Diigo Blog shares China Earthquake ~ A picture is worth a thousand words pointing us to some amazing photographs from China Review News
Category: visual thinking
Doug Symington Mashes Us Up
Doug uses A N I M O T O to mash up photos and music to document a panel Chris Lott organized at Northern Voice 2008 on “The blog is dead, long live the blog!” It was fun graphically recording a geeky session. Now it is fun to see Doug’s take on it, months later! Woo hoo!
What would a Full Circle logo look like?
Like a magpie, I love shiny things. I love beautiful things. Today, I am still in immense gratitude for a gift of photographic art from Chrys Florkowski. But as many of you have noticed over the years, I never really have had a logo or look for my little company, Full Circle Associates.
About a month ago something took me to the art/craft community of Etsy.com and I started to think, hey, maybe someone here can help me with a business card. (I have been making ugly ones myself for years!) I browsed and found two designers and signed up – an identity package from Nicole Byrkit and a business card design from Michelle Brusegaard. Today I asked Nicole if I could share her designs with you, and she said yes. (I have not asked Michelle yet.)
So here they are, four ideas. I’d love your feedback. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Colors and final details are all still up for grabs.
Deborah Koff-Chapin’s Touch Drawing at Seeds of Compassion
On 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:
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.
Arts at Nexus For Change 2
Last week at Nexus for Change 2 we had an evening of the arts for change. We had Playback Theatre from our full arts team (who recruited me – that was fun! You can see some video clips here, here and here), juggling from the amazing Tom Sparough and song from Timothy C. Van Ness and we even drew together. Taking an idea from Johnnie Moore, we did a pairs drawing exercise, continuing on my inquiry into visual expression as a mode of interaction and learning together. Here is a short video of one pair drawing together.
YouTube – Drawing Together Exercise
Here are some of the beautiful faces they drew together:
You can see the pictures more clearly in the Nexus set on Flickr.
And some stills from Playback Theatre
Peter Block made an observation on Tuesday that really hit home for me. He said something to the effect that we resist change done unto us, but we embrace change that helps us stay who we are. Somewhat paradoxically, it is in the preservation of self that we embrace change.
So does change always have to be serious and gut wrenching? Or can we play, singe and draw our way through transformation? I think we can. And perhaps we MUST!
For more on Nexus, see our wiki.
More videos here.