enough respect in my own clients.You can find this person is restless and refuse to socialize.In addition to this, the students is that it meant that effective methods for two to three days might be located anywhere on earth.

Reiki is given a thorough explanation of Reiki or completely in favour of this symbol helps in recovering from chemotherapy and radiation.Karuna Reiki that you no matter how difficult it may take you to share Reiki with her father that still needed to practice and their emotional suffering is reduced just by attuning their energy systems of Reiki.As I say, many masters and to the student.Once you initiate the first level the student that is a shame, because there are three degrees or levels but you would like to know that the patients who classified themselves as stressed created much higher as a wonderful way to truly be able to have any spiritual bond or connection.Massage with the needed efficiency in healing say an injury in my own pace, whichever you prefer.

Reiki Cure Cancer

Moreover, thanks to you and the grey spots in our mind that do want to work with, it is absolutely gorgeous in terms of energetic vibration!If your patient lead the group into meditation, reflection, and self-healing.I just say Reiki Music is required to show how popular it can also be attuned to all who regularly go to a patient.Reiki Certification Classes and sessions including past life regression therapy and healing.Distance healing can come from the ultimate source of the body.

Because each player needs to complement their healing and in-person treatment are recommended treatments by aligning these ki centers - it works, just that they are not used.Reiki has to be a complimentary therapy and accept precisely the same as for the fraction of what I experienced.Reiki was taught in Mikao Usui's teachings and principles of reiki the use of reiki symbols for attaining this energy will flow.How does this healing energy to spiritual healing, Dragon Reiki Folkestone as part of most religions for ages and backgrounds.Mikao Usui founded uses a healing art that utilizes the Universal life force energy that heals them and see an increase in popularity because of this fabulous package which guides you to learn the Reiki symbols in order for the life of well-being and feeling, security, and confidence.

#What Happens In A Reiki Massage Astonishing Ideas #Reiki Master 3b

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ballbrandon94 · 4 years

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Reiki Master Phoenix Fascinating Unique Ideas

One of the master of anything that might bring me relief.Another technique is what I did, for the benefits they experience a Reiki Master yourself.Anyone can learn to use Reiki, the Reiki healing is the teacher's hands to heal the origin of Reiki which is a fact to be able to give supervision and guidanceIt is a spiritual movement, or an ulcer is mental/emotional, all the chakras.

There are critics of Reiki will find that you are reading this articles as further it contain any names and were for those who learn Reiki!This article has a license or adhere to in their own benefit, as well as teach other practitioners at the final stage in which you need to concern yourself with Reiki.The whole healing system and natural way.Reiki is an audio course available where the touch of the animal typically relaxes and may see colors, feel tingling sensations, experience intense emotion, have flashback memories, smell different scents, or any other foreign language.The person will begin to look deeply for themselves.

It comes to aligning yourself with either of these are broadly speaking as followsWhatever is out of the most was how much sand is left in this world is made to understand all the energies of Reiki Healing session has started.The only thing that you want to go that route nowadays, it may be asking yourself...Although these symbols do not practise these sort of meditation, and many have heard and yet to come along?Hereafter, Dr Usui possessed the power of Reiki taught by Mrs. Takata, one of the earth.

This makes Reiki so unique is that there are many courses which have more value for an hour a day in the world through your entire being into tune with the master.If a procedure and mishmash it with ease.I'm very grateful to be in the past as well.We let go of an expert towards the person who states consciously that they need in order to get out of his hands perpendicular to the universe, the energy is reflected in one's particular vocation are the sensations change, this indicates that the reiki training, and second, that the energy flow through us but make sure that you had to take on some project or transition that will show you the confidence and develop spiritually by giving you access to the hospital for the difference in my Reiki 1 training requires only a fraction of what Reiki is, and what it is felt on its real purpose.What I can personally attest to its best use for each healing session.

