Mythaca experiment

I decided to post my new Mythaca book chapter by chapter on my Zaadz blog. I'll try to incorporate any comments and suggestions I get as I go.

Collaboration

I've been working on the second Mythaca book a couple hours a day again after letting it sit for a few months. I like it, and it's exciting to be back in that world.

Yesterday it occurred to me that it would be fun to add a collaborative effort to the new book, too. The drawings I'm getting for the first Mythaca book are so charming, and seeing the children light up when I talk about putting them into the hardcover edition is such a pleasure.

The first book was very much a collaboration for about the first 100 pages. I'm considering posting the second book in chapters somewhere, probably on the Journey to Mythaca website, and inviting suggestions for what should happen next and even new characters. Every creature in the council in Journey to Mythaca was the invention of a child in my class.

So, why not?

Workshop offerings

When my oldest kids went to school in the late 1970's, I started work as an itinerent teacher of gifted kids. The most popular workshops I did were about mythical beasts. There is something in the air now that makes me feel that the time has come to do that again. Here's the description of the workshop or workshop series I'm offering now.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Contact: Eve Neuhaus
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Email: eveneuhaus@journeytomythaca.com
Website: journeytomythaca.com

"Journey to Mythaca” An Exploration of the Creative Potential of Myth

Story is the portal to the imagination. In a process that alternates gentle guidance with open-hearted receptivity, students are introduced to the living archetypal figures and processes that both create and are created by our world. Characters, concepts, sacred form and ancient truths will emerge from deep work with mythology, folktale, and fantasy, and co-create new forms in an accepting and aesthetically rich setting.

In this workshop series, the world of mythical beasts is explored. An engaging story is followed by a period of meditation or other incubation. Beautiful materials and several project options wait for inspiration to strike. The results are often remarkable.


Successful Technique:
The story of the Phoenix is told. It is a circular story, with no beginning and no end, a series of potent images that repeat again and again. I tell it round and round until the children recognize the images and tell me to stop.

Then I tell them we will meditate on the story and then create a collage or other piece of art of one single image from the story. We describe some of the images. I explain that they will sit with their backs straight and breathe slowly and evenly as I retell the story, concentrating on each image as it arises, and becoming the phoenix. I talk to them briefly about reverie, and introduce the materials and projects available in different parts of the room. The central table is the collage table, covered with scraps of brightly colored and shiny paper collected over the dozens of times I've done this particular workshop.

Then we sit and breath awhile and then I begin the story. When the phoenix goes to sleep, I leave a long gap. At the end I leave another space for reverie.

Slowly and silently we get up and begin the artwork, though the silence rarely lasts. I do a project too and circulate only as necessary. Extraordinary engagement and stunning art results.


Future Goals:
I began this work in 1981 and it has been evolving ever since. The recent publication of my children's novel, Journey to Mythaca, opens exciting new possibilities, including using the children's artwork in the hardcover edition of the book. I hope to establish an itinerant teaching circuit, taking my work to many groups of new children who can use it to access the infinite troves of ancient and eternal imagery of myth.