Leaping Hurdles / Drawing Club 3
On Saturday when the drawing class met again we got it out into the open that our thoughts so often get in our way as artists, same as life. We’re all still hung up on judgments, myself included. Is our drawing good or bad? Could it be better? Worse? We try very hard in class just to see what’s there. Here’s a beautiful line or here’s a great use of light and dark. Here’s something playful, here’s a drawing full of energy or vibrant color. Here’s something moody and dark.
Still, our thoughts get in the way. Hurdles.
So again we did blind contour drawings and again the drawings were more free and more accurate than when we look at both the object we’re drawing and the drawing itself. When we only look at the object we don’t get to think about our drawing and the results are so full of energy and verve.
It’s amazing how our thoughts can constrict us and it’s a real privilege to see people stand up to them. There’s so much courage in the class. One woman asked why we have so many discouraging, judging thoughts. I think one answer is that our entire schooling has been about getting it right—that there is a right. It’s really cut us off from our creative selves.
So, we’re on a mission—to overcome discouragement. As in yoga, we’re watching our thoughts and learning to let them go. But the wondrous thing is that we are beginning to notice them now since drawing blind. A great exercise and we’ll use it all the time now. And, again, I’m gobsmacked by the work everyone is doing. There is an artist in everyone!
I gave them all a copy of a great interview in this month’s Shambhala Sun with Leonard Cohen. We always listen to music in class, one of the ways we get out of our thinking minds and into our feeling, creative selves. Leonard is a favorite because he opens the veins of feeling in a big way. He had a bit of a breakdown ten years ago as artists can. You have to watch those veins of feeling and not get too attached. Anyway he ended up in a Zen monastery for five years or so where he learned a lot about letting go and finding peace. He had his fall into grace which so often comes the hard way. I love his vibe now and also that he has learned what he’s learned and come out of the monastery again.
Somewhere in this time he took up drawing. A lot of his drawings are in The Book of Longing, a volume of his poetry published last year. They are mostly self portraits and he does them every morning before writing. Drawing is such a beautiful way of slowing down and getting out of our habitual thought patterns and he says it opens up his writing. When it becomes a daily practice of noticing and exploring it does take us somewhere. Art is a practice first and it does take practice. Sharing comes later. Leonard is now selling his drawings. I love that because he was in his sixties when he began drawing.
I love this photo too that accompanied the article. I knew immediately it was taken in Montreal. The casual bare-boned minimalist style is very artist Montreal. It leaves a lot of room for the art to happen. Not for everyone but I confess that I love to see a little baseboard in a home.
Okay, it’s back to the drawing board here.
