Monkeys, Culture, and More Brave Intuitive Painting in Bali

Abundant warnings leads to monkey fear:

It’s 4:30pm on Thursday – our afternoon off. I’ve come back to my room at Swasti Eco Cottages in time to witness the thunder and lightening show from inside. I had just been out for a walk down the street, to the very edge of both my comfort zone and Monkey Forest. This was my first taste of tourist-Bali. I had chosen not to visit Monkey Forest or even walk around it into Ubud as I had heard of both monkey and human attacks in the area – both leading to hospital visits and thefts of various kinds. I’m quite content to play it safe here. All of my classmates have already been into Ubud to shop, eat out, or even to get tattoos. I haven’t felt the need or desire to do any of these in town yet. I don’t feel I’m missing anything right now – perfectly content with how I’m choosing to spend my time here in the adjoining village of Nyuh Kunning.

Our cultural guide Nicole was asked to show our group the way on Monday and had a monkey start to crawl up her leg until a local man with a stick scared it away. She had been avoiding the place in fear for decades. I’ll admit I share in that fear and would probably attract such an occurrence because of it. Instead, I decided to stay at the hotel for a swim on that day. It was way too hot for me to go for a long walk at high noon. Call me chicken – a smart one though! I’ll add that I read on Facebook that someone from my 3rd workshop (visionary art one) had to go to the hospital earlier this week after being bitten. Monkeys will climb on you to steal your food, water, phones, etc., and a simple scratch requires a rabies shot…. so perhaps you can understand why I’ve passed up the opportunity. Sorry, no great monkey shots.

Lunch on the edge:

Coffee & Copper is not the most relaxing place to eat with all the hubbub outside. Imagine a tiny dead-end street (where cars are concerned – motorbikes have a small but busy lane-way that bypasses the forest and goes to Ubud). The parking lot is big enough for about 6 cars, but there were at least 12 there and more trying to turn back after dropping off loads of tourists who wanted to pay to visit the monkeys (something locals think is crazy). Others may not even have noticed or cared, but I’m still a bit in hermit / ashram mode. One tourist parked her rented van right at the entrance of the lane and came in to eat – quite the commotion outside until I told her about it. Motorbikes were scraping by both sides of the van and some were getting a bit aggressive with it. I’m glad I don’t need to drive here – the fact they drive on the opposite side of the road would be the least of my worries.

From the restaurant, I could observe a few monkeys in the parking – the first ones I’ve seen. It’s baby season, and I’ll admit, they are really cute (although seeing them fight amongst themselves behind the fence as I walked back wasn’t very comforting). My classmates told me that an aggressive male came in Coffee & Copper the other day and stole the desert off their plate, growling and baring its sharp teeth. I therefore chose a table further back. At one point, I heard the waitress hiss a few times and take out a red wooden mask whose jaws made loud clacking noises, so I imagine there was a monkey coming in, but I didn’t see it. Effective.

Swarmed:

What I did see is a lone traveler – a woman about my age, but with tons of make-up and hair like Dolly Parton’s (but in black) – get swarmed by a throng of vendors. They kept shoving their wooden sculptures in her face and speaking loudly at her. I’d read about these and heard that some folks were happy to leave the country to simply get away from them and begging children. This was my first time seeing any in action. The tourist bought a beautiful dragon sculpture (which attracted even more vendors) and had a hard time getting to her hired car. She looked harried, but had her arms full by the time she got in. Both parties probably thought they’d gotten the good end of the deal. Interestingly, the vendors basically ignored me. I only got a “Buddha for a dollar?!” once and then was left alone. Maybe it was the wet hair under a Tilley hat, my hippy dress, my lack of make-up, or simple vibe of polite disinterest. All I know is that I was glad to have been left alone by both the monkeys and vendors. I did have a wonderful conversation, however, with a young artist, Dewa Artawan, who was painting fantastic pieces in an art gallery on the way. He invited me to return to the shop to paint with him. That was nice.

Abundance:

The lunch, by the way, was very good. The portion of red rice with garlic marinated chicken breast and loads of vegetables was bigger than at my hotel and the price much better. It’s not the $2-3 meals I had heard about, but still under $5. I had gone for a late lunch because before that, I’d had my 3^rd massage – this time a mix of Mayan and Indian energy and body work to target the abdominal area / digestive tract (1 hour for $18). Two days ago, I had a lovely Thai massage. My body is appreciating the care and attention – and hopefully my eczema will improve. After letting the coconut oil soak in for about an hour while I did the laundry in my bathroom sink, I had a wonderful swim. Once a day, at least! There’s nothing quite like it.

Swasti Cottages– a truly Eco-friendly place:

This resort is doing a lot of things right for the environment. In addition to using salt in the pool (which my skin also appreciates), other examples I’ve become aware of is collecting rain water for their extensive organic gardens, cutting the grass by hand, giving guests cloth bags to avoid the use of plastic, using small refillable bottles for their organic shampoo and soap, recycling paper, plastic, and glass in each room, using cloth napkins in the restaurant and serving drinks with glass straws (very cool!), changing bed sheets and towels only upon request, and more I’m sure. Although the Internet service and restaurant have generated a lot of complaints in our group (which management has tried to address repeatedly), it’s quite the amazing place.

Balinese Cultural Afternoon:

On Wednesday, Nicole Lawrence took those who wanted to her friend’s house – or should I say her friend’s village. From the street, it looks like a normal household gateway (and it probably is). Behind it, however, there’s not only the family temple, but several houses where various relatives lives. It’s basically a family complex. There are also a few outdoor pavilions where people hang out, spaces for the pig (I had a nice moment with that pig!) and chickens, and green space for all the cousins to play. During my time there, I could really sense the importance of extended family bonds that exists here in Bali. Interestingly, however, families don’t eat together except for ceremonies. Food is prepared in each house’s kitchen every morning and people eat when they’re hungry. Although sit-down meals aren’t part of the culture, they seem to get plenty of together time. It was beautiful to watch everyone interact.