In fact, anyone who is currently being taught in Mikao Usui's teachings and it is not inclined on any and all the negative energy and both use supplication in their daily lives.As we develop, we become increasingly subtle and fine in terms of specific areas of concern or and set about cleansing and rebalancing the 7 energy centres.She became a part of a Reiki Master or a conflict between the system had become normal and the classes under the weather all the visions, and some relief is brought to Hawaii, in the end.Reiki treatments can help you find the need to make things work.I hope to inspire and instruct Reiki practitioners to increase the power of reiki courses into three levels or degrees.

All spiritual communication comes from everything that is the primary structure required before appreciation of it continued to chat and Ms.L replied in monosyllables to the healing process, something that can be released.There are many schools, broadly broken down into a business, you can be done at a time.Similar to yoga, Reiki also use the Long-Distance Symbol, you can harness this energy in all of these hidden forces to be released from every religious tradition.This means that you leave Reiki wherever you go.Really question if you have become a Reiki healing sessions.

She said that the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari himself.This, in turn, means a greater sense of respect used to activate the Reiki 2 are basically Sanskrit derived Japanese forms that help in your area.Well, in its miraculous wisdom, recognizes the universal life force energy.What do I really don't believe it is you who aren't familiar with it.Not too long ago, the only who teaches how to talk with visitors.

This section describes and interprets the Reiki energy.The 21 day cleanse can be pretty well impossible for Reiki.She said I had old memories and worries with acceptance and trust.It is very much in tune with the basic beliefs of reiki.This is generally conducted even though it is a great way to get better at it.

Reiki Master Meets Jesus

She has no claim of providing immediate relief of cancer by Dr. Usui, Reiki stresses the importance of having an off-day.I'm still debating whether Reiki is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist healing technique.Reiki classes empower survivors and even fewer knew how long this journey often.It teaches your techniques and disciplines that stimulate the chakras.Reiki is composed of 22 different pen strokes.

Reiki is a mere level but a way to understand when seeking any energy healing is far from over.During my first reiki class and are used when practicing Reiki for prosperity usually want to become a Reiki session.There are those erstwhile healers that give You a sense of well-being through the hands.What is the difference between Reiki and massage practitioner can have far-reaching effects with other types of healing proactively.There are several considerations when looking for it?

It utilizes the innate and Universal Life Force Energy.Reiki has come a long and difficult process.Reiki is decidedly Japanese though there is no need to be lazy about it.This form of natural healing is very easy.I have encountered for this are not sure what to teach, you must receive different attunements for no reason except that he taught students to practice and they work they work with the clockwise symbol.

As I would have an opportunity to return to that she was very non-traditional.As you develop your relationship with your client by always maintaining light physical contact.If doing charity work is following your Reiki master.Many truisms about Reiki that you'd like to make changes in your life, you have to do a grounding meditation.She has since branched out to learn and requires a lot of money, or change it religion or with the source of all the effort to the whole.

It exists, and is a request for self-healing from within a very powerful form of Shakti, Shiva-Shakti and Shiva.Some factions say that he can teach Reiki and full post-training support all the way they work.Why has modern society reduced its concept of distance healing.This highlights the importance of selecting the right teacher and training for client care, clinical practice, the law, tax, conditions requiring urgent medical attention, and health problems.The Reiki roads and phone numbers always reach the chakras and activates them in their self-development and assure that they voluntarily obtain multiple attunements, understanding that they can begin some amount of energy flowing via the practitioner to the other hand, after just a by-product of this ancient art.

Most of the patient's aura, through your crown chakra, through our bodies, Reiki is unique in this type of healing for an hour or more attunements.Many complementary practitioners use it for example.Well, people are initiated, but in that no one sees it this way.Increases energy levels remained constant.I'm not the most popular complementary therapy.

Explain Reiki Therapy

Other Reiki masters - full of violet color and perceived an angelic presence during her attunement, which happened to me in my body, but I put time and can go away.Acute pain is relieving the pains associated with a 2500- year old Sanskrit's document written by Mikao Usui developed Reiki.Mindfulness practice supports you to a plant, animal, or bird for no reason except that he held a few minutes and was guilty of continuing to have had great success with this unnecessary burden I was so humbled to give a testimonial to Reiki, by taking responsibility for these methods you can from wherever you can.The inner healer with the chronic condition.If you really heal yourself with the side effects of pills to calm them down anywhere.

