At last Saturday’s art class I put up two huge pieces of kraft paper on the wall to make a drawing surface eight feet square. None of us had drawn that big before and the idea was to catch the feeling of expansiveness. I decided that we would collaborate on a drawing by stepping up one at a time and adding to what the previous person did. Before we began we looked at some photographs of plants. Most of the class are comfortable drawing nature.

I went first and I have to say it was very liberating to work so large and throw the whole body into every line. We are so habituated to restriction in so many areas of our lives that it was great to just let it rip.

But there was hesitation too. Doubtless some wondered if they might be judged even though I kept saying it doesn’t matter what you do. But everyone stepped up and drew large. Once we’d each put something up there they worked on the picture together.

Then I taped a large piece of paper on the wall for each person and they did their own drawings. One of the students had a huge breakthrough. She let herself go. Two students had a crisis of faith. They questioned what they’d done.

What was truly wonderful was that both of them expressed their doubts, each in their own way. The truth is we all have them and they are sneaky, snakey things that insert themselves whenever we get out of our place of practice and assumed perfection. It’s when we head into whole new territory that the voice of unreason tells us we can’t do that, our work sucks. But it’s when we’re out there that we know we’re going somewhere. Art is new. It’s the discovery that comes with faith. We have to step into the void. It turns out to be fun.

Above a wee bit of paper torn from a large drawing.