Lynda Barry: Doodle Your Way Out of Writer's Block

topic drawing, writing, moving | description real-time journaling
group size n/a | image size 8"x8" | time 30min
date November 16, 2010

DRAFT

I was Amening all over this 30 minute Lynda Barry interview with Neal Conan on Talk of the Nation, November 11, 2010. Always happy to hear more and more folks talking about the importance of drawing and moving in our lives. We're physical, kinesthetic beings living this wierdo world experiencing it through devices, screens, lens that abstract and flatten our experiences.

In her new book, Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book, Lynda Barry drew the near-sighted monkey and the meditative monkey and told us about how drawing those characters brought her solace through tough times. I could completely relate. Right after my Mom's death in October 2009, I went into "craft therapy" mode making ornaments. As Barry says, when you move your hand with an object in it, the story starts to come.

Take a listen. Doodle. Move.

p.s. I started this drawing with the subject sticking out her tongue. When Barry mentions the tongue/thumb connection I laughed. I was that kid always drawing very seriously, often with tongue sticking out.
p.p.s. I normally crop my photos to remove the edges of the sketchbook or the edges of paper, tape, walls. Since this is about the physical, tangible, I left it in.