JUNE GLOOM
“You are the sky - everything else is just the weather.”
Day 1 of June 2015 | chalk pastel on paper
June Gloom
a 30-day exercise in natural expression to connect with the beautiful transience of nature and our own human nature.
This is an exercise designed to access your creative nature on a daily basis. The process inherently activates mindfulness while accepting change. Doing so connects you with your flow state, which relaxes your brain and nerves, and at the end of the month you will have tangible progress to show for your efforts both artistically and psychologically.
Day 30 of June 2015
my experience with this project…
This practice started in June 2015 with the intention to ground myself before the busy day ahead and through observation, meditate on the impermanence of nature.
I set a goal to sketch the Pacific ocean and its sky every morning with chalk pastel for 30 days. Whatever the weather brought above and below the horizon line was my subject of study for the morning. There were some days when I felt completely unmotivated to do this project, but the discipline to complete this 30-day sequence allowed for no exceptions and no excuses.
Making time for this 20-minute exercise made moving through the day easier with a more natural sense of improvisation. Participating in the act of self-expression without judgement released energy that I would have carried around all day, studying the ocean made me feel more connected to the natural currents of life, and turning to a new page in my sketchbook each morning was a reminder that our circumstances, feelings, and thoughts can be totally different within a day’s time.
Since then, this practice has taught me to embrace change, fear, or discomfort with an authentic expression, and that natural reaction becomes a catalyst for growth.
30 observation drawings of the Pacific Ocean
June 1-30, 2015 | pastel on paper.
from Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach, California