My Story of the Unlocking Week Reiko Shimizu A few days before the symposium I was bitten and almost killed by a small wolf in the woods. It happened in a tiny village many miles away from where I live. It was dark at night. It was literally a traumatic experience. A nightmare. I was not sure whether it was okay to be present in the symposium or not. My whole body was still trembling. The first day of the unlocking symposium I participated rather impulsively. There I saw a female figure locked in my heart then. She looked like a goddess at first but as I observed closely, she looked more like a little simple girl, with colourful flowers on her hair, smiling quietly. A morning after a warm yellowish light filled up the unknown space. The light was from my past dream, illuminating the present. In the yellowish light, I was embraced by everyone who was present. After enjoying being still in the yellowish light, I started exploring the air around my body. Sometimes pushing it and other times pulled by the volume of it. Then I realized that I was tracing my movement with invisible lines in the air. Yes, it was like a dance. It was very spontaneous. I felt like being released like a small fish trapped in a net just getting released into the vast ocean. After being released in the air, I have found a game I could play. The game asked me to go through a series of challenges. The first challenge was to drink my trauma and the next challenge was to experience it psychologically and then physically, synchronizing with my own breathing to get it out. I don't even want to describe my experience from the first two challenges but once I vomited it all onto the drawing paper then to water afterwards, it was a very peaceful thing to see. A surprise! My vomit dissolved into the water and as a result, a mysterious, attractive black seed emerged. Within a few hours the seed had cracked and a flower bloomed. I holded it in my palms. I was not sure whether to burn this black flower away or not but in the end I decided to keep it for a while. Holding uncertainty in my heart I embraced myself warmly. I have accepted the decision. Next morning, I woke up embraced by huge hands. They were cosmic hands. Then I started to hear cosmic sounds swimming through the air smoothly and gently. My voice spontaneously started to swim through together with the cosmic sounds, trying to harmonize, trying to tune in, listening and searching. I suddenly realized that I was singing along with others. It was not yet a melody, like a melody in a womb. Such a joyful way to sing! That night I tried to find things to be grateful for that day. It was a suggestion from a dream fairy but the only thing I felt was my heart hardening. So, I did my prayer as usual and went to sleep with my saints in my heart. It was dark when I woke up the next day. I was touching objects in the dark. It felt insecure and too adventurous to go on drawing in such a way. In order to draw in total darkness, I needed to learn to trust the sensation that I was seeing through my hands. Then I remembered about the students from Blind Boys School I was working with just before the pandemic. How they trust the world and how they trust themselves, I remembered. Yes, here the key I have got that might be useful for unlocking was “to trust”. With the key “to trust” in my pocket , I was led to a question, “So, what does the word 'purpose' mean to me....? For some reasons, I didn’t like the word ‘purpose’. I had no idea what it meant to me. But feeling the key “to trust” in my pocket, I was drawing a pot filled up by bright light and it was coming out, illuminating its surroundings. Was it what ‘purpose’ meant for me? It was beautiful. Divine looking. With this light I went see through over the pandemic year. A path was leading towards the inner spiral. Inner and inner, sometimes crossing the previous path but always inner till I reach the very center. Different colours appear every here and there. A violent fire flame appeared as well as a scary face. I contemplated looking over the whole path and in the end I decided to embrace the whole thing with acceptance. Yes, the cosmic hands emerged here again! It seemed like that was the only solution to keep on going. It felt good, strong and warm. Then it was play time! Masking tapes play time! Making lines here and there, dot over another dot, over and over again, tearing and placing.... How fun it was to see the transparency of the tapes overlapping and 3D-ness of it coming out here and there. I felt totally loosened up. It was interesting how different other people play with the same material. And how I wished to play together in the same physical space with other people on the other side of the zoom. |
Following my own breathing, tracing the feeling of the water with my right hand, then tracing the feeling of air with my left hand, and tracing the mood of the earth with my feet, It was a very refreshing experience. I felt much more secure than tracing the touching sensations with lines blindly a day before. I was blind this morning as well but I enjoyed it much more. I wonder if it was breathing that went along while drawing made the experience so comfortable. Looking at all these unexpected, rather spontaneous lines and marks delighted my heart.
Feeling my heart delighted, I was slowly led from very recent memory to my very early childhood memory. As I traced back my memories with drawings I was amazed to see how much details were kept in my memory. The more I draw the more details come to the present consciousness. The act of drawing was bringing back memories that have been kept over years. Along with the physical details, I started to remember the feelings as well. I was totally in my childhood when I started to listen to a verbal description of the landscape. It was such a pleasing experience. It was like listening to a good night story in a cosy bed, half way asleep. Perhaps rather a daydream? A halfway there and here, a kind of threshold, a dreamy mood I was led to. Yes, the little girl was unlocked in my heart then. Flowers on her hair, smiling quietly, dreaming peacefully. With a little girl, I found my forgotten aloe plant in the hidden corner of the veranda. Yes, my aloe is one of the few nature there is in this apartment. I brought this aloe about 10 years ago and the only thing I have ever done for her was to replant when she started to grow out of the original pot. Poor aloe...I only was going to her when I needed her jelly, otherwise I never even looked at her. And what a fascinating experience I had when I started to draw her. She was not all spiky and scratchy as I thought. The more I looked and the more I drew, I started to perceive her whispering. All the leaves were whispering to each other sweetly and quietly. At the same time they were dancing harmoniously and gracefully. They were communicating to each other through movement in a very delicate mannar and some of them were even reaching towards me. She was so alive, full of life energy. She was whispering to me all these years quietly but I never cared to listen. How patient and beautiful plants are. How generous! I was very touched by my aloe plant. I felt a little awakened to the plant world. I started to remember how vividly I used to see the world when I was a child. Yes, the sense that has been locked was unlocking. Then I realized that I was in the middle of many many drawings I have done this week. The act of drawing was like a cleansing process. A cleansing from the nightmare I have experienced in the woods. As a sweet curly hair fairy has mentioned drawing as a way of “not to think”, I experienced it vividly. I did not want to get caught up in the nightmare nor be paranoid thinking about it and to do drawing was a way to not to be caught. But it was different from escaping. It was as if the traumatic experience was drawn away little by little along with the unlocking process. It felt very healing. A week has passed since the unlocking symposium. I have been dreaming more. My heart has softened and my perceptions are transforming. I perceive the world around me a bit differently when I walk on the street; different lines, different feelings, different plants whispering, trying to give messages, more clues, more vivid..... Yes, the Unlocking Week seems like it is still unlocking hidden locks .... |
Unlock Dreamings
Beatriz Acevedo When we spend almost half of our lives sleeping, dreams have a life on their own and they can be a potential source of wisdom. Alas, we rarely are able to unlock their power. This series of short workshops aims at connecting us with the power of dreams through drawings. Everyday from Monday to Thursday we will meet in the morning (switching between UK / NY morning time) to unlock our dreaming intelligence. Beatriz will guide us on how to make the best of dreams, with simple techniques for a better night sleeping and tips to remember those elusive streams of unconsciousness. Beatriz draws upon her own practice of dreaming, with some ideas from Jung’s approach to dreaming, and this is part of her ongoing purpose of encouraging people to live a beautiful life. |
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Construct, De-construct
Sarita Chouhan As we go inward what unfolds, we meet and we intersect and with us words, thoughts, sounds, scribbles, lines meet, join together and intersect. We construct, deconstruct not looking out for definite meaning here, not to look for beginning or end but to be present in the moment as a community, as a gathering to draw together. So let us come together with sheets of paper, anything to draw- pencils, pens, charcoal, ink or colours and ourselves. |
Reflecting Through Drawing in collaboration with Access at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Pamela Lawton LIVE IN PERSON WORKSHOP Monday October 18th 2 PM EST at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Draw in a museum setting and experience a perceptual and psychic shift in relationship to the artworks there. Deepen your connection with works of art that focus on healing as you draw. Through tactile experiences and mark-making, explore each artwork’s perspective on wellbeing particular to its place or origin and belief system. Notice the relationship between color and texture in materials and their impact on our engagement with each artwork. Buddhist art, Modern Art and Renaissance Decorative arts will be included. This workshop is for people with any level of sight. This workshop is limited to 15 people. Early registration is suggested. To register, please contact [email protected]. Art supplies are provided. |
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Reflecting Through Drawing in the Conservatory Garden Pamela Lawton LIVE IN PERSON WORKSHOP Tuesday October 19th 2 PM EST2 PM EST at NYC Central Park Exploring the North French Garden of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, we will connect to nature as artful design, cultivated from within our urban surroundings. We will use the senses of touch, sound, smell, movement and sight to draw in color responding to different stimuli from within the natural and constructed spaces we inhabit. This workshop is for people with any level of sight. This workshop is limited to 15 people. Early registration is suggested. To register, please contact [email protected]. Art supplies will be provided. |
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Anthi Kosma, Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Greece, PhD, DEA ETSA de Madrid
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Listen to your hand-heart
Anthi Kosma LIVE drawing workshop in a locality in Greece with students of architecture school of University of Thessaly. The recording will be available. Listen to your "hand-heart". What if hands were free to trace, without any judgement, as they feel, we could listen to their "voice"? If free-hands movements can draw aisthesis of our inner self then drawing can be perceived as musical scores, the transcript of the body's inner voices, hidden desires, agonies and its traumatized unlocked parts. Draw by listening to an internal reference. With no need to represent a given world but with the intention to "look" inside and link with self expression and its needs. |
Bending, Closely, Breaking, Round
Elizabeth Leister Bending, Closely, Breaking, Round is the presentation of a 360° video of a drawing performance - a unique perspective on building a drawing through physical movement in space. A charcoal drawing is performed on the floor and recorded with a 360 camera. When the video is experienced inside of a VR headset or on a mobile phone, the audience senses that they are inside the drawing, observing marks being made by a body all around them. This immersive experience unlocks the flat 2D limitation of a traditional drawing and creates a sense of embodied presence during the act of mark-making. |
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In Person sessions take place in Irvine California outside. Please let your California fellow drawers know!
Contact me with questions or to book at: 917-880-8405 or [email protected] deborahlutz-art.com Lutz.Deborah@Instagram |
Drawing with Tape Deborah Lutz ONLINE & IN PERSON Using a roll of masking tape as a drawing tool will challenge your reliance on ability and skill. Instead, the material determines how you feel and find your way into the drawing, pulling a continuous line of tape as you draw. If allowed, the tape lines will amass and build up the drawing surface; they will turn rather than round corners, they will twist creating linear nuances, the tape may shred or tear in places. Being an unwieldly drawing tool, the nature of tape will guide the structure of the drawing. Large paper and a roll of 1” masking is all you need. Drawing to Verbal Description Deborah Lutz ONLINE & IN PERSON By relying on verbal description rather than sight to perceive subject matter, the pressure of ‘seeing to know’ in order to ‘draw what you know’ will fall away. Likewise, regarding and responding to the developing drawing will be also be abandoned. Instead, your non-sighted perception of both the subject matter and your drawing will come together over time in response to the words as you notice them, the cadence and pitch changes of description, the sound of a drawing hand, the nature of materials, the perimeter and feel of a drawing surface. Your drawing will coalesce accordingly as you experience these. Large paper and a variety of less familiar drawing tools are encouraged. |
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A Point in Time
Maggie Nowinski Long rolls of wide paper, unfurled on the ground. Along the center axis, single dots, six feet apart. Participants stand on a dot and have an hour to draw continuously, reaching out to investigate the space around them. A common set of drawing media is provided to each participant (ink/charcoal/brushes on sticks so they can stand, reach, draw). Every 5 minutes a new audio/soundscape prompt – 12 prompts reflecting 12 months, a nod to a year as an extended point in time (in this case reflecting 2020). An exploration of mark-making as a record of individual and collective presence. Establishing a territory of personal space, intermingling through mark making with those adjacent to us, we create a single drawing. |
Drawing Yoga: Inhabiting Drawings for self-enquiry
Dr Curie Scott Title: Drawing Yoga: Inhabiting Drawings for self-enquiry Facilitator: Dr Curie Scott Duration 45minutes Format LIVE Online workshop (zoom) Date Monday 18th 11.00 UK time Facilitator: Dr Curie Scott Role Education consultant | Somatic coach | Drawing researcher This workshop will contain both recorded and live input and is interactive. You only share what you want to. It will be recorded. Drawing Yoga develops drawing techniques from my PhD research and my new book. You’ll inhabit a felt sense of knowing by drawing around your body. Globally, we’ve been shaken. COVID-19 has caused ruptures or disjunctures in our lives. Many of us became fixed to our immediate location due to lockdowns. Many of us had to change. |
Do join me in this experimental Drawing Yoga workshop. We’ll do some centring (mindful) techniques and then work from and through the body. You’ll need a quiet space with enough room to draw around your body with your arms in a sitting and lying position. You can choose to use gestures to make invisible drawings or draw onto large sheets of paper on the floor for physical drawings. You will need to move your body freely without causing pain.
I’ve spent time experimenting with how to embody drawings. I move, draw into the sand and inhabit the drawings. This ‘Drawing Yoga’ allowed ‘knowing’ to move from head-knowledge to a bodily felt experience. This workshop builds on drawing techniques in my new book for Drawing for Health and Wellbeing. Out for pre-order now & 30% off with the code ‘ARTS’ https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Drawing/?k=9781838673284&pl=1&loc=uk |
Rethinking Drawing Games
Beatriz Albuquerque Are you up to the challenge? Unlock and open up with drawing games. Drawing games can be used as a tool to confront injustice and violence. How do you unlock yourSelf and the world from trauma? Do you want to rethink how to heal and how to breathe freely? Join us for this hybrid workshop both on-line access and in-person participation available. |
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Drawing helps me nurture my imagination and free association in movement. I have been exploring drawing as a tool for unlearning and freeing the body and mind of ritualistic ties.
A body and a drawing by it -entails a body’s movement, rituals and social conditioning. Materials Required: Space 10 X 6 feet A large sheet of paper (approx. 4ft) Any drawing materials you like working with / holding / touching |
Unlearning Ferwa Ibrahim Date: Oct 18 -22, 2021 Time: 9:00am (UK, GMT +1) Session Duration: 40 minutes Open to all (registration required) [email protected] I am offering a ritual unlearning workshop where participants draw every day for the course of this symposium. I feel that understanding of one’s own body and its becoming can only be achieved by practicing deep meditation. The workshop is built on different drawing exercises inspired by Authentic Movement and Automatic Drawing. The exercises also draw upon Carl Gustav Jung’s method of active imagination to invite free association in movement. Through this we hope to research if drawing every day can lead to the development of new impulses and movements of the body. Also, if the development of kinaesthetic awareness through drawing can lead to rethinking the movements and rituals previously known to the body. We hope to create, “… moments of total awareness, -the coming together of what I am doing and what is happening to me”. Mary Whitehouse. |
Unlocking a remembrance of place
Jenny Wright As lockdown lifts I have been able to use drawing as a vehicle to unlock memories with someone experiencing dramatic shifts in perception of time and space as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. In my presentation I give examples of how drawing can be used as part of an empathic dialogue; an affirming action, where thoughts and ideas are resolved and anxieties calmed. Drawings do not conform to conventional linearity of time, can be part of a documentation of fluctuating ‘then and now’, ‘here and not here’, supplementing and supporting visual imagery in photographs and digital technologies. |
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Metacomics. Turning dreams into reality with the magic of comics
Luis Bellido Architect and Visual Coach 'Empowering people, one drawing at a time' In this presentation, I will share how I discovered the superpower of turning my dreams into reality with the magic of comics and coaching, and how I share this superpower with others via working as a visual coach. I will cover: - My life journey: from architecture in Peru to art education and coaching in Finland. - My academic journey: my master´s thesis “meta-cognitive-comics, an exploration of metacognition via metacomics”. - My professional journey: how I turned this theoretical investigation into a way of living as a solopreneur, via the Metacomics company and method. I will also show examples of my work with individuals and organizations, and myself, in topics such as visual manifestation, gratitude, and confidence, among many others. If you would like to know more about my work, you would check: https://startuprefugees.com/entrepreneurs/metacomics/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisbellidocoachmetacomicsmethod/detail/recent-activity/shares/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/metacomics.self.awareness.with.drawings Plus here is a link to a previous workshop: Visualize your goal strategy |
VIDEO Introduction of Metacomics. Turning dreams into reality with the magic of comics
In this video, I explain my mission with Metacomics - empowering people to turn their dreams into reality with the magic of comics -. I also tell the topics that I will cover in my full presentation. Which includes my life, academic and professional journey, from architecture in Peru to art education and coaching in Finland. As a sneak peek, I show an example of my own personal development (Minute: 2:00): “Balancing your superpowers”. Here I reflect on how one´s strength can turn into a weakness if overused. But this weakness can be turned back into a strength - a superpower! -, if used in the right way. Via reflecting with comics, we can gain the clarity to consciously decide what side of the coin would we like to focus our energy on. |
A journey through 10 drawings
with Angela Hodgson-Teall Unlocking the past by re-viewing my drawings, exploring potentials and possibilities, in order to contemplate future development Angela is one of the original members of TTD and has attended all our symposia. This TtD member interview is the first of what we hope are many, enabling us to learn more about one another's creative lives, as well as our teaching and research practices. |
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Donate to TtD - we are grateful for any and all help. We are unfunded and rely on ticket sales and donations.
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A USEFUL & CRUCIAL WORKSHOP FOR EDUCATORS AND ANYONE REFIGURING THEIR WORK IN ORDER TO TEACH ONLINE
Teaching Drawing Online LIVE WORKSHOP, Saturday 17th October - LEARNING & COLLABORATION Workshop by The UWE Drawing Research Group in collaboration with the Visual Communication Department at Birmingham City University, UK. The group’s interests include the role of drawing in teaching, learning and research, and the practice of teaching drawing. The group have an interdisciplinary outlook and are making connections with those working outside the fields of art and design. |
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Drawing our Inner World. Seeing our Outer World Workshop with Dr Curie Scott 45minutes This is an exploratory drawing workshop. I’m interested in how drawing helps us make sense of the world. Wear comfortable clothes and bring paper and pens (if you have space, set up large paper on a wall or an easel and bring different drawing tools). Drawing is evocative and provocative. A drawing can tells us something, show us something and sometimes seems to know something before we do! This work stems from my PhD using participatory drawing to think about our future aged selves. I used intuitive and expressive drawing, and the term ‘generative drawing’. This is when we come to the page to draw but without a fixed idea of exactly what we are going to draw. This introduction video has some drawings to whet your appetite. I hope you’ll join in! We can pick up any drawings and thoughts on the workshop in the Healing panel on Sunday 18th October. |
Anthi Kosma and Eva Miguel - Draw[riot]ing
Improvised, collaborative drawing. |
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A slow introduction to modern geometry
Workshop by Renaud Chabrier, helped by a french snail Text of his video introduction: Hi, I’m Renaud Chabrier, October is quite a rainy time in France, so a snail will help me with my workshop presentation, to provide a slow introduction to modern geometry. To begin with, we will practice drawing just a snail shell, in order to get used to the shape. Then we will draw the snail as it moves, and we will pay attention to the way the different drawings interact with each other. During this process, I will talk about the different transformations that the snail can show you, and about the geometry that you can use for your general composition. For this workshop, you will need one empty shell, and one living snail or more, plus a branch to make it move. If you can’t find this, I will display a pre-recorded movie of a moving snail in any case. You can use either charcoal, red chalk or black stone. You will also need a comfortable board and A3 sheet of white paper, or something larger. Feel free to use a variety of pencils on coloured paper, or brushes and ink wash if you prefer, but be careful with complicated techniques because the snail may be faster than you think… See you soon! |
Botanical Drawing through the Sensorium
Workshop by Sara Schneckloth An embodied action, Botanical Drawing through the Sensorium expands both perception and reaction, enhancing our material, bodily, traces on the page. In this workshop, we combine close pansensory observation of our local neighborhood flora with the act of mindful drawing, working in a range of mediums and easily-accessible techniques. We will do a number of short studies to deepen perception of line, form, structure, and texture, synthesizing techniques to produce one larger piece. This workshop can be viewed from Monday 12th October by ticket holders - use your VIMEO code to access. Schneckloth will be LIVE on the LEARNING & COLLABORATION panel, OCTOBER 17th |
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Multi-Sensory Tactile Drawing, at the MET NYC
Workshop with Pamela Lawton Activate your senses and break your drawing habits. From the Sub-Saharan shores to our Zoom rooms, we will draw to sounds, images, and surfaces brought alive by museum objects taken in part from “Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara”, a current exhibition at the Met Museum. Savor surfaces and traverse spaces, guided by your senses, chance marks and subconscious responses. |
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Performative Drawing for Change with Beatriz Albuquerque Are you up to the challenge? Allow yourSelf to rejoice while creating this performative"Exquisite Corpse" drawing to bring change to the world. Let your voice be expressed with movement and drawing. Workshop leader: Beatriz Albuquerque Affiliation: CITAR (Research Centre in Science and Technology of the Arts), Catholic University of Portugal. |
Phenomenology of (bodily) architectural drawings by Mohammad Moezzi Mohammad Moezzi is researching architectural representation and philosophy. He is an architect, designer and draftsman. who holds Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees from AZAD University of Mashhad in Iran. He teaches architectural drawing, architectural representation, design studio, design process, environmental understanding and expression, and drawing theory. |
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Cones, Grids and Timelines with Matt Finch What does it mean to picture the future in uncertain times? How can drawing help us make better choices? This workshop will give attendees the opportunity to explore drawing-led methods of foresight work on- or off-line, helping people to identify key uncertainties and generate future scenarios to inform better decision-making. Based on the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach, this workshop offers the opportunity to radically (re)imagine the futures we might face, at any scale from the personal to the global, grounded in a rigorous and disciplined foresight methodology. |
Cover Image: Drawing by George Clausen, RA “Half-length study of a woman drawing” Photo: copyright: Royal Academy of Arts, London
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“The lived experience of drawing: Reflections on an enduring practice” by Rose Montgomery-Whicher (as part of the series, “Phenomenology and Practice” Routledge, 2021) |
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in The Secret Drawing Room BFI Southbank London |
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