Four Ways of Looking at a Stream Drawing, Part Three
Everything seems upside-down, lately, so why not this drawing?
In this four-part series, I am doing an intuitive reading of one of my stream drawings. The four-step process I am working with is from Elaine Clayton's book Making Marks: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing.
To see how I worked with the previous steps, please see the first and second posts in this series.
In this step in my intuitive interpretation of my stream drawing, I read the drawing once more as a time line, but this time the drawing is upside down. What was tomorrow is now yesterday and what was yesterday is now tomorrow. The present is in the same, central position, but the view of today is now upside down.
So now let's take a look at how the images in my drawing suggest to me the present, past, and possible future of the person that I had in mind while making this drawing.
TODAY
At the top of the central portion of the drawing, I see a figure with green eyes floating with what looks to me to be a feeling of surrender with hands lifted palms upward. The figure seems to be floating on the cloud of dark lines below. There is a nervous line above and some lines cross the face. I see what look like orange plant leaves, which makes me think this floating feeling of surrender is in a tranquil natural setting. Seeing this figure, I am reminded of someone telling me that after praying for a long time about something he was worried about, he finally gave up and let himself be carried by God as though he were resting on a big fish.
YESTERDAY
The left side of the drawing represents childhood. With the reversal of the time line, I now see in childhood a world of joy. This rounded shape suggests the entire world, the way in childhood what children know seems to be the whole world. The setting seems to be farmland. It makes me think of the Dylan Thomas poem “Fern Hill.”
The heart shape at the top now looks like lips, maybe speaking or singing. I see a blue figure running happily with a heart shape along the bottom portion of the world. I also see an animal, as well as an apple and a peach. It's a happy world.
TOMORROW
A tropical bird seems to be tearing at the head of a red flower in what looks like a triumphant gesture. The overlay of lines suggests to me agitation or confusion. The lines begin to form into faces, like ghosts from the past. I also see some bananas, which also suggest a tropical setting.
This alternate perspective of the person's time line makes the reading an increasingly multi-layered experience. Join me in my next post as a do a second reading of how the chakras relate to the images in my drawing as I give my intuitive stream drawing one more turn!