Having understood that the mark is energy, we move on to conceiving and imagining the forms of reality. What is set down on paper is no longer a series of deciphered marks, but images relating to the outside world. Scribbling becomes a narrative of figures and forms charged with meaning. Figurative representation begins with an understanding of the deeper significance of allegories.
Discovering allegory
At a certain point, a child begins to draw forms and give them meaning. At first they are all circles: one is Dad, another is Mum, and another is the house. All circles. Gradually the forms become more specialised and distinct. This differentiation follows the child's overall development. Marks become more varied; the child's vision and ability to classify, connect things and imagine the future become more complex. Awareness and psychomotor functions expand, and growth takes place on many levels. These graphic creations help the child develop thought. Marks and allegories serve as supports for development.
Through graphic expression, as through every form of expression, consciousness takes shape as it evolves. That is why we need to dance, sing and draw in order to exist, just as we need bread and water to live. Perhaps this is why art fulfilled a sacred function for our ancestors.
Unfortunately, this powerful developmental support provided by forms and scribbles tends to come to an end during primary and middle school. Unlike speech and writing, this visual language is no longer guided towards further development. Its forms become increasingly inadequate and remain childish, unable to meet the young person's new and more complex needs. They therefore lose their function as a support and instrument for growth. At the same time, the harshness of judgement, instilled through rewards and punishments, increases. Free expression gradually diminishes and contracts, eventually becoming a source of shame rather than pride.
In this workshop we will rediscover the ability to communicate deeply with our imagination, our inner characters, and the inner landscapes and forms that we call allegories.
These figurative forms always relate to psycho-emotional energies that take shape in consciousness and are expressed through art (as well as through stories, fairy tales, myths and other forms of narration). They also fulfil a vital function: compensating for the imbalance between our inner life and the external world.
Artistic and Technical Objectives
To develop the ability to guide the hand freely through mental space and across the page, following associations. To understand the psychology of allegories. To cultivate sensitivity to drawing media and surfaces.
Existential Objectives
To understand the relationships between form and mental and emotional content. To work with attention and energy.
Spiritual Objectives
To seek a connection with the profound laws underlying the formation of the universe and of ourselves as human beings.
Workshop Topics: Life and the image; psychology of the image; morphology; marks; symbols; allegories; organisation of forms; metamorphosis and the dynamics of form; harmony and symmetry; drawing forms and the spaces related to them; drawings by the masters.