I hope you can join us tomorrow (Sunday, April 24) at 2 p.m. Eastern for our monthly YouTube chat. The topic will be Anatomy of Shadows. To log on go here: In the Studio Art Instruction - YouTube
Here's a post from 2016 that seemed worthwhile to revisit. Enjoy.
Recently while walking through my woods, I became aware of having no thought while feeling drawn to a clump of ferns. Then I recognized a thought entering in and calling the ferns
"beautiful." When that happened, my initial feeling narrowed down. The act of labeling, even to call these plants beautiful, had made them less than their being. Scientists might say that my first experience--that of feeling with no thought-- was coming from the right brain and that the labeling came from the left brain. If you've read Jill Bolte Taylor's book, My Stroke of Insight, that would make a lot of sense to you. While Jill's left
hemisphere was totally wiped out by a stroke, having access solely to her right hemisphere with no access to language, she felt only bliss within her surroundings without any labels. For years I've searched for ways to help my students empty their heads of labeling thoughts because I know that while painting and drawing, when we label images, we limit our ability to really see them. The flip side of that is that IF we redirect that desire of the left brain, we can make it label in our favor
rather than limit us.
Try this little exercise and you'll see what I'm talking about. Here's your image: Review this Quick Tip so you'll see how to do this exercise, then come back to this email. Now, cursor back up to the image of the fiddler, grab some paper and a pencil and using my method of "Finger Drawing" from the Quick Tip, allow your finger and pencil point to move on the paper along all the edges in the image. HERE'S THE KICKER:
Allow your thoughts to think ONLY about the tactile feeling on your fingertip. Nothing else. This exercise will require a little practice and a lot of patience
because thoughts are stubborn. They insists on having their way in our heads, but we can control that with a little effort. You will see that once you are in control and give permission to your thoughts to think ONLY about the tip of your finger while drawing, your drawing will totally surprise you. Once this skill is mastered, we can find ways to apply it while painting, but we'll look into that in next week's post. LiveStream This Coming Thursday! |
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