40 DAYS:
a contemplative drawing project
40 DAYS began as a project for a graduate class in Contemplative Teacher Practice with Professor Jack Miller at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (2016).
The assignment was to maintain a daily meditation practice of our choosing for a period of about 6 weeks, and to document this experience through writing. Initially, I had thought that the drawing itself would be the meditation, but when I started to read about and practice Tonglen early on in this process, the art-making evolved into something that was part visualization and part contemplative reflection on what I was feeling and experiencing during the sitting meditation. Each one of these 3.5"/ round, mixed-media images was created on a 6"x6" piece of watercolour paper and took between 2 and 4 hours to complete (on average).
I completed one drawing each day for 40 consecutive days.
“Tonglen” or "exchanging oneself for others" is a Buddhist practice for activating loving kindness and compassion. In Tibetan, the word tonglen literally means “sending and taking.” It refers to being willing to take in the pain and suffering of ourselves and others and to send out happiness to us all.” (Pema Chödrön, 2005)
If you are interested in reading a bit more about the process + context for each drawing, please visit my blog post about the process and products of the 40 DAYS project here:
