This week I have Allie Lyon on the podcast.  She is an visual artist, photographer, and yoga/ meditation teacher. This episode is deep dive into spiritual practice and how it can relate to and inform our creative practice.  There are so many amazing nuggets of wisdom in this one that I think anyone can take away with them.  It was an inspired conversation that I am super excited to share with all of you! ------------------- Allie is an abstract artist and meditation, yoga nidra, yoga guide originally from New York, currently living in Portland, Oregon. Her artwork is inspired by living most of her life with chronic aura migraines. The debilitating & blinding pain that comes along & blurs her vision, leaving her immobile in a dark room with no light or sound becomes a pathway to deep self inquiry, clarity & inspiration. Immersed in darkness, light and colors would emerge and dissolve behind her eyes, shapeshifting into different worlds that could only be illuminated by the darkness. Allie’s pain became a portal into beauty.The imprints left in her mind created by the visceral pain of migraines are reflected in her artwork. Glimpses of colors & shapes dance together to create meditative landscapes, a reprieve from something so painful. Allie continues to be inspired by the questions:How can I show something that’s invisible? She discovered her process from a college assignment: take a photograph of nothing.  Allie was so inspired by this idea of what nothing can mean:darkness, emptiness & invisible space. She was instantly reminded how migraines & meditation offer this same inquiry. The vision of our internal world was so much more inspiring than what we can see with our eyes. Allie describes her work as pushing the medium of photography to offer a vision beyond what is visible and instead, transform the invisible into a visible experience. She focuses on making photographs rather than taking photographs by collaborating with the lens and light to create a view of our internal landscape. Allie’s dad gave her a film camera when she was 10 years old & she became fascinated with being in the dark room in high school and college, seeing images appear when submerged in the quiet darkness. This became a theme: how darkness is a space for light to exist in. Allie is  inspired by the inward experience that meditation and migraines have illuminated. She views her process of art-making as a collaboration between herself and the medium: showing up with intention and simultaneously letting go to allow the medium of photography, paint or ink to also participate in the outcome. This process also reflects yogic and meditation philosophies on the importance of arrival and letting go. This is the foundation from which Allie creates.  Art is a shared experience:creating and letting yourself be seen by others becomes a mirror for people to be curious about their own inner worlds. Allie’s passion and purpose is to explore the integration between art and meditation.  We can use these tools to illuminate the world within: inviting more clarity, compassion and understanding to ourselves and the world. https://www.alexandra-lyon.com/ https://www.instagram.com/allielyonart/ See More from Martin Benson *To stay up on releases and content surrounding the show check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠my instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *To contribute to the creation of this show, along with access to other exclusive content, consider joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠my Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Credits: Big Thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the podcast theme music! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support