PROCESS ART
By Michelle McClunan
Process Art is essentially spontaneous “in the moment” creative expression. It tells you exactly what you need to know about yourself right now.
When we enter into a Process Art or Free Creative Expression space, we are creating without planning and we are releasing the need for an acceptable or beautiful finished product. This is itself is a huge departure from our normal daily lives which focus largely on successful outcomes.
As soon as we connect to a deeper level of ourselves and create without planning and judgement, we are able to clear subconscious psychological patterns and open up to possibilities outside the realm of the rational mind.
Spontaneous imagery is always broader, more expansive and multi-layered than words and opens the door to our deepest intuitive wisdom. It’s essentially like active conscious dreaming.
We all have a true life path that longs for expression in our lives, as can be seen in our astrological birth chart and which becomes clearer as we get to know ourselves more and more.
There are also parts of us that are hurt, needy and fearful which we tend to repress, but which actually need to be acknowledged. When we experience emotional pain, it is usually an indication that something needs to be seen and heard in a different way.
Connecting with colour, symbols and imagery, offers us clues to the path of our unique unfolding, helping to understand and often clear challenging inner conflicts within us. Many of our habitual ways of doing things are caused by negative core beliefs which are hidden in the subconscious mind. It has been proven that the only truly effective way to shift them is to work with them from the same level of consciousness. Process art takes us to that place.
Each and every one of us, whether or not you consider yourself artistically creative, has a deeply original, uniquely vibrant innate creativity. This is always evident when we are children, but due to criticism and judgement is often submerged and locked away as we become adults, causing our life spark to start to wither and life to become pale and meaningless.
I cannot begin to tell you how many people I know who have told me they are not creative. Bear in mind that every single choice you make, from the clothes you’re wearing today, the furniture and décor in your house, the meals you cook, the names of your children and pets comes from your unique creativity.
Being creative does not mean that you need to be able to draw or paint, or that you consider yourself an artist. Process art requires absolutely no acknowledged artistic ability or experience.
Whether you work with me in one–on-one navigational life coaching sessions or as part of a group in a class, workshop or retreat, you will find that you have a natural capacity to connect at a deeper level and access imagery that you might not have thought possible. Process art is a joyful, collaborative process of intuitive listening to where you are, right now and how your life needs to unfold.
When I work with people on an ongoing basis through navigational life coaching, I have the added understanding of your birth chart to assist me in helping you to navigate your life more effectively. We take into account everything that is happening in your life right now– your dreams, your relationships, difficult life events you may be dealing with, core beliefs, challenges and celebrations. All this helps you to see and understand which direction your truthful life is pointing towards.
I encourage all my clients to do Process art frequently on their own once they have the tools. This can be done by introducing small creative practices into your life to invite imagery that clearly expresses the unacknowledged parts of you that are longing for expression.
These may include jounalling, visual journaling, collage, doodling, intuitive painting, recording your dreams, doing the things which fill up your tanks and checking in with how you’re feeling throughout your day.
These simple practices support you if you experience difficult life events and keep you connected to your inner compass.
Working on this level will help you to find out how all the different parts of you operate in your emotional landscape and help you to see how to align them towards your soul’s desires and highest purpose.
Your inner world of imagery, dreams and metaphor holds the key to your soul’s desires. Actually, our souls present us with images before we have a thought or an emotion. This has been widely written about by Carl Jung, James Hillman and is the basis of Imaginal Psychology.
In a process art space, every part of you is welcome to be explored in an atmosphere of acceptance – no parts are exiled or abandoned. You are encouraged to explore and accept exactly where you are right, without judgement or without attempting to change anything. Almost always, uncomfortable emotions start to shift quickly when we acknowledge them.
We are energetic beings having a physical experience. Colour, paint and clay and paint and clay are different forms of energy.. Our souls know what colours we need at any given moment, present us with images to provide clarity and the clay is able to receive, absorb and transmute our emotions in a very safe way, bringing about healing on many levels.
You are the expert on you and your inner world. My role is simply to guide, empower, intuit, illuminate, question and mirror what you discover yourself through verbal and creative dialogue so you can see yourself in a clearer way.
As you do engage in this work you start to shift old patterns of thought or behaviour that may be blocking you from living the rich and fulfilling life you deserve.
Process art experiences I offer are:
- Private Process Art sessions – one-off or part of navigational coaching (link to blog page)
- Weekly Process Art classes from my Home in Hillcrest – regular time out to check in (link to blog page)
- Weekend workshops and retreats countrywide (link to blog page)
- Corporate Creativity and Stress Release workshops
Process art is my passion – a bit more about my journey
My passion for art and creative expression started as a young child, when I found great solace in drawing and painting for hours at a time. With a challenging childhood, I found that it would take me to a place deep inside, where I would connect at a deeper level and find a peace that I didn’t experience on the outside.
After spending more than 20 years working in highly creative field of advertising and film making, I eventually realised that I wanted to learn how I could connect with my creativity in a more real personal way. This soul desire manifested with me being rather magically led to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, where I participated in a 3 month Essence of Arts Programme. That was the start of a fascinating journey of discovery, which has taken me to other places in the world, but more importantly to places I never knew existed in my inner world.
Over the past 17 years, I have studied and experimented on my own and with clients and colleagues, developing my particular method of Process Art, which is ever evolving.
One of the most beautiful joys in my life is to see the lights go on in a client’s eyes when their subconscious mind presents them with a perfect image which helps them to understand something on a deeper level, or when I see someone who didn’t think they were creative, move into a state of childlike joy as they draw or paint.
To find out what clients and workshop participants have experienced click here http://michellemcclunan.com/testimonials-2/
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