often, our sessions are super chatty, with drawing as a side order. we have touched on wide-ranging topics over the last several months: a great deal of verbal government bashing, tales of travels and other life experiences, some light-weight frivolity, and occasionally some conversations go places from where katie and i rapidly steer us away.
this week was different. this week, we connected and worked alongside each other in a state of what catherine price would call ‘true fun’ (ted talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_price_3_elements_of_true_fun_and_how_to_have_more_of_it/comments ) there was barely any chat: instead, the satisfied quiet of 6 people being playful, connected and experiencing the immersive state of flow.
as it has been voiced lately that our drawers like to be given direction, we organised print-making this week. in the spirit of developing my own practice, and being no expert, it was an opportunity for me to be playful with a new medium. i also knew that katie has a soft spot for printing. we borrowed some kit, bought some ink and went for it.
of the 4 men attending, 2 had had a go at print-making before, and 2 had not. one decided to finish the charcoal drawing of the church that he started last week. but i watched him … he did finish the drawing, but curiosity got the better of him and soon he, too, found himself immersed in the printing process.
at the start of every workshop i facilitate, be it ‘knit the walls’, a session for art students, or a drop-in public one, the butterflies are active. for me, the primary desire is to provide a space for discovery: about the medium, about the topic, about the self, about the person next to you …. i have satisfied my own brief if you walk away feeling that something has shifted. this week, i felt that we moved into a new realm as a group – one where discovery and the thrill of unveiling a new image connected us anew.
early on in the planning of this project, we discussed taking the workshops to where the people are. we tried this at the church, and this garnered interest, but no new participants at our sessions.
since last i wrote, we have taken our selves and materials to the bitterne men’s shed – a thriving community of men, mostly older, who were very busy with their own carpentry activity. some showed tentative interest in coming along to one of our sessions another day, and we were also invited back for when they have their art shed up and running. a couple of men did some drawing – the usual story of last drawing when at school – and were pleased with the results.
last saturday, we held a workshop at october books, to accompany the exhibition of work that is currently on show there. it is just a mile or two from our usual stomping ground, and three of our regular drawers attended – as did 6 other men (one from the bitterne men’s shed) who were keen to find out about the project, and who have shown active interest in coming along to the next workshops. time will tell.
following feedback from the regulars (as they will now be known), i decided to run a more structured session – not timetabled to the minute (anyone who knows me will tell you that is not my style …), but instead, i did include the option of taking part in a directed activity – the results of which contributed to a group outcome. everyone who came along took up the offer, even though other, more freeform, options were available.
this project was partly conceived in response to the ‘one man, one bench’ phenomenon that i observed during lockdown and beyond, and it was interesting to me that as the men arrived and started their drawings, they sat at ‘one man, one table’. i quite blatantly rearranged the tables in a circle to encourage a more sociable atmosphere – as the afternoon progressed, conversation bubbled quite comfortably. i wonder how that would have been had i not moved the tables … we will never know.
