1 Sep 2023< Back
The hand leading the mind is a natural state of cognitive development. The tactile, the sense of touch, is one of the central forms of perceptual experience so love your materials as they are held in your hand.
Start with a mark on a page, allow it to grow into a Squigglawork and you will have witnessed the evolution of creativity itself. Line making is a fundamental part of our world experience. Think of the horizon line in nature, the line in our urban environment, the line that links us to ancestors, the line in language and music, and the primacy and directness of a hand drawn line on the page. It is fundamental to humankind’s creative thinking ability.
“Creativity requires the harnessing of feelings as well as thinking” - George Valiant.
Mark making is a sensory and physical experience which can be enjoyed by all ages and abilities. All that is needed is pencil, paper and the commitment to make. Squiggla encourages experimentation with divergent line making. Start at a common point, and try this using both hands simultaneously, then gradually allow the hands and hence the lines to spread or move apart from each other as they extend further. The process is found in the unique characteristics of line-making itself: private, primal, playful, sentient, innate, self-organising, expectant, exploratory and rewarding. These are all intuitive mind functions. For Squiggla, the fundamental elements of the visual language are the mark, dots and lines in all their infinite variety. Start with a dot - and think of the process of stretching a thread in space.
While Squiggla suits collaborative making, it is also beneficial in personal, quiet time, as we find private making acts as private learning - learning about self and your relationship with the world. Feel a peaceful connection to the way you are mark making, do you notice the light, the time, the energy, the rhythm of your making? When you are in the creative flow state, time - past and future - collapses.
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