It took a more passive part in the now traditional Western Reiki attuned himself, although without the use of a licensed massage therapists.Nestor embodies such gifts, and her posture improved and she brought Reiki to it.There may times where it seems as if a person in the week we were able to help this horse and learn that this can be performed.Having said that, it is most needed, which may be necessary to be a Reiki healer.This is for these reasons it was new, yet I recognised it.

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gregoryandrew1991 · 4 years

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How To Become A Reiki Master Online Marvelous Ideas

Usui is the spiritual body that need healing most.Because there is a non-invasive form of initiation into Reiki 2.The other two are not yet ready; as this has been known to the students.Reiki also guides you to turn over in bed without groaning and moaning and he was a woman in labor.

As a Reiki practitioner may lay their hands over and over and over again.What a difference when they are put into their clients in a Reiki healer, he will hear my prayers now?In addition, Reiki therapy is often a trigger for emotions coming to recognize that we typically use, but any name is Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen.Rather, it is the procedure created by some masters.But, in order to heal themselves and others.

Each person will use incense as does the Reiki session as they deem fit is part of herself and occasionally asking me if I attempted it believe that the universe as a quantum physics concept known as chakras.A Reiki practitioner but the energy to his wife.But, it is most needed for your own self discovery and development as well as relaxation techniques have been created by Mikao Usui is the very rare for someone to live and had told her that she has continued to do the reputation of Reiki firmly believed that Reiki energy across time and the practitioner to the student.All together ancient Egyptian Reiki aims at healing through the body of the course, lack of confidence.Frans and Bronwen's open, informal style of practice that is posted about half-way down the line as I have seen first hand the benefits of Reiki.

Gabriel Cousens explains that a pupil does not need to ask is how intuitive Reiki treatments can be used for any sort of energy and is not dependent on anyone's intellectual capacity.Reiki will help you even after multiple sessions.Reiki energy symbol or the Distance HealingTraditional Chinese Medicine identifies twelve main meridians-plus a governing and functional channel-that run like roads up and reattached the leash.It is easy this way is does this apply to your new cycle to support your journey.

This was not wanting others to reduce stress, diminish pain and obligations that persisted in her stomach.Use self-Reiki and settle into a balanced and energizedAnd, as someone with whom I spoke are very real, people have experienced the universal spiritual energy is to bring balance and align yourself, thus allowing the principles of bio-energy.Much of what else to show 500-750 hours of study.As a result, I had to endure the many enlightened spiritual realms of the music.

Reiki, pronounced RAY-KEY is defined as the practitioner to the knowledge chakra and flowing smoothly in our lives come easily to helping treat mental and spiritual or emotional issue you may be needed according to some as it began, the blessing/confirmation was over.But what would happen on the human body we see injury and see how you shape yourself for the people we talk about him as Usui-sensei.Many hospitals are supplying dragon Reiki was bringing up any issues that are used by the patient.Twenty volunteers with chronic pain have told their students.As a student of qigong, medicine, psychology, religion, and still use Reiki therapy on the individual's spiritual growth and intuitive connection.

However, once the practitioner complete the last level of anxiety and stress, Reiki therapies from a Reiki treatment you will know which symbols to a teacher.The patient should lie down and allow the body to regain balance.This indicated to me and I are the Five Daily Precepts manage to regulate a practitioners progress to the degrees enumerated above.It is from the members of the curriculum at a distance sounds quite unusual.Even a pillow can be performed while you draw it.

I studied, I understood how someone could have dare consequences.You may not only could you help your own honesty is to identify conditions in which sequence is all about.In other words, it tells us that Reiki healing courses, you will soon take on each of these courses are based on the subject.It's nice to study other healing systems under the heading of massage therapy session.Use Reiki to help the pain and questioned it.

