opening to earth through painting

Lisa Lipsett (2001) responds to the deep sadness and grief she enters when "realiz[ing] that the western-schooled human mind has been so closed, so systematically molded by the rational and the mechanistic that it is effectively not fit to live sustainably with other life-forms" (p. 2). She (2002) proposes (and has experienced both herself and, with others, in particular, her dissertation research participants), how spontaneous painting, when done over time, "nurtures our wild Earthy aspects and opens our hearts and minds to all Earth beings" (p. 216). Lipsett (2001) goes on to explain:

In opening up to the Earth, new understandings are attained that are ageless and wise. We feel our connection with all living beings. Transformation of the human-Earth relationship is no small task in a culture that values reason over imagination, compartmentalized hierarchy over holism, action over contemplation, and domestication over wildness. Yet despite the perceived obstacles, many are screaming out that we need to once again become on speaking terms with the natural world (Rozak, Gomes, and Kanner, 1995). (p. 216)

For me, it was only by actually doing spontaneous painting/collaging, that I could get out of my head enough to 'hear' the wisdom moving through my body. This practice provided one of the many openings for further communication with animate earth.

(see www.lisalipsett.com)