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Étiquette : inspiration

Comment être artiste… ou comment s’épanouir ?

Publié le 19/02/2020
francis bacon, henri matisse, coaching, epanouissement
Francis BACON – Autoportrait, 1978 – Huile sur toile, 198 x 147 cm (à gauche)
Henri MATISSE – Boléro violet, 1937 – Huile sur toile, 55 x 33 cm (à droite)

 

Aussi différentes furent les vie d’Henri Matisse et de Francis Bacon, chacun de ces artistes peut en quelque sorte servir de mentor à ceux qui cherchent de l’inspiration en matière d’épanouissement personnel. 

Et si Matisse et Bacon s’adressaient aux artistes, leur enseignement peut être généralisé à la plupart des professionnels. Provenant de leurs écrits ou d’interviews qu’ils ont accordées, voici quelques idées à mûrir…

Francis Bacon

  • Accueillez vos erreurs. ― Embrassez la spontanéité, acceptez les « accidents » comme s’ils faisaient partie intégrante de votre évolution, vous permettant d’atteindre une véritable franchise émotionnelle. L’expression de cette spontanéité ressemble pour l’artiste à l’éclosion inattendue de sentiments passionnés et débridés. Elle ouvre la voie à la différenciation.
  • Sortez des sentiers battus et du conventionnel. ― Bacon suggérait de laisser l’abstraction transmettre la sensation. Il pensait que la déformation de figures et d’images lisibles révélait des émotions d’une manière que la représentation directe ne pouvait pas faire.
  • Accordez-vous du temps pour vous connecter seul à vos émotions. ― « Les sentiments de désespoir et de malheur sont plus utiles à un artiste que le sentiment de satisfaction, car le désespoir et le malheur étirent toute votre sensibilité », disait-il. S’il est important de célébrer nos succès, accueillir l’émotion est un principe maturant.
  • Développez votre conscience de soi. ― Bacon affirmait que la finalité de l’art est de nous fournir le fait, la vérité de ce que nous sommes. Aussi, observez l’art car il vous apportera autant que si vous passiez au processus créatif vous-même.

Henri Matisse

  • Maîtriser les bases, et puis soyez expressif. ― Matisse a comparé cette période d’apprentissage artistique à celle d’un acrobate qui exécute son numéro avec une facilité apparente, nous faisant perdre de vue le long travail préparatoire qui lui a permis d’atteindre ce résultat.
  • Inventez vos propres règles. ― « Un nouveau tableau doit être unique… L’artiste doit rassembler toute son énergie, sa sincérité et la plus grande modestie, pour briser les vieux clichés qui viennent si facilement à la main en travaillant », disait-il. Alors développez votre propre style, soyez vous-même, exprimez l’essence de votre être, quelle que soit votre profession.
  • Entourez-vous de choses que vous aimez, elles vous inspireront. ― « L’objet est un acteur », a-t-il un jour affirmé. Ajoutant: « Un bon acteur peut avoir un rôle dans 10 pièces différentes ; un objet peut jouer un rôle différent dans 10 images différentes ». Voyez donc le monde comme un stimulus. Ce que vous aimez reflète ce qui est en vous qui n’attend qu’à s’exprimer.
  • Vivez votre passion. ― Matisse enjoignait les artistes à ne rien laisser les empêcher de faire de l’art – Même quand sa condition physique s’est détériorée, le forçant à abandonner la peinture, Matisse a continué à faire de l’art sous forme de découpages, une technique de papier découpé qu’il a explorée pour la première fois au cours de la décennie précédente. « Je suis toujours là. Je me concentre sur une seule chose, mon travail, pour lequel je vis ». L’épanouissement au-delà de toute souffrance.

 

Source: Artsy.com

 

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Insight #90

Publié le 17/04/2017
arbre, insight, coaching, mario schifano, poème, poèmes, tree
Mario SCHIFANO – Sans titre, années 70 – émail sur toile, 200 x 200 cm

 

« Les arbres sont des poèmes que la terre écrit au ciel. »

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

― Kahlil Gibran

 

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About classical music, leadership and the last words we could ever say

Publié le 28/07/2016
Picasso-violon-feuille-de-musique-insight-coaching-art, leadership
Pablo PICASSO – Violon et feuille de musique, 1912 – Papiers et partition musicale collés sur carton, gouache, 78 x 65 cm

 

Conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, teacher and speaker, Benjamin Zander gave this energising talk about the transformative power of classical music.

