Inner Exploration Through Touch Drawing

Deborah Koff-Chapin was engaged in “revelatory play” when she discovered an approach to drawing which she dubbed “Touch Drawing.” That was in 1974. Since then, she has presented Touch Drawing at conferences and institutions all over the world. She began a Center for Touch Drawing, and also teaches at the Omega Institute.  You may recognize the title of her deck, Soul Cards 1 and Soul Cards 2. Visit her gallery, or see her in action, creating a Touch Drawing. If that is not enough, a DVD entitled Through the Veil, the Story of Touch Drawing shows Deborah creating several Touch Drawings.

Touch Drawing by Deborah Koff-Chapin. Used with permission.

This is how Deborah describes Touch Drawing:

Touch Drawing is a simple, direct and profound process. The technique involves moving the hands on a sheet of paper which has been placed over a smooth surface of oil paint. The resulting impressions are seen upon lifting the page. A multitude of images are born from within through the touch of the fingertips. What emerges is a visual journal of a deep inner process.

You can join her Touch Drawing Community and buy her Facilitator Workbook or Touch Drawing Handbook, Drawing Out Your Soul.

Whichever way you choose to engage with Deborah Koff-Chapin and the products she offers, you will be struck by her earnestness and commitment to being an instrument for spiritual growth:

Touch Drawing is so simple. Roll some paint onto a smooth surface, place a piece of paper on top, move your hands on the page and lift it off to see the completed drawing… How much can it take to teach it? If this was all there was, it would be just another crafty technique. But Touch Drawing is also an interior process; a state of openness to the Self that can take one through emotional transformation and deeper; into communion with the archetypal realm and the divine source.

Moontime. Touch Drawing by Deborah Koff-Chapin. Used with permission.

Intrigued? Does something in you respond to the directness and simplicity of this approach? Golden Open Acrylics can take the place of the oil paint. A plexiglass plate can be brayered with printing ink. Rice paper works as well as tissue paper. There are many options.

See where touch takes you.

Sharon Makes a Face

I have been quite drawn to drawing faces, lately.

I wouldn’t put it in the obsession category, as such, but my attention keeps being pulled in that direction. I’ve been asking myself questions, at odd moments, such as “How can I approach creating a face besides drawing it?” It occurred to me that I should try painting the main details in first, because my sister and I had been discussing how using diverse materials creates different results, even quite distinctive styles. For instance, when I draw with a pair of scissors (free cutting) I get a design that is simpler and freer than when I use a pen or pencil.

So I was very happy to “happen” upon Sharon Tomlinson’s face painting and sketching videos.

She uses Golden heavy body Transparent red iron oxide and Titanium white for videos one and two. Her substrate is cardboard, on which she had collaged papers and added a light layer of gesso.

In part three, Sharon finishes the painting and starts sketching over it, with a chocolate Derwent watercolor pencil. She covers this with matte medium to render it permanent, after which a mechanical pencil fills in even more fine details.

In videos four and five, the face is treated to some Violet oxide, and finally an array of other colors.

Sharon says, at one point, that she loves to share and inspire. Thank you, Sharon, I really enjoyed watching you in action. I was inspired by your method of painting first and sketching later, which seems a very good way to go: start loose, then tighten things up.

Finished face by Sharon Tomlinson (used with permission)

Even if one uses a face as a reference for painting, from a magazine for instance, it is still helpful to look at the underlying muscular structure of the face. Then the shading and contouring make sense.

About.com has  articles on human anatomy under Drawing/Sketching. Anatomy Drawing: The Head and Neck were most relevant to this discussion, especially facial musculature.

Webshots offers an anatomy album (by gillestrep), with another facial muscles diagram.

The classic 1918 publication Gray’s Anatomy (now famous as a TV program), is available online! It includes a search function, and subject index!

Michael M. Hensley displays  drawings which are “dedicated to the spirit of the human form and intended as an inspirational tool for the aspiring art student and artist alike.”

Wet Canvas has a free Basic Anatomy for the Artist, which includes the muscles of the face and their actions.

Dataface is a fantastic resource. Here are the muscles of the upper face and lower face.

If you have any favorite anatomy sites that are valuable to you as an artist, I would be thrilled if you left a link–especially if it shows the female form. Most of them are male.

