How to Create Spontaneous Images

How to Create Spontaneous Images

I learned to create many spontaneous images in Window’s ‘Paint,’ starting out with squares, slashes, circles, and squiggles.

It didn’t take long for me to begin seeing angel children playing in the water. They obviously needed wings to fly around us; eyes and mouths to speak God’s word. I just let my hands speak for them. Try your spontaneous imaging and start looking at your drawings carefully. Play connect-the-dots and fill in what is missing in the drawing that comes to your mind. I often write poems to accompany my drawings.

Later, my imagination and inner-artist helped me play connect-the-dots with the marks on the page. I drew in a young girl like I once was, hiding behind long bangs. My mom was laying down to the desires of others rather than me.

Up in the left-hand corner was a loyal horse in waiting to privilege his riders before the sun goes down. In the far right-hand corner was my deceased Pops watching over me from the city that never sleeps.

Spontaneous imaging does not require talent, time, or planning ahead. Anyone can draw on the computer. All lines define shapes, express rhythms and take us from one fun place to another! For those who exclaim, “I can’t even draw a straight line! Never could!” There is no wrong way to draw a line.

Nothing in Mother Nature is ruler-straight, no trees, no stems nor grass blades. In fact, some philosophers tease us by saying, straight lines most probably only existed in our imaginations!

Picasso, Matisse, and Jung believed that for every spontaneous action there is a consequential story that begins within us and works its way out through the tips of our fingers. It takes no talent. No thought. Nor a great deal of time or education. If I can do it, anyone can.

When we are playing connect-the-dots with our imagination, our inner artist can point out the obvious of which our intellect has failed to grasp. If you are uneasy and don’t know what is bothering you, give your hands the freedom to scribble across the page. They just might provide you with the answers you are seeking.

One afternoon I was drawing circles with my non-dominant hand, not paying much attention to what I was doing. I thought I was drawing flowers. After I was finished, I saw big circles and little circles. I guess I was in an angry, defensive mood. I always had a hard time expressing my anger. I began filling the circles with big eyes, wrinkles, age spots, and mouths. The figures quickly began resembling my parents. Then, it was they against me!

This is a good example of letting our hands tell us what is bothering us. I was still angry with my parents for dying and leaving me all alone. I wondered how my hands knew that I was still angry after all these years.