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| The Laughing Bear - Poem & Print Portfolio
‘The Laughing Bear’ is not only my story but an archetypal story of transformation, claiming personal power and waking up. The poem came to me early one morning, the day after a guided healing meditation. It poured out of the pen, almost word for word as it is now. Opening to the poem taking form was effortless and totally outside of my self. Saying “yes” to ‘The Laughing Bear’ was the first time I consciously became aware of and accepted what I was doing in my relationship. I gave my power away while blaming someone else for taking it. I could see my behavior and realized I had a choice in how I acted and responded.
The Laughing Bear Print Portfolio Exchange 2008, is a series of original prints based on 'The Laughing Bear', a poem I wrote in 1992. Twenty-one artists from five countries created thirty prints of an image based on the poem.
On this page are the poem, the prints that were made for the Print Portfolio Exchange based on the poem, and a new piece, 'After The Laughing Bear Laughs...'.
The Exchange was organized and implemented by Diana Eicher and myself.
Our intention is to provide non-profit organizations with artwork that supports women in their decision to leave abusive relationships and create a healthy life. In addition to donations to women’s shelters and support organizations, the portfolio continues to be exhibited around the world and copies are being donated or sold to museums, arts organizations, libraries or printmaking archives. After paying for administrative costs, and for framing and exhibiting the portfolio, profits from any sales of complete or partial portfolios will be shared with the participating artists and/or used to make copies of the portfolio to be given away at women’s shelters and non-profit organizations.
Are you interested in purchasing a portfolio, an original print or helping with funding opportunities? Our goal is to secure venues to exhibit the prints which entails framing and shipping. More exhibition locations means reaching more diverse and larger audiences. We also want to create a book of the images to donate to shelters. Any support you could give us would be most appreciated. Please contact me at 612.247.6285 or katherine@katherinetilton.com. Monetary contributions can be sent via PayPal using the gold 'Donate' button below. For donations by credit card please contact me.
Namaste, Katherine
| | | Thank You! |
| The Laughing Bear
Once upon a time
there was a beautiful brown bear.
She was very powerful and she loved to laugh.
Sometimes
she would stand very straight and proud and tall;
Sometimes
she would feel anger
and she would snarl her teeth and bare her claws;
Sometimes
she would feel warm and loving
and she would snuggle with her friends;
Sometimes she would feel afraid.
Actually, she was afraid a lot of the time
and because
she was a powerful brown bear
she thought she shouldn’t ever feel afraid:
This was very confusing,
and she felt ashamed.
The shame and fear grew within her. Soon
she was afraid to be a beautiful brown bear anymore. So,
she decided to be a sheep.
She started to dress like a sheep;
She learned to walk like a sheep;
And talk like a sheep;
And eat like a sheep;
And sleep like a sheep.
She was an excellent sheep.
Soon she forgot that she was a beautiful brown bear
and she became lost in the woods.
Once upon the same time
in the same woods
there was a handsome gray wolf.
He was very hungry.
He spotted our friend the sheep and he thought, “Food!
And if I play my cards right,
food for a very long time.”
So the wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing
and he made friends with the lost sheep.
Now by this time
she was feeling really afraid
so she was happy when the wolf came along
and said he would take care of her.
There was just this one little thing
the wolf wanted in return.
He only wanted to take
a small bite
out of her
every day. She agreed
So the sheep ate the grass,
and the wolf ate the sheep,
and they got used to it.
And every day, day after day,
she lost a little more
of her self.
Eventually of course
she noticed that she really hurt.
So she talked to the wolf
and asked him if it could stop. He said, “Stop?!
Are you crazy?”
Well of course she was.
Finally, there was very little left of the sheep.
All that was left of her was her heart.
And as the wolf bit into her heart
he released
the beautiful brown bear.
The beautiful brown bear rose up;
Standing very straight and proud and tall.
She took a deep breath,
and from the tips of her fingers
to the tips of her toes,
in a very strong voice she said “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Well, the wolf was so surprised
that he ran away.
And the bear was so surprised
that she began to laugh.
And she laughed and she laughed
and she laughed so loudly
that all her friends heard her laughing
and they looked at one another and said,
“Ah, bear has remembered her Self!”
The end
(and the beginning).
Katherine Tilton © 1992 |
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| | | The Laughing Bear Print Portfolio Exchange 2008 Prints |
| | "As The Wolf Bit Into Her Heart" | Diana Eicher, Organizer, USA
Woodcut and screenprint. |
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|  | | | | "Bear Remembers Her Self" | Katherine Tilton, Organizer, USA
Silkscreen and stitching. |
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| | | | | "Be Brave" | Melanie Yazzie, USA
Relief with Akua inks. |
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| | "The Laughing Bear" | James Boyd-Brent, USA
Etching |
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| | | | | "Definitely Bear" | Carrie Tasman, USA
Silkscreen |
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| | | | | "Laughing Bear" | Randi Martin, Denmark
Etching |
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| | "Unfolding" | May Aboutaam, USA, Lebanon,
Relief |
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| | | | | ”Bear Remembers Self" | Catherine Chauvin, USA,
Screenprint and laser cut relief |
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| | | | | “The Laugh” | Heather Bryant, USA,
Lithograph
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| | “Balanced Woman” | Kathryn Polk, USA,
Stone and plate lithography |
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| | | | | “Heart of the Bear” | Ingrid Duch, Denmark,
Photogravure |
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| | | | | “Wooly Bear Moth (with bird)” | Emily Arthur Douglass, USA,
Screenprint |
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| | “Sheep Suit” | Sylvia Taylor, USA, Ireland,
Relief |
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| | | | | “Girl on a Ladder” | Kandace Colwell, USA,
Photolithography |
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| | | | | “Darkest Before Dawn” | Elizabeth Klimek, USA,
Paper and stone lithography. |
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| | “Coming Out From the Darkness” | Anna Siek, Poland
Drypoint on aluminum plate |
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| | | | | “…Psoriasis, the Bear Says” | Ann Kerstina Nielsen, Denmark,
Etching. |
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| | | | | “Duet” | Astrid Scherrebeck, Denmark,
Intaglio, aquatint, drypoint |
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| | “Who’s afraid of the …” | Susanne Thea, Denmark,
Copper etching, aquatint, bite |
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| | | | | "In Sheep's Clothing" | Inge Norgaard, USA
Woodcut |
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| | | | | “Brown Bear Broken” | Jane Ryder, USA,
Screenprint
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| | After The Laughing Bear Laughs...
Bear remembers her Self... And then what?
Bear has friends who are overjoyed that she’s re-membered. Great! They obviously know her flaws, patterns, proclivities, and still love her. These true friends will reach out a hand to help pull Bear, ravaged and broken from the pit. They won’t however jump into the pit with her. They will offer solace, strength and support. They will make suggestions, knowing that the only one that can change Bear, is Bear. The only one that can surrender to what is, right now, and accept that, is Bear. She might not like what is - who of us did - and, she alone can change it (but only after accepting the way it is now).
Bear will most likely forget her Self again, and again. Because the forgetting is a habit, a survival mechanism, a pattern, a persevering tool of sorts, that has been in place for so long, that without support and work, will keep rearing its sacrificial head over and over repeatedly, sucking Bear back into the abyss of dependency and martyrdom. An abyss of suffering, pain, disrespect, without power, without joy, empty and just so unpleasant.
So Bear enlists a support system. And begins her practice.
All the time remembering to be gentle. Especially gentle with her Self. Without gentleness, any practice becomes brutal, just another form of punishment and self-flagellation.
When we are learning to ride a bike we start by using training wheels. We use the training wheels to help us find our center of balance on the bike. We are set off down the road with words of encouragement and a good push. We do this again and again, day after day, as long as it takes. Some of us take longer than others.
Once we are confident that we know that center of balance necessary to riding a bicycle, we take the training wheels off and wow! Does that feel great!! Does that feel free! Eventually we are so confident riding a bike that we don’t even have to think about how to do it. We just climb on the bike and go. How to ride a bike has been internalized and habitualized - another habit we’ve acquired.
We practice the piano; we practice throwing and catching a ball; a toddler practices walking; we have a meditation practice. Every musician has a trail of wrong notes behind him; most sports stars miss the mark more often than not; we all fell down a lot before we really learned to walk (and laughed with ourselves, congratulating the successes); my meditation practice continues to teach me gentleness and compassion. To be adept an anything, we must continue our practice.
For optimum success in claiming and empowering our Self, waking up, remembering who we really are, our practice will include many coaches - a large support group comprises our ‘training wheels’. Professionals, friends, family and miracles are there when we are ready to notice them. When the ostrich lifts her head out of the sand she can’t help but see the big wide wonderful world that belongs to everyone, even her.
That abundant, unfamiliar world is filled with support. That loving, gentle world provides the beginning. That world gives Bear the work to be done.
The real work is at the center, that balance point that drives the bike. That natural part of us accessed through the heart. The core of our being. Once Bear opens her eyes to the outside, lifting her head out of the sand, reclaiming her heart and her power, accepting what the world has to offer, the real work begins.
Bear’s work involves labor to be sure. And, surely most of us Bears are used to hard work.
Chosen work - the kind that involves awareness, creativity, curiosity, experimentation, play, acceptance, support, gentleness, possibility, practice - is exciting, surprising, invigorating. And yes, sometimes exhausting, but most importantly great fun. Exploring who we really are. What we actually like, want, can have - curious, exciting, invigorating, filled with endless possibility...
Never ending, always beginning.
Katherine Tilton©2009 | |
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