This work emerged from a period of burnout during the pandemic while at my consulting practice, highlighting an unmet need for recovery and acknowledgment. In search of a way to process new experiences, I started to create diagrams as an extension of my meditation practice. The resulting pieces are explorative snapshots of my inner landscapes, providing a creative outlet for the complexities of my emotional terrain.
Each artwork, made with colored pencils and ink on paper, emerged during a period when blue screen exposure affected my sleep dramatically. At first, I felt driven to link each element to a perceived reality aspect, such as the larger square symbolizing consciousness, the horizontal line for awareness, and zigzag lines for mood shifts.
In the course of creating, I discovered that my pursuit was not merely about self-expression or the meditative essence of the experience; it was an attempt to free myself from the compulsion to attribute meaning and to organize the shapes, shedding the operational rigidity and stringent organizational schemas prevalent in my professional life in digital strategy. This newfound freedom became the essence of the practice, allowing for a more intuitive, aesthetic exploration, unconstrained by the need for strict categorization and order. This realization enabled the graphical elements to unfold spontaneously, symbolizing whatever was pertinent in the moment. The ongoing endeavor to uncouple my sense of value from my output capacity is a reflection of an internalized grind and transcends this project, arguably becoming a lifelong pursuit.
May this project give you, too, a break from the frenetic pace of contemporary life.
