Recap - FALLING SKY STUDIO: Mystery Painting Workshop

Mystery Painting is a form of imaginative induction by which we turn a problem into symbol. It provides a means of connecting inner and outer worlds: the world of our daily life with the world of the spirit. This is a vitally important connection in an age where we find ourselves in mortal danger of disappearing in the blitz of cyber babble and banality that now passes for reality.

The Scadding Court / Falling Sky workshops introduced the art of Mystery Painting to ten young persons in downtown Toronto this summer helping them to navigate their way through these strange and difficult times with plenty more obstacles coming their way down the road. These classes represent a tentative diagnostic probe into our human condition and what it might mean for teenagers living today.

Scientists at the World Wildlife Federation tell us that we are now living at the onset of the Sixth Mass Extinction. Since 1970, animal populations have fallen 70% mainly due to climate change. Yet we live comfortably in denial, shopping our way to oblivion. In a recent speech at the American Museum of Natural History, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned us. ”Our planet is trying to tell us something but we don’t seem to be listening. Not only are we in danger, we are the danger. But we are also the solution. This is the moment of truth.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped us steer our way through the corona virus pandemic, reflected on the lessons it taught us, offering this advice. “We need to understand that we’re all more alike than we are different, that we share common goals for ourselves and for our communities. We need to talk to one another again and we need to figure that out.”

In the Falling Sky Studio sessions from May through August 2024 at Scadding Court in Toronto we addressed the issue of reclaiming compassion in ominous times by taking the opportunity to paint together and create stories from the surprising images we found there at the tip of a brush. Mystery Painting conjures an alternative to the world of gizmos and glitz that makes a mockery of any sense of interiority remaining in us today. It is a gift from young people living during a time of civil war and the tsunami of 2004 who found refuge in the Butterfly Peace Garden in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, where they healed body and soul using art, story and theatre as their medicine.

Mystery Painting also allows us to discern what we really care about and leave behind what smothers and ensnares us. By painting and creating stories from our original artwork we give form to a deeper reality than television or digital media platforms reveal. Working at both the personal and transpersonal level it gives us a window into our fundamental humanity and purpose in this world.

The simple but profound practice of Mystery Painting builds trust by nourishing a deeper sense of belonging in community. We learn to trust our intuition and delight in its capricious meanders. Though we experience vulnerability in summoning the creative spirit, we also enjoy sharing its surprising manifestations with others, exposing terrain never before traversed, the terra incognita of our own souls.

Paul Hogan, August 2024

Left to Right: Anjanan Sivaganeshan, Claire Ferreira, Amal Abdullahi, Joana Santos, Hermon Tekay Anjanun, Malaika Ahmed Zafar, Zia Foley, Ze Hao Guo and Paul Hogan

Participant Creations

Workshop Reflections

I enjoyed the process of creating random lines, and creating a story out of these lines. I also really enjoyed talking about the stories. The workshops have shown me that when it comes to creativity it is important to trust the process, be patient and just see what unfolds as everything comes together.

- Amal Abdullahi

In these workshops I learned the mystery painting method, how to paint neat lines and how to creatively weave a story from these lines. I enjoyed learning about creative storytelling and how to paint abstractly. I also really enjoyed hearing Paul’s stories about Sri Lanka and connecting to Tamil culture through them. I also enjoyed the story generation process.

- Anjanan Sivaganeshan

My favourite part of the workshop was exploring how different stories and characters can be expressed through a painting. Every line and space can lead to multiple interpretations of a story and it gives the painter a chance to really push their creativity to see what story can be found.

I learned that building stories and working on paintings can take a lot of time before they are truly realised. They don't have to be perfectly clear from the jump. I was stuck with one of my paintings and couldn't see beyond superficial shapes. I thought it wouldn't lead to a good story, but the more I worked on it and tried to pull as much as I could from the lines, the story became crystal clear. It is sometimes difficult to see a clear path in our life, but that doesn't mean it won't come eventually.

I learned that a part of painting is to trust your instinct/sub-consciousness. A lot of the paintings I did beforehand were very precise and I had to start with something fully realised. But with mystery painting, I've learned that a large part of art is being able to create things before we know the end path, and to allow for us to trust our intuition when we try to create.

