Importance of Drawing and Looking Closely

Childhood Drawing Experience

• Everyone has drawn as a child.
• Often guided by adults to simplify drawings into icons.
• Simplified icons: Circle for face, almonds for eyes, etc.
• Reality: These icons are visual shorthands, not true representations.

Brain Processing and Patterns

• Excessive information in today’s world.
• Brains fill in details with patterns and expectations.

Exercise: Rewiring the Brain

• Purpose: Rewire to see the world clearly.
• Exercise: Draw partners with two rules:
  1. Continuous line, never lift pencil.
  2. Never look at the paper.
• Outcome: Force attention on the partner's features.
• Effects: Encourages intimate, uninterrupted observation.

Significance of Drawing

• Drawing from life differs from photography.
• Drawing fosters authentic interactions and conversations.

Example: Public Library Story

• Initial intent: Story on how libraries aid elders.
• Discovery: Libraries as social service centers aiding homelessness.
• Insight: Looking for unexpected stories leads to richer truths.

Personal Anecdote: The Bootmaker

• Encounter: Met a bootmaker while on a drawing trip.
• Depth: Discovered personal stories and shared experiences through drawing.
• Connection: Changed perceptions, mutual understanding.

Impact of Pandemic

• Started DrawTogether during lockdown.
• Importance: Drawing helped kids and families cope with the crisis.
• Participation: Huge turnout, teaching drawing basics and emotional processing.

Benefits of Drawing

• Slows down perception.
• Aids kids in processing emotions, including trauma.
• Encourages abandoning perfectionism and self-judgment.

Final Thoughts

• Drawing isn’t mandatory, looking closely is.
• Real observation reveals depth and detail in the world.
• True observation fosters love and understanding.
• Encouragement to genuinely observe people and surroundings.