Video in English, sous-titres français.

 Beyond these views, I caught two brilliant quotes that explains what leadership is and also how careful we should use words:

« I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. How do you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it. »

« I learned this from a woman who survived Auschwitz, one of the rare survivors. She went to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old. And … And her brother was eight, and the parents were lost. And she told me this, she said, « We were in the train going to Auschwitz, and I looked down and saw my brother’s shoes were missing. I said, ‘Why are you so stupid, can’t you keep your things together for goodness’ sake?' » The way an elder sister might speak to a younger brother. Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him, because she never saw him again. He did not survive. And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow. She told me this. She said, « I walked out of Auschwitz into life and I made a vow. And the vow was, ‘I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.’ Now, can we do that? No. And we’ll make ourselves wrong and others wrong. But it is a possibility to live into. »

By the way, what is the last thing you said?

  

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Before I die…

Publié le 04/02/2016
before I die
Picture by Trevor Coe

Inspiration can be defined as a kind of enthusiasm, a creative breath that inspires the writer, artist or researcher to have an idea that leads to creation. And if we think of coaching as an art, then it is desirable that art should inspire the coach.

From New Orleans to everywhere else

Art can inspire the coach to help the individual examine his aspirations. Artist and designer Candy Chang offers a similar opportunity to the public with her interactive work “Before I Die…,” which was created in February 2011 in New Orleans. It has since been reproduced in 73 countries in 36 languages.

Affected by the unexpected death of a close friend while struggling to maintain perspective in her daily life, Candy Chang imagined transforming one side of an abandoned house into a giant blackboard that would be covered by one unfinished phrase, painted across the blackboard numerous times, to be filled in with a crayon: “Before I die, I want to…” The wall was filled in less than a day with the dreams of passers-by. This artistic installation represented a renaissance in the form of art and social activism that enabled individuals to express their wishes in a public space.

The first in a long line of walls—more than a thousand in total that spread across five continents—was a neglected space that became a place reserved for constructive reflection and contemplation, a sharing place bearing the memory of that which really counts as we grow up and change. The artist’s message is that in considering death, rather than provoking anguish, we can bring clarity to our lives. In a way, death brings a metaphorical aspect to life (the abandoned house is transformed into a place of creativity), as well as a symbolic one (aspiration rather than regret) and a dynamic one (public participation in the work itself).

From art to coaching

How does this relate to coaching? As coaches, we are frequently confronted with clients who feel they are in a rut, whether professional or other. Dissatisfied at work, convinced they are in the wrong place but without knowing how to define or reorient their career, exhausted and languishing impotently in their own unease, they are locked into a downward spiral of negativity. Focused on all that doesn’t work, fascinated by obstacles, blinded by fear and lacking prospects, it becomes too difficult to avoid a crash.

The role of the coach at this moment is to help them find and relight the internal spark and fan the flame that will eventually become a source of auto-regenerative energy. If we help invert the polarity of the spiral and enable the individual to view each new step as a stage of conscious expansion and endogenous development, we can help them reach the center of a virtuous circle.

Candy Chang’s work is inspirational in the question that it provides for the coach to trigger this process: “What would you like to accomplish before you die?” With a question of this genre—undoubtedly provocative—the present and future merge and potentially forgotten dreams awake in a petri dish, where energy and enthusiasm can be cultivated. It is equally a question that leads to reflection on the theme of the purpose, of the raison d’être, of what the individual would like to leave as a legacy. In fact, these revelations can be used to identify a system of guiding values and beliefs that are deeply anchored in the subject and provide the coach with material to be explored.

In conclusion

Whether it’s finding love or Atlantis, becoming a source of inspiration or seeing an elk, having a boat or being published (some of the examples found on the walls of “Before I Die”); the dream itself is of little importance if the coach is careful to read between the lines. And if the gap between aspiration and reality seems insurmountable and thus unrealistic as a relevant coaching goal, it at least should provide the coachee with a chance to take yet another step towards self-discovery and still become a source of inspiration that leads to action.

And let us never forget that if coaching is a dance, the dance is unquestionably an art.

***

This article has been published in International Coach Federation blog.  It was originally published here in this blog, in French.

  
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