Spring Family Drawing

We started doing "family drawings" three years ago. The idea for them started when I was drawing on art cards that Emilio started drawing on with me. There was something about the process of collaborating with Emilio's untrained, organic marks with my somewhat tighter, design-y style that worked for me. It was a revelatory moment. I suddenly felt that anything I drew that had Mio's mark on it was better, more interesting. The contrast between our styles fascinated me. It was also an experience in letting go of ego. Every mark he made that I didn't like, I had to either accept for its own truth & beauty, or find a way to make it more interesting by connecting to it, or by highlighting it. The only rule is you are not allowed to draw on top of what someone else drew with out permission. These little cards soon led to bigger work. And then Lucas started joining us. We would put a large sheet of paper on the dining room table, and each of us sitting in our normal place for meals, we would each draw in one section, working sometimes for a few hours (some of us would take breaks and then return.) Family Drawings have now become one of our trademarks, and I have done this process with my students, other family members or guests who come over for dinner.

The drawing above was done on Easter Sunday. Its resemblance to Easter-y type themes is purely coincidental, or rather, unconsciously synchronistic. It's my favorite one to date.

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Zoë Dearborn

Zoë Dearborn is here to inspire humans to fulfill our deepest potential and highest purpose through her philosophy that combines spirituality, psychology, the arts & education, using her original songs, classes, essays, videos, dance, events, poems, talks & stories. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology & Expressive Arts Therapy from California Institute of Integral Studies and a BA in Studio Art and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. She spent her first thirty years in Brooklyn, and now lives off the grid, in the desert, with her husband and seven year old son in Southern Baja, Mexico.

http://www.zoedearborn.net/
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Learning to make art is about tuning ourselves to the divine