The Process progresses in four basic stages: inquiry, Intention, exploration, and reflection.
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An artwork inspired by the Creation story (Rabbi Adina Allen)[Missing Credit]
Inquiry
Begin with a text that intrigues you. This could be from any sacred text from the Jewish literary canon. As you read, make note of anything that strikes you about the text. Include anything that sparks your curiosity or captures your interest, even (especially) if you don’t quite know why. Ask yourself what you already know (or think you know) about this text.
Hold each of these “known” things lightly and consider them from different angles. Notice what else comes into your awareness: does it call to mind past teachings you’ve learned? Does it touch on something in your life today? Does it speak to something you are reading or studying in another area of your life? Does it evoke something happening in the world at this moment? What might the ideas, thoughts, feelings, or memories offer your understanding of this text?
Intention
At the end of the inquiry stage, you might feel animated or excited by something that came up. The invitation now is to look for the spark of curiosity, inspiration, or strong emotion that is calling you to be explored more fully and use this as a springboard to create an intention.
Take a few deep breaths to ground yourself and allow what feels most alive to you to bubble to the surface. In this practice intention is written down as a simple statement of what we wish to receive in the creative process. Intentions are worded positively, in the present tense, without using striving language like “want” or “try”.
On a spiritual level, intention is how we invite something that is both beyond and deep within us into our creative process. Intention is a key that opens a channel between you and this force, whatever you choose to call it (or even if you don’t call it anything). In this way, your creative process becomes a form of self-divination, and your intention is like a prayer that has already been answered.
Photo by Sarah Deragon
Exploration
This stage of the process allows us to explore unknown aspects of the text and to bring these into relationship with unknown aspects of ourselves. In this practice, our art-making is not dictated by a preconceived idea of what “art” should look or sound like. It is an exercise in open exploration.
This stage of the process is about letting the thinking mind relax and making space for other parts of ourselves to find expression. Improvisational, process oriented art-making gives us something pleasurable to do and focus on, allowing our nervous system to relax so other parts of ourselves have the space to emerge.
Any modality can be used: movement, writing, music, painting, sculpting — you name it. Once you’ve selected a modality for the exploration stage of the process, begin by finding a material that sparks your interest and simply start by making marks on the page. If you are working with your body, you might start with one small, simple gesture.
If you are writing, you might start with a few minutes of free-writing. If you are sculpting, you might start just by moving the material in your hands in a way that feels pleasing, noticing the different shapes that form.
Whatever it is, make small gestures, without any particular rhyme or reason, just allowing and noticing what shows up. It’s essential to follow what feels good, whatever is energising for you in a given moment. Create for a set amount of time, or until you feel ready to pause.
Reflection
The final stage of the Jewish Studio Process is reflection, in which we witness our practice through free-writing. We call this witness-writing; in it, our stillness makes space for insights to arise through what we’ve created and the process itself.
Here we interact with our piece in a similar way to how we interacted with Torah during the inquiry stage: curious about what it has to say, letting it speak to and through us. Towards the end of your witness-writing, revisit your intention. What, if anything, does this piece, or your experience of making it, have to say to your intention? In what ways might it speak to the text you learned? Write this down as a final reflection.
The Jewish Studio Process offers a way for each one of us to find new meaning and insight from ancient Jewish wisdom. Through the unique alchemy of who we are, the passage of sacred text we are looking at, and the moment in time in which we are living, something new is able to be born. The knowledge and insight that emerges can not only support us personally in the questions, struggles, and longings of our lives, but are added to the ongoing evolution of collective meaning for others to draw on as well.
Excerpted from The Place of All Possibility: Cultivating Creativity Through Ancient Jewish Wisdom, Adina Allen, Ayin Press, £14.99, which is out now
