The workshop reminded me that simple co-creation activities can tell profound stories. The theme was to create a collage from the memory of a repetitive dream. Participants from an elder care center were combined with younger partners. The elders were in their late 70s into late 80s and many had significant physical impairments. We partnered them with a mix of strangers and employees from the care center, aging from about age 25 to 60.
Together these intergenerational teams made one collage.
I started the facilitation with a brief breathing and listening meditation, then the elder partner shared a dream with their co-creator. Together they identified the dominant emotions, sensations, colors and imagery from the dream.
Some said they don’t dream.
So I offered the alternative to make use of an aspiration, an encounter they wish to have, or a strong memory from their past. That was all it took to get their gears in motion and select their colors and patterns. Some of the elder partners were able to grab the glue stick or position the papers around a bit, but generally they acted as art directors, having their partner cut and place and paste according to the image in their mind. Once the materials were chosen, we only had about 35 minutes for the actual collage. The simple constraints of time and selection of materials enabled everyone to get down to the essence of their message. No previous artistic experience was required and there was no emphasis on the aesthetic value of the outcome. These factors liberated the participants to JUST EXPRESS and to listen to themselves and their co-creators inquiries.
The room pulsed with energy as each elder held up their collage.
The results were remarkable. Many other souls were invited into the room as the elders shared the inspiration for their compositions. They brought in their younger selves, their deceased children, partners and parents, their football team mates.
We saw the depiction of the vibration of the music of instruments they could no longer play, of the turning point events where they were incapacitated or deciding not to give up on their bodies.
Love and loneliness were expressed and embraced in the colorful circle of receiving and giving.
A dream:
A deceased daughter, complete with golden hair and halo, greeting her now elderly mother to administer her medication and encourage her to stay alive and well in old age, rather than rush to join her in heaven.
A wish:
A younger version of one woman stands to face her deceased mother, shown as a mirror of this young woman, the two reunited at last.
A sensory memory:
A concert where the whole futball team and all his work colleagues gather to listen to accordion music that send coils of unifying notes through the crowd.
An irrevocable event:
A boy has fallen from the almond tree and lies in the orchard with a red gash to show the spinal injury that changed the trajectory of his life.
A place of power:
Tree trunks and pine boughs and mountain peaks create the landscape of a place where she feels happiest and can go in her mind when times are hard.
Our work was not to interpret the dream, rather to honor it - allowing the potency of the individual’s vision and the emotions hovering around it to serve as the communication. We were all made better in the showing and the telling.
As an artist and teacher I benefitted so much from this day. I can too often lean into more - more materials, more time, more prompts ...
Yesterday these lovely souls reminded me, once again, that we already have everything we need to communicate, creating moments that change us and those around us for the better.
A big thank you to Lúa of SerArte and the Circulo Vivo program in Palma, Mallorca Spain that provided me with this bountiful Tuesday morning.