Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Layers - Return with Elixir

I have finished my 5 stage Painting the Hero-ine's Journey as part of my Transformative Art Certification at Art 4 All People.  I loved the stages.  I am not used to making abstract work but I really enjoyed it.

Here's my final painting it's kind of like a supernova

RETURN WITH ELIXIR - Layer 5

THE ROAD BACK - Layer 4

REWARD - Layer 3

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS - Layer 2

CALL TO ADVENTURE

Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Steps - 4th Stage - ROAD BACK - It's not about making a painting it's about the experience of making a painting

In stage 4, the Hero-ine struggles back to the world from which the hero came, boon intact.   The path and the plant that were so clear in 3rd stage are now obscured in the 4th stage.  There is still light in the journey helping the hero-ine know her destination but there are more trials and tribulations to experience.

In Campbell's structure I am collapsing 2 stages: The Road Back and The Resurrection.

THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.n his book, "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure,"

Christopher Vogler writes "that for a story to feel complete, the reader needs to experience an additional moment of death and rebirth, subtly different from the ordeal. This is the climax of the story, the last dangerous meeting with death. The hero must be cleansed from the journey before returning to the ordinary world. The trick for the writer is to show how the hero’s behavior has changed, to demonstrate that the hero has been through a resurrection.

During the resurrection, death and darkness are encountered one more time before being conquered for good. Danger is usually on the broadest scale of the entire story and the threat is to the entire world, not just the hero. The stakes are at their very highest. The hero, uses all lessons learned on the journey and is transformed into a new being with new insights."

In this stage of the painting I spattered black and red to obliterate the stage three painting. My husband loves this stage of the painting and asked me not to paint any more and tell my teachers that it was done.  But I will paint the last layer!  It's not really about making a painting it is about the experience of making the painting.

Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Steps - Stage 3 - Reward - All the way to heaven is heaven itself

My painting continues. My heroin'es journey continues. There is a poem I read in Zen and Creativity on Tuesday that reminded me of the Hero-ine's Journey:

All the way to heaven

is heaven itself.

I didn't paint on Wednesday.  I don't know what happened.  I had the day off but I ran out of time.  I did do a lot of art because I went figure drawing for 4-1/2 hours.  But that will be another post.

I woke up early this morning and ended up doing 2 layers of the Hero-ine's Journey, layers 3 and 4.  This post is about layer three.  The 4th layer is outside right now drying as I type on this computer.  I want to recap a little because these layers are just layers so I feel I need to put them in context.

Layer One: Call to Adventure

Where the spirit does not work with the hand

there is no art.

- Leonardo Da Vinci

Layer Two: Trials and Tribulations

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead 

where there is no path and leave a trail

Layer Three (Today's Layer): Reward

Charles Olson describes this stage as "obtaining some kind of boon, which may or may not have been the apparent goal at the start."

Vogel calls this stage Reward or Seizing the Sword: "The Hero has survived death, overcome his greatest fear, slain the dragon, or weathered the crisis of the heart, and now earns the Reward that he has sought."

Lost - yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, 

two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. 

No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.

- Horace Mann

I have painted a diamond coming out of a plant.  I am not exactly sure where it came from.  The jewel is a very obvious choice for a reward. Maybe it is because of the story I have been working on for years the hymn of the pearl about a jewel. I feel like I have seen this imagery before but I can't recollect where.

On the whats your sign website is written: "Overwhelmingly, the diamond symbol or the triangle symbol motif expresses itself in terms of clarity, ascension and wisdom. Not of the ordinary sort of wisdom though. I speak of a clarity and wisdom that transcends the banalities of our everyday realm."

That seems good to me for the Hero-ine's journey.  When the reward is given there is an opening, a clarity, a renewal.

I have always stayed with the initial rhythm of the painting.  I am not sure if that is keeping with the intention of the exercise but I could never let the rhythm go.  There is this dramatic motion to the upper right corner.  As if the painting itself wants to escape the canvas.

Perhaps the stylized foliage is a subconscious homage to one of my favorite painters, Rousseau

And as before, Georgia O'Keefe is still influencing the painting.

I feel this painting is a very selfish act.  I never have been an abstract painter and there is something that feels very self-absorbed about it.  So I am struggling with that as I remind myself of this poem

To study the Way is to study the self.

To study the self is to forget the self,

To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things..

- Ethei Dogen

Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Steps - Stage 2 - Trials, Tests, Allies and enemies

This morning I started layer two of my painting of the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 steps. The painting is mine and the heroine is me.  The journey is mine - all is me.

"If you are not the hero of your own story, then you're missing the whole point of your humanity.” 

― Steve Maraboli

At the same time I am a child of the universe no less than the sea and the stars.  And I am the sea and the stars, I came out of the waters of my mother's womb and I am made of star dust.  So this painting about me is also a painting about the universe.

Chris Olson says Stage 2  of the Hero-ine's Journey is about  "being transported to an alien environment, where many trials are faced and endured."

Vogel writes "having crossed the threshold, the Hero faces Tests, encounter Allies, confronts Enemies and learns the rules of this special world,"

Here is stage 1 

I think this stage of my painting may be about how many paths there are to chose from.  Who do you know which path to take.  There are so many dead ends and wrong turns.  My dad used to love this poem by Robert Frost "The Road Not Taken"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 My painting reminds me of the basketry I used to do where the layers are all interwoven to make a beautiful geometric form.

One of my favorite baskets to make was an Appalchian Egg basket

The colors in this painting remind me of Emil Nolde, a painter I have loved since my youth.

