Interview with Sculptor/Poet Don Freas: Meditation and the Creative Leap

Join sculptor and poet Don Freas, author of In-Between: Creativity Set Free and Swallowing the World: New and Selected Poems, in a rich exploration of the relationship between meditation and creativity. Don describes how his practice of Liangong, a form of Qigong, deepens his somatic awareness in the studio and in life. He explains how his process of journaling, partly inspired by Robert A. Johnson’s book Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, has deepened self-inquiry, and thereby, self-compassion. Don lets us in on his decades-long conversation with an inner wisdom figure he calls Sophie, a voice who regularly encourages his intuition and questions him when he goes off track. He describes Sophie as “a voice from the long history of humanity, or of the universe.” Don shares insights gained from many sources, including spiritual teacher Byron Katie, physicist David Bohm, Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson, and Akashic Records teacher Linda Howe. Don takes us on a deep dive into the “material meditation” of making art. “When you look back,” he says, “your own accrued shape appears in the spaces between the things you’ve fashioned.”

Don holds an MFA in Poetry from Bennington College and lives in Olympia, Washington, where an upcoming exhibit of his sculpture will take place at Childhood’s End Art Gallery. Visit www.DonFreas.com to learn more and follow Don on instagram@donfreas and FaceBook@donfreas.

Audio Engineering by: https://www.audio-refined.com/
Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke. 

Chapters

• 0:05 In-Between: Creativity Set Free
• 0:10 Swallowing the World: New & Selected Poems
• 1:30 How somatic meditation, such as Qigong, can infuse artmaking and daily life with deeper consciousness.
• 7:30 Intentionally navigating moments of frustration can yield creative breakthroughs.
• 14:00 Parenting the inner child. Meeting the inner critic with compassion.
• 17:45 Surrender, risk taking, and the art of the creative leap.
• 21:45 Journaling with “Sophie,” a character not unlike Philemon in Carl Jung’s The Red Book. Inspiration from Robert A. Johnson’s Inner Work.
• 28:45 Art and process. Freedom from constraints. “It’s yourself you are making.” Self-inquiry and Byron Katie.
• 34:40 The moment of crisis: the leap from utility to art. Letting go of old identities.
• 41:15 “It’s all you anyway.” Physicist David Bohm and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh on the unity of things.
• 48:40 More on journaling with Sophie, Active Imagination, the Akashic Records, and Byron Katie. “As we become more connected to ourselves, we become more connected to others.”
• 58:00 Play. Experimentation. Trust. Stepping off the edge and falling. Giving up what you’re good at in order to expand, like Elvis Costello’s reinvention from punk to jazz.
• 1:03:15 Don’s next adventures!