Aesthetic Space

What is an Image

I'm really lovin' Lynda Barry's book What It Is.

"When I was little... I would hold myself as still as I could and make my eyes like a toy's eyes that don't movce and I would wait. I would wait for the other things in the room to forget about me and begin to move...I knew I had to be patient and wait for a very long time...I believed there was another world that would show itself to me in the smallest ways. The gray kitten in the picture by my bed would accidentally blink his eyes. The girl in the picture would breathe....Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real. But what caused the disillusionment?...What is an Image? At the center of everything we call 'the arts' and children call 'play,' is something which seems somehow alive."

The Dimension of Not-Knowing

I'm teaching the first session of my "Psychology of Transformative Learning" course for graduate students at Meridian tomorrow. So in honor of that, thought I'd provide a quote from Derrida. Enjoy.

Language is an intrinsically unreliable structure for communication. Real meaning exists in a dimension that transcends reason and language. It is a ‘dimension of not-knowing’ and this domain of not-knowing is the appropriate domain for true education. Creativity and transformation require entering that dimension – going beyond language and reason and finding the common ground between all living things from which real creativity and profound transformation emerge.

--Jacques Derrida

That's where I like to play.

Everything of which we are conscious is an image

... said Carl Jung, which segways nicely to my upcoming workshop April 16, at Book Passage. Here's the description:

Images lie at the heart of the creative process. They are the language of the “middle realm,” a place where literal words don’t yet exist. Depth psychologists believe that images are animate and in this seminar we immerse ourselves in this dynamic language. Dream images, metaphors, fantasies, and images from the natural world will weave their connections through our writing. To sign up click here: http://www.bookpassage.com/event/kim-hermanson-transformative-power-image

Carl Jung also said that "the artist makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life." During this workshop we will immerse ourselves in those "deep springs." I hope you'll join us!

The Transformative Power of the Image
Writing Workshop
10 am - 4 pm
Book Passage, Corte Madera
(415) 927-0960