Happy October friends. As summer makes way for autumn, we’re all transitioning too. Nature, as ever, leading the way with change. A time for cooling, reflecting and looking ahead to the what the winter months will bring.
This year, I’ve been preparing to welcome it with a bit more warmth (I’m a summer girl at heart and love the heat and sun.) So, I’ve been focusing my summer energy on what makes me light up from the inside out. Helping people to draw again. Especially those who hate being beginners and are convinced they can’t!
I invested in a fantastic course, The Copy Cure, by the incredible Marie Forleo and Laura Belgray, and was advised to throw out the question I most needed to ask. So I did. I threw it out far and wide: “When it comes to drawing and creativity, what’s your number 1 frustration?” What I got back made me realise how much I needed to reassess my approach.
Drawing: “I suck at it. I can only draw stick figures and a stupid house with a chimney on a hill and it looks like a 6 year old did it. I just don’t think I have what it takes to draw. I’ve tried before and I’m no good. And I don’t like doing things I’m not good at. Some people just have it and some people don’t…and I don’t. I would love to be able to draw things, anything, and I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to learn.”
Creativity: “It’s feast or famine. I’m either on fire creatively and feel great about it, or I feel like I can’t possibly create anything and I feel completely stuck. There is no middle ground and that is frustrating to me because I feel like I can’t sustain it this way. I’m either in a dry spell or I’m overflowing. I wish I could have a way to remain a creative person even when my personal life is falling apart. I wish my emotions didn’t affect my creativity so much.”
Sound like you?
That’s why this photo has me smiling a mile wide. I’ve started a group drawing class in Tokyo – meet the beautiful Afrika Rose Drawing Family 2016! Taken after our very first class together. We discussed how we felt about the blank page: “I’m excited and nervous!” “I used to draw when I was younger!” “It’s been a long, long time!” “I’m panicking!”
Writing this the day after Class 2. The photos below say it all. The one on the left from our class and the one on the right from a drawing workshop I recently did for FEW (For Empowering Women in Japan – full write up here.)
I get it. I also understand that big words like art and creativity really get in the way. It can be scary and intimidating when all the doubts come up and voices go off in your head. Simply looking at the blank page in front of you’s enough. This is why thinking about these words as labels, ones that can be ripped right off, can be comforting. This is why I focus on a start and see approach. This is why I call this brave work.
Showing up to meet the page. After years and years. And WHAT a gift to see what happens. A gift to you.
My immediate reflections last night came out like this:
We open doors. And… find more doors. Our work is showing up to the blank page and giving it all we’ve got. And then we open another and keep on walking.
Here’s to ditching expectation for exploration. Big love, Ever draws, DMK x
ps about the picture at the bottom…just back after a retreat in the mountains. Full write up coming soon!
Details on group drawing classes at Afrika Rose Tokyo here 2016 fully booked. Registration for 2017 open.
Hi, I’m Divya and I help people who believe they can’t draw (and hate doing things they might not be good at) but secretly want to. Best way to keep in touch with workshops, retreats and recent news is here on Instagram:
divyamariekato
