Category: events

Deborah Koff-Chapin’s Touch Drawing at Seeds of Compassion

By Deborah Koff-Chapin used with permissionOn Tuesday, while I was doing small scale graphic recording of the Interfaith Panel at Seeds of Compassion (and deeply enjoying the humor and humanity between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu!), I had the good fortune to be sitting right behind Deborah Koff-Chapin. Deborah does Touch Drawing and on Tuesday, she was using it to evoke what she was experiencing during the panel. Page after page of her work appeared, like magic. All the press photographers (we were sitting in the press section) kept coming over, taking pictures and asking her about her work. I have been reading about Deborah’s work, so it was a great chance to watch her in action.

She has allowed me to share a set of photos of the work she did that day on my Flickr site. I encourage you to check them out –> Deborah Koff-Chapin’s Touch Drawing at Seeds of Compassion – a set on Flickr.

Deborah wrote about the experience:

By Deborah Koff-Chapin used with permission

It was an honor to do Interpretive Touch Drawing at Seeds of Compassion. Touch Drawing is a simple yet profound process. Images are created through the touch of fingertips on paper. The process allows for direct expression of the soul, and can be used for deep therapeutic and spiritual purposes.

In the conference setting, I use Touch Drawing to visually portray the content and energetic qualities of the lectures and musical performances. Through the immediacy of the process, I can create 7- 8 drawings per hour. These drawing were created during the Tuesday event; ‘Inspiring Compassion
in Our Youth; Youth and Spiritual Connection Dialogue’. If you attended the day or are watching it online, you can use these images to enhance the feeling-tone of the presentations. Think of them as notes from the soul.

All these images will be posted soon on the CONFERENCE ART page at www.touchdrawing.com. Go there if you would like to order a signed, archival fine art print. Contact center@touchdrawing.com if you are interested in purchasing an original or receiving permission to reproduce an image. Drawings can be enhanced with color. A percentage of any income generated by these images will be donated to support the ongoing work of Seeds of Compassion.

As I reflect back on the day, we had Steven and Patti’s large scale 4×8 foot charts on paper, my 8×11 inch sketch book images and Deborah’s Touch Drawings. All four of use were capturing at many levels – at the literal capture of ideas through words and images, of the sense and spirit of the gathering and, of what was triggered within us as participants in the gathering. It was heart, mind and soul. I am preparing some collage images for each of the other graphic recorders for a subsequent post. I want to reflect on our process as a group of graphic recorders (and impromptu singing group. “The Magic Markers”) and capture some learnings going forward for visual harvesting of F2F events.

All images © 2008 Deborah Koff-Chapin.

Flickr: The Seeds of Compassion Pool

Steven Wright's capture of the Qwest Field Seeds of Compassion EventToday I head over to do graphic recording in the Compassionate Listening Room at Seeds of Compassion. I have been cruising flickr to encourage people to put their events into the The Seeds of Compassion Pool. I have uploaded the graphic recording team’s work from Friday and Saturday there (limited access for the recorders at Qwest field, but they did small drawings on paper) on my Flickr stream. Just to be clear, the images are the amazing work of Keith McCandless, Patti Dobrowolski, Steven Wright and Timothy Corey. (The one to the right is from Steven Wright.)

If you are not in town, there is streaming video of many of the events on the Seeds website.

Seeds of Compassion Begins in Seattle

Seeds of ChangeI awoke before dawn to many birds singing, then a beautiful sunrise. An auspicious start for Seeds of Compassion , a 5-Day Gathering in Seattle with his Holiness, the Dalai Lama and a huge community of people who care about the role of compassion in the lives of children. This morning I attended the session on the Science of Compassion, and am currently listening to the live stream of this afternoon’s second science day. Archived materials are being translated into 24 languages. That is a mind-blowing, bridge-building commitment. (The image to the right is a close up of Tim Corey’s work)

Experiencing the Dalai Lama
You hear about this remarkable human being — of his warmth, humility and compassion. Even from high in the stadium stands, I felt this. Such humor too… his twinkle twinkled across the stadium. He spoke without pretension, took his time and radiated calm. While I was intellectually engaged with the offering of the panelists (and they came across very compassionate themselves), I found myself just experiencing his Holiness. Sometimes I could not understand with the amplification and echoes, but that didn’t seem to matter. It mattered that I was able to just be there.

Graphic Facilitation at the Seeds of Compassion
I’m also a Seeds volunteer over the next 5 days, helping with the graphic recording of many of the events and welcoming people to put their mark on paper in the Conversation Cafe room where people can debrief and talk with each other about their experiences over the 5 days. Today Patti Dobrowolski and Timothy Corey recorded. You can see photos here. Our full team also includes Keith McCandless, and Steven Wright. I am thrilled to be able to watch and learn from them, as well as provide a contribution to the event WITH them.

Today after the morning event ended, I hung out while Tim and Patti completed their charts. It was wonderful to see people look at them, remark at how it helps them remember what they heard, and their amazement that “they drew this DURING the presentation!” For me as a newbie practitioner of this art, it was immensely useful to see their two different styles and watch their final additions.

I’m looking forward to five days of learning, community and compassion. It seems a fitting entry point to my 50th birthday on April 15th.

Almada, Portugal in June with KM4Dev

KM4Dev Almada Page Screen ShotOne of my favorite communities, Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev as we call it), will have it’s annual F2F in Almada, Portugal, just across the Tagus river from Lisbon. Yes, I lobbied for Portugal because some of my dear friends are there, giving me multiple reasons to hop on a plane. The gathering in June will be in Open Space, so anyone can bring their knowledge to share, questions to pose and you can be sure, there WILL be partying. I have to start getting in Party-Shape to keep up with these friends and colleagues!

Who can come? Anyone who decides to join the community via our site or DGroups email list and shares a passion for the application of knowledge and learning in international development. So that might be YOU!

It looks like I may be in Lisbon the few days earlier to give a talk at an Elearning Conf. More on that later!