Hands Up Let’s See What They Say

A little while ago, I came upon a post that suggested an activity that appealed to me – draw your hands and read your vision of your past and future. I found it on David Milligan-Croft’s blog  , and if you look there you will see his beautiful colorful version and more information about the process.

Anyway, something about the idea really appealed to me.

The parameters of the artwork included having one hand represent what you want to keep in your life, and the other, what you want to let go.

I didn’t want to divide things up this way. Instead, I decided to ask both my hands to be what I want to reach for, either now, or when it is possible, later. I wanted to express hopes, dreams, things I look forward to, and things I do already that I want to continue.

Nothing exotic, nothing cosmic. Just everyday pleasures, entirely attainable, I think, and modest in scale. I am grateful for my life, and I wanted to commemorate that thought as well as remind myself that there is always something to look forward to.

I may be getting too philosophical. It’s just what I felt at the time I sat down to work on this picture. It’s part of my Large Artist Sketchbook that I am currently working on, so one day it will get a poem written for it, too. I used pens, markers, and acrylic inks.

I found this a peaceful and calming activity. I can recommend trying it for yourself.

Hands in Artist Sketchbook 4-2003

17 thoughts on “Hands Up Let’s See What They Say”

    1. Claudia McGill Post author

      Thank you, glad you liked it. It was a good experience, I say experience because it’s not just drawing or coloring, but reflecting. I would be happy for you to share it however you like, Instagram or anywhere. (No, I don’t have an Instagram account, but thanks for the offer, I appreciate it.)

        1. Claudia McGill Post author

          I am a following a plan kind of person, all my life. I dove right into the kind of planning we did at work, mission statement, then action steps. These hands took some thinking, I did not want to be vague, I wanted them to say things I really actually could do, or could make plans for. Like picking up trash in my neighborhood. I can do that right now. Visit the ocean again, well, someday later on, but I can plan now and enjoy it. Mostly I just wanted to stretch out some threads to the future, I think.

        3. Claudia McGill Post author

          Back in the 80’s it seemed to be the new thing and I attended many meetings where we had to work out the mission statement for whatever we were doing and then – the part I liked better – action steps. Now that I can make up my own mission statements I can cut out the HR hot air and be straightforward. Wow it makes so much sense now, who knew. And for times like this, you do have to adjust things, don’t you? !!

        4. memadtwo

          I remember when my daughters preschool rewrote the bylaws we had a lot of discussion about what the mission statement should include. It makes you think about your objectives. Our country could use some clarification on that from our government about now.

        5. Claudia McGill Post author

          I think having no mission statement is part of the plan. Or, I also think, it is part of the way the current group’s minds work, which make everything like being a primitive one celled creature in search of food, I think.

    1. Claudia McGill Post author

      Thank you. It fit in with something I have been doing since being at home since March 13. Thinking over how things will be different, that I cannot change, and things that will be different, that I can change. it’s time for me to get on the latter list and start moving, some of these things I can do now and others, when it’s possible, but I can get ready now. This activity sort of made me get a grip on things.

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