Jane Talbot

Adventure 315 ~ Daily Sketching Practice [Day 5]

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daily sketching practice Day 5I had the fullest intention of going outside today, of connecting with an aspect nature and drawing it. But it just didn’t happen like that : it’s lashing down with rain, the wind is sneezing huge gusts in every direction, and my sketchbook is not up to those kind of conditions 😛 .

Instead, I sat on the sofa and waited for something to call my attention. I was scanning the room, expecting a call from the outside. As I was waiting for the sign, something came up inside me and it surprised me!

What asked to be sketched today was a business idea for next year. I’ve been developing this idea for a few weeks now and so I was curious to see what would come out.

I created a new colour key after I’d created the sketch :

1. Yellow = momentum
2. Purple = transition
3. Pink = creativity
4. Red/orange = passion, energy
5. Black = direction, cohesion, connection
6. Green = the past
7. Blue = synergy and collaboration

You can’t see the whole picture in the blog post image, but you can in the video. In summary, the image I created has plenty of positive associations : plenty of energy, direction and creativity. It shows transitioning, collaboration and connection – and whilst ot looks like the past is being left behind, you can see (in the central spiral) that the past is also integrated into the new business idea.

I wonder if there’s anything missing that should be present? I’m totally comfortable with, and even excited about, what is already present in the picture.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 314 ~ Daily Sketching Practice [Day 4]

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dog in the garden sketching diary day 4For today’s sketching adventure, I drew a picture of my dog as we were sitting in the garden together during my lunch-break. Again, I let my fingers do the drawing and also let them select the colours without too much thought.

My friend Stephanie, an art therapist, looked at the picture I created yesterday and offered some observations and some top tips for helping me to connect with what’s going on in my sketches. You can read her observations about yesterday’s sketch here (please scroll down – her comments are below the video).

She suggested creating a emotional colour key for every sketch. You do this by making your sketch, selecting 7 or 8 key emotions, and then allowing yourself to be drawn to a particular colour for each of the emotions. Now look at your sketch : what’s present and what’s missing, emotionally speaking?

I created a similar type of key for my sketch today. I made the sketch. I then took each colour I used and allowed an association to come up. Today’s colour key is as follows :

1. Red/orange = love, high energy, fast-moving energy
2. Yellow = hope
3. Black = solidity, connection, firmness, groundedness, very slow-moving and dense
4. Green = growth
5. Purple/pink = peace
6. Brown = wisdom
7. Blue = neutral, like a carrier oil, allowing movement

Unfortunately, you can’t see the whole picture in the blog image, but you can see it on today’s video. I explain my interpretation of my sketch in today’s video. The highlights are : it’s an image full of hope, peace, energy, growth and connection. I’m at peace and connected to my dog, to the earth and to myself. My feet reach down through, and into, hope, connection, growth and wisdom. My dog’s nose, ears and tail are all loaded with wisdom too, and he’s full of energy and hope 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 313 ~ Daily Sketching Practice [Day 3]

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sketching diary day 3For today’s sketch I focused solely on my inner world and painted “me”. The odd thing is that “me” is the small hole, the uncoloured  “empty” space, in the middle! It looks like I am hiding away – and even if you look for “me”, I’m invisible.

It’s certainly true that I feel a little empty and tired today, in need of some time and space to refuel and get some perspective. And as I consider what it might mean to be invisible, I’m not sure how I’m responding to that : it neither feels good or bad … more like … interesting. Hiding away might be a good way to recharge though.

To make this sketch, I connected with “me” and my feelings and then just let my hands do the work – they selected they colours and drew the shapes as I watched. I didn’t think about what I was sketching ; I just let the sketch happen. The sketching process helped me to connect with and explore my inner experience a little further. Without the sketching today, I may have either been unaware of how tired I actually was, or (more likely) ignored the signals to take a break.

So, I’m going to respect the signals and relax this afternoon.