Some Kinda Wonderful

My husband Ted (remember the man who doesn’t call himself an artist?) surprised me today. He really shouldn’t, not because it is wrong of him to surprise me, but because he does creative things constantly. Maybe it is something like the startle reflex, which I can’t seem to prevent from happening. The surprise reflex is a great thing to keep experiencing, however. Life is some kinda wonderful when you have people like Ted in your life.

I thought he was just cleaning the garage. However, he was experimenting with concrete. He had a small amount of leftover concrete mix,  so he placed a leaf on a shoebox, then poured the concrete over it. This is what he brought me just before lunch:

Concrete Leaf by Ted Wiebe

It is his first experiment before designing and creating a fireplace, or a cement countertop for our ensuite. Both interest him. He envisions a project, and once he can see it, he can make it. If I haven’t done so already, let me explain that Ted has a knack for making and fixing things. I have been the fortunate recipient of his ingenuity and generosity for quite some time now.

It looks rather like a fossil, and is about the size (yes, you already figured it out) of an average shoebox. Let’s see if you can guess why it has rounded corners.

An Eight Sentence Course

March 23, 2007 (almost exactly 2 years ago), I included the following quote in my blog post entitled Give it All:

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is a signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly is lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.                                  ~Annie Dillard from The Writing Life

That post did not reveal how I first found these luminous words. I was working at a public library at the time, and employees had to slog through “shelf reading” for an hour every morning as an attempt to keep the many books in proper Dewey order. This became tedious very quickly, because the call numbers can be quite long. Every once in a while I would grab a book, crack it open, and see if anything interesting caught my eye. Well, one morning I was in the 800 section, and happened to pull The Writing Life from the shelf. My thumbs parted the pages and displayed the quote you just read above.

I am sure everyone else, shelf reading in all the various rows near to me, heard my sharp intake of breath. My eyes were tearing, my heart felt filled to the brim.

The Writing Life was not put back on the shelf that morning. I checked it out, just to allow me to read that incredible quote over and over. Then I read the entire book, after which I bought it so I could underline and make notes on every page.

I have a poster of what I call the “Give it all quote” on my wall.

Well, this morning Amazon was kind enough to inform me that some brilliant artist (why didn’t I think of that?) has collaborated with Dillard to produce a “distinctive accordion-page book” which contains 20 color illustrations and is enclosed in a slip case. The product description assures me that this would make a wonderful gift for any of my artist or writer friends!

I described the artist as brilliant even before I looked at the his/her work (or name), just for coming up with this idea. But Sam Fink has had a long and distinctive career as a calligrapher.

I’ve already ordered my copy. As if I could I resist: Dillard’s quote is an eight sentence course for becoming the best writer, or artist, you can be.

Wild Desire

Standing amidst her long limbed sisters, she was certain that
if she was tapped a glowing sap would flow from her being.
It would taste like contentment, with a lingering note of wild desire.

17.75” (l) x 24” (w)

The figure in this paper quilt may appear far too serene to be harboring wild desire. But by becoming one with her “sister trees,” she has fulfilled her desire and reached a state of contentment. Her hands, a nest in themselves, cradle a bird’s nest, which holds three eggs. A bird has honored her stillness. A lingering note of wild desire still remains; who knows when it will be resurrected from its quiescence.

This is a dream quilt, and I interpret it as an encouragement to reach out, go out on a limb, honor my wild desires. The bird symbolizes, in part, the freedom to do just that, to fly in the face of limiting fears. From what the young woman is holding in her hands, it appears that daring these things will provide nurture for my spirit, and contentment.

A Little Slow to Reply . . .

Dawn Goldsmith from Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles, was kind enough to pass on a Premio Dardos Award to my site. That was at the end of January. It is now the end of March and I am finally fulfilling my part of this honor. I can be a little slow to reply, probably because I knew how difficult it was going to be to choose.

What is hilarious is that Dawn apologized to her “benefactor” about being  late at accepting, and now I have had to do the same. Sometimes my art projects, writing assignments, class preparations, and emails cause an overload that can be challenging to climb out of. I am not, however, complaining. I am thoroughly enjoying all those aspects of my life.

