Further Associations

Each door leads opens to yet another door. This has been my experience of life and learning. So, I thought this blog was complete, but on returning for the LangFest 2018 in Montreal, new associations between language learning and drawing appear.  

During the festival, speakers mentioned more than once the idea that being in the 'zone' or the 'flow' is conducive to language learning - both to inputing language to short-term memory, and to retrieving it from long-term memory.  

I have long noted that when I am engaged in another language purely for the pleasure of it and the sense of immediate rewards that it gives me, and when I am engaged in sketching and drawing out of the same intrinsic motivation - for the pleasure of it- I experience many of the qualities listed as those that are part of the 'flow' experience that  Csikszentmihaly talks about. I recommend you take a quick look at the link I have included. 

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”  

– Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

Today, I was feeling pressured by a whole long list of activities demanding attention "toute suite", and so it may not be evident, but I chose to take the time out to do another Udemy lesson.  I forgot time and surfaced after an hour feeling ready now to tackle my list of things to do. 

Here is my drawing. As you can see, there is no extrinsic reason to laud my work but it the process was super and the result satisfies me. 

Quick (relative word) warm-up sketches of the female and male human form.