The Wisdom of Innocence.

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

-George Bernard Shaw

"On sorrow floats laughter."
— Günter Grass

'FOOL AT HEART.'
The clown as sacred healer and teacher: the life work of Didier Danthois:

Here's a little about a wonderful mentor I've had in my life. I've had two actually. More about the other later. This post will explain my fascination with the image of the clown in my art work.

Meeting Didier Danthois fifteen years ago quite simply changed my life. And I discovered for myself that truly: 'On sorrow floats laughter, and joy.'

Here are a few extracts from his website:

'In Simplicity and Presence the Fool
takes us directly to the heart. With
Playful Wisdom, he she guides us
through the noisy clutter of too much
thinking to the child of eternity, secretly
hiding at the core of our being. In trust
and innocence the Fool recalls the music
of the soul, and so echoes a song of
timeless Joy of a Lover for his Beloved.'

The Fool will walk us to the edge, beckoning us to play with the world and to discover a treasure in a grain of sand. The Fool liberates us from the shadows of old habits and fear of the unknown, helping us to embody the Sacred Clown as a way to awaken to the Wisdom of Innocence.
-D.D-

CLOWN MEDICINE

In the vast expanse of inner listening
The sacred clown comes home.
Open, vulnerable,
with no great ambitions or fears,
with no questions
and specially no answers to give…
…A timeless presence filling the air
touches all…
with that little spark of wonder,
for what is about to be born.
-D.D-

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.”
William Shakespeare

Didier is the founder of the Fool at Heart School of Sacred Clowning and teaches, performs, & directs internationally. He is the spiritual director of ClownCare & Co., an organisation bringing Sacred Clowning into healthcare.
His present work explores the field of emotional and spiritual resonance through the Fool at Heart in mime - dance - music & play, and also through Indian Raga singing, for both adults & children.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
Pablo Picasso

The art work in this post is a combination of pencil drawings made after working with Didier and a group of his clowns in 1996, which I then 'digitally altered' to make new images. I especially love the technique of making the image look like stained glass.

The smiling boy with his effigy of Judas, I photographed in Valparaiso,Chile in 2006.



Didier Danthois http://www.sacred-clown-as-healer.co.uk