In our Autumn 2021 issue, we were honoured to speak to Patricia Fitzgerald, artist and entrepreneur. She designs beautiful mandalas to soothe the soul, and has now released a Healing Creations oracle deck.
Creativity
Theatre Man: Exploring Creativity With Michael Keegan-Dolan
In our new Summer 2021 issue, we were pleased to have a conversation with acclaimed choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan about dance and the creative process. Enjoy the full feature below!
We are thrilled to announce the beginning of our special Positive Nights series: The Creativity Series. During this sequence of art-themed events, we will be speaking to directors, actors, artists and other creative luminaries about their artistic process.
Our first guest is the acclaimed choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan. We will be chatting to Michael on Thursday March 11th at 7.30 p.m. Irish time (GMT). If you live outside the GMT zone, do check what this will be in your local time zone. The link and login details will be sent to all ticket holders the day beforehand, and a replay will be sent the following morning, so don’t worry if you can’t make it live.
Click here to book your place.
Michael is currently an associate at Sadler’s Wells London. He founded Tea? Da?sa in 2016 as a means to forge stronger connections with the native traditions, language and music of Ireland. The name Tea? Da?sa, ‘House of the Dance,’ in Classical Irish, supports this process and was exemplified in the company’s first two productions, Swan Lake / Loch na hEala (2016) and MÁM (2019).
Michael was the artistic director of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre (1997-2015), creating three Olivier Award-nominated productions: Giselle (2003), The Bull (2005), and The Rite of Spring (2009).
In 2012 he directed and choreographed a new production of Handel’s Julius Caesar at the London Coliseum, for English National Opera. In 2015 he created an original piece, The Big Noise, for the GoteborgOperans DansKompani. As Guest Artistic Director of the National Youth Dance Company at Sadler’s Wells London for their 2015 – 2016 season, he created In-Nocentes. In March 2017, he choreographed a new work to Dvorak’s 8th Symphony for the Dance Company at the Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich.
Michael has extensive teaching experience. He has led workshops for different companies around the world, including Macnas Theatre Company, Hofesh Schechter Company, Cedar Lake Ballet, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company and the Ballet Junior de Geneva.
Positive Life publisher Paul Congdon says, “It is my great pleasure to chat to Michael. I’ve seen a lot of his work, including pieces by his company Fabulous Beast. When I saw ‘Giselle’ a few years back, its beauty was heart opening.”
Our evening with Michael will take place at 7.30 p.m. GMT on Thursday March 11th. The link and login details will be sent to all ticket holders the day beforehand, and a replay will be sent the following morning.
Click here to book your place.
Positive Nights’ Creativity Series: Michael Keegan-Dolan
We are thrilled to announce the beginning of our special Positive Nights series: The Creativity Series. During this sequence of art-themed events, we will be speaking to directors, actors, artists and other creative luminaries about their artistic process.
Our first guest is the acclaimed choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan. We will be chatting to Michael on Thursday March 11th at 7.30 p.m. Irish time (GMT). If you live outside the GMT zone, do check what this will be in your local time zone. The link and login details will be sent to all ticket holders the day beforehand, and a replay will be sent the following morning, so don’t worry if you can’t make it live.
Positively Newsworthy: The Little Things is a much-loved section of our magazine, containing reflections and observations from our editors about human connection, moments of kindness, creativity, or any other joyful stirrings of inspiration that comes to mind. The Little Things is all about celebrating life’s positive side! Our editors’ reflections from Summer 2020 can be read below.
Looking for a way to kick-start your creativity? We can highly recommend the creative writing classes and workshops offered by Siofra O’Donovan. We were thrilled to feature her work in our Winter 2019/20 issue – read on to learn all about it!
On Thursday September 27th, we look forward to welcoming the world-renowned psychic and spiritual artist, Colin Hall, to Positive Nights. From 7.30 to 9.30 p.m., Colin will join us to discuss his amazing journey and the inspiration behind his work. The venue is the Central Hotel, 1-5 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2..
Colin aims to give evidential demonstrations – through his beautiful artwork – of the survival of the soul and proof of life after death.
Early-life spiritual experiences led Colin on a quest to develop his spiritual gifts in church groups and circles. Eventually, this led Colin to attend the spiritual college of Arthur Findley, where – under the direction of many eminent teachers, including Gordon Higginson – Colin began to develop those gifts and gain a deeper understanding of Autographs and the Spirit World.
As a teacher in the areas of metaphysical and spiritual art, Colin takes us into the Great Deva Kingdom of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, Fire. The more Colin’s artwork is studied, the more the “essence” of power and peace radiates from his paintings. Colin aims to move people deep within their spiritual beings.
