November & December: Plein-Aire Meeting Dates

When I make a painting, it gives me a great deal of pleasure. I never know how it will turn out, as no one ever knows. As the colors flow into each other and they fade and merge, there comes a sense that you are participating in the universe. It’s not that you made something pretty, but that you have been able to do on a small scale what God does on a great scale. I don’t mean a personal God; I mean the fact that the planets move in a certain orbit. It’s tremendously greater, but in essence, the same thing as when you or I make a new work that has form to us. ….. For art requires an active looking, an energetic throwing oneself into the scene you hope to paint.”

– Rollo May, 1981, from an interview with Linda Conti, The Humanistic Psychology Institute.

The Incarnation Plein-Aire Group will meet reflect on Rollo May’s “The Courage to Create” in November and December. May graduated from Oberlin College and taught English at Anatolia College in Greece for several years. On his return to the United States, he studied theology under Paul Tillich at Union Theological Seminary. Finding his education failed to meet some of the deep needs of his congregants, he returned to Columbia Teachers College for a PhD in Clinical Psychology. This very readable poetic and meditative book merges his developing Humanistic Existential psychology with classical philosophy, Tillich’s theology and his friend Joseph Binder’s aesthetics.

Our meeting dates will be November 6, 13, 20, 27 and December 4, 11, 18 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. For our first meeting, please read and reflect on the “Preface” and “The Courage to Create”, p. 7-34, available on Kindle or downloadable at The Courage To Create : Rollo May : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Please join us at Lake Ralphine Marina, Santa Rosa in November and Ragel Ranch Park, Sebastopol in December. For information, please contact, Susan Prier, [email protected], call or text, 707-710-5794.