As an artist who is dedicated to ministering to others through creativity in all various settings multi-culturally and ecumenically, I have found it to be key to actively be partnering with God and working on my own journey of spiritual formation and direction, self discovery and care (learning how I'm uniquely wired and learning to lean into my imperfections in order to recognize that I'm created to be who I am just as I am and it is in who I am that I can do what I do through ministry and creativity in this unique way), along with personal growth and the ability to integrate the experiences I encounter (through the travels I embark on and through life's changes and shiftings) with each moment I am living. Along with surrounding myself with trusted mentors, pastors, ministers, and counselors who help support me personally through prayer, guidance, counsel, and conversations...allowing myself to process my journey through creativity has not only been beneficial, but has also been vital to my mental and spiritual health and growth (which in turn is vital to me being able to be fully present within the conversations that God is having with others as I seek to come along side and minister through creativity in this very unique collaboration).
There are many wonderful tools that I've engaged with along my journey to aid in my spiritual and emotional growth and health. Being able to utilize the language of creativity amidst it all has oftentimes been what's helped me fully connect and become grounded as I pick up those tools to work within the process. Creativity isn't just something I try to get others to engage through...it's actually a huge part of how I personally engage.
What have I been processing recently?
Along with journaling and having conversations with trusted people, I have been painting my re-entry process (returning home after a long term expedition living elsewhere in a different culture and coming alongside others and serving full-time through creativity) and I wanted to share some of those paintings here. Part of this process has been mark making that expresses what it feels like to go through culture shock and reverse culture shock (like a time traveling wormhole), what it feels like to integrate a place, a people, a culture, and experiences that I've just come from into a place, a people, a culture, and experiences that I'm currently in (acknowledging the old and letting it settle back and acknowledging the new and letting it come forth), and what it feels like to trust and yield to God and to the process, to wait and be okay with right here and right now (not being too quick to yes to things, but rather allowing self to pause and acknowledge change and growth).
The following 3 paintings are my expressions of this process...
"waena" (the middle, in between, center)
c.2019 Lisa Marten
2.5ftx5ft mixed media (acrylic paint, latex house paint, charcoal, graphite, chalk pastel, ink, paper, matte medium) on canvas
This painting is a representation of re-entry. It's feeling like I'm in a wormhole experiencing time travel from one reality to another. When I travel from one place, time zone, climate, culture, and people to another and immerse myself heart, mind, and soul to connect with people and share experiences...and then leave that place and go to another place (like going back home) it can be like time travel through a portal as I move from what was then to what is now. It can be jolting. Oftentimes I feel like my mind and my body and my heart get all mixed up back and forth as memories and flashbacks of that which is elsewhere are triggered in the here and now...and for a moment I am in the middle...I am both...in the in between.
(For example: a week or so after I returned to Idaho from living on Maui for a year, I was invited to dinner at a friends house for dinner, her husband is Filipino and they always have rice cooking in a big rice cooker. As I held the little rice paddle to dish rice onto my place I began to cry. I was instantly transported to Maui, to the house I lived in with a local Hawaiian family. Rice was always cooking in the rice cooker and during the year living there, I dished rice onto my plate with a little rice paddle more times than I can count...it was daily life...and I could see it, feel it, smell it, and hear it. The wormhole of re-entry had taken me back to Maui I was very aware that I was standing in my friends kitchen in Idaho. It was painful to experience as I missed Maui and missed my life there with my friends, and yet it I was also very happy to be home with my friends in Idaho).
This type of experience is a normal occurrence when transitioning from one place to another, one chapter in our journey to another, one rhythm of life to another. I'm learning to be okay with it. It means that I am fully engaging with each experience. I'm holding on for the ride.
"ho'omaka hou" (new beginnings)
c.2019 Lisa Marten
30"x40" mixed media (acrylic paint, latex house paint, charcoal, graphite, chalk pastel, ink, paper, matte medium) on canvas
This painting is about the process that takes place during re-entry, letting go of what was...recognizing what is...entering into what will be. The past is a part of me, just as the present is, and just as the future will be (none of it is more important than another, they are all equally important). It's a cyclical process (one experience giving way to another like a dance) and there is a yielding that is necessary. I'm learning to yield with grace by acknowledging and extending thanksgiving to what was, what is, and what will be. The acknowledgement is an important part of the process.
"loa'a pa'a mau: ho'okuakua" (yield: to make, to hold space)
c.2019 Lisa Marten
24"x30" mixed media (acrylic paint, latex house paint, charcoal, graphite, chalk pastel, ink, paper, matte medium) on canvas
This painting (of a fisherman gently holding a fish in the water) is a representation of what it feels like to wait, to yield, to hold space for the process of re-entry (or any other transition or change) in life, for the process of rest and recovery, submitting to what comes next, learning to see and to hear, to step into who you are called to be in this moment and in this place. It's like being gently held still when you want to swim forward. It's about trusting that you're surrounded by love and mercy, peace and kindness. It's not striving with agendas or taking control and jumping into things too fast once you've landed somewhere from being somewhere else (it can be all too easy to step into old ways of doing things, old thought patterns, to get involved in familiar things, and to say yes to things that though they may be good, may not be what is best needed at this moment)...but rather, giving oneself time through re-entry to process the experience you just came from and how it has changed you, letting go of fears and anxieties and questions of what the future could be, breathing deeply, being still and knowing that God has you...even in this in between.
How do I get from thinking and feeling and talking about something to actually creating paintings as the ones I've posted above?
It starts as thoughts and ideas. Oftentimes I've been journaling, I've been conversing, I've been contemplating, I've been feeling and paying attention to all those thoughts and feelings and conversations...I've learned to listen (to what's rumbling within me, to what's rumbling within others, to what's rumbling from God). Sometimes an image comes to mind right away and sometimes it's just words that come. Typically I first sit down with some paper and ask myself questions...I begin sketching and writing and fleshing it out. Then I tend to go to my computer and work up some preliminary concepts in some art programs I have (this gives me a better visual to work off of). From there I head to my art studio where I allow myself the time to bring it all to life through wet and dry mediums. Every artist has their own style and voice. I'm influenced by other artists, by movies and books, by music and art, by philosophy and theology, by nature and culture...and many times these will influence my work...but every time I make sure that the work speaks my unique style, my unique voice, and expresses the partnership and collaboration that is active with myself and God. The conversation (with myself, with God, with the process) never ends. This creative process can take days, weeks, months, even years...it just depends...every painting (and every concept series) has its own heartbeat and breath waiting to come alive.
Painting my process has been a huge help in my understanding and growth as I continue the journey to come alongside others cross-culturally and ecumenically to minister through creativity. I've learned to yield to the process, being intentional in my listening and seeing, allowing myself to immerse into it and let it take me where it will. It's in this yielding that I believe I can be better equipped to go love people the way that God has called me to.
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