Intentional creativity is ancient and belongs to all beings.
Creating with intentional symbolism to communicate and tell story has happened all over the world by all peoples in every medium. From the Red Hand Cave paintings of Aboriginal peoples of Australia, to the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Egyptian glyph and myths, Russian icons coded with teachings, Shaman’s drums painted with personal medicine in Asia and Scandinavia, skin story tattoos of the Hawaiian Islands, Native American beadwork, baskets and garments, Hebrew temples and altars, marks on Mexican pottery, African symbols for death and rebirth in paintings. The references are truly everywhere, in both spiritual ritual contexts, as well as in food recipes, the design of gardens, books of poetry, and sacred architecture. All people make forms with specific intent. We get to be a part of the great unfolding of the story of earth through imagery and language with mindfulness.
Today, the legacy of art making with mindful intention, continues in conscious communities, including the Intentional Creativity movement, where tens of thousands of women creating alchemical images of the feminine and bringing their stories to the canvas for healing, transformation and liberation. This is a story worth telling, a legend to be a part of, and the weave of the future we together are creating. Women empowered to serve themselves, their families and communities.
What will future people say about who we are, when they see our creations in 1,000 years? What will they say we focused on, loved and cared for? What will they say we stood for or against? Who will our art show us to be, as a people? Artists have always told the story of humanity in matter based creations – what part of the story are you choosing to tell?
At the Intentional Creativity Foundation, our focus group has been working on the development, philosophy and access to the emergent discipline of creativity for the past twenty-five years. Yet our specific lineage of study goes back to the 1930ies during the Roosevelt administration’s call to artists during the New Deal. This work has been passed from hand to hand for over 80 years as each of us learns the power of putting intention to use, while being conscious of what we are creating, how it feels, and what we discover during and after the process.
By 2018 there will be close to 200 Intentional Creativity Guild Members who are graduates of our Intentional Creativity Training, around the world bringing this technology to the people they serve. We know that all beings are creative, and that the kind of creativity we are offering isn’t based in talent, but a desire to be awake to one’s self and one’s own path. From there, we can answer the call.
May we be of service to awakening consciousness through intentional creativity.
~ Shiloh Sophia
Co-Founder, Intentional Creativity Foundation
It is with a grateful heart that I officially announce that the Intentional Creativity Foundation, our not-for-profit is active, approved, online and ready to rock. Thank you Jonathan Lewis for believing in the vision and making it happen and being the Co-Founder of the foundation. Thank you to all Color of Woman staff and graduates for 8 years of training. Thank you to Cosmic Cowgirls for being the community we first explored this in with depth in circles. Thank you to those who made it possible through their teachings, Sue Sellars, Lenore Thomas Straus, Caron McCloud. Thank you to all of you along Red Thread.
Image by Sue Hoya Sellars
Quote on painting says –
“We must move into the future, creating it as we go.
We have been placed on the edge of history too long now.
We have always been here.”