Breathe In, Breath Out

Drawing can be a way to come back to the present moment, and calm down. Here are a few ways to do this.

Grab a few blue markers, turn a piece of paper to landscape, and fill it with slow, ribbon-like, horizontal lines. Here’s a link to a 2 minute video where I demonstrate this! Drawing slowly is meditative, and horizontal lines are calming.

In this video I’m using a blue Charters marker and a light blue Neuland “Big One” marker.

I recommend using any marker in cool colors: blues, greys, bluish-greens ––they’re more calming, they recede.

Make a drawing, or collage notes onto a photo to create a “reminder image”. I made this drawing for myself earlier this week; you might have seen it on my Instagram feed. I wanted to remember the calming tools I’ve learned in yoga class. Since there’s an image and icons, spatially arranged, I can keep a snapshot of this drawing in my mind’s eye, and refer to it when I start feeling stressed.

Make your own Zentangle-style doodle, and then color it in. I’ve attached three here, with varying degrees of detail. Or, make your own! All you need is a black permanent marker and a few colored markers. And, if you want to do things in the official Zentangle way, there’s lots more info here.

Hoping that you and your family stay safe and healthy, and creative.

The Benefits of Making Art

I’m both a graphic facilitator and an artist. The graphic facilitation may pay the bills, but the art making has many other benefits. Perhaps this list will encourage you to remember (or awaken) your artistic maker self!

Some benefits –– or joys –– of making art:

It’s a sensual pursuit: the pooling of ink, of colors flowing and combining. The sensation of a brush loaded with paint pushing across a primed panel, or piece of cardboard. The soft, sanded edge of a smoothed wood block. The resistance of a copper wire as it bends and catches the light. The kinesthetic, physical aspect, and the joy of being “hands on”, and engaging with the materials.
Art connects us to others. It builds community through sharing ideas, engaging in conversations, giving feedback, trading artworks. And, by looking at others’ work, we can be inspired, uplifted, and feel connected. We can name ourselves in that community.
The process of artmaking invites curiosity and discovery. Firstly, about what’s happening internally. Making can uncover emotions and moods, they arise from the materials and the exploration. In the work I pursue, there are no right answers, no formulas or equations. Instead it’s a process of wondering, trying, experimenting, and following the impulses: “Hmm, what if…”
Art is personal. Good art reflects you. And I believe the best art is honest and unselfconscious. It reflects who you are, not who you think an artist should be. Finding your artistic voice is a process. See #3.
Art is a practice, and a craft. There are skills to be honed, there are always ways to stretch and improve, and always more to learn. The process is humbling: the more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to learn.
Art brings you into now, here, the ever expanding present moment. Through attention and concentration, it can bring us into a state of flow. Where time seems suspended. The desire to follow that flow is compelling and addictive.

What does an art practice bring to you? This might be a good time to dust off those art supplies you’ve got up on a closet shelf and find out!

The Benefits of Making Art

Faces Everywhere!

Recently I was rifling through the kitchen junk drawer at my mom’s apartment, and I found the scraper shown here. A very clear character immediately jumped out at me. I can’t imagine not seeing a face in this tool, with his crew cut hair, startled eyes, three-dimensional nose, and shocked mouth. (Clearly, he was outraged at being forced into such a harshly lit photo!)

Several days before I happened upon Mr. Shocked Scraper, I noticed another episode of face pareidolia (the phenomenon of seeing faces where none actually exist). This time I was in Santa Barbara for work, and when I glanced at the door handle inside my hotel room I saw this surprised face staring back at me! The wide-set eyes appeared under glossy dark hair, (or was that a Russian fur hat?) the nose was rakish but demure, and even though the mouth was occupied with what – a backwards pipe? – a bent lollipop? – it still read as a face to me.

At one point it was assumed that only neurotic people saw faces like the ones above, (hmm, I protest!) but in a recent study conducted at the University of Toronto, in association with several Chinese universities, a different conclusion was reached. The lead researcher, Professor Kang Lee summed it up by saying,

“…Our findings suggest that it’s common for people to see non-existent features because human brains are uniquely wired to recognize faces, so that even when there’s only a slight suggestion of facial features the brain automatically interprets it as a face.”

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So you think you can’t draw? Think again!

It’s not uncommon that people come up to me at the end of a job and comment on the visual charts I’ve created. “Wow, you really have an artistic talent – quite a gift,” they say, sometimes followed by, “I can’t even draw a straight line!”

I appreciate the compliment, but I always find myself wanting to address the underlying assumption – that drawing skills are only in the realm of talent, rather than techniques that anyone can learn!

With less art being included in U.S. school curriculum, fewer people are exposed to learning how to draw, which means that drawing as an act gets shrouded in mystery. This leads to the assumption that drawing is a “gift,” which some people have, and others don’t.

If art classes were more common in school, people would find that drawing is like any other skill: it can be broken down into components and taught. In a studio art drawing class, there is instruction on what to look for, and multiple techniques on how to draw what you see.

In contrast, it’s assumed that even if a person isn’t particularly inspired by math in school (that would be me!) he or she would eventually make it through the various levels of math classes. Sure, some students may be adept, even brilliant mathematically, but nevertheless everyone learns math in school.

It’s a given that math is a tool that has many applications, and is also a way of thinking. The same is true for drawing. Everyone can learn to draw, and some people may choose to take that skill and use it in service of fine art, architecture, illustration, or as a tool to aid thinking and build clarity, either for oneself or with groups.

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