ART CLASS: 002 Yes And... Process of Design

I got a gift from my daughters for Christmas that made me cry. That’s not hard to do, but this one hit differently. Especially at a time when the spirit of more, more, more is in overdrive, piling up cheap plastic, sweeping through shopping malls, consuming without thinking.

What they gave me was simple enough on the surface, a glass jar filled with tiny folded pieces of paper. Each one held a prompt, an idea for me to draw, like little fortune cookies holding infinite possibilities, small threads for me to pull at.

They made it together, after we worked on our own gifting project. And when I held it in my hands, I cried because it wasn’t just thoughtful, it was an act of deep imagination. It meant something more to me. We’ve been cycling through some heavy domestic violence trauma... again... trying to create in the midst of destruction, and this gift, this tiny jar of prompts felt like a spark in the dark. One of the most thoughtful things I’ve ever received, them showing me they could map a way out of these intense cycles of concentrated violence for moments of healthy connection...

Before I get too deep, this is a whole other story, and luckily for me (and us) another gallery of art is holding that energy until it’s ready to be shared back.

For now, this is about the jar.

I wanted to tear it open and read them all at once, cherry-pick the one I most wanted to do. But I didn’t. I let the magic of the unknown hold there for a while and instead decided to lucky dip each one then paint, take what I was dealt and work with it.

Like life, huh?

The first one: Paint a campfire.

So I set up my palette, opened my book, and got to work.

At the same time, I was deep in another The Other Others dive, listening to Green Terra Nullius podcast. This time round I heard more in the yarns and how they were circling through knowledge around boundaries, limits, embassies and why they exist, how they move, and how we cycle through them all the time.

I won’t do the conversation justice here, it’s still unfolding inside me, as good knowledge and stories tend to do. But I’d encourage you to listen as host Tyson Yunkaporta and Gumbaynggirr carver Pete McCurley speak about cultural fire practices, ceremony, and the slow work of bringing balance back to country.

And in these yarns I also hear an ultimate act of improv...

What do you do when ceremonial fires are drowned out by government workers, by conservation systems built to protect land by keeping people out? What do you do when Law and Lore meet in a clash that ends in overkill, fire doused and doused and doused again, like it was something to be erased from that moment in time.

You’d expect anger. But there was none. No shouting. No retaliation. What was in play was patience, tolerance and respect. Not because they agreed with the law being enforced here, but because they knew the story was bigger than that moment.

The energy transfer of that ceremony might have been interrupted, but the cycles continue. Always.

I keep painting.

The next prompt: You can only paint with different shades of green.

Yes, and… I get to work.

I think about nature economies, about how water moves, creating, destroying, balancing with all the flows. I see how story moves in the same way. A process of adaptation and improvising that keeps life flowing.

Ecosystems build this way... Life is inherently intelligent. Frijof Capra taught me this.

Culture builds this way too. Not through strict replication of ideas but through relation, the ultimate lessons of yes, and, the improve of life.

So sit with me in this Art Class, watch as I pull prompts from the jar and bring them to life. And while you do, take some time to think about the prompts you’re being fed, on screens, in classrooms, through laws and policies through land and sky and sea and through all the tiny decisions that shape your days. What are you designing from them? What are you creating?

PS: if the The video is not embedding below... who cares!! Actually I do, but... check this link in the meantime and I'll be back later to try again! Big thanks to Holden Davies for the original track titled:

The Hare Billet

As I wrap this class I think the main lesson here in improv is about pulling the next slip of paper, either from a little glass jar or the jar of life... then taking a deep breath and saying yes and.... Our job as humans isn’t to get everything perfect.

Our job is to keep the notes we've been handed alive and pass them on.

Thanks for making it this far, in life and on this page.

I appreciate you, yarn soon x