I have a deep interest in mythology as a creative process, a metaphorical inner journey to wholeness. Through myth, we turn inward, and begin to understand the message of the symbols. Likewise, the bodies on my screens reveal the disowned parts of myself. The inward journey of art takes me to the world of archetypes – inherited forces residing in our bodies and in our unconscious. I experience mythology through my body. I see myth as the most intimate voice of somatic process, reflecting our sensory evolvement and forming our personal structure called Self.
Dreams and art share the same sources: what we know with our bodies, and what we don’t know – about ourselves, about the collective world around us, about our place in the universe. I don’t view or practice art as a therapy, but I do deeply believe in its potential to expand communication with our psyches. Art offers insights about our deepest selves, far beyond our rational minds. Deepening our understanding of ourselves cannot be achieved without entering into the unconscious realm that is the source for both dreams and imagination. Approaching the dream from different view points, especially when aided by suggestions, projections and input from other people, almost always helps to bring the dream’s message more fully into the light of the dreamer’s consciousness.
For more information about dreams, please visit Jeremy Taylor’s website.
Since 1999, Aikido has been my core movement training. It is a practical process for harmonizing mind, body and spirit. Aikido is a Japanese martial art developed by master Morihei Ueshiba in the early part of the 20th century. Aikido is based on the concept of creating harmony with the Universe. The physical movement of Aikido is the embodiment of the principles of the spirit. Negative force is not met with conflict, but joined, controlled and redirected through the power and balance of movement of “ki.” The power of Aikido is the power of a strong and unified spirit, mind and body moving in harmony with everything around it, like the harmonious relationship between Yin and Yang.
For more information about aikido, please visit United States Aikido Federation, Birankai North America, or Eastshore Aikikai.
NIAD (National Institute of Art and Disabilities) Art Center, where I work as one of the art instructors, is an innovative visual arts center assisting adults with developmental and other physical disabilities in Richmond, California. Self-expression by those with disabilities is often accompanied by repetitive, coarse, aggressive and even bizarre actions, which arise from the impulse of life. This is one of the ways they release energy and life force. Their creativity and artwork can be viewed as purely intuitive.
Thus, many disabled people easily reside in the wondrous realm of imagination, which, like our dreams, exists in a timeless, spatially unbounded universe where we are allowed to do the impossible. This kind of artwork created from imagination (which I also call Dreaming Mind) can remind us that, having isolated the ego-mind from our soul, we have lost a part of ourselves, that something that once belonged to us is missing. That’s why the intuitive art created by NIAD artists often captures the hearts of the spectators.
For more information, please visit NIAD Art Center.
The video below documents a collaborative project between NIAD and John F. Kennedy University in 2005.
Dreaming Mind and Conscious Mind from Tomoko Murakami on Vimeo.