- Claire Ferreira

In this workshop I have learned a new way of expressing thoughts through paintings. I have also learned story creating techniques that can help when I am experiencing creative block and nothing comes to mind. I really enjoyed finding figures in the lines and discussing the paintings with the group.

- Malaika Ahmed Zafar

I really enjoyed being able to find something in the lines that I drew and coming up with stories for the paintings. I learned how to be patient as the whole process requires it. Before I started this workshop I was in the habit of getting things done quickly but now I am able to realise the importance of taking it slower. In the workshop I also learned how to meditate, and I think this could really help me later in life because I have become more able to be open-minded.

- Ze Hao Guo

Appendix

The stories that the candidates create at the Falling Sky Workshops undergo a number of revisions and reiterations as a final version shapes itself. Presented with the above paintings are original versions of the paintings' stories as imagined in class. Presented here are some of the participants' hindsight reflections on the story as it evolved while painting.

Once Bitten Twice Shy

Amal Abdullahi

I don’t know where I am going
Planted here on this earth
There’s one thing I know
The devil’s on my back
Telling me all these evil things
That the world could be ours
Better then the world left behind

It shows me the future
of the world in my hands

I am power hungry and driven
wanting back the power that was was taken

Time to take my destiny into my own hands
and make the world mine.

Spread Your Wings

Claire Ferreira

I am the big bird spirit. I live in the spirit realm with my younger brother and other animal spirits. My younger brother is quite mischievous and he gets on my nerves. He tangled up the antlers of the deer spirits, he stole the shell off of one of the turtle spirits’s back, and tricked the squirrel spirits into thinking that hard rocks were tasty nuts. The list goes on and on! His behaviour is driving me crazy! I'm supposed to look after him and teach him how to help other animal spirits but I don't think he's ready yet. He can't grow here, so I've decided he needs to be banished from the spirit realm and do some good deeds on earth. One day he may become a guardian spirit like me, who watches over animal spirits, but he must prove himself first. In his journeys, I hope he learns to use his powers to do good and help the animals of earth, and who knows, maybe his mischief can be transformed into creativity to give living creatures good gifts.

Freedom for Suthanthiraletchumy

By Anjanan Sivaganeshan

I am the Adhishesham, the primordial snake who became the soul of the Saptha Malagai. I am the wind, the Evergreen Forest, and the soul of the Thirupathi heartlands. I see all, here all, and feel all. I provide the sandalwood grooves to anoint with sandalwood paste, the fragrant flowers for his garlands, and the fresh running rivers for ritual bathing.

The story begins in the Tirupati Temple, where the illustrious Deekshithulu family preserves the daily rights practised for generations. The alignment of the planets indicated the selection of the new head priest. Two brothers were the main contenders. Mayabooshana was the older and more experienced, well-versed in the agamic texts. But Suthanagobithan was more sincere in his devotion. The elders felt it was more important to uphold bakthi (devotion) and choose the ladder of the brothers leaving Mayabooshana enraged. He stormed into the forest as the entirety of the Thirupathi temple rejoiced at Suthanagobithan’s appointing.

In the same forest Suthanthiraletchumy was travelling the mountains in hopes of seeking a divine viewing of Vishnu at the Thirupati Temple. She was a gajapakshi, a Hindu mythological being with the head of an elephant and the body of a bird. She was lying on the forest floor. She had been scorched by the sun when flying to heaven, to be reunited with her parents as they were taken by the lesser gods as sacrificial objects to be offered to the fire pit in order to restore balance to the Earth.

As Suthanthiraletchumy lay helpless, desperate to escape such suffering, her cries, unable to penetrate the sound barrier of the forest. At this dire moment, she encounters Mayabooshana. The two conversed and after hearing Suthanthiraletchumy’s tale, Mayabooshana agreed to take her back to Thirupati temple. Suthanthiraletchumy was overtaken with joy and gratitude. However, Suthanthiraletchumy did not know that Mayabooshana had other plans upon their arrival to Thirupati. Mayabooshana saw Suthanthiraletchumy as a tool to gain better fame amongst the townspeople and overtake his brother with his new discovery. They reached the temple under the cover of darkness, and Mayabooshana took Suthanthiraletchumy to a cattle barn where she was taken captive and locked up in a cage with no escape.

