Before/After Massage Drawings from Mon 2/19 Class

 

BOTH IMAGES ARE BIRD'S EYE VIEWS

At first glance, these (my drawings) may look disturbing, or like the drawings of a disturbed mind. We did these in class on Monday 2/19, the one on the left being before giving and receiving blindfolded massages, and the second one after both giving and receiving said massages.

I was given a half-size piece of paper folded in half again to do each drawing, as well as a black pen. I chose to do both as blind gesture drawings. If you are unfamiliar with the concept:

"Popularized by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his 1941 book The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study, the blind contour method involves carefully observing the outline and shapes of a subject while slowly drawing its contours in a continuous line without looking at the paper."

Before (left image): I was in a lot of pain after falling on concrete the night before. The pain was concentrated in two areas of my left hip (piriformis muscles and ischial tuberosity). I was laying on the floor on my back, with both knees bent. The two darker circles were the areas of pain, then the legs and torso indicated by the rectangular area up to the oval head, flexed to the right as both arms were in the air, one holding the pen, the other holding the paper as I drew. My eyes were closed throughout. Although I was in pain, my breath was flowing smoothly and freely as symbolized by the three waves on the top of the page. 

After (right image): I was standing with my right hip on the corner of the massage table, right foot taking most of my weight on the floor as I did this drawing. My feet are the two oval/rectangular marks under the cross-page wiggle. Up my legs to my torso which is quite open and full, my arms freely moving from my body. All the jagged scratches reflect the intense, nearly painful burning of an ointment with certain essential oils that was spread across my entire back, hips, and left posterior leg area. It was as intense as standing in mid-day sun on a brutally hot equatorial day. My head is the oval on the bottom right, hanging down as I drew with closed eyes. Wanting to be more clear as to how my body felt, I added the wave across the top to indicate flowing breath and calmness (my tremor makes it not so smooth but you get the drift), yet the heat of the ointment was incredibly powerful so I added the lines above as fire. In other words, I felt good other than the distracting, prickly feel of the ointment. 

Comments

  1. GregoryFebruary 20, 2024 at 1:50 AM

    As I was reading your narrative, I was thinking about what do we (I) convey to others based on our (my) mental frame of mind. What we say and how we say it, along with what is not said and our body language.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GregoryFebruary 20, 2024 at 2:18 AM

    My mind went to an article I had read years ago and reflected on this part of the article. The article mentioned a White male student watching a film in which the psychologist used examples of "Black children drawings to illustrate the potentially damaging effect of negative cultural messages on a Black child developing self-esteem, David, another White student wrote, "I found it interesting the way Black children drew themselves without any arms. The psychologist said this saying that the child feels unable to control his environment." (My reflection after seeing your drawings and reading your narrative.)

    ReplyDelete

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