Contour drawing is a style used by the artist who studies, with her eyes, the edges of the object. Never looking away to cheat by looking down at her paper. She slowly makes marks on the page as she truly follows the lines, the curves, the angles, and the details of the object.
Starting in the middle of the paper, I drew one flower from the center of the dried arrangement, then another and another. “Let your eyes go slowly around the outside lines. Don’t lift your pencil and don’t look down at your progress. Watch each flower deeply with the intention to truly see what is there not what you think should be there. Let go of your need to make sure it looks right or even looks recognizable.”
There is a trusting of the senses that is necessary for this kind of art. I trust what I see. I trust what I sense in the movements of my hand. I trust not to look down and that if I loose that trust momentarily, I actually start creating what isn’t there. I catch that tendency to not trust myself and start again.
The inner workings of my Soul are much the same. When I look away at something outside of myself for acceptance, reassurance, or the right answer, then I momentarily loose the trust I have in the movements of my Soul. The moment I stop noticing and watching, truly seeing the lines, the contour, the depth of who I am, I get lost in what isn’t there, what isn’t truly me. Sometimes I have to risk that what others see might not be recognizable to them. Ultimately, it is necessary to trust what I sense in me, my Soul, or I become unrecognizable to myself.
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