May 20, 01:34 AM
risk in action
While I’ve been thinking about the whole “wheels” thing this week (haven’t done anything with that yet!), I’ve also been trying to live up to the commitment that I made in last week’s “risk” entry about living up to my full potential. So last night, I drew this in my little art journal. Not Rembrandt by any means, but a start at getting back in touch with something that I love—drawing. I haven’t picked up a piece of conte and drawn in probably over a year. I’m rusty. There’s lots of room for improvement. But it’s a start. And with continued practice, I know that there will be improvement. For right now, though, I am just really enjoying the process. It’s like using muscles that you haven’t used in a while—they’re a little sore—but a good kind of sore.
A lot of people in this group have said that they “can’t draw.” Until a few years ago, I thought I was one of those people. Then I took an art class with my brother that totally changed the way I think about drawing. It was based on the principles from the book, “Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain” and it was magical. Cliff notes version of the classes: the secret to drawing is in learning how to turn off the part of your brain that “knows” what it is “supposed” to see—and instead, concentrating on drawing what you truly do see. Lots of work with being able to discern positive and negative space. Lots of work with turning things upside down and drawing them, so that your brain doesn’t try to “fill in the blanks” on your page because it “knows” what the thing you’re drawing is supposed to look like.
I’m rambling, and don’t mean to—but it just felt so great to get out my stuff and do this again. It felt like such a breakthrough. And I don’t think that I would have been so anxious to do it if it hadn’t been for the amazing things—and the amazing courage that I’ve seen here. So thank you—all of you—for putting yourselves out there for all of us. You’ve been an awesome source of inspiration for me.
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