Welcome one and all to the opening of the local arts festival. This years theme is journeys, and in particular, imaginative journeys. As well as local artists we have some of Joseph Turner’s fine masterpieces from the Vortex series.

A journey is undertaken for personal gain, whether it is to physically travel to a different place or to obtain a better understanding of your surroundings and yourself. The imaginative journey picks up where the physical journey ends. It allows this exploration to continue further. It is the source of all ideas and lies beyond the restrictions of the physical realm. By journeying into the imagination is to surpass reality’s constrictions and travel into a place of limitless possibility. Although it is uncontrolled, its use can be controlled. It can be used as a means of escape or as a tool of exploration. It provides the opportunity to immerse ourselves in pure escapism and pure possibility. It is with these abilities that we are able to embark upon a limitless imaginary journey that is unaffected by external forces. With these capabilities the search for answers to life’s metaphysical questions can be explored. Each person is then ab

le to find answers that satisfy their unique and individual desire to understand their environment and themselves. With all of these answers lying beyond the physical realm the imaginative journey can arguably be classed as one of the most powerful and important experiences a human being can embark upon.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Margaret Atwood, Joseph Turner and Paullina Simons use language to represent imaginative journeys of greater understanding. The composers clearly understood the importance of the imaginative journey and the part it plays in the unraveling of life’s greatest questions.

The imagination is a place Atwood could easily become lost and with this comes a sense of despair and hopelessness. In this place is it “mostly the danger” that she feels as she searches for direction. However, it is within this imaginary world that she finds identity as a poet and a person. She uses it to escape the harsh realities of her monotonous lifestyle, as does Tully Makker, in Paullina Simon’s novel, Tully.

So take a look around, enjoy the art. Open your minds to the imagination; you may be surprised where it takes you. As Albert Einstein once said, Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world.

Lim attaches immense importance to the concept of journeys into the imagination when she refers to the “purer realm” which is where the metaphysical questions can be explored and somewhat answered.

Some topics in this essay:
Ancient Mariner’s, Beauty” Coleridge, Joseph Turner’s, Kubla Khan, Margaret Atwood, Mariner Ballad, Geok-lin Lim, ST Coleridge, Tully Makker, Bower Prison, imaginative journey, person narrative, imaginary journey, “purer realm”, physical realm, metaphysical questions, mushrooms paring knife”, shirley geok-lin, experiences human, sublime experience, lime tree bower, human embark, metaphysical questions explored, fulfillment spiritual level, “only returned safely”,