“I don’t think I’d make a great miniaturist” I said as I worked on my own historiated letter today in class. “I just don’t have the patience.”
I’ve never been one to take my time, and the more we study the practice of illumination, the more in awe I am at the abilities of the original miniaturists – not necessarily at the miniaturists’ artistic abilities (although this is impressive in itself) but more so at their ability to sit down for hours upon hours working on the tiniest of details.
For those miniaturists the thought of God or Allah is what kept them immersed and focused everyday. The act of art was an act of mediation.
Despite my typical impatience and restless nature, I did find myself getting into the groove…. the tranquil music, the falling snow…. cliche I know, but my mind slowed and I became more mythical in my art.
My new gained focus reminded me of a recent meditation practice called Zentangle. Zentangle is a method of meditation through doodling. My aunt introduced me to the practice when I was in high school and whenever I needed to procrastinate, I would turn to Zentangle.
Illumination is just like Zentangle I thought to myself. Similar to how illumination keeps your mind from wandering and focused on God/Allah, Zentangle also keeps your mind from wandering. Both are forms of mediation.
I find it interesting that, even after all these years, the act of making art still has the same intention – to calm and to encourage focus.
I had similar feelings in the workshop today. Staring at the blank page before me I didn’t really know where to begin and I was nervous I’d make an irreversible mistake. After I finally started putting pigment on the paper, I started to warm up as you had mentioned, and wanted to continue as I got more comfortable with applying more colors. Participating in the process gave me a newfound appreciation for the creativity and care that illuminators have when working on their miniatures.
I remember overhearing you mention that as we were working throughout class, and I had a similar reaction to the workshop. I did find it to be such a relaxing class, and I can see myself listening to chants in the future as I work on different projects. Throughout my time at Hamilton some of my favorite classes that I have taken, have been art classes. While I am definitely no master artist, and my skill level extends to stick figures, I have found these hands on classes to be very relaxing. They are great opportunities to open your mind and take a blank piece of paper in front of you, and create something that is completely your own. I had similar reactions during the Scriptorium Workshop, where I was able to create something that expressed my reactions to what we have learned in class. I am excited to continue this learning process in class on Monday.
Something that I remember vividly from my childhood was the fact that my mother was constantly doodling. She would draw on the corners of any piece of paper she could get her hands on. Flowers, geometric patterns, animals and a variety of other images were laid out on the corner of pages of books and magazines and business cards all over our house. I adopted the habit myself and I agree that it is incredibly relaxing. I find myself doing it very often in classes and meetings when I have paper in front of me. I found that designing the illuminated letter produced a similar sense of relaxation. While I felt the process of designing the letter was more intricate and required more thought than just doodling, the emotions evoked were very similar.