Sketching as Self Care

This whole art-as-a-full-body-experience adventure

This is the third in a thread about the full body experience that art making, that sketching, can be.

The first was about the physical act of sketching: https://thesketchbooksanctuary.substack.com/p/how-connecting-to-wildlife-through

In the second I talked about the emotional connection that art making, that sketching (and for me, sketching wildlife) is https://thesketchbooksanctuary.substack.com/p/the-emotional-act-of-sketching

I want to weave those thoughts together and think about how that physical and emotional act is also a self care act.

Well, perhaps just one aspect here today and more to come, because I will be honest, I could talk about this until the cows come home, as my grandfather would say.

Ok. One of the most important parts of this art = self care equation is, spoiler, you are an animal.

You are a delightful human animal, of course, but you are still an animal. 

Those complex and simple feelings and thoughts you have, your wild animal kin have them within the boundaries and expansiveness of their own form of intelligence too. In ways that we cannot even imagine (and yet feel that we have the right to over simplify or belittle). Because they are animal thoughts and feelings. They are animals, yes. You, my love, are an animal too. 

The biggest difference that I can see is that we have intentionally tried to forget that we are animals, and somehow think that all the wild non-human beings out there are other. They aren’t. And we aren’t other either. We are all made of the same star dust. We all live on this wild Earth. We all ultimately have to live within some sort of ecosystem (and us bullying our way through them is causing chaos for ALL animals as a result).

We may have opposable thumbs and the utterly wonderful ability to be able to draw our wild kin, but at the most basic level, we are the same. 

Let me just repeat that little off handed comment. 

We have the utterly wonderful ability to draw our wild kin. Let that sink in a moment. And then try to convince me that is not spectacularly magical!

Ok, but how is drawing wild beings self care? 

Well, because in general we have made them other, determined that they are outside and we are inside, there is a whole part of our beingness that is missing the things that we as humans evolved with. Our family, in the larger sense. Our genes remember how important the sound of bird song is - not just for joy, but for safety. Our genes remember what it was like to lay on the same ground other animals ran over, to share the food we foraged, to weather the weather together, to live in the seasons together, and more. 

So sketching them is a way to see them again. To bring them into ourselves by seeing them deeply, taking them in through our eyes and visual cortex, seeing the complexity of them, seeing ourselves in them, making an emotional connection to them, and then using those transmissions of light and form guide our hands to create honourings of them. 

Making art that honours the wild is an act of reverence and reciprocity. An act of care. Care for them, and for us. It is an act of self care, an act of remembrance, and a way to reconnect our wild heart with the wild world.

And it is so, so important to find ways to do that.

So, my curious creative, will you pick up a pencil and draw with me?

Not sure where to start?

How about one of the free sketch lessons here - say the Robin! I will walk you through the process from start to finish. It will be wonderful.

You deserve it, after all, you wonderfully wild-hearted being.

Want a free guide for how to grow your art practice and get on the waitlist for my wildlife sketching community, Hedgerow? Grab it here!