>>> Personal Development Seminars
Lecture
A simple exercise shows each of us the great difference between looking at an object, closing our eyes to picture it, and then comparing our mental image with what we actually saw. Details, brightness and stability are lost. The inner representation resembles a blurred, indistinct memory of reality. For an artist, however, it is essential to represent things with strength, vitality and clarity, whether creating from imagination or drawing from life. This does not mean naively believing that everything must be clear in the mind before painting. On the contrary, clarity develops through painting, as it does through any action: everything unfolds within a situation. I may arrive to speak with a friend about a topic I have planned in advance, only to encounter unexpected behavior and reactions. If I impose my expectations instead of responding to what happens, I force the situation. Expectations are the death of creativity and art. A well-developed imagination lets us reject possibilities, assess alternatives and anticipate paths that we would otherwise have to follow one by one. It saves time and energy and enables us to envision the future.
Seminar
We will practise strengthening mental images and observe how different ways of acting affect the results. Participants are encouraged to complete preparatory exercises, provided at registration, so they can begin with some basic training and have a greater chance of experiencing change during the seminar’s limited time.
Seminar Topics
Who It Is For
Open to everyone, although the seminar focuses particularly on attention in artistic creation, whether writing a story, composing music or painting. Maximum group size: 12.
Duration
The seminar comprises 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday, plus a two-hour lecture on Friday evening.
Cost
The fee for each seminar is agreed upon with interested participants.
Download workshop information sheet (PDF, Italian)
Lecture preview
Saper osservare per poter immaginare
Reality lies at the foundation of the development of inner images. The world is the raw material of imagination, as we experience in dreams. Observation is the fundamental ability in every representational art. It is not simply a matter of gathering and remembering visual information, but of opening our “radar” to every kind of information and element, as a writer does. Being attentive means not only increasing our alertness and wakefulness but also directing our “sensors” toward realities that must first take some shape within us. People say that we see only what we want to see, and there is considerable truth in that statement.
Yet much of our artistic observation ventures into unexplored, subtle and elusive areas, often difficult to fix on the film of our consciousness.
Attention becomes particularly important when we observe phenomena that are not physical but psychological, emotional and spiritual. They are changeable and delicate, and contact with them is easily lost. Harder still is the task of giving these inner images some lasting form on a canvas, a page of writing, in music or in a dance movement.
Strengthening inner images means increasing our chances of success, conserving energy, noticing details and finding new lines of investigation and discovery.