I wasn't careful with the paint.  I didn't tighten up the forms.  I accepted this was just a layer in the journey to the next layer.  A layer that would be covered soon.  So I decided it was more about the energy and the form, not precision.

I put my foot prints at the bottom left corner of this layer to symbolize the path.  If you believe in intuition as I do then logically it follows that acceptance of whatever path you take will be the right path for you.  u The main footprints I remember in art are the footprints of the Buddha

"The footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada) are one of the early representations of the Buddha in the anticonic (no statues) stage of Buddhist art. The Buddhapada are highly revered in all Buddhist countries, especially in Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Symbolizing the grounding of the transcendent, feet have been objects of respect in India long before Buddhism. According to Buddhist legend, after the Buddha attained enlightenment, his feet made an imprint in the stone where he stepped."

Painting the Hero-ine's Journey- Intuitive Sketches - The Seven Archetypes

My synchrodestiny of today was that I wanted 2 days off between jobs.  I was sure I wasn't going to get it because my first day of work was today.  I worked from 9am to 1:30pm until my boss told me that he had miscalculated, my first day of work should be Thursday not Monday. I was overjoyed, I get to have Tuesday and Wednesday off to paint, read and do yoga.


With my new found time this afternoon I thought it would be interesting in my exploration of the Hero-ine's Journey to make some sketches of Vogler's Seven Archetypes.  I thought if I sketched them I might understand them better.  My rules for myself was no reference, no planning, just sketch the first thing that comes in your head.  This is what I came up with:

1. HERO-INE - the protagonist, main purpose is to separate from the ordinary world and sacrifice herself for the service of the Journey.  The heroine answers the challenge, completes the quest and restores the ordinary world's balance. The story takes place through the hero-ine's eyes.

2. MENTOR: "The mentor provides motivation, insights and training to help the Hero-ine."

3. THRESHOLD GUARDIAN: "Threshold Guardians protect the Special World and its secrets from the Hero-ine, and provide essential tests to prove a Hero-ine's commitment an worth."

4. HERALD: "Herald characters issue challenges and announce the coming of significant change.  They can make their appearance anytime during a Journey, but often appear at the beginning of the Journey to announce a CAll to Adventure.  A character may wear the Herald's mask to make an announcement or judgment, report a news flash, or simply deliver a messafe."

:

5. SHAPESHIFTER: "The Shapeshifter's mask misleads the Hero by hiding a character's intentions and loyalties."

6. SHADOW: "The Shadow can represent our darkest desires, our untapped resources, or even rejected qualities.  It can also symbolize our greatest fears and phobias. Shadows may not be all bad, and may reveal admirable, even redeeming qualities.  The Hero-ine's enemies and villains often wear the Shadow mask.  This physical force is determined to destroy the Hero-ine and her cause."

7. TRICKSTER: "Tricksters relish the disruption of the status quo, turning the Ordinary World into chaos with their quick turns of phrase and physical antics.  Although they may not change during the course of their Journeys, their world and its inhabitants are transformed by their antics.  The trickster uses laughter (and ridicule) to make characters see the absurdity of the situation, and perhaps force a change.

All in all, I like my intuitive sketches.  I think I would like to make some more attempts on the Shapeshifter and the Trickster.  I think they could be more fleshed out.  I had a lot of pleasure in doing this self given assignment

Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Steps - CALL TO ADVENTURE aka PANDORA'S BOX

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

Joseph Campbell

My assignment for the week for my Integrative Tranformative Art Teacher Training and Coaching Certificate is to paint the Hero-ine's Journey.

 Because I love painting, love Joseph Campbell and love telling stories this is a very exciting task.  It's weird, after doing all the creativity coaching training with Eric Maisel and trying to do art every day and not being able to manage to make anything these last few weeks in Art 4 All People training I have been doing art every day and there is no struggle at all.  Maybe all that work with Eric Maisel got me ready to get to this point.  I think also I love working in this way.

When writing about Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces Charles Olson analyzes the hero's journey to have 5 steps.

1) Call to action - which begins the adventure
2) Being transported to an alien environment - where many trials are faced and endured
3) Obtaining some kind of boon which may or may not have been the apparent goal at the start
4) Struggling back to the world from which the hero came, boon intact
5) Delivering the boon to the world, a treasure the hero could not have obtained without enduring every step of the journey

Here is the first layer of my 5 layer intuitive painting on the Hero's (Heroine's Journey)

Vogler has 12 stages to the Hero's Journey

1.ORDINARY WORLD

2. CALL TO ADVENTURE

3. RELUCTANT or REFUSE THE CALL

4. MENTOR 

5. CROSS THE FIRST THRESHOLD

6. TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES

7. APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE

8. ORDEAL

9. REWARD

10. THE ROAD BACK

11. RESURRECTION (transformed by the experience)

12. RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR

I think I will combine these two systems and paint

1. CALL TO ADVENTURE

2. TRIALS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES

3. REWARD

4. RETURN BACK

5. RETURN WITH ELIXIR

When looking at my CALL TO ADVENTURE painting it reminds me of the opening of Pandora's box.  All this junk and energy is flying out. 

 I also think of a large O'Keefe like flower. 

 I used a lot of my own hand prints.  Maybe this is me owning MY ADVENTURE.  Making sure that you know it belongs to me and is not like my sets where I am invisible.  The hand print is also something very primitive like the hand prints you see in cave paintings.

My challenge to myself is to paint one layer a day to finish by Friday evening and have the painting ready to take to my check in at Art 4 All People on Saturday morning.

I am again reminded of the quote that I keep hearing in my ear by Mother Teresa:

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

― Mother Teresa