A few weeks ago, I was awake in the middle of the night. I found myself on YouTube looking for something to help me sleep. At times like this, the more dry a subject is, the better I will drift off to sleep.
A suggestion came up from a pain management doctor's channel. The video he had posted looked into Neurographic Art. This ticked all my boxes of a boring video, so I clicked on play ready to drift off to sleep while listening.
That night, I did not sleep. I watched the video a few times, and my brain started humming. Many of my friends woke up to the video below in a DM from me telling them they really should watch the video I just sent them.
I have too many real-life items on my spinning plates right now. Each needs my full attention. What I saw in the video made my hands itch, but sadly, I did not have the time. The subject of Neurographic Art got added to my list of things to look into when I had the time.
A few days passed, and some nights. I found myself looking to slow my mind down enough to sleep again. The universe did not think this was a good plan. The video below was front and center on my feed. I clicked to watch and listen.
After watching the second video, my hands itched to start drawing. My Mother had even begun making Neurographic Art before I had time to try!
My Mom is not an artist and will be the first to tell you this news. I had sent her some colored pencils and an excellent coloring book years ago, which she never touched. She would much rather learn about ancient aliens than color anything until...
She tried Neurographic Art. Mom showed me two pieces she had been working on. Her first, she had not colored, but in the second one, she found her pencils of color, and looking at her smiling face and her art made me happy!
Neurography Art was now at the top of my list of things to make time for. I wanted to feel as happy as my Mom looked! Life once again got in the way. Another week passed with a small pile of art supplies I had taken out to try Neurographic Art with, sat, and collected dust.
No fair! My brain was not letting me write, and now it seemed mountains were being built around me, so I would never have time to try this seemingly easy exercise in self-growth and self-help. Yes, I was starting to whine inside my head.
It took a few more days for me to reach my limit of outside forces stepping in my way of sitting down and drawing some simple black lines.
Enough time had passed, and I needed to rewatch the first video to know where to start. It was the best way to learn how and, most importantly why I was drawing lines.
My intention, What those lines represented and meant to me, became apparent as I listened to the video and drew along. The task became very freeing the more I did.
The last lesson is to take all of the angle corners and round them off with your black Sharpie. It was amazing how fast I walked into a meditative state just by rounding off sharp corners.
When I was finished rounding all of the harsh edges away, the art in my hands made me happy and smiley just looking at it! How scribbles became art in those few seconds still blows me away.
Once done, I wanted to post all my happy feelings. I also wanted to color my Neurographic Art piece before I made a post. Can you guess where this is going??
To save time figuring out how I wanted to color my lines. I took a photo and loaded that into a program called GIMP. I roughly added the colors I wanted while keeping with the few rules in the second video I linked above.
I feared losing the happy black-and-white lines forever, so I copied those lines to another sheet of paper to color. No more excuses were around to not finish what I had started.
I grabbed a box of Artify brush-tipped alcohol markers and started coloring. What ended up on my paper was very different than what I thought it would look like. I loved seeing the colors explode off the page in front of me. I loved it so much that I sent a photo of my work to a friend.
Me: Dreem! Look what I am making!
Dreem: It's MINE! I want it. DO NOT do another thing to that! It's MINE!
Me: But it's not done! I will send it when it's all done.
Dreem: It IS DONE. DO NOT do any more to it! Just send it to me the way it is.
Me: But...
Dreem: I LOVE IT! I want it. JUST THE WAY IT IS!
Me: Really? You sure? You know it's not done?
Dreem: It is done. I love it just like that. Please just send me that!
Me: ..... okay... I will send you my unfinished picture because I love you.
Dreem: Thank You!
I stopped everything, still shaking my head, and cleaned up my markers. The next day when I was out to see the Doctor? I stopped and mailed the art to her. I am delighted to say it arrived safely into Dreem's hands.
The world is filled with fun and wacky experiences. Dreem wanting my art that was not "done" is the icing on the cake!
I will never forget my first piece of Neurographic Art and who owns it. It will always bring the biggest smile to my face!
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.