Mayabooshana left her starving and did not tend to her injuries, not caring about her welfare, but rather the fame and title he would gain the next day when he announced to the town how his magic conjured the Gajapakshi. Suthanthiraletchumy was helpless and began praying that Vishnu would bestow his mercy. All of a sudden a radiating luminescence lit up the night sky illuminating the three realms. It was none other than Vishnu, who burnt the cages, enabling freedom for Suthanthiraletchumy. Then Vishnu appeared in the night sky as a constellation visage and used the moon to reunite Suthanthiraletchumy with her parents. As for Mayabooshana, Vishnu left me in charge of returning the Karma for his misdeeds, and using all my might, I sent a landslide to envelop Mayabooshana unleashing a cobra head to extract all such venomous thoughts from the land.

A Solitary Decision

Malaika Ahmed Zafar

The creature contemplates eating the leaves from the branches above the ocean, because if consumed they would grant it life on land. The decision between embracing the leaves for a terrestrial existence or remaining in the ocean where it thrives creates a conflict.

The creature finds solace in the large blue areas where it hunts for prey, yet it also seeks the tranquillity of green areas to consider its existence. If provoked, its venomous bite with the fangs is a deadly risk, showcasing a severe reminder of its power and the consequences of disturbing its solitude.

Overall, this unique being is descended from dolphins, narwhals, and snakes. It navigates a world that challenges its very nature, creating a path different from its ancestors as it adapts to the harsh environment.

Acknowledgements

We are most grateful to James Orbinski and Theresa Dihn at the Dadaleh Institute for Global Health Research. Without them there would never have been Mystery Painting and the Falling Sky Studio Seminars at Scadding Court this summer.

During these sessions we took the initial steps on a journey Back to Bindu, enabling us to assess where we have come from in order to get back to the still point where it all began and will one day end; that is, bindu. There we discover, through arcane intelligence gleaned from our Mystery Paintings, precious insight into who we are and where we might be headed in our lives.

This was a “toe-in-the-water” short course in Mystery Painting and storytelling. Maybe someday, with more time and institutional support, we can delve more deeply into this evolving art form. For now, however, we acknowledge and affirm that the young artists who faithfully attended our painting and InterView sessions this summer, not only showed good hearts and a healthy sense of humour, but also great promise. Let me name and thank them here.

Amal Abdullahi, Anjanan Sivaganeshan, Claire Ferreira, Hermon Tekay Anjanun, Joana Santos, Malaika Ahmed Zafar, and Ze Hao Guo, you are the light bearers. We hope whatever pleasure and insight you found in the mind map of your paintings will help you find, further and fulfil your life dreams.

Thank you Jake Rutland and Scadding Court for offering sanctuary of soul for Falling Sky Studio. And Labib Chowdhury, you are a treasure who made us feel at home by reliably securing the space and keeping it open for our sessions week after week. Without you we would have been lost and, even while sometimes lost, you made everything feel normal. Normal is not something I’m very good at, so thanks for that too.

I have been doing this kind of creative practice with people in a variety of conditions including war and natural disaster for fifty years and through it I have learned that somehow the universe always takes care of us by feeding our minds and hearts with great creative ideas, happiness, mental clarity, joy, and reduced stress levels along the way. With age, however, I find it gets both easier and harder to carry on, the spirit being more willing but the flesh, alas, grows weak. That is when angels are sent in from on high to lend a hand. Like?

Like Zia Foley, a talented artist whom I have known since she was a child on Gabriola Island in British Columbia where she first studied painting with me at the Stupid School. Ever creative and always reliable, she somehow kept everything on track till now, up to and including this workshop. Thank you, Zia!

I hope, with further support from enlightened institutions like York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, we will carry this work on into the future with students like those who graced the Falling Sky Seminars at Scadding Court this summer.

— Paul Hogan

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