Colin says:
“It’s a wonderful way to work with the Spirit World: a way of unlocking the doors to the inspiration and creativity that are dormant within all of us. When working with colour in Art, we are attracting the Angels of that colour: a colour that will help us with our inspiration and strengthen our mediumship and healing.”
Colin’s Art is strongly influenced by Celtic, Chinese and Art Nouveau styles, with their endlessly flowing forms. His paintings feature mythical images of Gods and Goddesses, and the nature of a world that dwells all around and within us.
Click here to book your tickets.
On Thursday September 27th, we look forward to welcoming the world-renowned psychic and spiritual artist, Colin Hall, to Positive Nights. From 7.30 to 9.30 p.m., Colin will join us to discuss his amazing journey and the inspiration behind his work. The venue is the Central Hotel, 1-5 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2..
Colin aims to give evidential demonstrations – through his beautiful artwork – of the survival of the soul and proof of life after death.
Early-life spiritual experiences led Colin on a quest to develop his spiritual gifts in church groups and circles. Eventually, this led Colin to attend the spiritual college of Arthur Findley, where – under the direction of many eminent teachers, including Gordon Higginson – Colin began to develop those gifts and gain a deeper understanding of Autographs and the Spirit World.
As a teacher in the areas of metaphysical and spiritual art, Colin takes us into the Great Deva Kingdom of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, Fire. The more Colin’s artwork is studied, the more the “essence” of power and peace radiates from his paintings. Colin aims to move people deep within their spiritual beings.
Colin says:
“It’s a wonderful way to work with the Spirit World: a way of unlocking the doors to the inspiration and creativity that are dormant within all of us. When working with colour in Art, we are attracting the Angels of that colour: a colour that will help us with our inspiration and strengthen our mediumship and healing.”
Colin’s Art is strongly influenced by Celtic, Chinese and Art Nouveau styles, with their endlessly flowing forms. His paintings feature mythical images of Gods and Goddesses, and the nature of a world that dwells all around and within us.
Click here to book your tickets.
By Gavin Ryan
Julia Cameron is the creator of The Artist’s Way, a book which has inspired tens of thousands of artists to creatively unblock since its publication almost 25 years ago. Living in Santa Fe, New Mexico in an adobe house half-way up a mountain, surrounded by Piñon and Juniper trees, at 70 years of age, she continues to write and teach and inspire. She tells us of her early years, her marriage to Martin Scorsese with whom she had a daughter (Domenica Cameron Scorsese, who is about to release her first feature film as a director). She also talks about recovering from an alcohol problem and being guided on a spiritual path. I caught up with her while she was in New York on her way to teach a three day workshop in Massachusetts.
You have a terrific life story – tell us about how you came to decide that you were an artist?
It was just a calling. I had an impulse to write. I went to Georgetown University. They had a newspaper where they didn’t allow women to write. They wanted us to bake cookies! I didn’t like that and I wrote a manifesto calling for equality. This was back in 1966 and it was a very turbulent time in America between the sexes. I was responsible for starting a women’s group on campus and I started drawing cartoons and writing these feisty, fiery pieces and out of that came the impulse to keep writing. I had a wonderful professor named Roland Flint who didn’t have prejudice against women and I began writing poetry for him.
The poems started getting published and that reinforced my calling.
Do you still feel strongly about feminism?
I think The Artist’s Way has been a great teacher for me. That men suffer equally was not something I was brought up to believe. But when I started teaching creative unblocking, I found that men had as many difficulties as women. It did a lot to level the playing field. I would say that my habit of writing manifestoes is what lead me to writing The Artist’s Way. It was intended as a manifesto in favour of all artists, male or female.
You ended up married to Martin Scorsese and hanging out with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg before you’d all hit the big time.
When I met Martin, I had been asked to write about him. Martin was directing Taxi Driver and he gave me the script to read and I thought it needed some tweaking and so I went ahead and tweaked. He shot my changes and they came out wonderfully and that was the beginning of my involvement with movies. I would say that I was very lucky to know the circle that I knew and I was very much in love with Martin and I subsequently fell in love with his work. This might seem old-fashioned, but when I married Martin, I felt it was my duty to be a helpmate. In this case, being a helpmate involved creativity.
You say that artists are inclined to help each other naturally rather than compete.
I’ll give you a good example of this. Originally Schindler’s List was a Martin Scorsese script. Martin worked to shape the script and get the balance correct. Then he gave the script to Steven Spielberg. Not many people know that Martin was involved with that script. It was an act of great generosity and faith that he gave it to Steven and never said a word of this publicly.
