Nov
21
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When I was teaching drawing back in California in the 80s and 90s I use to use a few techniques to help my students really ‘see’ their subject or the art clearly, without the unconscious assumptions they were using. One was to turn the art in progress upside down and have them look at it. Another was to have them hold a hand mirror and look at their work (or the subject) through it. Yet another was to have them put their work at the end of a long, long breezeway or hallway and look at it from as far away as possible.
the purpose of course was to help them see their work more clearly, to notice things they weren’t likely to see when standing at arms length or within the constrains of how they would normally look at it.
Translate that into your life. How do you look at things (or people). Do you see the person you think is ugly and find the good angle, the good light and see their beauty? Do you change your thinking about them and see their beauty? What about events? Can you change the way you look at the traffic jam? Maybe it gives you more time to listen to that good book on CD? What about a rainy day? Does it mess up your plans and depress you, or can you look at it another way and find a great new thing to do indoors (or even outdoors in the rain!)
Your perception is what makes reality, not the ‘real’ world. Change the perception and the world changes.
Thanks to my new friend Erin Christy for having this quote on her Facebook page!
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog
Quote by Dr. Wayne Dyer, 1940-not dead yet, American Author and Speaker
Nov
15
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A vintage napkin from 2002.
I love the sky, especially here in Oklahoma. When people ask me if I miss California I usually say the landscape is better there but the skyscape is much better here in Oklahoma.
It is easy to see the landscape; it is permanent for the most part, it will always be there, and so we feel like we can define ourselves in relationship to it. It is like a non-fiction story of history or science. We believe we are hearing a true story, something real.
But the sky is a different story. It is a novel. It is a poem. It is not telling us something we can rely on to be true because it disappears and may not come back. If it does it will be different. How can we rely on the sky? But isn’t it true, it is always changing yes, but it is always returning as well. It comes back and becomes something you knew before, the clouds aren’t exactly the same, but they remind. It is the reminder as in a novel, of your own life, your own history. It is a poem that gives hints, that gives bread crumbs reminding you of something else, a remembrance.
I love the sky. It feeds my eyes every day.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog.
Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, American Essayist, speaker and philosopher
May
12
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What we know about something can often get in the way of seeing
it. We see a figure in a drawing class and we know many things.
We know: nude, naked, skin, body, human, woman. All those have
definitions that come with you when you see that person standing
there. They are the filter through which you see her.
But they are also in the way of you seeing her. Do you see her body
language, embarrassment, humor, age, color, angle, happiness,
history, the space around her?
This doesn’t just apply to artmaking of course. How do you see your
child? Your co-worker? Your backyard? Your city? Do you let the
definitions that come easy and you know decide what you
see? How do you go about seeing with fresh eyes?
By forgetting the name of the thing one sees.
………………………………………………………………………………..
May
28
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So, as you look at this quote do you know what you think? 
I like this quote, by the way. I know in my life it is true. Knowing is most
interesting when you are taking action or teaching or creating. Thinking is most
interesting while doing those things plus most any other situation. But looking,
looking (or seeing) is collecting, it’s thinking, it’s knowing, it’s exploring, it’s
losing yourself in something and finding more about yourself as a result. I love
looking.
When I was teaching drawing back in California in the 80s and 90s I use to use a few techniques to help my students really ‘see’ their subject or the art clearly, without the unconscious assumptions they were using. One was to turn the art in progress upside down and have them look at it. Another was to have them hold a hand mirror and look at their work (or the subject) through it. Yet another was to have them put their work at the end of a long, long breezeway or hallway and look at it from as far away as possible.
