On Friday I left Colorado for the first day of a marathon road/air trip: seven cities in twenty-six days. The trip includes a retreat, several workshops, and multiple visits with friends and family. Though some of it is work, I hope all of it will be pleasure.
When I travel I carry markers, pens, a clipboard, paper, and a 6-inch x 6-inch hardback sketchbook. The square sketchbook is perfect for airport and airplane prayers. Here is a prayer I drew on the plane from Denver to San Antonio.. Because it is in tangible form on real paper, it becomes a visual prayer list and a reminder for me to keep praying for the people in the drawing.
In contrast to the smallness of the sketchpad prayer, the large easel pads I use during workshops provide a space of 30 inches x 27 inches. So much space can be intimidating except for the way I often use it. In the prayer below (with the same people as the small prayer above), I use only two shapes and use two colors. This gets me out of the “too-many choices” and “art-project” mode and lets me focus on the people I’m praying for. After I drew the initial shape for God and the arms extending outward, I drew only lines and arcs. As a non-artist, limiting my stroke choices was liberating and not constricting.
Workshop: Christ Church in Greenwich, CT will host two Praying in Color Workshops® on October 24th and 25th. For more information click here. Please Share this with people in the CT and NY areas who might be interested. Thanks.
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