Through the course I understood that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
I understood that it is the way of appreciating life and each of its details that really makes the difference. So I started by looking at myself, looking inside myself to discover the beauty that I held and then I could offer it to the world and see everything around me with it.
These resources (beauty) that I discovered in me were various, such as empathy, affection and kindness. That is why I no longer look at the ugly, cruel or inhuman around me. I use my beauty in every step I take and I am able to see with empathy and kindness all the good that is out there.
All this thanks to art, thanks to the course and the tools it gave me. Maybe the world is still the same, but now I see it with the colours and beauty I discovered in me.
At the time I joined the ‘Creative Passion’ course, I was going through a very complicated situation in my life. I had fears, insecurities and more over I had been let down by important people.
Actually, I can honestly say that this course has changed my life for the better for several reasons.
The course, through art, has healed my inner fears, and channeled my insecurities with movement exercises and meeting others.
Secondly, I met beautiful people who I feel are now part of me, and I am part of them.
Thirdly, I was able to learn about the multiple connotations of identity and how it can be a symptom of integration and disintegration at the simultaneously.
Fourthly, I was able to see life with different eyes, that is, with optimism and hope for a better future.
This opportunity gave me back the desire to dream, and to believe in the process of change and transformation in a collective way, and also as an individual.
If I had to highlight something unique and extraordinary about this course, it is the possibility it offers to the participants to be themselves, without fear of being judged, rejected or offended by others. It is a space of not only creative freedom, but also cultural, identity and artistic freedom. This makes it possible that at the end of this wonderful time together, I felt like a student and a teacher at every stage of the process, because I learned from everyone and I feel that my classmates also learned from me. My perceptions of beauty today are less demanding and more just. Moreover beauty lies in the ability to accept, even in the midst of diversity, the sublimity of being authentic.
I rediscovered that life is not about what can be seen in front of an audience, but about those moments in which the silence and the gazes of the other managed to transform the moments. For me, it was a way to heal my relationship with myself and with the world, in such a simple way, because I like it when we hear: “Your presence alone is enough, no matter how much you can or cannot contribute”.
The freedom to be, to live in the now, without being upset with the past, or despairing about the future, I was able to achieve it in that space, because the dialogue of my teacher who encouraged me to let go, who emanated empathy, and the faces of my classmates, in whom one could see the fear of showing oneself, a collective fear, motivated me to lower my defences. I could feel part of what was happening, although my intentions were never to integrate, because when one decides to open up, to stop holding back what weighs us down, and we recognise it in front of a group, healing will follow. In the little things, almost without speaking, without trying to prove anything, that’s when I discovered that all I needed was to be myself. So nothing is the same for me after the workshop. I continue on a path of constant openness towards the other, I am not indifferent to the insignificant, whether it be moments of silence, of contact with others, because I know that I can find myself there.
Beauty is to be found in everything. I don’t believe that there is anything without a hint of beauty. But when we refer to it, as far as I can understand, we are referring to that intrinsic need that man has to look for solutions, ways out, perhaps a search for truth, or good, for something that transcends us; even in austere circumstances. Seen in this way, although I don’t think I understand the true meaning of this concept, the search for beauty is something we all have innate, and I don’t think there is any human being who doesn’t search for it, even if we walk in the opposite direction towards perdition, because we all try to see the light in the darkness, we are not beings of darkness. And I did see beauty in the carvers.
Where did I see it? Well, in every activity that was done, a great beauty emanated, because every act, both the classes that were taught, which were tools that allowed self-knowledge, and the practical classes, allowed the creation of spaces where it was conducive to see beyond the simple appearance. Meeting the other is a leap that will allow us to find ourselves, and I see the beauty precisely in those tools that brought out some of the inner misery, making us focus on the face of the other, and see glimpses of the truth. For me, there is no quicker way to understand the world than to try to understand another being, human connections save, empathy, too, and beauty undoubtedly joins them.
I consider the first edition of the course – Inside and through BEAUTY – and the second edition of course – The Creative Passion – as two very different versions. The reason for this is that my pathway has evolved and I am interested and new expressions. But, if there is one thing that both editions have in common, it is that they have helped me to step out of my comfort zone.
In the first edition I faced an unknown space, with unknown people who afterwards became friends and companions in my journey towards the (re)discovery of beauty.
In the second edition I overcame my stage fright, and participated in the exercise movement behind the curtains.
Therefore, I can affirm that these experiences have been two turning points in my life that transformed me. I have changed the way of relating to people in my circle and valuing them. Also I have changed my way of thinking and doing things, and seeing them from a different point of view.
Beauty is a subjective term. One of the most beautiful things is life for me, because is to compare it to a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly. It is a process in constant transformation that has different stages, some are painful and others are joyful.
In 2023 I learned to look at, think and reflect on things in a different way. I learned that in our life there are people who come to teach us something and then they leave and this teaching can be painful but it was the needed method required to learn. There are also people who have been in your life and suddenly leave, and others who arrive apparently for a brief period and end up staying.
