Suggested sliding scale donation is $5-$35 per class. Please be as generous as you can!
We also have scholarship tickets for people who need financial assistance. :)
Sunday, 4:00-6:00 PM PST
We all have an inner wellspring of creativity, but we don't always have the means to access it. Focusing on our own innate drawing skills (Everyone can draw!), this mindful drawing class gives us a way to calm our minds and bodies, and access our own creative core. It's great for everyone at every skill level who wants to develop a unique and authentic creative practice.
In this class, we explore ways in which the the actions of drawing can be used as a physical meditation and incorporated into a larger mindfulness practice; all without the pressure of producing a completed work of art— think of it as some serious doodling for the soul!
Starting off with a guided grounding meditation and a moment of shared silence, we will look at drawing as a gateway to creativity or as a tool for clearing the mind. Our aim is to break down the old narrative of ‘but I can’t draw,’ and to discover the potential of drawing/mark-making to enhance our mental well-being, especially during these difficult times. Most of all, we will relax, enjoy some music and practice some new techniques together.
This class is open to all folks at all levels. Children are welcome too! (Please let us know in the registration if they will be joining.)
In this class:
• We will talk about tools and materials and exploring their use;
• We will discuss how the tools interact with the body, how to reconfigure your hand postures from 'writing-friendly' into 'drawing-friendly' gestures, and incorporating a wider range of body movement into a drawing;
• We will try out a few exercises with instructor prompts to get you comfortable with this new medium and start you on a path to discovering your own unique mark-making;
• We will enjoy great music, and connect with other students around our creative process.
What to Bring:
1. Paper of any size. The paper should not be ‘precious’ but be something you would have on-hand every day. Try to have different options to explore. You can even consider recycling old newspapers or other large sheets of paper. The dollar store is also a good place to find rolls of paper for low cost.
2. Tools to draw with. You will want a range of different tools to experiment with. Examples: sharpie markers, pencils, charcoals, conte crayon, felt tip pens, or just your very favorite pen. Again, the dollar store or DAISO is a great place to pick up some new and inexpensive tools with which to explore. <NOTE: Please select things that are either black or dark marking only. We will not use color for these exercises.>>
3. Your favorite beverage, a snack, and whatever else you might need for a relaxing evening.
*** About Mindful Drawing ***
Drawing can be intimidating.
Many of us grew up with the notion that drawing is an innate talent— something that comes naturally or not at all. But drawing is so much more than the tedious pencil shading techniques we learned in middle school art class and it’s benefits stretch far beyond a neatly finished piece of art.
Drawing is a process of discovery.
Our hands make their own unique marks and drawing is one way of uncovering these marks, learning and studying what these marks look like, and enjoying the beauty of what your own hands make. As we develop our personal practice, we may find drawing becomes a physical meditation practice — a powerful, transformative tool we can use to help heal our bodies and minds, and also as gateway to our own creativity.
Drawing as healing.
Every day we are bombarded by stressors. Some of them are minor—like our traffic commute—while some are as overwhelming as the pandemic we all find ourselves in right now. To survive in times of crisis our sympathetic nervous system—the one responsible for our fight/flight/freeze response—operates in overdrive, creating a reserve of potential energy waiting for the right time to react. This well of potential energy and high-alert feeling is summed up as ‘stress’. To ease our stress, we need to calm our sympathetic nervous system and in turn stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system—the system responsible for our relax and recharge response.
'Relaxing' from the events of our lives seems simple on the surface, but sometimes just getting ourselves into our ‘happy place’ or engaged in relaxing activities is not enough. We find that stress is still lingering and all of that built-up energy needs someplace to go before we can get our minds and bodies to ease the sympathetic nervous system and stimulate the relaxing parasympathetic nervous response. Taking a dedicated moment to draw functions as that energy release we need, and can help guide us through that liminal space between high alert and relaxation.
Drawing to cleanse the mental palette.
Our minds are brilliant junk collectors! We have an amazing capacity for generating, cataloging, and retaining our thoughts over a lifetime. But sometimes those stacks and stacks of information bits can clog up the path to the creative ideas buried deep within. Drawing exercises help us ‘take out the trash’ so we can get access to those beautiful creative parts of our mind. Drawing can also serve as a focusing tool— taking a few moments to draw when our thoughts seem scattered or we are having trouble entering a creative mindset can sharpen our focus and concentration when we need it most.
However you approach it, drawing is something that you can truly make your own. We hope it will become an enjoyable tool to use in your own wellness practice!
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This class is brought to you by Kim Counes at petite-post.com.