Behind the Mic: Evelyn Dufner

Our discussion about Art + Spirituality is on a roll here amongst the Magpies. Last week we heard from novelist Elissa Elliott. This week The Artist’s Way workshop coordinator Evelyn Dufner steps behind the mic to give us her take on Art + Spirituality. Evelyn, step right up!

Q: How does Art + Spirituality intersect for you and your work?

This topic certainly raised my gleaming artistic antennae. I haven’t see the question posed before, an yet once I read it it was like pointing out that water is wet!

Religion (pootah) left a bad taste in my mouth when I was young, but I have never ceased to be spiritually connected. Although I innately understood that there is always an element of the divine, when out of my energy emerges something creative, I hadn’t quite connected the two. Creation is what keeps me from dissolving into the depths of existence with no connection to self — and being connected with self really does feel like a connection to the greater universe of energy. 

I immediately think of the moment I realized GOD was more than everyone said she was, and when my relationship with my own spirituality emerged. I must have been 5 or 6 years old. My parents had planted a Weeping Willow tree in the front of the house, which had become colossal by my standards. It’s branches hung over me like a large protective womb, and as I sat one day, agonizing over the turmoil in my life, scared and uncertain, I did something I often did — I buried my hands in the grass and soil around me. I sat there, a breeze moving through the branches, and I could FEEL God. I knew all that I was, all that I am, all that I was to be, was ok in that quiet spot. My sense of self emerged from moments like these, connected to what was spiritual, and connected to myself.  I did a lot of drawing under that tree, and crying, and playing. Church was just a place, but this is where I connected and allowed my creativity to begin moving through me.

I believe when I look behind the lens at the world, draw and paint, write, or play with wire and bead, that I am nurturing my spiritual connection. The messages that evolve in my work are gifts of my own growth, perspective, and deeper needs expressed. If I can be observant and listen to the inner beauty expressed through my creativity I discover the messages of my own soul, and feel the connection with all that is bigger than me. The creative journey is essential to my survival, my growth, and I know deeply that it is critical to continue to stay in tuned with myself.

To learn more about Evelyn’s journey with art + spirituality, join her at her blog Mindful-FUN-da-mentals, or join her at her collaborative photoblog, Spirited Sisterhood of the Traveling Posts. and if you are lucky enough to live in the Greater Orlando area, you can join one of Evelyn’s Artist’s Way workshops.

 
To join us where this discussion began, sign up for my free Eseries, Magpie Speak: a new language for soulcare. And tune in next week at Behind the Mic  for another example of the intersection between Art + Spirituality. Thanks for being here!

Posted in Interviews, Magpie Girl
Tags: art + spirituality, behind the mic, Interviews |