I met an amazing community of creative makers about a year ago when I came to NYC specifically to begin to learn to practice kintsugi, the ancient art of mending pottery with lacquer and gold. And over the past year, this has become an amazingly refreshing and life-giving community for me.
This last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to join with this very talented group of creative thinkers and makers in NYC for an evening of fun. Seriously, we really enjoyed making stuff, and doing it in community with each other. And in doing so, we were able to reach deeper, to see deeper into ourselves, and to experience a bit more of the beauty of being human together.
I know, this might sound a little weird, right?
Here’s how this group called “Gather” describes what we’re working to accomplish…
“Gather is a space
where we make and play.
“What if our deepest yearnings are housed in textures, colors, gestures? What if making art opens spaces within us to rest, play, and connect with ourselves and each other in deeper ways?
“Let us slow down and share a creative space — where our expressions can open and build upon each others’ in unplanned, unimaginable ways. Gather is a space for everyone — no experience in artistic or creative forms is needed.
“Come reignite childlike play and become present in wonder.
As human beings we are intrinsically creative and connected to one another. As we explore something new, it forms healthy pathways that require our brains through the practice of creative expression and experience. It’s pretty powerful if we’ll just enter in and allow ourselves to play a little.
I led a session where we literally played with watercolor. We learned a bit about the different kinds of paper, abstract it the various qualities of pigments, about different types of brushes, and about some specific watercolor techniques… but we also learned about how to let the water (along two other key components: gravity and drying time) work a beautiful magic on the paper all by itself. We “wasted” a bunch of paper, but if we’re learning it’s never really wasted, right‽ We made mistakes. And over the course of the evening we created something beautiful, even if we couldn’t recognize the beauty right away.
If I’ve met personally, you’ll know that I love making stuff, trying to make beautiful stuff. And doing it together in community is is the icing on the cake. This was a wonderful evening.
I’d highly recommend joining one of these sessions if you get the chance. Here’s a link if you like to learn more: https://calltogather.com
