FINLAND RESIDENCY REFLECTIONS

Featured image above: The completion of a residency, gouache studies on paper. One month of painting.

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, 

in order that I may learn how to do it”. 

Picasso

I have been considering how the artist residency at Arteles Creative Centre is set up to maximise the possibility for entering a flow state. A flow state requires both discipline and concentration. It is a state where we integrate our sense of self. In deep states of concentration our consciousness is well ordered, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He wrote the book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Csikszentmihalyi describes eight characteristics of flow as follows:

1. Complete concentration on the task;

2. Clarity of goals, reward in mind and immediate feedback;

3. Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);

4. The experience is intrinsically rewarding;

5. Effortlessness and ease;

6. There is a balance between challenge and skills;

7. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;

8. There is a feeling of control over the task

He states, 

• “The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

This artist residency runs through the Finnish winter and is titled SILENCE. To support the experience, internet access was limited for the month. All residents had to book their access ahead of time. I chose to limit my use to 2 hours per week.

Views of the meditation room at Arteles Creative Centre

Voluntary meditation sessions were scheduled for mornings and evenings. The meditation room is invitingly set up in the attic of one of the buildings and has a large window that overlooks the forest. These sessions enabled me to declutter and loosen my connection with my everyday life. I felt free inside. Weekends were designated as a silent time for focused reflection.

A room of one’s own allowed me to be self-contained or social as needed. All rooms looked out onto a beautiful rural setting blanketed in snow, on the edge of a forest. Finns greet the forest before they enter. I sensed we were held by the forest.

A group check in was scheduled for each Monday morning and there were opportunities to share working ideas during the week. Most importantly, we had plenty of unstructured time to create and dream.

The melting snow – gouache study on paper

FINLAND 2023

During this residency, I learned how to see the colour of snow, and through study, snow taught me about a whole new side of my palette. You can read about that journey in my previous post. Every painting was a challenge and I learned to work from memory. Our experiences shape us. Our shape is in part the culmination of experiences embodied throughout our life.

One brushstroke at a time, my whole being creates a painting. My whole being remembers. I have some basic ideas, values and strategies for organising marks on a canvas. But so much is not consciously planned. The tremor in my hand, holding the brush is the wrestle between conscious and unconscious intent. Then I have to surrender and let the painting paint itself. It occurs to me that my body is organising it’s patterned self in that moment through the emerging patterns on the canvas.

In other words, I perceive a pattern in the world and through the filter of my being, I reflect it back in paint. I am those closely observed patterns. Through painting, I am organising and remembering myself, distilling the experience down in stillness. In stillness, I have many faces. 

Moon setting at spring solstice – gouache study on paper

FINLAND 2023

While hunting for a subject to paint, I lightly hold the question, ‘what aspect of myself wants to be seen?’ I enter the landscape without preconception, phone in hand. When something catches my attention, I catch it, taking many photographs. Through the many photographs, I am trying to clarify something, a vague feeling or a moment of light. The most useful photographs are often blurry. Photographs act like scribbled notes to oneself on the back of an envelope.

As I became familiar with walking the winter landscape in Finland, I would look at my subject and begin to see it in paint, like my perception was already organising the experience into a series of coloured shapes and moves. The photograph triggers my body to remember. I focus on the feeling and quietly get myself out of the way. Through a consistent meditation and art practice, I have learned how to let go and fall into silence.