Post-it Note Challenge & Presence
For the month of October, I participated in a 30 day Post-it Note Drawing Challenge. It was hosted by Mary-Helen Daly, an artist, art therapist (and more) living in Australia. You can read more about her and what she does through the link at the end of this story.
For the challenge, Mary provided a drawing prompt calendar. The prompts consisted of lines, squiggles, dots, and shapes. The fun part was using my imagination to transform the prompts into a short story or into whatever came to mind. On some days, instead of a post-it note, I used 3x3 pieces of watercolor paper.
When it first started, I said I was more of a doodler than someone who draws. I surprised myself with some of the stuff I came up with.
30 Days of Drawing Prompts
30 Days of Drawing
Things I Experienced
Some days were challenging.
I wasn’t always able to come up with an idea right away. Some days I’d go through lots of post-it notes before I made something I wanted to share.
There were also days where I wasn’t able to focus because I allowed myself to get sucked into the psychological and political warfare on social media.
One day I drew something that came up from a conversation with my mom. She told me about 5 year old Stacey, who got her hand paddled by her kindergarten teacher, Ms. Pike. The post-it note from Day 22 holds a special, healing story of going to school being the only black kid in my kindergarten class, growing up left-handed in the 70’s, and how those things played a part in the suppression of my gifts until later in life. You can read about it in the link at the end of this story.
Most days were helpful.
It was therapeutic. I don’t have a therapist at the moment, so this was right on time.
Letting my creativity run free, unlocked something within me. I’m not saying I’ll do anything with it, but it felt so expansive, open, inviting, and comfortable to make up whatever I wanted, whether it was real or not.
It was such a small surface to be creative on, but I’m open to bigger canvases and unlimited mediums to work with.
The experience gave me a little more confidence to do something other than abstract painting.
I’m taking several classes at my new favorite art supply store. The link is below. :-)
Since it was in a group setting, it was also therapeutic to see everyone else’s creations. :-)
Why something like this might be helpful to you.
You’re feeling burnt out.
A change of pace would be nice.
You’ve been wanting to try something new.
You can do it with your kids.
You don’t have a therapist.
A break from the news or social media.
A reason I didn’t mention.
Suggestions ~ Quotes ~ Links ~ Books ~ Ideas ~ Stories ~ Support
for Mindfulness or Presence
Learn more about the type of Art Therapy Mary Helen does and more about the post-it note drawing challenge here.
Photography for Mindfulness activity. Daily prompts to go out in nature and take pictures with your cell phone or camera here.
Read about Day 22 of the Post-it Note Challenge here. (story about healing a childhood wound…coming soon!)
There are lots of classes at my new favorite art supply store, Wet Paint.
I’m taking a few taught by local artist Tara Tieso. One is a book club for artists and we’re reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being - by Rick Rubin. The other is a 6 week course where she covers the book Write for Life - Creative Tools for Every Writer by Julia Cameron.
“There are parts of you that will rise and want to fight what is happening, and they are the parts that you sometimes think, “ahhh this is me regressing”, and we say “no, no, no”. This is you evolving and trying to figure out which bags of sand to throw out of the hot air balloon; because that hot air balloon is not going to keep rising if you keep the same weight in the basket.” - from Lee Harris Energy on YouTube - The Rising Tide of Consciousness.