[Ailist] RE: Ailist Digest, Vol 52, Issue 24

[Benchcomm at aol.com]

Dear Loretta:
 
You are discovering the key to the castle.....  growing  up my grandmother 
was an artist.. and I wanted to be like her... but I couldn't  draw.
 
Then I went on a hunt for learn what drawing really was. All I  knew is that 
I couldn't do it and she could....
 
Along my journey, I discovered some gems that really helped me  get inside of 
what drawing was and wasn't... when I studied art history in  school, I 
learned about how each artist became fascinated with "something" - and  started to 
study that "something" at a level deeper than what most of us would  do. If it 
was flowers, they would study flowers from every angel, with every  change of 
light, with every type of bloom, close-up, and far away. By studying  this 
one thing - the subject they were fascinated with - they caused their  brains to 
move from "labeling" this thing as "flower" and started to activate  their 
ability to see the "thing" in all the beautiful dimension of it's  being.
 
My first big lesson came from letting go of labels and  "falling in love" 
with a subject that fascinated my brain - and to see through  the label to the 
shapes that composed the "thing."
 
I leaned that most things are made up of squares, triangles,  circles, 
rectangles all shapes - all connected... so when you start to  break down objects 
into shapes you can draw... you begin to create your first  personal artistic 
lexicon .... your personal language for the way you want to  express yourself... 
and in the world of art - everyone's art is their  own.   I visited the Miro 
gallery in Barcelona last year - and  realized his whole life as an artist was 
the study of triangles, circles  and lines... he never graduated from that 
fascination.... that was his  palette.
 
I also found out that people we call artists - all can't draw  what others 
draw.... they each have their own artistic materials they work best  with, their 
own style, and way of seeing and expressing themselves.... so we  don't have 
to become the artist of everything... just the things we want to  express.  
 
I found that I fell in love with Batik after seeing a friend  demonstrating 
how she made dresses from fabrics that she had batiked... it  mesmerized me. 
Then I spent 5 years immersed in using these tools to express  myself... wax, 
dye, fabric and jaunting tools... who would have thought? At the  end of that 
time I had done 200 batiks and actually sold most...  when I  started my 
business in 1980 I stopped doing the artwork, and went into the  business of helping 
leaders "see" how to bring their visions to life - by  "seeing" new 
distinctions - this wisdom is the basis of adult  learning.
 
There are many starts and stops along the journey to  discovering where your 
artistic talent lives... and once we free ourselves of  the "mythology" of 
what real artistic talent is ... and we stop telling  ourselves we can't do it... 
and we find materials, or subjects we fall in love  with... and we experiment 
- (never making ourselves wrong) the talent begins to  emerge.
 
In 1984 or so I found Betty Edwards book called Writing on the  Right side of 
the Brain.  Her book is one of the best to help us break out  of old 'seeing 
patterns'... she confirmed that "labeling" is what stops the  brain from 
seeing distinctions.... so when we label a "tree" a "tree" we stop  seeing the 
tree, and we draw a stick tree of something that represents tree - an  icon of a 
tree.
 
Her famous exercise was to take one of Picasso's charcoal  drawings and turn 
it upside down. Then each person would draw what they saw...  since it was now 
not a picture of a man sitting on a chair but something else -  it tricked 
the brain to come alive and try to draw the lines and the  relationships of one 
line to another... seeing enhanced, became more acute....  and it is from this 
'waking up of the brain-eye connection' that each person's  artistic 
abilities began to emerge.
 
Hope this gives you more food for thought...
 
Best wishes,
 
Judith
 
PS:  After not doing my art for almost 30 years, we just  decided to 
transform our attic into an art studio  - when I told my  sister she said "you are 
making Grandma's studio" in your house....
 
 
 
 
 
I took many stops along my journey to find my abilities to  draw. Another was 
with children.... when doing my graduate research fellowship,  I worked in 
one long with my jo
 
 
 
Thanks to Diane for mentioning the concerns some of have about  artistic
ability. If you think of graphical facilitation as "note taking"  with most
of the words turned into concept pictures, you need a glossary to  work from.
The Grove Consultants (in addition to having wonderful supplies)  have
resource booklets of drawing objects. My favorite is Pocket Pics:  Difficult
Concepts. In alphabetical order, concepts like action, balance,  empowerment,
values, etc. are depicted three times. Once you get the hang of  picturing an
idea, you're on your way to creating your own drawings from  scratch.

There is one other thing . . . you have to jump into the deep  end at some
point and do it. Volunteer to record graphically for a meeting  someone else
is facilitating. There's nothing like it to really embrace the  process.

All the  best,

Loretta

------------------------------------
Worksmarts  Group
Loretta L. Donovan
President
lldonovan at earthlink.net
141-A  Main Street
Tuckahoe NY 10707
tel: 914-779-3246
mobile:  914-309-3952
Skype  ID:worksmarts
www.aiconsulting.wordpress.com
------------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:35:01 -0600
From: "Diane Cheatwood"  <Diane.Cheatwood at state.co.us>
Subject: RE: [Ailist] Illustrating a  visioning session


For those of us convinced "we can't draw," there's  a simple children's
paperback, ED EMBERLEY'S DRAWING BOOK: MAKE A WORLD. It  shows how to
turn simple shapes into objects, and once you see his easy  system, you
actually enjoy the process. He has a series of similar books;  this title
has been very useful to help adults figure out ways to put ideas  into
pictures and doodles at work.

Good luck! 

Diane D.  Cheatwood
Training Specialist
Office of Staff Development
Colorado  Department of Labor &  Employment
303.318.8255




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End  of Ailist Digest, Vol 52, Issue  24
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The  Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles 
School of  Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list 
administrator. For  subscription information, go  to:
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