Remedies: Drawing and Writing My Life
In August 2019, I took a class that changed my life. Lynda Barry’s daylong writing and drawing workshop Writing the Unthinkable opened me to the possibilities and benefits of the practice of daily drawing. Here are just three of those benefits:
Regular drawing improves my writing and idea generation by getting me to think and act visually.
This practice also gives me a new way to document my life and share it with others through “visual letters,” often accompanied by stories and poems.
Finally, my drawing practice helps me develop calm, focus, and balance. I find that drawing can be centering and meditative.
I kept up my practice into 2020, aided by Barry’s wonderful books Making Comics and Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor, and Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti.
Then, midway through 2020, I discovered the Friday Comics Workshops held by The Believer magazine and Black Mountain Institute. These free classes were invaluable for both the instruction and communal experience they provided. You can still view the archived 2020 classes. I’m looking forward to the 2021 sessions that hopefully will begin soon.
Full disclosure: I’ve yet to develop the discipline and rhythm to draw every day, but I’m working on it. It helps that I’ve realized that the days I do draw, I’m more focused, creative, and productive. More simply put, when I draw, I have better days.
Notes:
I can say I was taught by a MacArthur fellow.
The Near-Sighted Monkey (Lynda Barry’s blog).
Writing the Unthinkable 2019 playlist (on Spotify). Lynda teaches us to write to music. Here’s a playlist full of inspiration.
Who is the artist known as “Slowbreak?” In Lynda Barry’s workshop, you choose an alias for yourself. I chose Slowbreak, because all those years ago when I played pickup basketball, I was never accused of perpetrating a fast break.
Each week, typically on Sunday, I share one of my remedies. What are my remedies? The people, places, practices, and things that improve my life and help get me through the day.
I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
