Artists Get In The Zone

Laid out across across the deep-red damask tablecloth were rows, stacks, and booklets full of the small, intricate line drawings artist Daniel Eugene has been creating for years. For Eugene, each drawing was like a spiritual vitamin, a collaboration of pen and mind made during daily, mapless journeys.

Eugene is one of three New Haven artists who conceive of their art as a form of meditation.

For some artists, public display and sales of their art represent the culmination of a phase of art-making. For others, making art serves multiple purposes. Though he has an show opening Feb. 9 at Oak Haven Table & Bar, Eugene’s work is part of a daily foray into self-discovery using mindfulness and other meditation practices.

“When sitting down to begin to draw I make a choice not to have a specific end in mind,” Eugene said. ​“Doing this allows each image rendered to be a process of presence – an opportunity for conjecture or wonder as an end in itself – as an exercise in surrender.

“To focus too intently on a specific end excludes the wisdom that the unexpected occurrence might bring into focus. Alternately, to embrace the unexpected as inevitable is to avoid the anxiety of the mistake. When I say, ​‘I want to draw THIS and only THIS,’ then anything that happens other than THIS, becomes a disappointment or a failure. To empty the creative process of this expectation puts you in the realm of the unknown. 

“I say often to myself, ​‘I do not know what I am drawing,’ and so the further along I get the more something unknown becomes knowable. 

“When you surrender the pen to its own expression the mind can wander in self-reflection. What one discovers in this space is a universal wisdom unique to individual being. When the pen stops and attention is drawn back down to the canvas one beholds not an image that you have made, but an image that has made itself through you – not only an image to be looked at, but an image that also looks back at you in return.”

As a form of meditation, art creation has ancient roots in many Eastern cultures. Ink drawing and painting, calligraphy, mandala making, and gardening have all been meditation portals to greater understanding, healing, and overall wellness. Similar practices have found their way into our personal, educational, clinical, and therapeutic settings.

Evie Lindemann (pictured) is an artist, printmaker, art therapist, and marriage and family therapist.

“Each time I pick up my art and writing materials, I step more deeply into the world of spirit,” she said. ​“It entails paying very close attention to process. Each movement or gesture, each breath that moves my rib cage, each mark upon a copper plate or upon paper, offers me something about my process, about how I move and live in the world, about how I experience connection, and with whom.

“In the truest sense, then, this is a meditative space. Without judgment in the best moments, or sometimes with judgments, noticing what is present in my field of awareness helps me to be in the moment. 

“When I engage in art making and I pair it with writing, I find that my mark making leads me back to my heart, to the gaps between my mind and my heart, to those places of discord and discomfort that call for my attention, to reconnection, and to love. This is why art becomes a profound form of meditation, of communication with spirit, of a way to return to what we all might once have experienced, but have, perhaps, forgotten.”

PattieBelle Hastings is an artist, design thinker, and self-described ​“drawing evangelist.”

She considers her practice, a series of drawing exercises, as ​“an exploration of mark making as mindful embodiment” she noted. The exercises ​“cultivate mindful presence and help tap into our deepest creative resources. Drawing as meditation is very different than drawing a portrait, landscape, or still life. This kind of drawing is really more about an internal seeing rather than an external looking.

“The exercises that I teach are almost solely focused on process over product, meaning the that act of doing the drawing exercise is more important that the drawing that results. This is not about life drawing, this is about soul drawing. One of my students summed up her workshop experience in a single sentence: ​‘I am amazed. I had no idea how much a line could reveal to me about myself.’

“Over the years, I have met many people who struggled with traditional forms of meditation. With the spread and variety of mindfulness practices available today, I realized that mindful drawing might be path to presence for many people, so I began to work with individuals and now present workshops. Participants have been profoundly moved by these exercises. Some find peace, presence, and realization.

“The point is not to judge or or evaluate the drawings that we make. It doesn’t matter what you are drawing or how well you are drawing. Drawing brings you into the present. You have to be present to make the mark on the paper. The marks themselves don’t matter. It’s the presence that’s brought in to the practice of making the mark that matters. Presence while drawing prepares the mind for presence while doing other kinds of activities and I think many of us are looking to bring more mindful presence into our daily life.”

Daniel Eugene maintains a studio at Erector Square. A new exhibit of his work, ​“Inner Reaches of Outer Space” opens Feb. 2 at Oak Haven Table & Bar, 932 State St. Evie Lindemann is associate professor of art therapy in the master of arts in art therapy program at Albertus Magnus College. She is part of a group show, ​“On the Spiritual in Art,” at Perspectives, the Whitney Center Gallery in Hamden, through Feb. 15. PattieBelle Hastings is professor of interactive design at Quinnipiac University. She has conducted workshops at the Yale Center for British Art and DaSilva Gallery.