I launched a program called Shift Your Gaze in June 2022. It’s 4 consecutive weeks of drawing people, over Zoom.
How did this happen you ask? (Even if you didn’t, you’re asking now!)
There are a few puzzle pieces that snapped into place to make it happen.
- I like drawing people. I find it challenging.
- I’m actively working to grow community and connection.
- I miss figure drawing, a lot.
- I’m middle aged and pissed off about STILL wasting time + energy on body image issues.
I’m about to go into detail on each of these. Skip ahead if you want.
I Like Drawing People
In ye olde days of art school, figure drawing was my favourite class. With that kind of dedicated practice, I became quite good.
After art school, I would draw people on my subway commute. A bunch of humans stuck in a small space, unable to move? Perfect! My subjects held still.
I also went through a protracted love affair with fairies, drew them left, right, and centre.
I’m Actively Working to Grow Community and Connection
Like so many others during the pandemic, I spent A LOT more time online. This is where I sought, and continue to seek, my community.
The Kitchen Table
I started a peer group for creatives who needed support and accountability to work towards their business and personal goals. It evolved into the Kitchen Table, a quarterly event. (I accept participants at specific times of the year, so check this out if you’re curious.)
I4PL Community of Practice – Brave Leadership
I took a volunteer gig, at the Institute for Performance and Learning, to host a community of practice on the subject of Brave Leadership. I worked with Learning & Development professionals to explore what Brave Leadership means to them, what it looks like, and how they’ve experienced it in the past.
100 Paintings Project
I committed to a daily painting for 100 days. I explored and shared my emotions and realizations, and invited my viewers to share their own stories with me.
I Miss Figure Drawing
Life gets busy, you know? I drifted away from my creative practice. I haven’t drawn people for YEARS. DECADES. AGES. (slight exaggeration, but not too much) My 100 Paintings were abstract emotional expression. And prior to that, I gleefully spent my creative energy on marine invertebrates. They are truly glorious, and make our planet weird AF.
I’m Middle Aged and PISSED OFF About Still Wasting Time + Energy on Body Image Issues
I’ve always struggled with my body image, and the critical, judgy voice in my head. If you’re reading this, I imagine this may be true for you too. Even as a lithe 20something, who put effort into looking “good,” I struggled. A couple of decades have passed, I now refuse to wear jeans or heels, or anything that hurts my body, and I still struggle. I have spent lots of time and energy chipping away at this block of societal conditioning, and have made great progress.
Further! As a woman of colour, there is also the overwhelming portrayal of white people to contend with. No matter how thin or well dressed I might be, I will never be golden-haired, with eyes like the sky, and skin like cream. (I have a lot of strong, NSFW words for the fiction I read as a young person. And the magazine racks in the shops.) Whatever body confidence I might earn for myself, I will also have to struggle through the white ideal. I have righteous RAGE at still struggling with all of this in my 40s. I have Important. Things. To. Do. goddammit.
AND I know that gentle self-compassion is the only way to soften these knots in my mind and tug them apart. I mean heaps and heaps, whole oceans-full, vast mountain ranges of gentle self-compassion. This is a skill that requires dedicated and constant practice, given the world we live in.
And Then What Happened?
That was the bubbly stew of my mind when I decided, just to see, to host online figure drawing and invite a few friends. Without thinking too much about it, I ended up choosing subjects with a wide range of bodies, and exclusively people of colour. I wanted to use only images in the public domain, or licensed for reproduction. Within those constraints, I largely ended up with celebrities. That was fantastic for familiarity, and often for playlists!
Over several weeks of drawing, we all realized we were shifting how we thought of, and spoke about, bodies. Others and our own. We were challenging and retraining our own narratives. This is how Shift Your Gaze came to be.
I LOVE being kinder to myself.
I LOVE hearing others be kinder to themselves
LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
I want to share this experience with a broader audience. I want to share it with as many people as I can.
So I rebranded, made a whole webpage, planned some social media promoting, and here we are.
We’ll have 4 sessions in June 2022, over Zoom.
Each on a Wednesday evening, between 7-9pm EST.
The subjects:
- June 8 – Ella Fitzgerald
- June 15 – Janet Jackson
- June 22 – Lizzo
- June 29 – Bollywood Dancers (A)
If you’d like to know when Shift Your Gaze will be run again, join the waitlist.