From a young age, I’ve been good at drawing. More specifically, I was good at copying what I saw before me onto a piece of paper. Any pictures I found pretty or interesting as a 10-year old girl (cartoon characters, horses) I would draw. I loved observing. I discovered that the longer I looked at something, the more I saw. My view would become intensely focused and I could see more clearly and in greater detail.

A different state of consciousness

Later on I started drawing the things around me. Objects in my room, my face in the mirror, my hands. If a drawing was working, I would get into what felt like a different state of consciousness. I’d be very concentrated, at one with my drawing, and at the same time totally free and light and happy. It was the most wonderful feeling.

For the longest time, I didn’t understand why or how this all worked. Then, while studying arts education, I learned that the intense, focused way of seeing I experienced when drawing, and the state of flow that comes with it, are associated with a spatial, associative mode of thinking. This particular functioning of the brain is naturally more developed in some, but hardly cultivated by society.

From doing to teaching

I also found out it can be taught! With specific exercises, anyone can begin to experience this special way of seeing, and learn how to transfer what they see onto paper. Even people who are convinced they’ll never be able to draw anything more than a stick figure. Of course this discovery was huge to me, and it got me very excited about teaching.