Synopsis of my summer adventures

My mission: a six credit independent learning contract: To learn instructional technologies of Visual Literacy; To learn how creative collaboration can be healing; To learn how to combine visual and expressive arts, and artistic expression. I chose to collaborate with local artists in film, music, photography, whatever I could get myself into. I processed and expressed my experiences with visual arts, an art journal and writings via my internet blog.

In early to mid June, I made contact through Craig’s list with several local artists and musicians. I took a train trip to my old stomping grounds in Eugene, and began the process of looking at life and my expression of life with the eye of an artist again. I contacted people I already knew, had never met at all, or known once a long, long time ago. While some contacts were lost leads and dead ends, the ones that panned out adhered together my seemingly separate experiences in a complimentary ways, that created a synergy to my entire summer experience.


The Cast of Characters:
Mike The Guitar player
Mark The Photographer
Luna The sustainable agriculture student
Don/Leslie The Transgendered Film Student
Kevin The Priest, Web designer and Friend
Robin The Art Tech. from SPSCC, and Glass Artist
Devon My Kid, and a published Web Artist
Dave Cramton, Teacher for 30fps (30 frames per second)
Crew Film class guys: Jordan, Maxwell, Patrick, Rolly, Chris, Travis,
Sean, Jeremiah, Matias, Lee


The Collaboration Projects:
1 day of gardening
2 10-hour days of Modeling Shoots
3 photography, location scouting Adventures
5 Student films (multiple days for each)
6 3-hour music Nights, and 8 songs


Adventures, Field trips and Locations:
Train Ride to Eugene
Salsa Dancing
Fort Lewis Car show
OFF (Olympic film Society)
Homes around Olympia
Forests around TESC
Capitol Lake
Tumwater Falls
Olympia Artesian Wells


Reading, Writing, Preperations & Research:
1 blog account to track the projects and progress
1 new job teaching Tai Chi basics at the CRC
3 books and chapter responses
2 films and film responses
3 new Friends and contacts


The Student Films I was in this summer (links provided in link list):
The Hunted
Book Of Secrets
Smith Co.
Forever and a Day
The Kite Project


What have I learned with all this experiential activity? How is collaboration healing?

Living an artistic and creative life is very experiential. Having a tightly controlled plan and following the status quo can be a death knell to effective creative process and expression. There must be a certain freedom of mind and action to allow room for creativity to unfold at its own pace, in a space that allows one to easily dance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, creativity, emotion and logic. And Yet a certain structure must remain without taking charge; a frame work for the activities and inspiring side-trips, as well as dedicated time for doing the work itself. The tricky bit is keeping the balance in ones self and life style. There must be room for spontaneous changes in course, or elaborate missions of exploration to discover new roads, tools, partners and ideas.

Collaboration with others complicates this process only slightly while adding an element of accountability and providing a sounding board for filtering ideas and responses to stimuli. I found this helpful to the expression of creativity by removing the project from the limited perspective of my own mind, where I might have ground it to dust by the turning of my own mental wheels, and bringing it out into the open of a fresh perspective. Collaboration with other artists helped to increase my productivity by accelerating the process, refreshing ideas before I had over analyzed them in the fields of my own mind, and giving an avenue of shared expression that helped keep the ball rolling when a person acting alone might have faltered, lost interest, or hit a creative block, and shelved a project indefinitely.

I learned to utilize a variety of media, such as Craigslist, and sound recording equipment, stepping outside of my personal comfort zone with technology. I took the initiative to meet people, and to share my opinions and insights on how to tackle or improve a variety of creative projects. I learned that my opinions can be helpful and valuable to others process as well as my own, and that no man is an island - perhaps in the creative life more then anywhere else. We are all connected, and each of us has an important role to play, a perspective that may be uniquely useful to the larger picture. This helped to heal some old self esteem issues for me, and helped me get a much needed job on campus teaching Tai Chi basics through the CRC.

With Mark, I learned to follow my instincts and ask for feedback as to how the shoot was going, and to offer my insight when he did the same. Our finished photos, and extra long shoots are the proof that this was successful. Our photos are beautiful. Working with Mike, I learned to accept the gift of other peoples patience and willingness to work with me even if I am a beginner or feel they are carrying me in a project. If I do my best and keep showing up on the page, keep making the effort and show at least some improvement, the project can still unfold. I have learned that collaboration invites growth on many fronts both internally in ones inner perspective and in the creative results of achieving the goal. The rewards for breaking ones past habitual way of interacting are many.

The film class taught me to push through and get things done even if the product seems less then perfect. Set a schedule, do the shots and then work with what you get, rather then waiting forever, or failing to complete the work because perfection has yet to be achieved or attained. Working with a variety of directors and styles was interesting as well, and helped me to grow in confidence about presenting myself as an actress. This is something I have the talent, knowledge and ability to continue pursuing as a hobby and education. And that was a delicious experiential activity I hope to continue exploring. It raised long lost projects to the surface of my individual creative goals, and gave me the confidence to pursue them as part of my future studies.