‘Migration, Mindfulness and Drawing’ aims to investigate the benefits of drawing for the residents of Brighton who have been strongly impacted by their experience of migration. My first workshop took place in July 21 at at the Grand Parade Campus, with staff and students from the School of Arts and the School of Architecture.
We took part in a range of drawing activities, from still life to portraiture, blending the still life tradition with more imaginative elements of storytelling.
In one exercise I asked the participants to close their eyes and let me lead them on the imaginary journey, recalling the moment they left their home and came to the university, ending with the present moment of coming to the workshop. Participants traced their imaginary migrations on paper.
Many people felt happy about being given ‘freedom to draw’, as they wrote about the exercise on recalling leaving home;
” really nice to draw the journey with closed eyes’. ‘Loved the kind of ” meditation” with closed eyes’. ‘Would love to try it with paint.’ ‘Related to the journey/migration/map idea as its something I do but of smaller journeys – not years.”
Someone felt it ” was a challenge to not do a literal interpretation” as they ‘couldn’t visualise the thoughts as marks – particularly individual elements’.
Overall, people were surprised when they opened their eyes and saw their maps and portraits, which is a good starting point for any creative experiment.