Given the excellent quality of writing on Subversive Stitchers, I am delighted that Dawn appreciates my own. The Premio Dardos is “bestowed for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.” I am not sure who instigated the first award by this title, but if I start researching now, I will have to postpone this overdue posting even longer. That said, here are the “rules” Dawn included:

1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog
2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

So, I am passing on this award (at long last) to 15 other sites that I thoroughly enjoy reading. Each of them manages to put their personality stamp on their blog in such a way that I have come to feel I “know” them, even though we have not personally met. That would be a worthy goal: to arrange a Premio Dardos Award Party, where we could shake hands with, or hug, the writer/artist who has become a relevant, educational and entertaining part of our lives. My librarian mind has insisted on alphabetical order (discounting articles). Enjoy!

Albedo

Chris Bolmeier

Common Life into Art

Dreaming Spirals

El Cielo Studio

Joyously Becoming

Kathyanne Art

Leah Piken Kolidas

Living Our Dreams

Making a Mark

Spirit Cloth

Sue Bleiweiss

Susan Cornelis

Tammy Vitale

Textures Shapes and Color

The Transitional Image

Harvesting Your Dreams

I recently found a wonderful post by Leah over at Creative Every Day, where she interviews Robert Moss. I thought it was the perfect subject for her, as her art often looks like dreams captured on canvas.

I have read many books about dreams and dreaming, including those by Gayle Delaney,  Patricia Garfield, Stephen LaBerge (Lucidity Institute), to mention a few, and enjoyed Robert Moss’s Conscious Dreaming quite a number of years ago. I think I will have to read it again.

What, you may ask, do dreams have to do with art? Robert Moss experiences quite a direct connection, as he states in the interview with Leah:

My seven nonfiction books on dreaming and imagination have flowed almost seamlessly from my dreams. My dreams also give me scenes, plot ideas, characters and dialogue for my novels and sometimes the whole of a short story.

Moss has also written The Secret History of Dreaming, which one reviewer, Jo Harjo, describes as “an essential text” that “should be included alongside any study of human history or scientific inquiry.” Robert Moss, she continues, “is a brilliant teacher of the immense and intimate field of dreaming. Nearly anything imagined, from invention, to strategy to poetry, has its roots in dreams. Moss deftly and powerfully demonstrates that dreams are the spirit body from which this world emerges.”

What struck me most in the interview, however, was Moss’s description of “navigating your life by synchronicity”:

To harvest messages from dreams and coincidence, you need to develop a talent for resemblances – for noticing what looks like or sounds like something else. If you have an ear for puns, you’ll pick up messages in a dream that others may miss. If you have a playful sense that the universe is alive, and that unseen forces may be at play around you and with you – giving you a secret handshake, or mussing your hair, or sometimes pushing you back – then you’ll come alive to the great art of navigating by synchronicity.

This really struck a chord with me. I strive to constantly stay attuned to interpreting what is going on around me in a “symbolic” sense. I believe in a meaningful universe, which communicates with me (and everyone else) on a spiritual and energetic level. Every event contains symbolic information, which I learn to interpret as I practice listening with an open mind and heart. In a sense, I am treating my life as a waking dream, and applying the same sorts of tools that are used to decipher dreams harvested from the sleeping state.

It’s an exciting way to live. I can also attest that it provides vivid subject material for making art and writing poetry.

Anne Bagby DVD, four viewings later

I recently posted about Anne Bagby. After watching her new DVD four times, I have to say that one of the things I highly appreciate about her is what she seemed most uncomfortable with: the “tricks” she employs to put her collage paintings together.

Let me give you an example. She had a dog drawing which she wanted to add to her collage, but it was too small so she took it to a printer to have it re-sized. She made a “stencil” out of the correctly proportioned drawing. This way, she could test the positive shape on her collage to decide where she wanted to place it. The stencil was then put in place around it, the dog was pulled away, and she had a perfect guide for sponge painting the dog shape, guaranteeing correct placement and proportions. In fact, she kept cutting the dog apart, and tracing the different parts (the neck, the feet, etc.). She commented that we, the viewers, would think she couldn’t draw.

Anne, I never thought that for a moment! You rendered a dog, beautifully, and didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. I am all for using appropriate technology if it helps you get the job done. And you certainly get the job done . . . superbly.

