Drawing for Mortals: Art workshops that explore our philosophical and emotional relationship with death and mortality
Learn a range of creative techniques accessible to all skill levels, to gently and playfully contemplate emotional responses to different themes within the topic of death. Drawing for Mortals ultimately encourages participants to form a greater clarity of their feelings on death, and indeed, life itself.
Drawing for Mortals are three-hour workshops combining a range of artistic methods like drawing, writing, and mindfulness exercises. These are curated to guide participants on a journey of self-reflection and expression, eliciting insights and enlightening new perspectives on life and death.
No artistic or creative skills needed!
What are your Drawing for Mortals themes?
Love Letter to my Skeleton
Skeletons are so often symbolic of death, that it’s easy to lose a true appreciation of the amazing skeleton that supports us in our everyday lives. Our exposure to skeletons in culture may often be as a character to admonish and frighten us mortals, making it hard to separate the unconscious negative meanings we may layer onto the vision of a skeleton. Taking a light-hearted exploration of our incredible skeletal structure, drawing, writing, meditation, and movement is used to engender curiosity and allow for reflection as we go. Throughout the session we’ll investigate cultural messages, explore the puzzle pieces of bones, and gratefully reflect on our own skeleton, placing it in a context of gratitude and admiration rather than fear.Â
A selection of illustrations from Love Letter to my Skeleton
Impermanence
In our busy modern lives, we tend to focus on the peaks and troughs of our human experience, overlooking the periods of transition between these moments. Playing with unexpected material to demonstrate ephemerality, creative activities in the Impermanence workshop play with the idea of our artistic creations coming into and out of existence. We mark time with a variety of short art and writing techniques to explore grounding ourselves in the present, as well as recognising transitions in state and time. By directing attention to the fluid nature of passing time, we connect with the concept that everything is always changing. This perspective may enrich the human experience of those peaks and bring comfort in the troughs.
A selection of illustrations and activities from Impermanence
Death as a Part of Life
Living in a world that separates the dead from the living, it becomes easier to live in denial of death’s existence. If we allow ourselves to confront reality, we can anticipate being overwhelmed, or that we can somehow manifest it into our lives. This creative workshop sets about challenging expectations by showing how life and death can be a balanced symbiotic relationship of seasons and life cycles. Participants are guided through nature-inspired activities to recognise the already widely accepted presence of death in nature – whether fallen leaves or compost, or goods manufactured from natural materials. Armed with skills to artistically articulate emotions, participants visually explore what it means to have death as a constant companion, whilst also reflecting how conversely, this knowledge of mortality can enable us to discover the magic of life affirming moments in our lives.
A selection of photographs from Death as a Part of Life workshops
How do I get involved in a Drawing for Mortals art workshop?
You can book onto a workshop that I’m running, or book me to run the workshop for your event.
Praise for Laura
"An inspiring workshop that really got me thinking about my skeleton in ways I hadn't before."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Love Letter to my Skeleton workshop
"This workshop helped me find some compassion and gratitude for what I am physically, and that it matters that I age in union of all that I am."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Love Letter to my Skeleton workshop
"How I wish I’d had access to this experience and environment when I was deep in the transitions of loss. Hugely valuable and deeply needed work."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Impermanence workshop
"It's a pretty fun way to explore and think about heavy sometimes upsetting concepts like death, relationships and impermanence. More insightful and emotive than I had expected. Laura is awesome."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Impermanence workshop
"The variety of exercises were easy and accessible which made the workshop easy to take part in. I was left with a new perspective on my day-to-day life and I found there was a lot to take away from the workshop."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Impermanence workshop
"I wasn’t expecting to leave with such a profound sense of insight, clarity and compassion, for myself and for people in my life with whom I have impending beginnings and endings."
Drawing for Mortals participant – Death as a Part of Life workshop