We’re happy to offer the following guest post by Jean Matlack of Rockport, Maine. Jean is a participant in our online course, Introduction to Facilitating Process Arts. She first posted these reflections as a comment on the course material and we felt so touched by her insights that we asked to share them here. Thank you, Jean!
“Learning to recognize and trust the voice of energy is a major step in the practice of process painting. Learning to read the energy in another and to trust that perception in action is an equally huge step in the process of facilitating.” ~ Stewart Cubley
I am struck by how many times Stewart uses the word trust. He says that we are held “by an intelligence that if not knowable, is infinitely trustable.”
I am reaching for words to articulate why Stewart’s description of this aspect of the painting process is so moving to me. I think it is this: So often the trust in this larger intelligence is then built on. A theology or curriculum is created with the intention of helping one to live by this unknowable intelligence. In process painting, there is no such conceptual superstructure. We simply place ourselves in the situation of painting with one intention: to allow ourselves to be guided by the intuitive intelligence of the energy that arises as we pick up the brush, choose a color and move into the act of painting. This is bare naked trust of the voice of intuitive intelligence.
No wonder it makes a huge difference to do this together. Trust is amplified by the field we create, by the sturdy knowing of experienced facilitators when we falter.
We live in a culture that does not live by this Knowing. I am constantly distracted by the claims this alternate reality in which I find myself would make on me, yet I long to live 24/7 from this intuitive intelligence. Reading about this core aspect of what we are doing when we paint this way helps me remember to keep one eye looking inward — as I read my mail, grocery shop, talk to a friend.
More Information
Read more about trust in Stewart’s blog post, Facilitating Process Arts: A Guiding Principle.
Introduction to Facilitating Process Arts is a three-part course in the art of facilitation for professionals working in process-oriented learning environments, as well as individuals wishing to deepen their experience of process painting. The first part of the course explores seven essential elements of facilitation based upon methods developed over the last forty years by The Painting Experience. The course is self-paced and no previous art experience is required. Learn more . . .
