BEAUTY AS GUIDANCE

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The expressive arts movement reintroduces the arts as a transformative power for human development and healing. Some practitioners use a framework connected to previous mythical or religious forms, but mostly the expressive arts praxis is grounded in contemporary psychological, philosophical and aesthetic theories. Moreover there is a gaining influence from the contemplative traditions like mindfulness.

My own work of art-coaching is grounded in the phenomenological approach that is taught at European Graduate School EGS (Switzerland). Phenomenology aims to meet a phenomenon, for instance an artwork, in a way that allows the artwork to reveal its particular being. This makes a lot of sense for me in the artistic work. We need a framework that can save the aesthetic experience from suffocating in the modern tendency to mental interpretations. We want to connect with the wonder of arts, and for this we must let our interpretations aside for a while and follow the coarse and surprising roads of the creative process. We are looking for guidance beyond scientific and popular life-interpretation. We are searching for beauty, and the meaning and invigoration that it reveals.