A Serenity Prayer: Making as Medicine

By Ella Le Grande, UG History of Art

The Croft Magazine // Ella Le Grande shares the joys in the process of expression void of any fears of judgement through her passion in textiles. Through reigniting her youthful curiosity, Le Grande reiterates the importance in surrendering to our capacity for artistic creation.

Art has always been my sacred way of unbecoming. A safe space to navigate those unnameable inner tensions, as well as a portal to call into existence different versions of authentic self. As Eckhart Tolle notes in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, “all true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” My soul is called to create as a way of anchoring in the aesthetic, the tangible visual that is a direct result of tapping into one’s imagination. Carving out time to exhale in my creativity and in the doing of art (which is in fact a kind of undoing) allows me to dip into an essential mental respite from the everyday pressures that exist beyond the canvas. In the contemporary world where endorphins are driven by instant gratification and surface level excess, I believe that returning to that core human desire to create individually meaningful art can help us reconnect with a more sustainable and slow releasing happiness, that is internally rather than externally regulated.

For me, textiles offer the perfect blurring of material and bodily beauty, wherein the outcome is the direct result of my body (and is hence an extension of my body) moving in a rhythmic intention. Whether it be in the process of an abstract art piece or wearable item, any time spent behind the sewing machine enables me to reach flow - that core attention state when your thoughts quiet and your mind is solely dedicated to the present moment. It feels as though muscle memory has developed over time and sustained tactile creation and in this place, I reach a meditative state; one that is simultaneously mindful and yet beyond the mind.

This thoughtlessness is most freely attained during the constructing of my origami bags, in which I take rectangular strips of recycled fabrics then fold and sew them to make one coherent composition. Origami, although coined after the Japanese words “ori” for “fold” and “gami” for “paper”, originally arose shortly following the invention of paper in second century China. Through the process of folding, a sheet of paper was intended to be admired anew by the creator in its new form. Once the shape was completed, it could be cherished in the knowledge that what was once a singular sheet of paper had been transformed into a dynamic object without taking away or adding anything to its original form or materiality. Allegorically, this concept of wholeness links aptly to spirituality and the path to Zen, insofar that all the tools needed for enlightenment are mapped within us - it is a matter of bringing active awareness to them that is the key to unlocking inner transcendence.

One of my most vital points of learning, and something I’m still cultivating along this journey, has been to release any expectation of your art to be anything but yours. You will not find the pure fulfilment that creativity provides via exterior comparison. This is about letting go, not ego. By fully surrendering to the process of expression without judgement of outcome, you allow the act of making in itself to become the destination, and validation to be summoned from an inner place which loves and appreciates freely. In doing so, a reignition of the playful curiosity we all shared as young children is stimulated, allowing you to live life with an abundant gratitude for the blessings of the everyday. So, I urge you to take time to just be in whatever passions make you feel peacefully affirmed and remember to practice self-rootedness through your inherent capacity for artistic expression.