Sunday Mojo Mayhem! March 29, 2015

Next month, I am co-teaching a new class at Ciel Gallery called" Unleash Your Mojo" using Touch Drawing.  I've been asked, "what the heck is that?"  For all you curious creatives, here is a little sneak peek at the process and the results.  Get ready for mojo mayhem!

Wearing my favorite paint shirt and comfy clothes, I settled in to create in the studio of Diane Lowery (Touch Drawing facilitator, Art Docent and Massage Therapist).  The soothing sounds of native flutes and drumming helped me relax, let go of the chatter in my busy brain and opened up my energy flow.  A gentle guided meditation directed me through the touch drawing process. I used paper, paint, roller and board.  After I squeezed tube paint in a few juicy colors onto the board, I rolled it smooth. Placing paper on top of the paint, I used my hands as brushes, scrapers and smoothers, letting the music and my own thoughts and emotions influence the patterns.

I peeled the large paper off of the board, placed it beside me and repeated the process.  Different colors, different strokes.  Using knuckles, palms, nails.  Experimenting.  Some pages intentional, some random.  After 45 minutes or so, I had a stack of fifteen painted pages.  The guided meditation ended, and I picked up the pages to see what mojo had been unleashed.

Glorious, random abstracts!  At first...then, as I looked closer, shapes and images appeared out of the painted pages.  In the first page, above, I was thinking about eyes.  I recently developed some serious sun-sensitivity in my eyes, and have been pondering its significance.  This came out in the piece.  So I grabbed the page, mounted it on some board, and used it as the groovy grounds for a mixed media piece about eyes.

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This piece made me very happy.  Somehow furthering the concept and soothing my worries about my eyes in the process.  

But I wasn't finished yet.  Another one of the pages jumped out at me immediately as the shape of a large insect.  Now I am not usually a person who enjoys bugs, creepy crawlies and the world of microscopic communities (sorry, e.o. wilson.  I love your love of ants, but haven't been able to channel it).  And yet the image on this page was clearly an insect.  Which I didn't want to touch, which of course meant it was the one I should touch.  

It was uncomfortable and challenging to keep at it, but the more I worked with this lovely lady, the more I appreciated her beauty.  To me, it signified metamorphosis, which my inner and outer life and surroundings are undergoing this year in a major way.  

Hmmm, so walking in without any creative plan and giving myself over to the process, I came away with new insight, new pieces of art and a stack of the beginnings of many more pieces.  Created organically and under the best of circumstances and energy.  A mojo smorgasbord which left me feeling creatively "in the flow" and open to all kinds of ideas.

And so, when Diane asked if I wanted to spread the mojo, I said ABSOLUTELY!  Hope you will join us.  Sign up at www.cielcharlotte.com/workshops.

Questions?  I love them!  imajenation@gmail.com.