How do you feel that this kind of attitude of service is linked to creativity?
When we ask to be of service, we are given freedom. We find ourselves being more generous, and out of generosity comes more creativity. So it’s sort of a circle. I find when I teach, which I do often, that I ask God to give me candour, humour, service and wisdom. Then I am often surprised by what comes out. It is although the Great Creator has put words in my mouth.
In January of 1978 you stopped drinking. How did this lead you to discovering The Artist’s Way?
I drank from the age of 19 until 29. When I was drinking, I worked very hard for my writing to be clever. I wasn’t trying to be of service to anyone except my brilliant career. Then in 1978, I faced the fact that I had an alcohol problem and I needed a way to write sober without scotch as a lubricant or a reward. So I had two friends who said to me “try to let the universe write through you” and I thought, “well, what if it doesn’t want to?” I put a little note in my writing area that said, “Okay God – you take care of the quality and I’ll take care of the quantity”. Then I began writing again, trying to let a higher force work through me and when I did, my writing took off. I began to have the experience of a higher power as a real force and so I wrote and started to sell movies and began to flourish. Then I had a movie that I wrote, that went from being described as brilliant until suddenly I couldn’t get anyone on the phone. I was stymied and I was frustrated and I prayed for guidance walking in Greenwich Village in New York. I heard the word ‘teach’. I thought, ‘I don’t want to teach, I want to make art’. So I called up a girlfriend I had at the time and told her what happened. She said she’d call me right back. Fifteen minutes later, she called me back and said ‘congratulations, you are now on the faculty of the New York Feminist Arts Institute – your first class meets Thursday!
You reference Dylan Thomas’s beautiful line that ascribes divinity to “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower” How do you think that force manifests in your life?
I recently found myself guided to write a book of prayers and I was worried as I felt that they were too short. I thought, surely they should be longer and more complicated. I finally called my publisher and told him that, behind my own back, I have written a book of prayers. He wanted to hear them, but I assured him that he wouldn’t like them. I read him some of the prayers and he said ‘they’re perfect short, Julia, this is the age of Twitter. I wrote another collection that isn’t published in Ireland called ‘Prayers to the Great Creator’. It has four separate books in it and I read the last one, which is called Answered Prayers nightly. When I read it, I think ‘who wrote that?’ People ask me was The Artist’s Way channelled? I don’t use that expression, but I do feel that I was guided in writing it and I feel that I am guided still. I think that the Dylan Thomas quotation, still to me seems like an accurate description of the Higher Power. That it is a tremendous creative energy that is eager to be expressed and that as we cooperate with it, by writing our morning pages, going for walks, doing our artist’s dates, we sort of make ourselves open to guidance. I am sometimes afraid that is sounds a little too woowoo. Then I say, ‘try writing morning pages and just experiment, and as they do they find synchronous doors opening. I have often heard of the morning pages being described as ‘a portal to faith’.
Do you have any connection to Ireland and what advice would you bestow on our readers in Ireland looking to live the creative life?
I do have an Irish connection. My mother’s maiden name was Shea. It was shortened from O’Shea. I grew up celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. My daughter even spent her junior year in Trinity. But, in answer to your question, I would tell them to do their morning pages and follow where they lead.
Julia Cameron continues to write, teach and inspire. She was keen to talk about her daughter’s new movie ‘Almost Paris’ and to praise other artists who she met along the way including Daniel Region and her long-time collaborator, Emma Lively.
It is this generosity of spirit and joy in the success of others which makes her such a wonderful ambassador for the concepts of kindness and service. It was a privilege to have an opportunity to speak with her.
A lovely note from our new editor, Gavin Ryan about Julia & the Artist’s way:
About five years ago, The Artist’s Way intervened in my life. Julia Cameron’s words spoke straight to me. I felt such a personal connection with her message. I haven’t looked back.
For this blocked writer, The Artists’s Way was the magic spell in Fantasia that made the mops and buckets dance. Shortly after, I began writing and teaching writing professionally.
Recently, I began teaching The Artist’s Way. It is so fulfilling to pass on the tools that I learned by taking the course and watching people unblock and see the creative force come into people’s lives, as it has in my own.
That my first feature with Positive Life would be with Julia Cameron should not surprise me. She has always taught that when you move towards your dreams, your dreams move towards you. Julia Cameron wrote in The Artist’s Way,
“I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow”. No truer words were ever spoken.
If you are interested in taking the journey with me, get in touch. Our current class is full, but I’ll be running a new class again in September.
Wishing you colour and magic and a creative summer.
Gavin Ryan
dublinartistsway@gmail.com