Harmony Requires Us
the fluid pleasure made possible thru intentioned collaboration
harmony has prerequisites. it requires presence: our awareness, intention, and flexibility. most importantly, it requires us. even when self harmonizing, it is with different versions of ourselves across spacetime. there is no harmony of one.
i led two different iterations of the community-engaged Collective Egg Yolk Painting this past summer. the intention was sourcing Harmony together thru cocreation and symbol play. we used brooklyn egg yolks as paint medium (tempera) to paint a life size, 6-foot spiral canvas together. what i learned is that depth and synchronicity of harmony is increased with intention, openness, listening, some waiting, improvised decisions, and constantly sourcing flow as a guiding principle. the more engaged we are in the process of harmony thru intention-communication-feedback-response, the easier it is to slip into harmony and ride it. practice harmony enough, and this process becomes a second nature.
i’m traversing a watershed moment in my creative practice: a turning tide in time where everything becomes decisively different. my creative mode up till now has revolved around receiving inspiration and barreling forth till manifestation. the engagement and coalescing energy around an idea, always an afterthought. “build it and they will come” a guiding manta; rarely pausing for external feedback. but i’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our practices and gifts aren’t really for just us; they are bridges to eachother — our deepest connectors that we traverse together toward change and actualization. what became so clear to me thru these community-engaged art events is that the magnitude of my dreams and goals can only be reached thru collaborative creation. a feast is waste when we dine alone. furthermore, a true feast is damn near impossible to bring forth by ourselves. sourcing melody, pattern, and rhythm is something we can practice alone. perhaps some rare few find completion in a solitary practice. but it is more human, more grand, deeper instinct, to be in practice together or in service of our connectivity. we are pack creatures whose purpose is fulfilled thru connected form. it pleasures our oldest instincts and activates our alchemy to be in connected creation together.
