Snapshot to Scribble: Everyday Observations

Do you catch yourself making random annotations on your notes app? Or snapping photos of odd bits around you—peeling paint, tangled wires, scribbles in the margins? I do this all the time. Sometimes it feels like I’m collecting whispers, little clues that don’t make sense until much later.

This week, I took the time to go through all these bits—spent time with them, created drawings that reflect them. Not seeking to understand their reality, but their felt experience. Most of these things are new to me, or rather, I’ve yet to become desensitised to them. Things like moss, fallen leaves, mist, a general colour palette that reflects a mood I’m still adapting to. This is the general idea behind the prints I am launching next Wednesday.

The thing that sticks with me, as always, is what they have to say after their creation. See, when I’m creating, I tend to try not to think—it’s mostly automatic. I subject myself to the medium, letting it guide me. With these, it’s oil pastels, watercolours, and some graphite. I approached the image almost like I was staring at it, letting hazy shapes form and getting an ambience of the tiny moment I captured weeks before. Then random shapes start appearing on the paper—shapes that don’t look like anything, or colours that aren’t even there.

It’s afterwards that I can start to understand my thought process behind a creation like this. I see the meandering lines and I recognise what they were looking for. I see the colour combinations and spot a conversation I wasn’t aware I was having. I turn a scribble into a lesson.

I feel the need to stop here, though—I don’t want to hand you the answer to my questioning drawing. I don’t want to impose my reflection on you. So, I’m not sure what else to tell you about it. But instead, I’ll ask you for something. Is that ok?

Take a second to look at the creations I’ve shared here. Sit with them. Let your eyes follow the colours, lines, shapes. What do you see, if anything at all? Does it remind you of anything? Bring up a feeling? Make you want to look away, or unmask something hidden? Or is it just an image of colours, lines, shapes?

comment your thoughts :)

SHOP OPENS NEXT WEDNESDAY!!