Arts-based Research: Flourish!

These are pieces from my Flourish! Art-based Research Project. The creative process for arts-based research is this: Explore a topic or an idea through reading, viewing from many sources. Express your learning about the topic or idea through an art form - visual art, music, drama, or dance. Review the body of work that you have done and see what has been important to you in your learning about the topic. Reflect on and write about your learning. In my Flourish Project, I have been reading positive psychology books and articles on happiness - what it is and how human beings experience it. As a calligrapher - someone who loves the visual impact of writing - I enjoy the play on words. In positive psychology, to flourish is to thrive or to enjoy a high level of well-being. In calligraphy, you can embellish your work with a flourish when you have mastered the discipline of the craft enough to add your own creative touches. I think that even the play on words teaches something about human happiness - that achieving happiness is a daily discipline. I just wanted to share a bit of my own visual art journey with you here. And to model for you the kind of creative process that you might use for your Meaningful Metaphor assignment, if that's the one you choose. Rest assured that I don't expect all of you to become calligraphers. But I do hope to see you create something that is personally authentic and meaningful to you.