SENSE OF PLACE
"I'm the one who needs to be in the space [for] a sense of place and order. It's crucial."
- Sue Tompkins -
SPENDING SACRED ME-TIME
WRITING PROMPTS
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A PLACE TO BE
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These writing prompts might help you defining and exploring YOUR meaning of a sense of place.
Look around you. Where are you? What time of day is it? How's the light? Or shadow...? Are there seasonal changes, even subtle ones? What are they?
List them, in fresh new ways... You'll find yourself always somewhere - your own home, your workspace, in nature etc. Just notice and list what you sense.
For this prompt, your challenge is to describe a place and then go further, describing the place in a way that conveys the meaning that the place holds for you. The purpose of this exercise is to write more evocative descriptions.
Don’t set the bar too high, trying to describe a special place. The emotions that special places arouse can be difficult to distill on the page. Instead, select a location from your daily life—your kitchen, a favorite cafe, a yoga studio or gym, the local library or cinema, a favorite walk or lookout, a place you try to avoid.
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Do a creative cluster and freely write your responses to with the word place.
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In general, do you think you have a strong sense of place or a weak one? Explain your answer.
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What qualities make where you live today unique? List as many physical, emotional, and social details as possible.
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Thinking back over your life, where was the place to which you felt most attached? What, in particular, made you feel that place was so special?
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If you could live anywhere in the world other than where you live now, where would it be and why? Describe the qualities that make that place different and unique.
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Make a list of emotional qualities you ascribe to place.
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Write a few paragraphs about an important event in your life. Now, describe the place in which the event occurred. How many details can you remember? What emotional significance do you attach to that place as a result of that life event? Rewrite the event in scene, using place’s attributes to set the scene. In what ways does place impact the story’s power?
How important to your understanding of story is place?
I invite you to join in a discussion with yourself.​
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SPENDING TIME IN THE STUDIO
COLOUR THEORY
​PRIMARY COLOURS - can't be made by mixing other colours:
Red, Blue, Yellow.
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SECONDARY COLOURS - made by mixing 2 primary colours:
Orange, Purple, Green.
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​TERTIARY COLOURS - made by mixing 1 primary colour and an adjacent secondary colour; always start with the primary colour first and then the secondary colour:
Red-Orange, Red-Purple, Blue-Purple, Blue-Green, Yellow-Green, Yellow-Orange.
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WARM COLOURS: Red, Yellow, Orange.
COOL COLOURS: Blue, Purple, Green.​
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How do you feel with certain colours?
Do you recognize differences, and what are these differences about.
How can colour exude a 'sense of place' for you/ in you?
MINDFUL EXERCISE
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FEELS LIKE HOME
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Find things that awaken a sense of place for you - that bring you joy, peace... that feel like home.
For example, I love fresh flowers and plants, I decorate my home with fresh fruits. I love to have books near me, candles and much more. Maybe you love cats.
Create a short list of what gives you the feel of home, of belonging. This can also be the company of another person.
Create loose and simple shapes of these meaningful pieces, these symbols of simple pleasure, focusing on their silhouettes.
​How do you feel?
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Use a sheet of paper at first to get a feeling for these items: Draw them with your non dominant hand at first and then switch to your dominant hand - this helps you loosen up. You can use pencils, crayons, chalk...
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On another sheet of paper try a variation in size to give expression to your feeling - some of the items might be more important to you than others. In all these exercises there's no right and wrong - it only serves to loosen up, noticing your feelings and to connect your brain with your emotions by translating your (possibly unaware) feelings of home and belonging into a symbolic form.
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Next use a larger mixed media paper and repeat the first two exercises with paint and/or brushes. Loosen up by letting the more watery quality of the paints to work on you. Notice how different uses of the brushes (in different sizes and through circular, twisting movements, holding at the very end or close to the brush bristles) create a variation of shape and value. The expression becomes an impression of you and for you.
Take your time with this during the week! Explore.
If you do not feel ready with bringing her in, wait for the next lesson.
No rush!
Maybe she wants some space now but moves in a different direction in the next steps.
Do not attach.
Give her space, let her breathe.
