Two weeks ago, for the first time, I helped to lead the morning meeting at common art. This was a really exciting opportunity to put my skills to the test and learn more about myself as a facilitator. With the Reverend Mary on vacation, artist-in-residence Allie and I came up with a plan for the morning meeting to address the month’s theme of self-control.

At common art we have been bringing more of an arts-based approach to the morning meeting to help set the tone for the day. I came up with the idea to utilize continuous-line drawings as a way to practice self-control. In this activity the artist uses one continuous line to draw an entire picture while being careful to never lift the marker or pen off the paper. The result is a drawing that captures the outline and essence of its subject, sometimes in a more abstract way, with all the overlap and squiggling of the line-work. Often utilized as a drawing exercise, this requires us to practice self-control to keep our drawing utensil on the paper in a continuous line. It also requires patience with ourselves for those times we inevitably do lift the utensil up by accident! Lastly, the activity is not something we typically do at common art, so it involved self-control as we stepped out of our comfort zones to try something new and challenge ourselves.

We began the morning meeting with Allie discussing self-control and our practice of this as it relates to being members of the community at common cathedral. Community members also shared ways that they were practicing self-control. Next, I did a drawing demonstration for the community of a continuous-line drawing, while I discussed the process and the ways it related to self-control. I reviewed the ways that art can help us practice self-control, so that we could continue to grow this skill just like a muscle through practice. I invited community members to share examples of times that art had required them to practice self-control, like painting with a restricted color palette. As I continued to draw this landscape for the demonstration, I talked about how at times it became so uncomfortable that I had to practice self-control to resist the temptation to pick up the pencil! Following the demonstration, we encouraged community members to try out this style of drawing throughout the day. Introducing the concept at the morning meeting really helped to develop interest in the activity!

Throughout the day, I worked with a number of community members to create their own continuous-line drawings. In particular, there was some lovely work from a community member who began with a single drawing of a Pokémon but kept going to create four, separate, continuous-line drawings of this Pokémon, which showed development between each drawing. Some community members chose to create abstract-line art, some, figurative work. Others represented landscapes, which left us with a beautiful variety of approaches! I left common art feeling really proud of how the day had gone. I could see the success of my activity with community members and felt so engaged after helping to lead the morning meeting. I learned about my strengths in addressing the group and coming up with creative activities.  I found an area where I could  practice self-control, for instance when moving too quickly in my presentation. I continue to look forward to growing and learning each week with the common art community as I continue to grow in my role as an intern this second semester.

-Isabelle Olsson