The August 2021 Contemplative Practice Webinar

Drawing on Compassion

with Judy Spark

Friday, August 13th, 3 – 4:30pm EDT (12 – 1:30pm PDT)
Registration closes an hour before the event

$25 / Free for ACMHE members (join here). $25 non-member access grants available (apply here).

Register Here

Is it possible to use the physical activity of drawing to help us consider the notion of self-care and the quality of compassion? If we want to extend compassion towards others in our lives, we must start with ourselves but this is not always the easiest of tasks. Drawing involves a synthesis between mind and body and it has the potential to be a fully sensory experience that allows us to witness and respond to the workings of our minds. This event will explore the practice of making marks and impressions upon surfaces firstly, as a way of becoming present to oneself and then of effecting the beginnings of a move from self-criticism to self-compassion.

Webinar Takeaways: 

• The act of making marks as a method can be understood as a way of tuning into the activity of one’s mind.
• The recognition that, like marks on the surface of paper, patterns of mind can be changed, erased, revised.
• That like the faults, folds, flaws on the paper surface, minds carry pre-existing evolutionary and experiential patterns that can impact responses and outcomes.
• That we can learn to work with these natural patterns in a kindly way.
• That the practice of drawing can be used as a means of self-soothing. 

Judy Spark is an artist and lecturer in Fine Art with the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, UK. Working between drawing, sound and the written word, her research is concerned with the ways that humans relate to the world and with the different sorts of value that can be ascribed to places and things. In recent years, part of her practice has been devoted to the development of a series of contemplative drawing workshops for community as well as academic environments. Judy also holds a role as a relief support worker with Blackwood Care in Glasgow, which provides integrated accommodation and care services for 15 disabled people. She is a passionate gardener.