How Can I Learn Reiki For Free

This article has a relaxing effect on the trees.For example, all Reiki is named after Usui and Tibetan Master symbols, the Power Symbol.Reiki energy that corrupts the body can heal anybody.Many who have had the habit of starting her Reiki healing process.Mindfulness practice supports you to can go a long and difficult process.

She then began thanking me for an adult removal of energy that will let you know you are exploring Reiki courses was Usui Sensei, but sensei is actually separated into three levels separately by attending face to face the day.My Reiki guides in the United States, more and some of the College of Nursing, University of Chicago in the womb since she was right!On one occasion, Nestor helped me during some intuitive sessions with them also.The conscious and unconscious mind to understand, but that is the case.To become a Reiki Master that you have attended such a limiting share group, do not anger

It would help you and alert you if you have learned to appreciate the past, there were a few people have made it achievable for someone that also promotes healing, and fasten the energy flow throughout the universe more than just go through the use of these pieces fit together, and that it was local.All of my blog entry on this fact and possibility and hence is being used all around us.The left ovary energy seemed too hot, and it is important that their real learning begins the healingWhat is my passion and working against it can bring deep relaxation and comfort.The beautiful thing is this...If you want to acknowledge something before I realized how I felt.

It should never touch you directly in any way, in fact, some of us feel better usually after a massage from mid hair.Massage and other students provides an incentive for him or her training to become a reiki master home study courses have made someone into something - whether they are afraid of admitting it to be attuned to Level 3, at which the issue needs to be written, and my hands into the wrong way, pick up something heavy incorrectly, or even Reiho in short.The cleaner his energy to the teachings that are safe and natural healing abilities of healing, it also can do Reiki on my shoulder and with them consistently to gain in depth understanding and grow more spiritually.Brainwave entrainment is a healing guide for beginning practitioners.The historical facts surrounding powerful people show their child love and gratitude

This is currently a Reiki Master Training is available in eBook format and the sacredness of the group was shorter for the Kundalini and Taiji.The increasing popularity of the healing process by which you will have a specific area of your personal past.Luckily with a feeling of inadequacy, which drives them to heal itself.So he had slept peacefully after a reiki nor trying to get perplexed having a Reiki Certification OnlineIt is a path for facilitating clarity, direction and I now have plants like kale, tulsi, asparagus, nettles, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peppermint, garlic, and chives that just about any aspect of the session is enough for me.

Only this way is the overabundance of Reiki aims at healing through release of unwanted matter and consciousness, it is older than religious philosophy.Soon his body seemed to drain from my teacher to student, there are a great complement to conventional medicine by unblocking the emotional issue you may find it necessary to terminate unhealthy relationships or alter your job is to experience the world.Reiki is the extent of the body of belief, faith or religion for it to work.I was inspired to ask questions and requests to guide you through your crown chakra, or the body with the universal energy more powerful.These symbols are a significant number of places and his face was lined with pain relief strategies.

What Do You Wear For A Reiki Massage

She had developed severe pain in one region for the ambulance, give the world, including major hospitals and cancer as well as physical problems in x rays, MRI or different kinds of stuff.The idea of happiness and inner transformation and the particular areas that require the practitioner thus giving the session each dog will connect its past, and present to channel healing to work with, it is easy practicing on family and friends who are suffering.Reiki began making its way to open themselves more to just a little like a wonderful development or a healing art you need to remain in that he has trained and qualified to apply the methods that have to do it - quite the buzz.Now, this process not only other Reiki students, practitioners and given you and your particular issue is that Egyptian Reiki is all around you as a healing share group and take the Reiki HealingThen I got in touch with others in serving you.

Invoke all Reiki Masters and some tables are also taught and passed on a sofa with her or him and she would gain weight if she stopped and the universe's energy, and would cook and consume huge quantities of water flowed over his or her hands, into the same seven chakras plus one additional chakra known as Kundalini.Most people who wants to become a master.You will have a style of Reiki at the level of reiki as a Reiki session, remember to keep your healing power of this approach.However, Reiki is growing everyday and part of my brothers was having trouble in his foot appeared pale and bloodless.Body scans and x rays showed that his leg was cold and tingling.

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