Making Slow Art to Slow the Mind

This is a post from Belinda Del Pesco’s Art Blog Belinda Del Pesco.

Making Slow Art to Slow the Mind

Have you heard murmurings about the Slow Art or Slow Hand movement? Making Slow Art to Slow the Mind? Your peers are closing their screens and reaching for zen.

As a creative tribe – we’re all familiar with the notion of getting in The Zone. When your art supplies are moving and you’re so deep in the focus of creating, you forget appointments, laundry and time. That’s a good place to be. There’s less noise. It’s very peaceful in the making zone.

We’re witness to a Mindful Moments trend right now. The vehicle to get there for some folks is hand work. Making stuff. Slow Stitching. Visible Mending. Sashiko. Embroidery. Needlepoint. Zen doodling. Adult Coloring books. Knitting and Crocheting.

As a result of the Slow Art movement, your great Aunt Hazel’s Granny-tinged crafts and hobbies are cool again. Brew a cuppa, grab your idea notebook, and fluff your couch pillows to settle into this link-filled post of inspiration.

Searching for Mindfulness

You’ve probably seen quick recipe demos on social media featuring the aerial view cookery referred to as Hands & Pans, like Byron Talbott’s Blackberry Creme Brûlée.

The appeal of hands & pans is in the accessible, pretty visuals, and brief time format to watch something being made. Food preparation demonstration without a celebrity (“hey, even I could do that!”) and of course, glorious final results. It’s mesmerizing to watch delicious cuisine being prepared, up close, overhead, with gorgeous, appetizing, mistake-free menu ideas.

Mindfulness with Arts & Crafts

Now, you’ll also find Reels of Feels with Arts & Crafts. Look at Arounna Khounnoraj‘s hand block printing and weaving strips of torn fabric to make a pillow (above). Check out Kacie Gilgore’s hands carving, inking and printing a linocut. Or Lacey Walker using masking tape and a heat gun to paint graduated layers of watercolor that evolve into an atmospheric landscape.

Watching an over the shoulder, close up view of someone making a thing, and showing us how to do it is very inspiring. The irony is that we’re watching the demos on our screens, but in order to make that thing, we’ll have to close the screen, or set it aside to put supplies in our hands to get started. Capiche?

How to Do Slow Art?

You can try (or give as a gift) Zen Doodles and adult coloring books.

Cross stitch, embroidery and needlepoint are back.

Try some Tetrapak printmaking from boxed broth containers.

Or Drypoint printing from plastic baked goods clamshells.

How about trying Modern quilting? Take a break, and go through a book that teaches you how to make abstract watercolor paintings. Assemble a raw edge appliqué pillow case. Grow a raised bed of veggies by the driveway! Learn to stitch Sashiko. These are all forms of Mindfulness and Slow Hands.

Slow Art Inpiration Links

• Calvin Lee (above) crochets oodles of Granny Squares during commutes on the subway, and then assembles them into fabulous jackets, cardigans and sweaters. You can watch him work on his instagram account here.

• Praise and encouragement in the form of adult coloring books as a creative calming devise are on the rise in this CNN news piece.

• Ellen Merchant is hand printing bulk linen cloth using wood blocks or linoleum in multiple colors and beautifully graphic designs over here.

What is Visible Mending?

The point of the visible mending movement is to push back against disposable fast fashion.  By making repairs on clothing in a creative and intentional way, you extend the life of a garment meant to be tossed shortly after bringing it into your closet. Creative people are transforming imperfections into decorative features that extend a garment’s lifespan.

Visible mending combines sustainability with self-expression, turning mending into an art form that adds personality and a bit of flamboyance to a repair. It’s the opposite to hiding the damage. 

Visible mending is a deliberate embellishment to celebrate that a small tear in your jeans was artfully repaired, with flourish, while the other 99% of your favorite denim is still in perfectly good working order.

Meditation Through Creating

Slow art, and slow sew are the same as Slow Hands. There is a trend towards quieting the mind – reaching for handwork as part of a mental health strategy.

Think about phrases like Handmade, Beginner Journey, Junk Journaling. Sit down projects that require little more than Paper, Scissors and Glue, with permission to experiment. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea? There is a return to crafting, knitting and crochet. All things meditative.

As artists, we’re ahead of the game, because we already understand the Joy of creating. Now, we just have to model that good behavior choice to everyone around us, right?

Why Reduce Screen Time?

If your mind is a pond, screen time is adding to the volume of water, fish, plant life and floaties. When you pick up art supplies, the very act of being Creative – working with your hands – is an outbound stream. You’re pouring out, rather then filling in.

Making brings calm to the waters, and lowering the volume and levels of complexity in the basin. Creativity is a form of getting fit – especially when you consider intellectual wellness, and quieting the mind to focus on self care.

Creativity is a form of getting well at the rare but valuable skill of emotional regulation through deliberate re-routing of focus. Moving from screens to tactile objects held in our hands. Fingers wrapped around tools, yarn, embroidery floss, cloth, paper, glue and seed packets. Know what I mean?

Consider Mental clearing vs Mental Hoarding. Terracing the mind in categories to slow the mudslide of feelings brought about by too much news and runaway train feelings. That’s what making art, or creative crafts will do for us. Choose a podcast or an audiobook (I’m listening to this one), pick up a pen, a paint brush, a glue stick, or a sewing needle, and make something. You’ve got this.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post -

Belinda

P.S. Have you ever used cut-outs from magazines to make a Vision Board? Try this tutorial if you’re interested in creating a visual reminder to stay on course and reach your goals.

Art Quote

Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own. ~Adam Lindsay Gordon

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