Sunday 27 June 2010

Stretching Out

There is never an ikebana arrangement without a clear focus on lines. In these two arrangements the idea is to demonstrate the strength of stretching out in horizontal lines.

Tree branches with lichens, Calla lily and Aspidistra leaf.

Ephedra and red roses. Horizontal arrangement in a contrasting circular vase.

Saturday 26 June 2010

Space, Form and Energy

A couple of years ago I attended a two day kado program arranged by the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Kado is Japanese for "The way of the flowers". In Shambhala Buddhism kado is a creative meditation praxis with more focus on the prosess of creating the ikeabana than on the completed arrangement. The founder of Shambhala Buddhism, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche held a teachers diploma from the Sogetsu school and had studied with the well renowned ikebana master Stella Coe in England.

I found some videos from the Shambhala Art Intensive training 2010 held in Los Angeles on the Shambhala Art website. They have very generously posted a series of short videos from their arts education program designed to integrate meditation with the creative and viewing processes. The kado teaching is held by Marcia Shibata, demonstrating the principles of heaven, earth and human, or space, form and energy as she name them. Marcia Shibata also led the program that I attended in Rotterdam. It gives me such joy to see her again - cyber space is fantastic. I'm sharing part 1 of the kado teaching with you. The rest you'll have to watch on your own.

Related Posts with Thumbnails