Good question! How do you?!
That was my issue this past Sunday sitting in the wooden community church of St. Matthews in the village of Bangaan. Dom-an had spoken the day before with someone from the Church about our last mandala done through the Kasiyana Peace and Healing Center. The youth group was thus all excited to have us do a mandala workshop after the service. However, I was pretty much convinced that with so little planning and no supplies we would have to wait til next Sunday.
St. Mathews Church happens to be Anglican, which is my denomination back in Canada! A merry coincidence. The Chuch itself is a basic structure yet packed full of smiling folks.
I’ve always beleived that with art there is no such thing as not having the right supplies. Your moment is always perfectly supplied. Its is just a matter of seeing with creative eyes!
An idea hit me as the service ended. There was one clear source of colour in the building: the Flowers! After I had been introduced to Father Asterio Dal-is, I asked him a question.
Could we sacrifice the altar flowers for art? He was more than happy to oblige and the youth were more than happy for the workshop to happen!
I introduced the art of mandalas. Then, taking apart the flowers, the room fell into meditative silence. Dom-an played her flute, and we all worked together to make collaborative flower mandalas in pairs. They caught on fast! I watched in amazement as everyone manifested incredibly creative constructions. They kids would have kept going and going if we hadn’t wound things up after 2hrs
Beautiful! The best creativity is unplanned.
