Podcast Ep 1 Why Art Matters?

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Episode 1: Why Art Matters

Opening Poem from Thesis 

“I am a bridge, between two truths.

One that is seen. One that is unseen.

One that can be heard. One that is silent.

One that follows the trail. One that determines the path.

I am a bridge.”

Thesis Abstract

Practice-Led Creativity as a Bridge to Unknown Aspects of Self

An Ekphratic Methodology to Enhance Memoir Writing 

The purpose of this paper is to explore a new creative writing methodology for producing creative non-fiction writing with deepened emotional vivacity and opportunity for healing for the practitioner. A Shamanic based meditation practice was engaged to access emotions embedded in sub-consciousness or “anoetic awareness” (Tulving, 2002). The imagery conjured during meditation was then used to create a visual artwork representative of the emotional state being examined. Then, an adapted ekphratic practice, where the visual art and the subsequent writing are authored by the same person, was applied. Throughout the methodology explored here, emotional memories were experienced, or more accurately re-experienced, somatically, emotionally, and intellectually in the present. These experiences were potentially reflected in the writing practice. Furthermore, the writing practice itself also changed perceptions of the original emotional states. The emotional healing and benefits as a creative practitioner were correlated. Rather than producing more dynamic or vivacious writing, as was the original hypothesis however, it is perhaps more accurate to conclude that the emotional state of being and the written expression of that emotion evolved to include new memories, new imagery, and new insights to the benefit of the writing.

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