Biography

I have been a social worker and psychotherapist for more than thirty years. I have also had a long time meditation practice both as a Quaker and a practitioner of Shambhala meditation. Each of these areas of my life have informed and shaped my approach to creativity.

Quakerism invites a practice of receptive quietness – stilling one’s mind to be able to come into an intimate and deeply informative relationship with the mystery of life.

Through Shambhala Meditation, I was introduced to the notion of Ordinary Magic – a way of perceiving our daily lives, without judgment, that opens us to an experience of our world that is precious and fleeting and restorative. From study and practice of Jungian psychology, I have learned that the unvalued and unnoticed in a person’s life can often be the source of creative and sometimes transformative experiences.

Over the years I have extended my meditation practice to include Sogetsu Ikebana (a form of Japanese flower arranging) and Miksang (a form of contemplative photography ). Practice and instruction in these art forms have helped me to cultivate an eye for form, colour, texture, pattern and especially space.

All of these teachings have culminated in a practice of what I am calling Quiet Eye* Reflections. In essence, it is a practice of slowing down enough to notice what one might normally pass by. In developing a capacity to see without bias, the elements of an ordinary day suddenly transform into a rich and colourful pageant. This experience often invites an awakening of what could be called a creative instinct. In my case, this creative instinct is expressed through photography.

My images have been shown in galleries in Bridgewater and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I have also given lectures and workshops related to this interest, most recently in Seattle Washington, with Susan Scott, PhD who is a psychotherapist specializing in the creative process.

* Although the term Quiet Eye has been used in many contexts from sport to business, I have used the term as a way of honouring a little book called The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures by a Quaker woman named Sylvia Shaw Judson. She in turn was inspired to use the term from an untitled poem by her mother Frances Shaw.

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