Dépaysement à Paris. Artwork by Katherine Relf-Cañas and Joe Cañas

Drawn Together: The Page Is a Private Space That Can Be Shared

Essinova Artful Life Saturday Playshops Summer 2020 Dispatch 3 (Session 4 in review)

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By Katherine Relf-Cañas

My husband, Joe, and I were among 30 or so participants who tuned in on Saturday, August 1, for Drawn Together. Now that I have participated in one of these events, I have concluded that Essinova’s Artful Life playshops offer ways for its community to dépayser. Wiktionary defines dépaysement as: “the feeling of not being at home, in a foreign or different place, whether a good or a bad feeling; change of scenery.” The French word — dépaysementisn’t easily translated into an equivalent English term. They use the word like we might use the American English term ‘getaway,’ but that’s a loose translation.

We aren’t planning any getaways soon, so I thought of participating in Essinova’s Artful Life community and its diverse and well curated online activities, as a ticket to dépayser. While words that are hard to define in another language might emphasize our separateness from others, from other linguistic communities and cultures, participating in these Saturday activities seems to be about connecting with each other. This was especially evident in this past weekend’s playshop, since the focus was explicitly about drawing that draws people together.

That I am dwelling on the topic of getaways is no accident. It turns out that the playshop drawings my husband and I did on Saturday speak to this theme. Even before the Pandemic, we were obsessed with the topic. We do realize we are barred from flying to France, and we wouldn’t do it even if we weren’t, but it’s still fun to go there in our minds. It turns out we can summon Paris easily since we have over the years gone there a lot and lived there, too. As we tend to go to regular spots, we know them well. We have measured out our married life with trips to Paris. So, we can do that imaginative thing you do when you call up old travel stories and it starts little movies in your mind and you chat about those shared reels together. This weekend, we found you can also do that on a piece of 8.5” x 11” paper while in a Zoom call with an entomologist and a Neuroscientist PhD candidate.

Our facilitators, Sasha and Daniel are both affiliated with the University of California, Davis. They are academics who have made time for art making most of their lives — since childhood. This reminds me of an interview I heard with I don’t recall which artist. They said in interviews they were always asked, “When did you start being an artist?” They eventually countered that inevitable question with “When did you stop?” Sasha and Daniel are like that, I think. They never put down their crayons or disregarded their impulse to be creative, and that continues as they train in their respective scientific fields.

Drawn Together was a good title for Essinova’s fourth playshop this summer; it perfectly evoked the desired outcome of the activity. It also defines the paradoxical state of how many of us have been pining for those we are separated from, so we are connecting more. It is also true that many of us are now feeling the effects of being in close cohabitation with others due to our current global pandemic.

The prompts

To introduce us to what for most I’m guessing was unfamiliar terrain, Sasha and Daniel take us all on a little journey through the field — referencing a key academic paper that explains their approach and methodology. They tell us what the study says about the benefits of drawing together using this specific technique and how it confers benefits when used as part of art therapeutic interventions — in the context of marriage and family therapy.

Drawing together is a deceptively simple activity that can be summed up as: “…the act of two people simultaneously drawing on one piece of paper.” Some of us might naturally have engaged in this for fun. Perhaps we did this as kids or with our children or friends, while likely being quite unaware of its positive, neuro-psychological effect or its proven benefits. It isn’t about the materials or the aesthetic outcomes, but about the process and the brain effects going on while you’re busy making other plans. It’s less about what you externalize than how you relate and collaborate (and co-create).

Wobble. Artwork by Belinda and Darin Chlouber.

We learn that the technique has been used effectively as an art therapeutic intervention to improve relations between spouses and in other significant relationships. Read the paper, if you must know the details. Partner Pen Play in Parallel for Relationship Improvement. (Mikhailova & Friedman, 2018) https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/3/39/htm, or excerpted here.)

As our lovely facilitators further explain, the PPPiP process is convenient — and portable. It would lend itself well to, say, a summer escape to Paris where you could set yourselves up at an outdoor cafe table, or really anywhere. Supplies are pared down to a few pens you have on hand and a paper or anything to serve as a canvas. One participant showed that it can also be done in chalk on a driveway! The technique can become part of your daily life and can be used as a kind of life hack to better your connection with your significant other(s). It seems Sasha and Daniel are also plugging it as a DIY way to soothe our inner savage beast during the Pandemic.

After our facilitators breeze through the scientific, utilitarian and historical underpinnings of the playshop, we begin with some drawing prompts. Some of us are couples but not all of us. There are moms and dads and kids in a few time zones.

Artworks by the Sanghvi family

It’s time for the last prompt: “Recall or imagine a memorable story.” And, we’re asked to draw that. It turns out the memorable story this prompt drew out of my husband and my memory files was our shared love of Paris. The drawing we made together, like the arrival we had made so many times together — how romantic — was what we drew. We had a routine every time we arrived. This past summer we were planning to go once more. Oh well! The map shows our little route through the same, familiar streets to the same familiar hotel. It looks kind of like those maps people draw for lost travelers on a scrap of paper. We even added an unused Metro ticket.

Through the playshop, we got to be both at home and not at home. We got to dépayser. It is a sweet notion to invite each other into a very intimate space — an 8 ½” x 11”-inch piece of computer paper. Not since we co-signed our first mortgage loan 20 years ago have we spent as much time cohabiting 8 ½” x 11” paper. We sat side by side on our black bench at our table that we bought the year we were married. The window looks out on the bamboo we planted in 2008, wildly waving in the wind, and our neighbors’ kids’ bedrooms. We drew and Zoomed and traveled a little together.

Coming up next: Sessions #5, beauty in the overlooked. Join us!

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Essinova Journal
Essinova Journal

Published in Essinova Journal

Reviewing the leading edge at the intersection of art, science, culture, design, technology and innovation.

BeiBei Song 宋贝贝
BeiBei Song 宋贝贝

Written by BeiBei Song 宋贝贝

#Innovation strategist. #Creativity agent. Executive educator & coach @StanfordBiz. #Art #science #tech fusionist & curator. Founder @Essinova.

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