Dream Class
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A very good case is made for assembling a dream team in “Making Your Dreams Come True,” by Marcia Weider:
You want to simplify the journey to having your dream . . . . If you’re part of a winning team, you can excelerate progress and expand your horizons. In short, it’s easier and faster to accomplish things with help from other people (p. 148).
Although we all tend not to want to bother others or recruit assistance, what happens when two or three are gathered is uncanny (p. 149). Don’t be rigidly attached to what is already in your mind. In speaking your dream, new opportunities will show up. Keep your eyes and ears open (p. 170).
Today, I spoke my dream to a group of women who came to participate in my Cracked Paper Quilt class. I had made up my mind that I was going to reveal my true self to them, as openly as I could, because my purpose is to inspire, and be inspired. That is impossible to achieve if you hold back, or attempt to emulate some imagined “rules of deportment” for proper art instruction. I think it is essential, as the teacher of a class, to create an atmosphere of openness, sharing, humour and acceptance for wherever the participants are at. I certainly pushed a little, courage is part of creativity, but my experience has been that if I am open with how I feel, what I know, and the dreams I am pursuing, others respond in kind. I brought out my puppet (I use a muppet style puppet in the library classes I teach). I shared poetry ~ written by others and myself ~ that I found powerful, and emotionally evocative. I communicated my delight and gratitude for being there, with them, at this place. And, I demonstrated my techniques and ideas for creating paper quilts comprehensively, no holds barred.
Oh my, how they danced with me. We hugged, we talked, we shared, we laughed ~ all while we made art. They proved themselves to be a Dream Class. When I sang to them, with a wavering voice, the first verse of my poem Engaged, they sang back the chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
It was challenging to read the rest of the poem with emotions threatening to spill over.
My former Chi Qong teacher would be proud of me: she lauded the therapeutic benefits of giving and receiving at least five hugs a day, and experiencing 5 belly laughs. I got a month’s “quota,” I am sure, on day one of this class. However, they signed up for a paper quilting class, and these women knew how to work! They were focused, curious, asked excellent questions, and had tremendous skills.
This is how their paper quilts took shape throughout the day:
Candy's painted papers are drying.
Candy starts putting her paper quilt top together.
Cat's 1st quilt start.
Cat's 2nd quilt start.
Cheri works on a number of exquisite paper elements to collage onto her paper quilt.
Denise's Quilt Start.
Denise has shaped her quilt and added holes and cracks.
June's quilt start.
Kathleen's 1st quilt start.
Kathleen's 2nd quilt start.
Terri's quilt start.
These pictures do not do these little gems justice. By the end of the day, I was ecstatic. It is such a privilege to share your creative ideas with a group of talented, spirited women and watch them absorb those ideas and reshape them, according to their own vision.
#Hallelujah #SchweinfurthMemorialArtCenter #CrackedPaperQuilts #paperquilts #QBL #Engaged #stitch #QBL2QuiltingBytheLake2 #paintedpapers
