Elemental: Heart Constellations
Lenten art exercises for tired people
Note: This was originally written March 5, 2021. While death of a loved one may not be the bitter cup you’re drinking right now, there is plenty of other death to grieve at this moment. Take whatever loss you’re grieving right now, whether it’s a job, your health, relationships, faith in humanity, etc., and honor the places you have loved and been loved. If you’d like to read the other posts in this series, you can read them all here.
My friend, Fiona, likes to say, “Something magical happens to your brain when you draw.” We could all use a little magic right about now.
A full year into working from home. A full year without belly-to-belly hugs. A full year of readjusting expectations. A year of empty tables. This exercise was brought about while thinking about how simply disorienting this last year has been. The places and people that had been part of my metaphorical sky, helping me know where I was were removed. I know I’m not alone in feeling this and oh boy, it was important to acknowledge this helplessness during our play session. New names for feelings and experiences came as a result of connecting the dots. It felt like the right work to do during this wretched anniversary.
Elemental: Heart Constellations
Supplies needed: Found paint (any colorful water-based liquid at hand, such as the dregs of coffee, wine, or tea, beet juice, turmeric paste, etc.), mark-making tool, paper, and something to wipe your hands with.
Warmup
Dip your fingers into your paint and splatter it on your paper. See how many splatters, drips, and sprays you can make. Set this aside to dry—you’ll use it in the second exercise.
Exercise 1
With your fingers, fill a fresh piece of paper with dots and small shapes with your found paint. Try different rhythms, speeds, sizes. Hold the memory of people and places that were once orienting to you in your journey that you haven’t been able to access during the pandemic. Acknowledge the feeling of loss and focus on the cherishing the goodness that they brought to you. Once you’ve found a motion or shape that feels good fill the rest of the paper with that.
With your dried splatters, connect the dots with your mark-making tool. Trust the motion of your hand and freely connect wherever you’d like. You can fill in intersections if you’d like, connect clusters or connect the whole page. During this portion, meditate on what has helped you orient during this season. Have you discovered what rest looks like? Did you learn a new hobby that fills your soul? Have you reconnected with distant friends? What parts of this new map do you want to carry with you post-pandemic? What are you happy to keep just for this season?
If you’re feeling a little extra creative energy left over, you could consider naming your constellations. I made the above with a bit of ink and called it “Paused working to take a sun break.”