We were there to learn various crafts from this talented family. First, two of the girls taught us how to do a traditional dance. Fun, but very challenging! They perform at a local hotel every night. Later, when we were leaving, we got a glimpse of their elaborate preparations.

Several of the parents taught us to craft various offerings, an integral part of the Hindu culture here in Bali – they use about 100 of these a day, blessing their homes, properties, vehicles, temples, etc. It appears that there are plenty of young coconut fronds on the trees to supply each family year-round.

I’ve also seen the staff at the hotel walk around placing these everywhere, sprinkling them with a wet flower and burning incense in each spot. They’re also on the street in front of shops, etc. Sacred rituals are very evident here. Our taxi driver also had one on his dashboard. When folks don’t have the time to make their own, though, they buy them from door-to-door salespeople or at the 4am market. I’m sure it’s like knitting – you can get good enough to do it while watching TV (it took one mother 1.5 minutes to make a mini rice cake steamer pouch) – but as a beginner, I made plenty of mistakes. No worries – the gods will still know how grateful I am.

After our craft session, we got to try their traditional instruments – the horizontal gongs (hear a sample on YouTube by clicking here). Great stuff. Now I know what’s making the music I hear very early in the morning around the neighbourhood.

Basically, though, we simply got to enjoy the company and the space with Nicole and her friends. Once again, I was grateful for this non-touristy experience.

After our visit, we walked to the most expensive hotel in the area and snuck down to their viewing area to see the rice terraces. Wow!

We followed that up with the world’s best ice cream (according to Nicole, and I’ll admit it was amazing!) and a lovely dinner at a traditional Javanese restaurant in Ubud (but not in the busy core). Afterwards, we walked behind the restaurant into their organic gardens to see the firefly show – advertised, but free. Nice. I certainly slept well that night.

Being Brave – Flora Bowley Style

Flora’s workshop continues to be great! After our first days’ themes of “presence”, “letting go”, and “self-love”, we had a day of “bravery”. As usual, I was moved by some of the stories that some of the gals shared in our morning circle. What wonderful beings! It always feels good to be in a loving, accepting, authentic group. This is one of those and our workshop process has created the space to both express and honour that for ourselves and others. It’s not just about painting – everything Flora teaches in her Bloom True course is as much about life as it is about what happens when you’re in front of the canvas.

If you’ll recall from my previous blog, everyone moved around the circle to paint on every canvas for the first few layers of the process – creating a space of openness, exploration, and total non-attachment. This was done with a variety of tools in alternating layers of cool and warm colours, black & white, and so on – you can use just about anything really. Take a look at some of the ones Flora used during her demo.

After that, we did more collaborative work,but with two people working at the same time. Here’s Flora and her wonderful co-organizer Rachel Rice demonstrating – but on a fresh canvas.

This helped us to totally accept that anything can change at any moment. It’s so freeing when the painting isn’t yours and you know several more layers will follow. It’s all about getting in the flow and moving with what moves us without getting the mind too involved. It’s also all about letting go of control. Fun!

The funny thing is that when it came time for us to do it, my partner had gone and chosen the painting I had worked on last the day before. We had been asked to keep one for the next day and let one go for the collaborative work. I had let go (i.e. rejected) that one because I really wasn’t drawn to what I had created. What an opportunity, therefore, to get past the “I have no idea what to do with you” to simply keep playing with someone else – complete exploration and letting go of control. The results were pretty interesting and when it came time to choose any canvas from that batch to keep working on for the rest of the week, I chose that one. Ah, evolution… This is where that painting got to by the end of Thursday. I really wanted to practice one of Flora’s techniques using the sponge brush and whites…. I’m still struggling with using whites with my colours…. can’t say I like this right now, but I know it’s just part of the process. The nice thing is that I’m not tied to anything there and so the possibilities are still limitless.

When it comes to painting (and life), there are threshold moments that bring up fear and ask us to bravely move forward. Most paintings go through an awkward teenager phase – mine sure lived up to that today. I tried some new things in class and really embraced the idea that I’m not here to produce a finished piece to show you all. This is truly practice time – I may or may not finish anything this week or even here in Bali – and that’s OK. I’m just taking advantage of being in this group and having Flora to consult with when blocks come up or when I want to try one of her techniques that I couldn’t quite figure out during her e-course. I was feeling good about my umbrella and banana tree that I had painted from on-location sketches. When I turned it around, however, I decided to take a risk and turn the banana tree into a woman. A few layers later, however, I had created a total mess, sprayed it and wiped it down, creating a very muted painting – not my preference. I know that the bright colours on the next layer will really pop on the muted background, but by 11:30, I was too hot and I’ll admit, a bit discouraged even if I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be with this painting. So I gave up for the day. I was brave and took a risk – I didn’t like the results. Tomorrow will be a brand new day. I know the awkward teenager will evolve. There are still limitless layers to go.

Flora’s painting is evolving beautifully. I loved what she had done yesterday with her painting, but it wasn’t edgy enough for her. Nothing gave her that spark – so she went in a completely different direction with it today– not to prove a point, but because it was what she was moved to do. I love the results of that too and now she’s feeling more interested in it. It’s important to keep things interesting for ourselves in our painting process – or else painting becomes boring. Again, she’s a great role model! To see with what ease she let go of what was to create something new by bravely exploring new avenues was inspiring. This piece, as for all the ones you’ll see here, are all works in progress. Stay tuned for more.

Flora’s work in progress: