WHAT YOU FEEL IS WHAT YOU GET Frederick Franck's little book, Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing, is great medicine for any artist, especially at times when we get stuck or frustrated or feel something is
lacking. When that happens, it's because something has come between the artist within us and our conscious awareness. At these times, the worst thing we can do is to TRY to make art. Pitting off Franck's approach, I have discovered an exercise that wakes me up and makes me feel alive every time I do it. I call it phantom drawing, but it's very much like his practice of Zen Drawing. - Get an apple
- Sit at a table with a cleared space, then place the apple on its bottom on the table about two feet in front of you
- Place the index fingertip of your dominant hand on the table, halfway between you and the apple
- Close one eye and focus the other on any edge of the apple while your fingertip touches the table (just the one fingertip, keeping your other fingers in the air).
- Take three deep breaths where you inhale for 3 Mississippis, hold for 2, exhale 4, pausing briefly in between
- During your final exhale, start moving your fingertip on the table as if touching the edge of the apple you are looking at
- Focus on how the shape of the apple feels on your fingertip as it moves on the tabletop. Feel the shape you see, not as you remember
- Make at least five
trips around the apple's edge, keeping this focus keen. Don't allow yourself to lose focus on how the shape feels on your fingertip
- Now, cut the apple in half, and do this again with each half, touching every edge you see, inside and outside the shapes
- Now, cut those halves in half and take that same trip around all four shapes.
WHEN YOU DO THIS, YOUR ARTIST WITHIN WAKES UP It is the artist within us that feels, both tactically and emotionally. Our sense of touch allows us to connect with what our eyes are seeing and therefore experience it through feeling. And when that feeling moves through our hand tools, the artist within is having its say. You can access the archive of all my newsletters at anytime by going HERE. |
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