Creativity :: Bell and Todd

There are many reasons people ask us to create a custom mandala for and with them. Some want a unique logo to empower their business or service. Some want to capture the energy of a particular place in Nature. Others are looking for an image for the cover of their book. Additionally, there are people who want a meditation piece to help them center or heal from an illness or challenge.

I always enjoy creating art, but never more so than when we make these custom images. Recently, we collaborated with Heike Vargas of Aurora, Colorado to design a mandala for her wellness business. Heike is a Certified Medical Intuitive/T & DNA Healer and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. From start to finish, co-creating with Heike such a pleasure that it prompted me to write this blog. What made this event flow so smoothly? What makes the co-creation process a joy?

The short answer is that helping someone’s heart-vision take shape is magical and deeply satisfying. When we make custom art, we begin with photographs of real elements: flowers, crystals, feathers, starfields, all the elements of Earth and the heavens. We interview the custom client to draw out his or her or, if a group, their vision. We ask them to say which key words, colors, shapes, symbols, numbers, natural elements are significant to them. What is the feeling essence that they want to embody in the image we are going to craft for them? We take the clients’ clues and put together a photo-collage that brings the elements of their vision together in a beautiful form.

Part of what made the experience of collaborating with Heike so much fun is that she was right there for every part of the process. She was committed and clear in her choices from start to finish. After some initial discussions we created a draft image, and it was very close to what she wanted. And Heike knew just what color element she wanted us to add to take it the rest of the way to embodying her vision. A few small adjustments were made and then, bang! We could all feel when the image took the form that fulfilled the picture in her heart. Here is the mandala we created for Heike (its source materials are listed below).

Source: Water lilies, amethyst, clear crystal with rainbow refractions, blue sky and Ultra Deep galactic field (Hubble Space Telescope/STScl)

I hope this short re-telling allows you to get a feeling for the process of co-creating a custom mandala with us. Now, here are some of the benefits you receive from the beautiful visual result.

Top 5 Benefits of Having a Bell & Todd Custom Mandala

1. Your custom image holds the vibration of your purpose in creating it and empowers that purpose.

2. The image serves as a touchstone that draws positive energy toward your purpose.

3. The image, created with elements and colors that you choose, connects you to Nature in a special way.

4. The image, created with geometries and designs that you choose, connects you to Spirit in a special way.

5. By integrating unique vibration, natural elements and spiritual designs, your custom image becomes an interface with ongoing blessings for you and all who view it.

And one more benefit—it is exhilarating to make art together!

We invite you to engage with us in the pleasurable process of collaboration. To see some of our collaborations, visit our Custom Art page.

My partner, David, and I have been making it together for a long time now. What we co-create is energy-charged images, but it’s the process rather than the product that I want to explore in this piece. By combining our creative efforts we unlock a new level of transformative power. I want to share a bit about how that works in our artistic adventures and how it extends to the challenge we face collectively to make our world new.

There is actually a third partner in our collaboration—the Earth, in the form of the photographs that are the foundation of our artwork. What we create are photo-collages. We take pieces of our Nature photos and re-assemble them using sacred geometries. We make mandalas and other styles of images, all with an underlying symmetry. Everything in our work comes from Mother Nature. Beyond relating to her pictorially, we commune with the spirit of the planet as we design our images, which often feature the globe.

Solaria

The human side of making art together is an exciting, sometimes explosive and often ecstatic event. How do two people with independent ideas cooperate in such an essentially creative project? It begins with an originating impulse—we may be creating a piece for a specific healing purpose, or creating 12 new images for each year’s calendar. The purpose guides the initial visioning process. Having a clear, shared purpose is one key to co-creativity.

With the purpose in mind, we begin: Which Earth-element should we use to convey the given intention, what geometry would serve? Sometimes one of us leads that enquiry, sometimes we do it together. But before we decide, both of us come to agreement on the choices. Yes, we can both feel that a purple water lily is the right element to convey the sense of serenity we are looking for.

Water Star

Maybe I want to use one view of the lily for the center of the image, but David, who is the photo-maestro, knows that another view will be sharper. We may go back and forth for a while, but once I really see his point, I yield. What I am envisioning will be even better realized by using his idea. We come up with a draft of the central image, and I get an intuition about just which foliage has the color and patterning that would make the best border. As I am the color specialist, David is willing to give it a try. And so it goes.

We try things, discovering together what feels-looks the best until we both come to rest. This image we have made together is greater that the sum of its individual elements and greater than what would have come from our individual visions. Because of the co-creative process that has birthed it, the piece of art has become a vessel that can hold “seedsongs”. This is our word for the vibrational energies that transform this visual image into a tool for healing and uplift. As Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message”. This image that is the product of our co-creativity with each other and with Nature delivers the message of collaboration and synergy. The sacred intention that was the origin of the image shines through the medium of Earth’s beauty.

Are there any secrets to fruitfully making it together? Here are the ones that I’ve uncovered:

Clear Purpose—this is the intention that guides the rest of the process. It is the seed-vision that draws each partner past “me-mind” into the “us-mind” that guides the co-creation process.

Heartfelt Respect—co-creation is strictly a peer-to-peer event. Each person is the carrier of something special. Respect, felt from the heart, generates a field of trust that fosters the creative process. Inevitably, there are disagreements, but if the worth of each person is acknowledged, the differing opinions can be worked out.

Genuine Consensus—no creation is complete unless the partners feel totally satisfied with it. There is no overriding of one’s will by the other’s will. Everything we make together is ours, and only emerges when “yes” comes from all. Making a genuine commitment to this level of consensus has a transformative effect on the participants.

Bright Ally

If I can embrace this co-creative process, anyone can. I am a very earthy double Taurean creature who wants to do things my way. Luckily, my Aquarian moon leads me to feel cosmically and globally as well. I know in my heart that we are all in this together. Collaboration is not just a satisfying way to work, it is a technology of change based on an awareness of our interdependence and essential unity.

Linking our creative powers is how we are going to shift collectively into a bright future. Whatever your realm of creativity–be it focused on the home, the service domain, or business–find people to collaborate with. Enter deeply into the messy and wonderful process of co-creating and enjoy the ride. Each of us holds a piece of the puzzle to making our world sustainable and peaceful. Engage with others in the dance of synergy and be amazed by the abundance and beauty that emerges.

Archive for Creativity

The Joy of Creating a Custom Mandala

Top 5 Benefits of Having a Bell & Todd Custom Mandala

Making It Together: From Creativity to Co-Creativity

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