Tuesday 24 April 2012

Left hand, right brain

I went to an Art Therapy class this week at the hospital and had a great time.  We worked with chalk pastels, (which are now on my list of things to add to my crafty supplies) which I hadn't really used a lot before so it was fun to experiment.

The rule was we had to use our left hand, as that clicks into the right side of our brains, the side related to colour and creativity.  It was actually really liberating as I felt a lot less judgemental about my (lack of) skills in the drawing department.  Instead of thinking 'eugh, that's not what I wanted it to look like' I was like 'wow, look what I can create with my left hand', simply because you (well, I at least) don't have such high expectations of my left hand in producing what my brain wants done.

We had to draw something we wanted to happen this week, whether it be something that will possibly happen or wishful thinking about what we would like to happen.  I have some poppy seeds to plant, tomorrow hopefully, and so I drew a picture of my poppies in flower.  Wouldn't it be nice if seeds sprouted overnight and you had flowers by the end of the week? Everyone would always have lovely colourful gardens.  I haven't planted poppies before and I am going to plant them in the garden bed down the side of our driveway so it should look super pretty when they are in bloom!  I've got no idea what poppy leaves look like so I decided they look like this.  Because that's what my left hand wanted to draw.




 Until they do bloom, I'll have my pretty picture to look at.  MR gave it the approval to hang it on the wall, I felt pretty proud of that, even if he is just humouring me a little, which he assured me he was not.
  

Linking up (when we get to Thursday)
 

10 comments:

Beautiful Day said...

That sounds like the perfect therapy! Plus, it gives you the chance to do some of the arty things you might be doing if you were at work.(Although saying that, work the last two days has been endless meetings!)

Hope you get the chance to do this again. :)

E. said...

Wow. I doubt even my right (dominate) hand could make something pretty like that. I hope you keep it up until the real poppies flower.

CurlyPops said...

THat's so beautiful. I can't imagine doing anything left handed!

Roz said...

Wow - that is a great picture with strong colour and graphic content. Good luck with the poppies!

Mezz said...

Thankyou for taking the time to pop over and say hello at my blog. more importantly, thankyou for your lovely blog and for sharing so much of your inspiring self with the world. im so glad that creativity is playing such an important role in your recovery. as a musician, ive always felt that the arts can have such a big impact, its nice to see this in action! Mezz

Kel said...

wonderful colourful poppies
may your garden grow well


http://cre8space.blogspot.com.au/

Christie describeHappy said...

What a fun thing to do and yes.. it would be amazing if seeds sprouted overnight!! Although, I have to admit that part of me really likes waiting to see what happens too.

amy said...

First, I love your drawing, it's cheerful and bright, and I'm not sure I could do that well with my left hand either (but perhaps I'll try). Is it always the left hand, or the non-dominant hand? Because my left-handed child seems mired in details when art-making and it's a challenge to loosen him up, although we've made progress. Would this activity work for him with his right hand, I wonder?

2paw said...

Your poppies are gorgeous, I love the tiny centres. The leaves look fine!! I am terrible at drawing, so to do it with your non-preferred hand must be very liberating indeed!!

Sally said...

Sensational. I adore your poppies.