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My Perspective:
Creativity leads to self-discovery through artistic expression

by Laurice Heybl, FSPA

Sister Laurice Heybl molds clay into pottery. Art has been an important part of her life as long as she can remember. Photo courtesy of Carlene Unser, FSPA

Art has been an important part of my life as far back as I can remember. It has always played a major part in my ministerial work. When I wasn't working in a specific medium such as pottery, clay sculpture or watercolor, I was designing logos or creating publicity posters for organizations. Much of my creativity time and effort went into acquiring an art degree. I have been fortunate to have had some inspirational mentors over the years, including many of our own FSPA.

When we create we touch into the deepest part of who we are, finding our unique self. To find my own unique self I need to spend time in a quiet sacred space. It is finding God deep in my soul and searching for ways to express and share God's love, beauty, with the rest of the world. For me creative expression is an extension of God's creation. Jill Badonsky, creativity coach and author of The Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard, expresses in it this manner, "Creativity is a spiritual outlet, and while being creative we can feel our maker working through us. We impart to the world our deepest gifts."

Creating art has always been a strong passion but an even stronger desire has been to encourage and help others become aware of and claim their own unique gifts and talents. I have found great satisfaction teaching children and adults various forms of art and doing presentations and workshops on creativity and spirituality. We were born with an affinity toward a particular creative talent that allows us to share with others something unique about ourselves. Though the curiosity and freedom of childhood is often lost, it can be regained with awareness and an open mind. I believe we all have God-given gifts and talents and we need to use them. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, sums it up well, "Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God."

Sister Laurice Heybl holds degrees in education and art, and she has ministered as an elementary teacher and art teacher, among numerous other ministries. She resides in La Crosse, Wis., and offers creativity workshops.

Creative roots help artistic courage grow

by Maryam Gossling, FSPA
It seems I've been involved with creativity for a long time. When I was three years old, my mother used to scold me for drawing lines around the figures in the Sears catalog-not for drawing but for ruining the catalog. I can't remember when I didn't draw or make things. Our whole family was involved in creating: from my dad who built barns, to my mother who decorated cookies and grew food, to my sisters who sewed, embroidered and crocheted, to my brothers who whittled, read books and knitted their own mittens and caps. So when people talked about being afraid to create, or suffering anguish and pain in the process of creating I began to wonder if I was extremely lucky to have lived the way I have, or if I was missing the point completely. What is the way of creativity about after all? I've decided that I have been very fortunate, and I may have been missing the point, too.

Sister Maryam Gossling writes an icon.

Creativity has to do with all of those things we did as a family, and it is more than that. We were making small decisions and choices about ordinary things that prepared us to make decisions and choices about important things later in life. When my brother was playing at building dams in the creek and catching tadpoles to be able to watch them grow into frogs, he didn't know he would be building a pond from a natural spring on his farm in order to conserve pure water and provide many an afternoon of solitary pleasure for himself and his family. When we were encouraged to figure out the quickest, most efficient way to get the chores done, we were being taught to rely on our own resources.

Later in life we were able to take different ideas, make connections and come up with our own solutions to problems. We could trust our ideas, because, after all, they worked for us before. We had a strong sense of who we were, and that we could do "important" things with our lives if we wanted to.

So what is all this talk about suffering and fear connected with creating? Isn't it exaggerating to go on about pain and anguish when you take creating for granted because you do it all the time? If I'm not suffering, does it mean I'm not creating?

I've come to realize there are many levels and ways of creating. Birthing a new idea or a new system of work takes a lot of courage because it may be disruptive of the established order of things. We need to overcome the fear of change and of the unknown in order to work for a better situation. As soon as we make choices, we have to let go of other possibilities. That isn't always easy.

Rollo May quotes Picasso as saying, "Every act of creation is also an act of destruction." And this [concept] is a source of guilt in genuine creative work. If you make a significant breakthrough in science or a new form of art, "the new idea will destroy what a lot of people believe is essential to the survival of their intellectual and spiritual world." That takes courage.

Art is a process of self-expression and the artist has to explore her inner self in order to respond to outer reality. She has to be receptive and aware of things happening, to be able to encounter objective reality with passion and intensity. The expression of this encounter or relationship, whether it is a poem, a painting, or a play is a new being. The artist struggles to perceive and reproduce her own vision of being human in the world around her. The degree of passion with which one does this may be very intense, or less so depending on the artist's willingness to reveal her own inner being. One must discipline oneself and allow images to take form and birth themselves in their own organic time.

Perhaps the most important thing I have come to know is that what I create is not always a product or even a new idea. "The most beautiful thing a potter produces is . . . the potter." When my community asks me, "How are you serving the poor? What are you doing to promote peace and justice in the world?" I can answer that the best way to do that is to be the best person I can be. If that means I have to paint pictures or write poetry then that is what I have to do first, and then perhaps I can go and help others be creative too.

Sister Maryam Gossling has been an art teacher for many years and has also worked as a graphic artist. She holds graduate degrees in art education, and printmaking and painting. Sister Maryam currently teaches icon workshops at Prairiewoods, in her studio in downtown Cedar Rapids, and in Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.

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