Yoga and Art (Yoku): Ready for Winter II

participant working with soft chalk

Last Thursday I went to another session of Yoku (yoga and art). This time the theme was 'Getting ready for Winter II'. I missed part I because that was in my week off and I was staying with my parents at the time. Apparently they worked on form drawing, something I am not familiar with but which sounded like fun.

chalk on her hands

Session II of 'Getting ready for Winter' was about how you guard your limits versus how you open yourself and letting things in. The yoga session was focused on hip openers.

open and closed

My drawing on the top in this image is what represents openness for me: no hard boundaries, depth, flexibility, no straight lines but vage curves, I am going somewhere. The drawing on the bottom represents closedness: to me that came as an image of a fence: "stop, no further". When we talked about it afterwards, I realized that all the "have-to's" are enclosed in this drawing and my free endeavors are in the first. Then again, a fence or gate also has its advantages: there can be wild animals behind it and then you are protected by it.

fellow participants drawing

In the picture above you see my three drawings of the evening together: top right about openness, middle right about closedness and left the two combined. One participant commented that my drawings of openness and closedness could also be switched around, because there is a lot of open space in the latter. Rationally I could see her point, but it didn't feel like that for me.

 

our lovely teachers Vir and Rosanne

As usual we shared our stories with each other and looked at each other's work. I still find that so fascinating and inspiring. One drawing is so different from the other and then all the stories behind them!

I am quite happy with my final work: I like the graphical look of it and the bright colours. This image came to me bit by bit and not in one vision. There were not a lot of thoughts involved and I can't explain much of it. At one point I saw a sunset in the sea, but that evolved into something else. The green line represents (I think, but this is an afterthought) how your life can lead to a certain point and from there can go a totally different direction than what you ever imaged. Does that make any sense?