One of my friends is an art therapist. I may send the sketch to her and ask her what she makes of it.* UPDATE * ~ you can read my friend’s interpretation of my sketch below today’s video.

Stephanie Johnson, art therapist, makes the following observations : ” First impressions, it’s a mandala of sorts and everything is spiralling out which suggests embryonic stages of something. It is focused and centred and there is a lot of movement and energy going on but maintaining the focal point at the centre. So there’s a “radiation” type movement which makes me think that it’s driven from the inside but has yet to take a specific direction, which is an exciting point so the energy feels quite positive and cheery. Also the colour palate is bright and energetic. The centre feels quite nurtured or protected from the swirling outside that doesn’t seem connected to it in the same way as the more solid colouring. ”

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 312 ~ Daily Sketching Practice [Day 2]

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sketching diary Jane TalbotToday I took my sketch book with me to the forest. I noticed what caused a “Look at that!” response in me as I walked my dog along the forest trails. At the end of my walk I sat down and sketched, placing in the foreground that which had drawn my attention :

1. The yellow-gold larch
2. The dark green ferns.
3. The other-worldly, emptying beech branches with their multi-coloured leaves and their mesmerising way of creating a kind of invitational depth (as you might be able to tell, it’s the beech branches that captivated me the most!)

Autumn yellow larch

November fernAutumn beechEverything else, I put into the background : a bokeh-blur of autumnal tartan.

As I sketched I noticed how relaxed, calm and open my environment was making me feel.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 311 ~ Start A Daily Sketching Practice

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sketching practice - day 1For today’s adventure, I have started a daily sketching practice which I will maintain for 7 days. Not in a million years did I think I’d ever hear the words “sketching practice” coming out of my own mouth!

At school I was informed of my distinct lack of artistic talent. I found art difficult. I just didn’t get it. We were taught  the technical stuff – how to create certain effects .. light, shade, perspective and so on. I was under the impression that it was something separate from me – an external act (drawing or painting) , capturing an external image (something I saw on the outside). It was something that by-passed me, the inside me. Creating art  was something that I decided not to be interested in. Art was something that held nothing for me.

Last night I interviewed my friend Erica Dornbusch as part of my Get Creative! webinar series. Erica is an award-winning Canadian artist. Erica should also win an award for her ability to describe the process of creating art in such a way that you begin not only to believe that there is something in it for everybody, but also that everyone has the potential to express themselves through art.

Instead of being an external process, Erica talks about moments and experiences which resonate with her, which create an inner experience that she pays attention to. Connecting to this inner experience, Erica then allows the inner experience to flow out onto the canvas. So, far from by-passing us, the artistic process runs directly through us.

Erica suggested developing a daily sketching practice . She also suggested reviewing the experience of daily sketching too. The game-changer for me though was understanding that I didn’t need to sketch or paint what I saw : I could sketch or paint what I felt, what I heard, what I experienced …. the essence of a moment.

Now I’m seeing creating art in the same way as I see haiku : it’s all about essence. I’m dedicating 10 minutes  day to my sketching practice. Today is day 1. I sat quietly and noticed what was drawing my attention (all puns intended!) : it was a pain in my back.

So I sketched out the pain and added in some colour. As I sketched, I noticed how I was feeling about the pain – I was very angry with it. And you can probably see that in  the sketch.

The insight that I am angry with my own body for feeling pain was really valuable. As I sketched, I soothed my pain. I cared for my pain … and the hot pain began to cool down!

I also noticed that I did not judge my “work” at all. I was far more tied up with the process of creating it : that seems to be where the real juice lies!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 310 ~ Learn How To Introduce Myself In Hindi

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Today is another squeeze-one-in day. I’m busy with work all day and running a webinar tonight. You might be saying to yourself “Well, take a break then. Have a day off from your adventures.” But it doesn’t work like that for me.

