Expressive Arts: Drawings
If your body is a map, what stories does it tell? How can movement and art inspire greater creativity & generate personal and collective transformation?
I believe in the power of art to help individuals and communities shape and narrate their own stories. As a credentialed art teacher, youth educator and graduate of the Tamalpa Institute, I incorporate expressive art activities to bridge the gap between our innate creativity and our daily lives.
Weaving together multiple art forms, we tap into art’s symbolic language to explore our life themes and generate new resources for healthy living. We use our personal life experiences to develop and shape our artistic content and drive the creative impulse, moving us towards personal transformation and societal change.
For 25 years, I have been providing opportunities for creative expression and resiliency in some of the hardest hit communities in the United States and abroad.
Principles of the Tamalpa Life/Art Process® include:
- When we engage in creative movement, dance, and the expressive arts, the ongoing themes and patterns from our lives are revealed
- When we enact positive visions through our art, we create images and models that can become guiding forces in our lives
- As we learn how to work with the principles of creativity and the practice of the arts, we are able to apply what we learn to all aspects of our lives
- There is a relationship and interplay between the physical body, emotions, and mental/imaginal realms
- Body sensations, postures, and gestures reflect our history, our culture, and our current ways of being
Drawing in Expressive Arts include:
- The imagery we create helps us reveal our inner landscape
- Through our drawings we explore and share our personal stories
- Content and emotional sensations guide the drawing process
- A conversation occurs between our drawing, journaling and movement
- Letting personal content guide their experience, participants with no visual art background are amazed with the power of their imagery.
Sample Drawing prompts include:
- What mask am I wearing?
- What is revealed when I remove the mask?
- What weight am I carrying?
- Who was I, who am I becoming?