Yayoi Kusama’s “Soul Under The Moon” installation, (Infinity Room) with Alonefold’s tunes in the background.

This installation by Yayoi Kusama called “Soul Under The Moon” reminds me of what it’s like to drop into the void and float in a sea of infinite potential. The way the room disappears into a seemingly endless black void is exactly what it feels like when I hover in the place of uncertainty during the creative process. The beautiful, floating iridescent globes remind me of the little gems – or worlds, waiting to be discovered and brought back to our waking world. For me, stepping inside this artwork feels like stepping into a place that exists beyond the realm of our everyday lives. For me, there’s something so beautiful, peaceful and transcendent about this artwork, it helps me slip between the folds of my conscious mind and fall into someplace that is usually found in my dreaming.

Artist and skater, Shaun Gladwell in his work “Storm Sequence” with Alonefold’s tunes in the background.

This video art work “Storm Sequence” of Shaun Gladwell is a brilliant example of someone who is in their Element, someone expressing creativity in a state of optimal Flow or the Zone. We can observe Shaun accessing his unique form of creativity through one of Dr. Stuart Brown’s play personalities, the kinesthete. I’ve written about this play personality at length in previous articles, but I’ll give a brief description of it here as well.

The kinesthete finds their Zone through physical movement. Kinesthete’s break through into the euphoria of optimal Flow by engaging their bodies in the form of physical play they love, and in doing so, they go beyond their conscious reality. Just by watching Shaun expressing his creativity in this state helps me enter it a similar space of diminished consciousness of my “self” as well. Somehow, watching him in his own Element mesmerizes me in such a way that I experience a similar state of transcendence. But it’s to a much lesser extent than if I were actively engaged in my own Element. Still, I love different forms of creative expression that remind me of what it’s like to be in the Element, it ensures I get back to it more often:)