Last night I taught stream drawing to a large group of young adults at Covenant House. I was so moved by not just their creative expressiveness, but the depth and insightful reflections they had based on their stream drawings. I was able to hear them explain profound and meaningful associations and emotions they had based on their imagery. I can’t say enough how wonderful this experience was, and how important it is for us to draw freely with open hearts and minds, and embrace one another while supporting the creative genius within ourselves and others.
Join me as we draw with creative joy and abandonment (like we once did!) to strengthen our empathic, intuitive, creative side of the brain. At Indigo Wellness on Nov. 4th 1-3 pm $30.00
This is an ink drawing (with colored pencil) from one of my many, many sketchbooks. Allowing for time to draw everyday in a playful way opens us up to our creative power and serves as a portal to the unexpected in the way of ideas, realizations and higher consciousness. Really, being playful while drawing does that? Yes, it does. The issue is most people don’t feel playful while drawing because they feel like the drawing has to be “good” and so they are listening to an inner critic who stops that process from unfolding. This is why I teach people to draw freely, a method I call “stream drawing”, a way of accessing stream of consciousness while drawing. It is very simple, and fun and well worth trying! For example, look at this stream drawing below. I saw in it a penguin w/ an egg, and colored it in (not shown). You might see something different–maybe it is a hummingbird hovering near a flower? Turning it around, there is many other ways to see this image.
I am offering one-on-one and small group stream drawing workshops for adults and children at my studio. Contact me here on this site to schedule your ultra-fun, relaxing, magical and surprising stream drawing time with me. I look forward to seeing you at Cottage Studio!
Sketching on the Saugutuck: Later in the summer I will return to Westport Public Library for the 6th summer in a row! Sign up for this lovely drawing event by contacting the Westport Public Library.
In the fall, I’ll be teaching workshops at wellness centers and through Westport Continuing Education and will post more info on that soon!
Is there an animal you especially relate to? When my kids were little, I related to bears because mother bears are so protective of their young. I have always been completely enthralled with bald eagles. I love horses. And lions. And…
Try doing a stream drawing and see what animal pops up. This morning, I got dog (and I featured this drawing in today’s newsletter–please subscribe to receive the images I send out with the intention to inspire, support and celebrate you/me on our life’s crazy, wild ride). Dog symbolizes trust, loyalty, unconditional love and companionship. Who is worthy of my trust? Am I trustworthy?
Oh–and a blue jay showed up–I love them. They’re fierce birds, aren’t they? I have to look up meanings for blue jay. If you know, let me know!
Detail of a recent painting/ Elaine Clayton copyright 2016
As long as we have a feeling stir within the heart, which reminds us that we are not separate from those others we encounter, there is a chance for goodness, wholeness, deep love. Empathy is the act of perceiving the feelings of others as one’s own.
If we are not separate in truth, and are One in that we are all created in the image of the One God, the Great Creator, then it all makes sense to me. It is why a very old knowing was communicated and holds true: Treat others as you would like to be treated. Don’t do things to people you would not like to have done to you.
Life seems to teach us that when we do things that harm others, we get it back, in some form. This then teaches us how it feels to have been “the other person” and then we feel within ourselves that Oneness we were not conscious of before.
I see life as a kind of wild ride where we gain consciousness bit by bit, or sometimes through tragedy or crisis, through our own actions and because of the actions of others. What else is there? I’d rather be curious about others, and ask myself many times a day, “What would it feel like to be that person right now?”
Do you notice that throughout the day different memories drift into your mind and before you know it, you’ve got a running narrative of various painful thoughts? When I stream draw with people and we ready ourselves for a memory stream drawing, the memories that generally want our attention immediately are not all the happy ones. Ekhart Tolle describes this as the “pain body”—it is like an alternate self to who you truly are–an ego construct that hangs out with you, often makes decisions for you and runs your life–if you allow it. It is a hungry separate self carrying all the pain you’ve suffered and it feeds on more pain, and it will fight hard to stay with you in your every moment. You, the real you, the whole and complete and miraculous you in essence, is not this pain body.
So why do we let memories from so long ago or even yesterday, ruin our moment in the now? Why would we let this specter, this victim of life circumstances have power over our time, each moment? We don’t have to. The moment we notice this is happening, that we replay in our thoughts things that re-injure us, this is the pivotal opportunity because once YOU realize YOU can see that this pain has staying power, YOU are no longer identifying with the pain because you are now connecting to who you truly are–the observer, the witness to circumstances. Stream drawing is one way to get into that observer mode and fast, plus it is a physical action, which edifies your intention because it puts into action, and then into physical form via the actual drawing on paper.
Stream draw to get control over the pain body, and fly over it. And have some fun!
