I’m all about looking at paintings differently. And I’d like to share this exercise with you to help you build curiosity and pique your imagination.
There is a video to guide you through this story and takes you through an immersive walk into the picture. You can play that along here:
Close your eyes and imagine yourself breathing in the Earth with your next inhale. Now, breathe out the sky on your next exhale. As you inhale again, take your hands and move them all the way up, to reach the skies like a butterfly. Open up your chest, stretch out your arms. And then breathe out and bring your hands down, into prayer.
- Look at the picture. Everyone notices something different. Is there anything that touches you?
- This painting is about a little red-haired girl named Catrina, who is struck by what she sees across the lake. She has a little black dog, called Sparky. What do you think Sparky notices? What does you think he hears? And what does he smell?
- What do you think the girl is looking at?
- What else do you see – do you see something in the sky? In the trees? The water? What would you like to see that you don’t see?
- And what do you imagine is behind the door of the tree that Catrina and Sparky are not looking at? How do you feel in your body as you look at it?
Notice how you feel now. Try writing “I am” statements lots of times with whatever words come out. After awhile, it’s about how you feel overall rather than just what you think. It is calming to repeat over and over the same thing or I am curious, I am angry, I am terrific, I am so confused, I am stupid, I am kind, and keep going until you’ve filled a page, or two, or three!
By the time you get to the third page, I find that you enter a whole other realm! It’s a liminal space in sensing what we’ve experienced. And that’s where the artist within you is born, and where it lives. A new kind of awareness.
Nancy Corrigan, M.A. Expressive Art Therapy
Artist/Art Mentor
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