Ritual in the Studio

I have several rituals that I like to practice to help me become present in the now when working in my sacred space, the studio. The first thing I do is bow to my space, acknowledging that I am grateful to be there.I usually bow toward my studio muse to remind myself that I am there to express my inner process and to allow whatever images, colors, textures, narrative that comes up to unfold even if – I should say especially if- it is not part of my original plan.  I learned this practice of bowing to the studio space from Sue Hammond West  when I took a painting class from her at Naropa.

The next thing I do is tie on one of my aprons. I have 2 aprons that I inherited from my paternal grandmother, Gammer. Gammer and I share the same birth date: October 4th and I feel that her creative genes flow through me.Gammer expressed her creativity through knitting beautiful sweaters, growing beautiful flowers, fixing wonderful food- especially breads and cookies, and keeping a beautiful house. I honor her memory by wearing one of her aprons while creating. When she died I created a Day of the Dead Box for her- I depicted her making bread with her pink apron on.

 

Gammer’s pink apron is so famous, in fact, that an artist friend of mine , Nancy Mullen, painted an oil pastel of it one year for my birthday.

 

I also picked up a couple aprons in Oaxaca, Mexico last fall to wear in the studio, when Joe & I were there for a Michael deMeng workshop during the Day of the Dead. (he is doing it again this year- it is a blast- check it out!) As a tangent, my “Day of the Dead Shrine” -made from a cigar box & found objects-honors the death of my childhood, maidenhood & “hands on” motherhood phases of life while celebrating all that is yet to come. I put a skeleton in the bottom of the cigar box shrine with photos of those “dead” phases and a celebatory figure “on top of the world” on the top. I fell in love with the embroidered aprons that are traditional wear for some of the older women & wanted to buy some…so, Joe & I asked a friend the spanish name for aprons & thought we heard “bandelero” (which actually means outlaws or bandits). We didn’t know the word for “to cook” but we knew the word for “to eat”- comer- so we went around asking where the bandelero’s were for sale that we could eat. You can imagine the looks we got! We found out later the name for apron is mandil or mandilero.  (close enough-right?) The locals took pity on us & eventually with much hand gestures & pointing we did find a lovely selection of aprons in the Abasto (supply market).

I almost always start off a studio session with the music of WAH!- in particular the  Savasana  CD – upon hearing her voice my body relaxes & the my outside world cares melt away. From there I move into other meditative CD’s like: Maneesh de Moor”s “Sadhana” ; Benjy Wertheimer”s “Voice of the Esraj” and the “Creative Mind System” . Chanting in a foreign tongue soothes me & allows me to drift into the creative zone.After I’ve been painting for awhile and am in the flow I love to listen to anything by Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier, or Gillian Welch. 

When I reach a good stopping point, I wash my brushes, put away my paints & sit across from my painting & just look at it. I start to see all the changes I want to make & pretty soon my painting is covered in sticky notes with my ideas for change until the next painting session.

~ by Deedee Hampton on August 8, 2008.