Drawing Insight from the last of things

Drawing Insight from the last of things

Today we end on the last of things. We look at what’s left when there’s nothing of something left. (haha you thought it was nothing, but there’s definitely something there).

During your lockdown period have you finished anything in its entirety? Have you run out of anything yet, or what are you running low on? Chocolates? Tealights? Toilet paper perhaps? It can be anything. Anything important, anything you thought was trivial but now realise is important. Cat food, aluminium foil, skewer sticks, compost for your garden… aaaaanything – you’ll know what it is because when you ran out of it, you suddenly felt a little jolt of  ‘oh no -we’re all out of xxx’. Today you’re drawing that thing… From memory if you have none left.

  1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit.
  2. Begin drawing your last of something.
  3. Don’t be overly critical of your drawing, just doodle, scribble, get the last of the crumbs out,

While you draw this, let’s draw insight from what’s left after you thought there was nothing.

  1. What does scarcity bring up for you?
  2. Was it really something essential?
  3. Perhaps how long did you have no more and realise that it wasn’t so essential after all?

At the end of today, if you feel like sharing your realisations big or small insights in the comments. I’d love to share and connect with you over these soft shapeless understandings that we all have in our souls.

Drawing Insight from Smoke

Drawing Insight from Smoke

I love smoke. It’s so transient. It seems to be the only visible thing sometimes between our world and the one we’re still trying to figure out.

Today let’s draw insight from smoke.

Light a stick of incense, some smudging sage, a match and set it down after it has smoked on a little plate or a wooden board. You could even light a candle and blow it out, or burn some herbs or a letter to someone.

  1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit.
  2. Begin drawing your smoking object and the smoke if you can.
  3. Don’t be overly critical of your art, just enjoy the capturing the ephemeral patterns it moves in.

While you draw this, let’s draw insight from smoke:

  1. What signals come out of the smoke?
  2. What otherness lies in the scent?
  3. What shapes do you see, and what feelings do they evoke in you?

At the end of today, if you feel inspired to you can share your drawing and drawing insights in the comments. I’d love to share and connect with you over these soft shapeless understandings that we all have in our souls.

Drawing Insight from Miscellaneous Items

Drawing Insight from Miscellaneous Items

It’s a strangely overlooked album of wonderful things – the fridge. We stick all sorts of things to it. And we go to it multiple times a day where we are reminded of your intentional or unintentional ‘pin-ups’ and magnet memories.

So today let’s consider the things we stick on our fridge! Go grab a magnet, a postcard, a dietary reminder and child’s drawing, a family holiday photo magnet.

  1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit.
  2. Begin drawing your fridge magnet or fridge reminder.
  3. Don’t be overly critical of your drawing and how strange your subject matter is. Just draw it and consider it.

While you draw this, let’s contemplate some deeper unknown insights.

  1. Where did you get this specific magnet or reminder?
  2. What does it bring to memory when you see it?
  3. Are you still that person who did those things and lived that way?

If you feel like you’ve outgrown that dusty reminder, maybe it’s time to remove it, give it away, or perhaps even add to it – plan a new adventure.

At the end of today, if you feel inspired to you can share your drawing and drawing insights in the comments. I’d love to share and connect with you over the many random and bizarre things we stick on our fridges and what this inadvertently shapes in our minds.

Drawing Insight From Decay

Drawing Insight From Decay

We seldom make time for endings, always associating them with sadness and loss. But there can be joy in endings and even in death, when preparation was done to end well, to release lovingly and indeed to die peacefully. Of course the sadness is not to be excluded, but I wonder how much room could be made to experience both the loss and the joy in endings.

With things changing as much as they currently are, much may be shifting or changing for you. In order to draw some insight from chapters coming to a close, today go find something, anything in your garden that is decaying.

A dry branch, a decaying leaf, a rotten fruit.

  1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit.
  2. Begin drawing your decaying item or piece of nature.
  3. Don’t be overly critical of your art, just enjoy the capturing of the last moments of a piece of nature.

While you draw this, let’s contemplate the end of things, the changing of things and the letting go of things that once were full of vitality.

  1. How does fragility and brittleness make you feel? Compassion or resistance?
  2. Is it the first time you’re really looking at this leaf or branch or flower? Did you notice it while it was full of life?
  3. What letting go is it inspiring in you, awaking in you?

As Clarissa Pinkola Estes says in Women Who Run With Wolves, “What must die so that there can be more life” within you?

At the end of today, if you feel inspired to you can share your drawing and drawing insights in the comments. I’d love to share and connect with you over the endings of things and the wellness that might be found in decay and change.

Drawing Insight From Wine

Drawing Insight From Wine

Wine. Or Beer. Whatever your imbibing drink of choice. For most of us it can hold a peculiar offering of pleasure and pain. And with the ban on non-essential items, many of us, depending on our personal stock levels of wine or beer, are required to examine how we feel about the relationships we’ve nurtured with this beverage.

So for today, if you still have some left (if not grab an empty bottle) take either a wine or beer bottle or pour yourself a glass and sit yourself down for a draw and a think with your drink.

  1. Get a comfortable with your wine or beer still life. (not like you need instruction on how to with this one)
  2. Begin drawing the bottle or glass and its contents.
  3. Don’t be overly critical of your drawing, just enjoy the release in creativity. And sure – while you’re at it, enjoy the intermittent sip. (like you needed an invite right?)

While you draw your drink, give these some think (ing time):

  1. Is this an occasional thing for you or a dependency?
  2. Do you drink to feel good or drink to feel better?
  3. Notice when the impulse comes up in you – that ‘I need a drink’ feeling or thought and start paying attention to what was happening just before it. What shift in your mood spurred on the desire for a drink? Or is it merely habit.
  4. How do you feel the following day? Good? Bad? Energised? Tired?
  5. If you haven’t had anything to drink in a while because you ran out of stocks and are now drawing a label, an empty glass or empty bottle – how has the absence of the beer or wine made you feel?

These are all just gentle starting points to question whether you’re happy with your relationship to alcohol. I’m not a psychologist so none of this is a curated alcohol support therapy. They were just questions I’ve begun to ask myself that have helped me gain more clarity on how I engage with wine and beer and have helped me redefine how I want to going forward. None of this is easy. But I have found drawing while thinking about this to reveal much insight to me.

I hope it lifts veils for you too.

At the end of today, if you feel inspired to you can share your drawing and drawing insights in the comments and we can just chat about our common journeys together. No therapy – just human connection on similar struggles and joys. x