I was reminded of Mary Pratt, the well known Canadian painter who stopped painting and took up sewing at one point in her career because  she doubted “the validity of using photographs.”

She was unaware that her style – using the camera as a tool and the slide as a record of light and subject matter – was consistent with that of many Canadian, American and European New Realist artists. Fortunately, she returned to painting in the new year and completed the well-known Eviscerated Chickens (1971).

Since then, there has been a definite sea change (and just what is wrong with taking up sewing?):

• Misty Mawn teaches workshops using image transfers of faces from old art books or magazines, ephemera, old text, old poetry books.
• D.J. Pettitt provides face templates in a kit for some of her classes.
• Kelly Kilmer teaches a workshop, called About Face, on how to paint right over a magazine face to create one of your own.
• Suzan Buckner combines different parts of faces to create her own unique “undercollage” to paint over.

Many artists employ various methods to produce their work that might not be considered traditional “art school” techniques. The beauty of collage painting is that just about “anything goes,” as long as you have fun and are satisfied with your results! ( I say “just about” because using someone else’s copyrighted images will NOT  be accepted by magazines.)

Oh, and just wait until you find out how Anne makes gorgeous papers out of scraps and deli paper! I’d lend you my DVD, but I have the popcorn ready and am off to watch it AGAIN!

When I have this kind of itch, I scratch, because my rivetted attention is a direction post for me. As I watch, over and over, I know that I am integrating certain techniques and putting my own spin on them. It’s like the child who wants to take the same story out of the library again and again. That narrative holds a key to a door he or she wants opened. Children cannot articulate such a desire, of course. But I know, from past experience, that fascination leads to integration and results in exciting new work.

UPDATE: See a great post about Anne Bagby at Nancy Standlee’s blog.

Margi Hennen has a new home . . . on the Internet!

You have searched my site and combed the Internet because you are intrigued by doll maker extraordinaire, Margi Hennen. Well, she now has a site of her own!

Web Design by TrueFaux

View some of her Classic Dolls (starting with Diana and her tit bag: I offer no explanations–go and see for yourself), New Stuff (I fell in love with Watching Woman), and Goings On (through which you may be lucky enough to connect with this modern day jester).

Margi’s site is only five days old, so click over and say “Hello,” as a homewarming gift. I guarantee you will be amazed and amused. Beware, however, because you may also be challenged to question certain ideas that you hold dear (bright yellow polka dots notwithstanding).

Sir Ken Robinson On Creativity

Some time ago (2007) I watched Sir Ken Robinson on YouTube, talking about creativity, and was blown away by his presentation (it was taped at  TED). This man offers serious ideas, but with a charm and humor that makes them entertaining.  One of the stories he shared was that of a little girl drawing during an art exercise. When asked by the teacher to describe what it was, she replied “I am drawing a picture of  God.”

“But no-one knows what God looks like,”  the teacher insisted.

The six-year old was not deterred: ”They will in a minute.”

Don’t you love that innocent confidence?

So when I found another talk (Creatively Speaking: Sir Ken Robinson on the Power of the Imaginative Mind part 1 and part 2) on Edutopia,  I listened and watched eagerly. Robinson is an astute observer, and an engaging speaker.  This man is a champion for creativity and the imagination, and he presents a terrific case for how important they are, not only for personal enjoyment, but for society. Reform of education, he insists, is not enough. It needs to be transformed. Creativity is as important as literacy and numeracy, and it should be a centerpiece of education, an operational idea. it is vitally important to train people to have good ideas!

Wikipedia offers the following information about Edutopia:

Edutopia is the magazine, Web site, and video documentaries published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF). Founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas, the Foundation documents and disseminates information about exemplary programs in K-12 schools to help spread these practices nationwide. A nonprofit organization, GLEF serves their mission through the creation of media: films, books, documentaries, the magazine Edutopia, e-newsletters, and their website.

While at the TED site, I also found an amazing presentation by Pattie Maes about metainformation, gathered by “a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. ” I felt like I was watching something based on an excerpt from a sci-fi novel. What’s your reaction?  Could the use of this device cause atrophy of the brain (if you don’t use it, you lose it)? Seriously, can you imagine what a boon this could be for someone suffering from the effects of dementia? Memory loss? (Menopause?)