Even when my day is so full that I can hardly breath, it’s the adventure that gives me the gulp of air I need. Even when I don’t feel like doing an adventure (and there have been a few days like that over the past year, the kind of days where life has been a little tougher than I’d expected), I still do it. You know why? It’s because I’ve learned that I feel more alive, more present, more resourceful and more grounded as a result of leaping into an adventure – even if the adventure is only for a couple of minutes.

So for today’s adventure, I catching my breath in a Hindi language-learning adventure. On today’s video, you can hear me say “Hello! My name’s Jane. Pleased to meet you.”

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 309 ~ Write Some Postcard Fiction

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postcard fiction Jane TalbotFor today’s adventure, I tried my hand at postcard fiction : attempting to write a complete story that fits onto the back of a postcard. Sometimes short forms of fiction are also referred to as micro fiction or  flash fiction. The rules for short  forms of fiction vary, but I’m keeping it simple today and writing a short love story  that fits onto a postcard-sized image 🙂 .

It’s a true story, and one of the characters is in the image on the postcard 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 308 ~ Write A Cleave Poem

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cleave poem by Jane TalbotFor today’s adventure, I decided to try out a new form of poetry. I Googled “experimental poetry” and found several references to the term “cleave poetry”.

A cleave poem is 3 poems in one – and I’ve tried my hand at writing one today. The way to read the poem is :

1. Read the poem on the left (in black) first. Let it sink in.
2. Read the poem on the right (in purple) second. Let it sink in.
3. Read the two poems together, from left to right. Let it sink in.

It was fun to write – and quite challenging too. I think it would be a very therapeutic process for someone experiencing an inner conflict! It was really helpful to fully associate myself with both sides of “the story” before writing and not really think of the third poem. The third poem emerged quite naturally! (It’s the third poem that elicits the biggest emotional response in me. I’m going to stop and think about that for a while. I’m going to stop and sit in that poem for a while.)

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 307 ~ Develop A TV Show Format To Support The Big Renga Project

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The Big Renga Round-Up TV SeriesLots of preparation is going on behind the scenes to support the launch of The Big Renga Project on the 1st December. Renga is a cross between jazz , chess and a murder mystery (where you’re constantly changing your mind about “who-dunnit”) . At the moment the poets are getting their heads around all the rules so that when it comes to the time to “play”, everyone can relax and have fun.

You could say that The Big Renga Project is quite an esoteric undertaking, something that you might only enjoy, or understand, if you were involved in the project and had immersed yourself in the spirit of this collaborative form of poetry.

Realising that the art of renga has a huge amount to teach us both in terms of an outlook on life and in terms of the way we collaborate and express ourselves, it occurred to me that inviting people to share our experiences might be something really worthwhile.

And that’s when I hit upon the idea of running a daily TV show throughout the project 🙂 . Think about those football programmes with post-match reviews; or about the television programmes covering the Olympics where, after each event, a panel of experts analyses the performances of the day – and some of the competitors actually come on the show too. That’s the approach I’m aiming to deliver on the TV show.

The programme will be fun (and probably more than a little tongue-in-cheek)! It’s going to teach the viewers about the form and get them in involved in the process too. It’s also going to help the community of poets get tactical as they develop a deeper understanding of the form.

To support the TV programme, I had a go at creating a title sequence for it : it’s the first time I’ve managed to make something with a dynamic video loop. You can watch the title sequence here :

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 306 ~ Enter A Poetry Competition

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365 Days Of Adventure For today’s adventure, I’ve entered my very first poetry competition!

I’ve selected 10 of my haiku for a haiku calendar competition. Entries are open to anyone , anywhere in the world, and a haiku will be selected for each calendar month.

Because my haiku adventure tracked the transition from Summer into Autumn, my entries are limited to the months of August, September and October.

This has been an exciting adventure – and an interesting one. I feel no sense of exposure or risk. I’m not worried about what the expert panel thinks of my haiku. Winning something isn’t even on my radar. Instead, I feel thrilled that an expert panel is actually going to read my collection of haiku! And, I feel a sense of connection to the haiku community too.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT