Creative Journaling (5) - A Story Line

If you completed the previous Creative Journaling posting activities up to now, and I hope you enjoyed them, then you have some idea about “reading a line.”  But just in case, let me summarize a bit about lines.

From looking at the different emotional information in drawing lines, such as the differences in writing a signature, it is possible to guesstimate some of the conditions under which the signature was written.  Does it have evidence of fast speed in execution?  Slow?  Jerky?  Tension?  Arthritis?  Smooth?  Scribbled?  Splattered?  There could, of course, be many more choices.  But given the signature itself, what does it communicate to you about the person who wrote it?  What do you “read” about the line when you look at it? 

Now, turn to the previous 8-panel activity.  Each panel had a tag or label at the bottom of the space:  Anger, Joy, Peacefulness, Depression, Energy, Femininity, Illness, and a personal choice.  In our journaling group, we made copies of everyone’s panel pages (some people did more than one).  Then, everyone placed their initials on the back of each panel for identification, and we cut all the panels apart.  Next, we glued all the “Anger” panels onto one piece of paper, all the “Joy” panels on another sheet, and so on.  We then tried to “read the lines.”  What could they tell us?  Although each one expresses the individuality of the person who made it, taken all together, they also express a wide range in how the information was conveyed. 

Betty Edwards (Ref:  Drawing on the Artist Within, ch. 7, p. 77, 79.) comments, “One would expect enormous variation among the analog drawings – and in fact, no two drawings are alike.  What is surprising, however, is the structural similarity of the drawings that express a single concept, such as “Anger,” “Joy,” Peacefulness,” and so on. And this structural similarity occurs often enough to suggest that it is a shared intuition which contributes visually to our understanding of the concept the drawing means to express.  These structural similarities are most easily seen if one views a large number of drawings at once.  We have looked at a collection of “Anger” drawings. …

     you see that each drawing is unique.  Yet the drawings share a basically similar structure.  The concept “Joy” appears to generate not jagged, dark, pointed forms that almost overwhelm the format as does “Anger,” but instead light, curving, circular forms that tend to rise within the format show how master artists use the language of like to express joy.”  (She goes on to discuss in detail each of the other panels in terms of their form, structure, and visual impact.) …

     In conclusion, “I believe these analog drawings have proved to be a very valuable exercise, for they demonstrate that there is a “vocabulary”  of the visual language of drawing… to generate ideas and to overcome ‘blocks’ to writing.  Both methods apparently skim from the subconscious in R-mode fashion, skirting the rules and regulations, restrictions and censorship of L-mode thought processes…” (Ibid., p. 95.)

There is another activity which I call “Story Line” (my daughter calls it “Taking a Line for a Walk”) which is both simple and a yet a challenge, but it helps to hone the skill for leaning to read lines. 

Activity – “Story Line”:  Take a piece of paper (or in your journal, if that seems better to you).  On it, you are to draw a single, continuous line which tells a story of some sort, of your own choosing.  Then under the drawing, tell the story in words.  This can be more difficult that just drawing a line for just one feeling.  Now it needs to convey a more complex visual situation.  Again, use of pictures (flags, hearts, kites, logos, etc., are not allowed.)  Just start the story/line and do not try to visualize what’s going to happen beforehand – just take the line for a little walk.  Allow the image(s) to emerge in their own way.

I would be very interested in anyone who wants to share their experiences about the Creative Journaling project by commenting on this Cornerhouse blog site or via email..  (my email is in my profile:  sliknl@yahoo.com. 

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “A rose is a rose is a rose.”  [Gertrude Stein]

“A line is a line is a line.”  [Cornerhouse Rules – CR]

·        You might check out the drawings of Wassily Kandinsky.  “Kandinsky wrote extensively on the ‘language’ of line.”  [Ibid., p. 76.]

·        “The first steps of a creative art are like groping in the dark…These moments are not pretty. I look like a desperate woman, tortured by the simple message thumping away in my head: ‘You need an idea.’”  {Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit, p. 94.]

·        “You must never, never, never, never, never give up!” [Winston Churchill]

Creative Journaling (4) – Nurturing the Right Brain

[Reference: One Zentangle A Day for Relaxation, Inspiration and Fun by Beckah Krahula.  Note:  “Zentangle” is a trademarked term.]

Let’s talk about Zentangles.  It’s “Zen,” as in meditation or focusing the mind, and “tangle,” as in all tangled up.  They are so enjoyable that once the members of the journaling class learn to do them, it’s addictive, like eating peanuts – you can’t eat just one.  The class members do them at home, and bring them in to “Show and Tell.” 

A Zentangle is somewhat like doodling, only with a few simple guidelines.  It’s something we all have done, and deceptively easy.  You know, maybe you are talking with someone on the phone, and your mind start to play.  You pick up a pencil or pan by the telephone, and you just let your mind wander while you talk (remember the right brain can do multiple things at the same time), and you start to doodle some pattern on the telephone pad.  Zentangles are like that.  They are short, spontaneous drawings which energize, encourage and focus the right brain, similar to the way exercise benefits the body.  They activate and stimulate the conditions for creative right brain work, like a pianist doing scales on a piano.  However, as there is a method for doing piano scales and, so too for doing Zentangles. 

Zentangle Activity: If you have not done a Zentangle, here is a summary of the process we use in our journaling class, just to get started.  This activity should not be long a tiresome – about 15 minutes or so is about right. 

·        Take a piece of paper and draw a square 3.5” x 3/5” (We like card stock, and have several rectangles pre-cut ready to use.).

·        Using a pencil, put a dot in each corner of the square about ¼” in from the edge.

·        Connect the dots, forming an inside “frame” around the edge of the square.

·        In the space inside the frame, draw 3 lines, called “threads.” (Don’t think about it too much. As in doodling, just let your mind be free to follow the pencil and to make whatever lines it wants to.)

·        Now using a pen, make a different pattern in each of the spaces between the threads.  These are free-form patterns, not pictures.  No erasing – be brave!  This step usually takes just a few minutes.

·        Now back to using a soft pencil, turn the pencil on its side so that it will make a wider line, run the pencil along some of the lines, and using your finger or a cotton swab, “pull” the shadow line from the edge toward the center of what you have drawn.  It will “smudge” into a soft, shaded shadow, making the image appear more dimensional.

·        Take up the pen again, and put your initials somewhere in your image.  (Every artist signs his work.)

·        Finally, turn the paper over.  On the back side, make a square in the center about 2” x 2”.  In the square put your signature, the date, a title/name for your Zentangle, and perhaps a comment (ex: “This is my first Zentangle!”)

When you started out with the Zentangle, you just worked without the preconceived formality, which the left brain usually controls.  You worked just with lines and patterns, which the right brain usually joyously controls.  Then, putting the title down at the end requires words/language, and at that point the left brain suddenly wakes up and kicks in.  In the process of making the Zentangle, thoughts and images become visual.  And finally, in the titling, the visual is translated into language.  It’s heuristic, in that the value is in its structured guidance, to discover and reveal creative insights.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “This drawing … requires no previous artistic training or experience at all… ability to use the power of drawn lines is already in place and available for use… You will draw no recognizable objects at all and no symbols, letters, or words.  … you need not know beforehand what the drawing will look like.  In fact, you don’t want to know, because the purpose of the drawing is to reveal aspects … that are perhaps not accessible to conscious, everyday thought – again, to show you what you know but don’t know you know.”  [Ref: Drawing on the Artist Within, Betty Edwards, Ch. 8, p. 97.]

Creative Journaling (3) – Reading a Line

In a broad sense, what is drawing?  It is making a line or a mark, though it can be more than that.  A signature, really, a line, which each of us has learned to “draw” – and which, over the years has become unique and identifiable as particularly our own.  It has the characteristics of the hand which makes it.  It can even take on the feelings of the person at the time it was written.  Perhaps they were in hurry or a bit sleepy, or were sitting in car on a bumpy surface, or the paper was lumpy.  But we know that is our signature.  In fact, it is just a mark, a line, but it is a “telling mark.” (Ref: “Drawing on the Artist Within,” by Betty Edwards, Ch. 6, pp. 56+). 

Recently in the journaling class, we composed a fictional first and last name (with closed eyes, using a pin and the telephone book ).  Then we asked everyone present to write the name, as though it was their own, on a piece of paper.  We then laid all the “signatures” out on the table and had an interesting time looking at all these signature-lines, making up a “story” about person it represented.  What kind of “person” was this?  What were they feeling?  What can we tell about them?  In effect, we were learning to see a line and to “read” it. You can try it also.

Activity:  And then for homework, we all shared another line activity.  (Ref. ibid., Ch. 7, adapted from p. 65-67, “Drawing Out Insight”)  Fold a sheet of paper in half (lengthwise), then fold it in half again, and then fold it in half again.  Then open it up. You should have 8 little spaces.  Number each section at the bottom 1-8, and label each panel with a descriptor:  1. Anger.  2. Joy.  3. Tranquility.  4. Depression.  5. Power.  6. Femininity.  7. Illness.  8. _________.  The #8 is the choice of the individual (I chose “Hunger), or any human trait.  Using a pencil (not a pen), in each section, one at a time, make a drawing that to you represents what the word at the bottom stands for.  One exception: “You must not draw any pictures whatsoever or use any symbols at all.  No raindrops, no shooting stars, no hearts and flowers, no question marks, no lightening bolts, no rainbows, no clenched fists.  Use only the language of line: fast lines, slow lines, light, dark, smooth, rough, broken, or flowing.”  Let “expression” be in the line(s) alone. 

The next week, we again laid them all out on the table.  There was lively discussion, as you may guess, as everyone tried to “read the line.”  And the discussion turned to the difficulty of finding out how to make an expressive line without using language or cartoon-like patterns.  It was an investigation of a totally new concept:  how to make feelings visible.  In fact, several people submitted more that one page of panels, as they struggled to achieve what they considered to be the proper expressiveness (to themselves).  We’ve re-done the assignment three times, using different human traits, always gaining more insight into drawing lines expressively. And we agree it works best if we can try to feel or imagine the condition inside ourselves, and then proceed to make the line-marks.  Try it.  See what you think.

“Thus, every line is a statement, a form of communication between the individual who made the line and the individual who views it.  A drawing is a far more complex mode of expression, revealing of a wide realm beyond conscious awareness.  We can “read” a line.  Can we  “read” a drawing?  If so, perhaps we can take a step in the direction of gaining access to that part of the mind which knows…more than it knows it knows – the same part of the brain that asks the beautiful question, ponders the unsolved problem, takes the initial step in the creative process: First Insight.” [Ibid., p. 65]

.Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish an fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight… the idea, however minuscule, is what turns the verb into a noun – paint into a painting, sculpt into sculpture, write into writing, steps into a dance.  I call it scratching.”  [Ref: The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It For Life, Twyla Tharp, p. 94-5.]

·        Do a verb or an adjective in the activity.  Try something new.

·        “Those who wonder are not necessarily lost.”  [Kobi Yamada]

·        “Oh, for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts!” [John Keats]

·        “Look closely.  The beautiful may be small.” [Emmanuel Kant]

Creative Journaling (2) See & Not-See

To see and not to see (to borrow from Hamlet), that is the issue for today, so much contained in so small an expression. 

To See:  involves perception by the physical eye, to look, to view, as well as multiple levels of knowing, understanding, insight, experiencing, to discovery, to visualize or imagine mental pictures, to become aware, to recognize, to examine or watch, to care for someone or something, to meet or visit, to grasp a new concept, to inquire, to focus attention, just to mention a few common meanings. 

And then there is Not-To-See:  implies blindness, dimness, something hidden or ignored, visionless, distorted, askew, blinkered, ghostly, blurred perhaps, indistinct, invisible, concealed, mysterious, covert, undefined, veiled. 

So you may well ask why this can be of interest.  We take a walk, and we see things or think about new ideas and these can spark insights and enjoyment.  So what is the advantage of taking a walk and not seeing the beauty of the world around us?  What is the asset in that?

Consider the case of the dominant eye.  In a normal situation, we can assume that we have two eyes capable of normal vision, and that they are arranged somewhat apart on the face.  And when an object is placed in front of these eyes, each eye will send a separate image to the brain, and the brain will resolve the two images into one (a stereo-optical, dimensional image).  You can see this for yourself if you conduct a simple experiment:  Make a circle with your thumb and first finger. With both eyes open look at an object on the wall or in the distance, and centre it inside the circle of your fingers. Next, close one eye, and then the other.  Notice that with one of your eyes, the object jumps outside the circle. If the object seemed to move when you closed your left eye, then you have left eye dominance. If the object moved more when your right eye was closed, then your right eye is the dominant one.

How is this useful or interesting?  Certainly, the part of the brain controlling the image perception is using much of the information from the dominant eye, and that is extremely useful in a practical way.  However, even more interesting might be the non-dominant image, of the space revealed when the eye “jumped” to the new position.  Often new insights can be obtained by considering the surrounding areas, the “context,” so to speak, of the main subject.  It can highlight relationships which were not before apparent.  It can reveal new shapes and patterns between two apparently different or unrelated things.  We need to be careful that in focusing too tightly, we don’t also lose the opportunity for creative insight.  Often, the most interesting insights emerge in that cross-over area where two different things rub together.  That is where the spark occurs, where the flash and excitement can be found.  Where the seeing and not-seeing come together.  Where creative insights live.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        Stop every little while and notice what’s all around. [CR]

·        Be sensitive to the rhythms of the unseen as well as the seen, and wonder abut their meanings. [CR]

·        Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Creative Journaling (1) The Creative Process

(Note to my readers:  I want to apologize for not being able to get to these postings up in a more timely fashion, but I hope that you will find the wait to be worth it.)

To begin at the beginning, I’ve been a teacher for many, many years, and there has been a constant little niggling problem in the back of my mind.  That is, how to stimulate the creative powers in an individual, in students, and myself included?  And supposing that if I could do that, how can I find a way to teach it to others?  Clearly, it has something to do with our brains.  Are some just more insightful, more talented than others?  I don’t think so.  I think that everyone has potential, has undeveloped awareness of talents and abilities.  So how can these creative resources be tapped and released?

Recently I ran into a book, printed in 1987, which starts out by raising these same questions.  How could I have missed it so long?  I must have been blind, or it just wasn’t the moment of readiness.  But now I want to share the reference for this treasure which I’ve been using in my classes.  I will be referring to it from time to time in the up-coming creative journaling series of posts: “Drawing on the Artist Within,” by Betty Edwards, (ISBN 0-671-63514-X pbk).  If at all possible, please try to locate a copy. I’ll be citing from it from time to time.

I readily admit that my background is in the arts and literature.  I am not a scientist, and as such I know that it is a gross over-simplification just to blithely assume that the brain has two parts, left and right, and that each side is in charge of different human thinking processes.  In fact, we are woefully ignorant about the brain and how it works, and brain research is in its infancy.  But we have to start this dialogue somewhere, in order to think about it at all, so here goes. 

A diagram summarizes some of the Right and Left Brain modes (p. 12).

Left –Mode                  Right-Mode

Verbal                          Nonverbal

Syntactical                    Perceptual

Linear                           Global

Sequential                     Simultaneous

Analytic                        Synthetic

Logical                         Intuitive

Symbolic                      Concrete

Temporal                      Non-temporal

Digital                           Spatial

In Chapter 1 (pp. 2-9) of the text, there is an excellent summary of the historical context concerning research into the creative process, divided into five stages, as follows:

R    First Insight:      A sudden awareness (What? What if?)

L    Saturation:        Obtaining information (Need data…)

R    Incubation:        Thinking about it (How could it be?)

R    “Aha!”:             Sudden insight  (Eureka! That’s it!)

L    Verification:      Checking  (Does it really work?)

So if there are two sides to the brain, which side is doing the heavy lifting?  And the answer is (taa-daa) both are, but in different stages of the process (above, R= Right Brain Mode, L= Left Brain Mode). 

So now we have a problem.  Much of our educational system is geared toward training the left brain: language, reading, counting, formulas, data, facts, dates, etc.  However the right brain likes music, colors, dancing, drawing, art, patterns, etc.  And though I hate to admit it, if we spend all our time just writing in our journals, the result is that they are going to become products of the left brain.  That, unhappily, leaves out a great deal of creative input. So how do we begin to have more creative input into our simple habit of journaling? 

Well, it turns out that one good way is to wake up and stimulate the right brain for more of its input, and drawing is one way to do that.  It doesn’t matter if you think you can’t draw.  Just try these activities to get started.  Don’t be a critic.  Be brave.  Just jump in and do it.  And don’t throw them out.  Either draw them in your journal, or put them on paper and save them in a folder for later use.

Activities (p. 15):

~   Activity #1:  Draw your hand.

~   Activity #2:  Draw a person (live, magazine, yourself?)

~   Activity #3:  Draw an object

Some Words of Encouragement to Get Started:

v     Remember, this is not art.  It is to stimulate R-mode.

v     It’s good to try something new.

v     It’s common to lose awareness of time passing when working in the R-mode.  Just let it happen.

Creativity and a Short Update

This is a general status update so you will know why there has been a long pause in recent postings. Though I try to post on Cornerhouse twice a week, sometimes my schedule makes that difficult.  I want my readers, who I treasure for your faithfulness and loyalty, to know that our Creative Journaling class here has been invigorated and excited by an extended class dialogue about the process of creativity and how the creative process occurs.  Members have been experimenting with some new and exciting approaches to stimulate more creative journaling.  I will be sharing our progress in a series of postings here at Cornerhouse, just as soon as I can.

In the meantime, thank your for your patient and diligent readership.
Cornerhouse