The mentor as artist: a poetic exploration of listening, creating, and mentoring Celeste Snowber* Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

This paper presents an example of utilizing arts-based educational research methods to explore poetic ways of expressing the connections between mentoring, leadership, and art making. The relationship between deep listening to ourselves and each other is emphasized as essential to expanding the concept of research to include our own lives as works of art. Connecting with the natural world through poetic form and the concept of mentoring as co-creating art. 

The mentor's task is to open a space of hospitality, a tradition rooted in spiritual practice that integrates hospitality, listening, and mindfulness (Merton, 1961; N'hat Hanh, 1976; Nouwen, 1981; Chichester, 1990; Guenther).

In her classic work “Walking on Water: Reflections on Art and Faith,” L’Engle (1980) reflects on the artist’s thoughts at the service of art, saying, ‘Inspiration comes to me much more often during my work than before. The artist's task is to listen to the work and go where it tells him to go' (p. 149). Deep listening to oneself, others, art, and the natural world informs both mentoring and art making. There is an art to listening to our lives.

Author and theologian Buechner (1992) said: 'The most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives as much richer beings. The gift of art in life is that it makes me pay attention to nuances and emotions I had never been aware of, whether it be the resonance of poetic language or the colors of maroon and burgundy in a painting. Art wakes me up, and I am amazed once again by the beauty of life.

The artist must learn to serve the work, to listen to where it is going and to respect its own vitality.

Cultivating the soul requires a certain kind of rigor that requires the individual to look at all aspects of personal growth, including the light, the dark, and the shadows.

I am reminded of a poem by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz (2002): This poem captures the need for a loving environment for flowers to bloom. What happened to the rose? How did the rose open its heart and bring its beauty to the world? It felt the encouragement of light into its presence. Otherwise we would all be too scared. (p. 161) Mentoring is, metaphorically speaking, listening to the roses in our lives. The best quality we can offer the world is to be our authentic selves and work with our own nature.

As humans, our lives are works of art with constantly changing ways of being and becoming.

The mentor as artist: a poetic exploration of listening, creating, and mentoring Celeste Snowber* Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

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