Working with children as a private drawing teacher I have seen how the medium is as fundamental to living as breathing. It sounds dramatic but bear with my analogy: Breathing is the only thing that connects our inside experience (our lungs) with our outside experience (the air we breathe and therefore our environment). Likewise drawing/ mark-making is the connection between our thoughts and emotive expression and the outside world. I believe it is precious.
The page can be an environment, a place, a space that has boundaries (edges) where we can go and explore and express ourselves. I've seen how this teaches little ones the power of self-expression and also how to keep it within a safe arena.
I had quite an amazing week regarding The Page. My little 7 year old painter started to explore the quality of paper; thinner absorbent paper - to absorb watercolour, thicker textured paper to handle acrylic and canvases both unprimed and primed to hold the oil. We spoke about how it feels and why it is important to pause and feel the paper and make a decision and plan ahead. That is not to say don't try oil on tissue paper, but to know that it is a heavy medium on a soft page and there are consequences to your actions.
He started to explore the acrylic on the brush and make marks and decisions on how to use a little or a lot of paint and what to do when it runs out. How to dish it up and not waste but not be stingy either. To make decisions of what colours to choose and be bold and make the mark. I kept reminding him to go for it and play because he was safe on the page and it is a place to learn and see what happens when he makes those choices. The next page is another chance. I see all of these small choices as huge fundamental exercises in developing self.
A day later I went for a coffee with my dear friend who is just about to embark on her first independent trip abroad. She is leaving her family and going to study in Holland. She is 19 going on 20 and a young butterfly, soft and sweet, and the adults around her are doing their best to take care of her, warn her, advise her. We had a good giggle at some of the phrases that were coming out; "on your own terms girl" "you must sleep on couches around Europe" etc etc etc.
Trying hard to be cool and not one of those adults anxiously trying to guide her but, at the same time being one of those adults wanting to wrap her in cotton wool, I casually asked her if she likes to journal and doodle. I told her the story of when I was a young 19 year old woman in Holland as an au pair and how I bought Croxley hard cover books and I wrote, made collages and drew. I said that a couple of decades later they are great documents of a girl from Johannesburg the 1990s in Holland. I shared with her that besides all of that they can become a place to go, the page is a sanctuary where you can document, make sense of things when you are overwhelmed, pour out your grief, love and simply just express your energy in the form of mark making.
The page is a place where you can breathe and make choices and then years later look back at where you were at then and realise that things do in fact pass and change and you made it. How empowering is that?
Drawing is by it's very nature is process orientated. You start with a mark which becomes a line and develops into an image. Making drawings you are therefore processing.
Hi my name is Monique Pelser I am a South African artist producer, researcher, educator, creative recovery coach and Chi Gong practitioner.
I teach drawing as a skill as a wellness practice to children, as well as, adults.
On my blog I share the experiences and insights I have gained in my life and research process. The methods I use are breathing, drawing and writing, which support self-awareness, mindfulness, self-development as well as creative problem solving.
I am the co-founder of The Art Of Wellbeing, an organisation working with multi-disciplinary researchers focusing on well-being practices for individuals as well as the corporation.
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