School of the Art Insititute of Chicago emerge Journal 20-21 School of the Art Insititute of Chicago emerge Journal 20-21 School of the Art Insititute of Chicago emerge Journal 20-21 School of the Art Insititute of Chicago emerge Journal 20-21
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
This is what we want to write for the theme. This is also known as wall text. The number of this text is around 200-500 words.
Marcelese Cooper /
"The Messenger"
"The Sentinel"
Rebecca Poarch /
"An Act of Love Toward Myself"
"Sacrum"
"In Bloom"
"Dream Body"
"To the Waters and the Wild"
Briana Lynn /
For a long time I didn’t like “affirmations” as a concept.
I didn’t like the word either.
I thought it’d lost significance because “affirmations” had become a part of pop culture rhetoric. I also felt like no number of times I said something could change how I felt about it.
Of all the reasons I didn’t connect with affirmations, I think the most prevalent—and the truth—was that I had a hard time connecting to an affirmation that wasn’t mine. It didn’t feel honest or accurate. I also couldn’t connect to a closed, fixed statement.
As I was in a period where I was feeling completely lost and untethered, I ended up in four conversations with four special people in my life. Through each of our conversations an affirmation appeared. For me they appeared as questions:
I didn’t like the word either.
I thought it’d lost significance because “affirmations” had become a part of pop culture rhetoric. I also felt like no number of times I said something could change how I felt about it.
Of all the reasons I didn’t connect with affirmations, I think the most prevalent—and the truth—was that I had a hard time connecting to an affirmation that wasn’t mine. It didn’t feel honest or accurate. I also couldn’t connect to a closed, fixed statement.
As I was in a period where I was feeling completely lost and untethered, I ended up in four conversations with four special people in my life. Through each of our conversations an affirmation appeared. For me they appeared as questions:
— “Who are you?”
— “Where do you come from?”
— “What do you know?”
— “What else do you know?”
— and I made the answers out to be anything. I found that I could repeat them, and mean it. I say who I am—and I can be anything, anyone. It changes depending on how I feel. I describe being from some place beyond “here.” The answer to what do I know is always, “All that I need to.” And also, “That I can have power whenever I choose. I can take back my power whenever I choose.”
These came to me when I felt powerless, when I had forgotten about the energy flowing around and through my body. As I repeated the exercise, I remembered my ability to access and transmute that energy.
— “Where do you come from?”
— “What do you know?”
— “What else do you know?”
— and I made the answers out to be anything. I found that I could repeat them, and mean it. I say who I am—and I can be anything, anyone. It changes depending on how I feel. I describe being from some place beyond “here.” The answer to what do I know is always, “All that I need to.” And also, “That I can have power whenever I choose. I can take back my power whenever I choose.”
These came to me when I felt powerless, when I had forgotten about the energy flowing around and through my body. As I repeated the exercise, I remembered my ability to access and transmute that energy.
I can use it, control it, bring it forward, expand it, speak to it—that power
exists at all times. There’s no circumstance where I am powerless—that is the truth.
This guided meditation is an exercise in imagination, in making that power visible, and tangible. I practice as a reminder that there are more powerful forces out there than the ones we think control us—including our own. To close out the meditation, I repeat the affirmations.
We have access to things beyond the “power” of institutions and the inconveniences of the art world ecosystem. We can choose to believe differently—it’s all made up anyhow.
This guided meditation is an exercise in imagination, in making that power visible, and tangible. I practice as a reminder that there are more powerful forces out there than the ones we think control us—including our own. To close out the meditation, I repeat the affirmations.
We have access to things beyond the “power” of institutions and the inconveniences of the art world ecosystem. We can choose to believe differently—it’s all made up anyhow.
The first image depicts a shadow like figure that resembles a human, they wear a black felt cowboy hat with a secure strap hanging down and intertwined between their fingers; the only details we see of their body are fingernails and a glowing white smile. The background depicts a black and white cloudy sky that looks artificial.
The second image shows a shadow-like figure wearing a dark colored wooden mask adorned with markings where eyes should be. Its right arm is extending upward in front of a bright, cloud covered sky and just within the grasp of the black hand are the words "Talk to me please I promise I love you" in a wavy black font.
Bright and fluorescent organic forms, both warm and cool, interlock and bubble like a bodily lava lamp.
Not quite symmetrical, but not quite asymmetrical, these bright anthropomorphic forms resonate with natural forms, especially the feminine.
Not quite symmetrical, but not quite asymmetrical, bright bulbous flowers slither upward in a sea of each other toward the peak of a mountain.
An awkward bulky pink body arches while upside down in a pool of lush greenery and clouds.
A larger-than-life woman rides an invisible bicycle down a bright path as the purple mountains, blue sea, and festival of flowers and vegetation pass by her.
I want you to get into a comfortable position, either seated or lying down. You may turn your palms upward which is more of an open, receiving position or turn them toward your body.
You may have them touching your body, which is more like closing the energy circuit. When you’re settled, notice your breathing.
When you’re ready, take three deep breaths.
Inward, fill up your belly, and exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
And return to your normal breathing.
Now I want you to imagine a color, and it can be any color.
I like to think that the first color that comes to mind is the color we need. Imagine this color forming at your center.
As you breathe, the color expands and contracts.
Also as you breathe the color gets richer, more vibrant, more saturated. Now consider your experiences with insecurity, with shame, and powerlessness. Where do they show up in your body? Where do you feel it?
Once you’ve located that, wherever it is, send your breath there.
Breathe into it.
Use your breath to massage that area, exfoliate it.
Imagine it being cleared away.
And when it’s clear, return to your breathing.
Continue using your breath to allow that color to grow, to expand, to move across your body, to move into that area you’ve just cleared.
Upward, outward.
Use your breath to push it through all of you until you see yourself radiating with that color. See the color having filled your body and stretching outward from you.
This is your power.
That you have access to at all times.
You are a sun.
Charged up by this power I’d like you to consider the affirmation questions. Your answers may be as imaginative, as natural, or as fantastic as you’d like. Who are you?
Where do you come from?
What do you know?
The answer is all that you need to, always.
And what else do you know?
That you can have power whenever you choose, that you can take back your power whenever you choose.
And so it is.