Neuro Art Gallery
Share Your Creativity Challenge
When I wash my long hair in the shower, my hair ends up on the wall. Sometimes I push it around until it looks remotely reminiscent of something else. Once I got it to look like a ballerina, and most memorably, once I got it to look like the Pietà. I use the hair as my line, one of the seven elements of art, and my mind fills in the rest: color, form, shape, space, texture, and value.
In a very basic way, my “hair art” is a lot like neuro art and NeuroGraphica. In one major way, though, they’re not at all alike.
A (Very) Brief Intro to NeuroGraphica: A Mindful Practice
Amanda Andrews writes, in “Neuroart: A Form of Internal Reflection,” that Russian psychologist Pavel Mikhailovich Piskarev coined the term NeuroGraphica in 2014, and “he claims that the NeuroGraphica method is an algorithm that engages otherwise inactive neurons in the brain.”
Art educator Abby Schukei elaborates further in an article entitled “No Drawing Skill Required! An Activity That Connects the Brain and Art:”
“This process uses a drawing technique that links the conscience with the subconscious. The link is made by activating connections between brain cells and neurons. The result is an awareness and mindfulness that helps turn stress into calm.
In other words, whether an artist or not, anyone can learn to use NeuroGraphica to take what’s on their mind and put it on the page. That it’s a mindful practice is what sets neuro art, and especially NeuroGraphica, apart from “hair art” or other forms of scribble drawing.
The NeuroGraphic Art Challenge
When I tried the exercise for the Share Your Creativity Challenge, I opted for a digital “page,” and I picked up my iPad and Apple pencil. To be true to the method, I relaxed, focused on my state of mind, and drew some quick lines that were representative of that state of mind. I rounded off the corners. After rounding the corners and working with the lines, I began adding the additional elements of art: color, form, shape, space, texture, and value. What emerged was Reclining Woman in a Blue Dress Holding Flowers, and I liked it. I took a print screen, cleared the page, and went again.
And again.
And again.
Although my images are a bit less neuron-looking than a lot of examples I have seen online, and although I am not sure whether or not I created some new neural pathways, I like my little drawings, and I felt pretty calm after making them.
And they aren’t as weird as my “hair art.”
Works Cited
Andrews, Amanda. “Neuroart: A Form of Internal Reflection.” UWIRE Text, 6 Mar. 2022, p. 1. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A695905964/ITOF?u=ggcl&sid=ebsco&xid=12810c11. Accessed 16 May 2022.
Schukei, Abby. “No Drawing Skill Required! An Activity That Connects the Brain and Art.” The Art of Education, https://theartofeducation.edu/2021/08/04/how-the-brain-and-art-connect-with-mindfulness/
Want to read more? Try these related posts on Medium:
Learn more about the Share Your Creativity challenge: One Month of My Publication — Share Your Creativity
Learn more about Neurographic Art from fellow writer Celeste Wilson: Neurographic Art
