Art (or at least my visual) illustrates (my) life!
As I pondered the subject of today’s post, I was struck by several ideas simultaneously. I want to
- create a visual of what I am living/experiencing right now in my life
- use a new technique in Procreate to illustrate my vision
- share a shift in my thinking about living my life/our lives right now.
So, of course, this idea for creating the visual came to me last night, as I was reflecting on a conversation I’d had just the day before with a potential client about how/in what ways visuals can be used in the workplace. I had waxed on about the work of the group in the most recent Bikablo Basic one day training… We came together on Friday the 13th/the deadline for nonessential workplaces and gatherings to shut down in NYC. Each individual created a poster that they would be taking back to work. It was fantastic!
- Diversity—Inclusion—Belonging
- Curving Covid-19
- A process map illustrating Engagement to Delivery
The visual that sprang into my head was of my current family situation and how we are working with it every day. Here’s the rough sketch of my thinking…
In thinking through and envisioning this piece, I realized that for the two weeks that we have been together—Steve, Jaclyn (who lives in Brooklyn yet is here with us for the outbreak), Gus and me—I have been thinking tactically about our lives together: handling the details, responding in-the-moment, working to establish some normalcy and routines.
What occurred to me this morning—as I reflected on my vision and remembered how exhausted I was yesterday from the drama of living under these circumstances—was that I need to make the shift to strategic thinking. My crisis management skills and my daily plans for self-care, work, connection with family, friends, and colleagues, and my ability to put out fires‚ were really getting in the way of looking at the big picture and developing the vision of who I wanted to be and what I hope and want, for our family during this crisis.
I was excited to get up this morning and get to work… thinking that I could learn how to make stamp brushes on Procreate and incorporate them into my final design before the deadline for posting today… Alas, life intervened, as it has every day for two weeks, with further news of import and distress. So I have learned the new technique and will use it later when I have more time to really play with what I have learned and use it as I imagined. I also need to learn to draw Gus… I’ll post the final, digital version of my vision here before next week!
Now that I have a little distance and perspective on what I want to achieve, I have to chuckle. I do love it when the patterns of who I am—creativity, zest, curiosity, and energy show up and teach me the same lesson again… I always want to create—right up until my deadline!