This month is the 30th anniversary of the 'discovery of Touch Drawing' on my last day of art school in 1974. What an auspicious moment to send out our first e-newsletter.

There are many signs of growth at the Center for Touch Drawing. Seeds are being sown all over the world. There is a sense of heart-to-heart sharing that truly fulfills my original vision for how Touch Drawing would spread. In the next issue, you will read about Touch Drawing being used with traumatized children in Gaza, as well as with scientists in Germany.

I sense a sparkle of anticipation as the 8th Annual Touch Drawing Gathering approaches. This year, we will be in a land of open sky with dramatic mountain views. Our sacred meeting space was built with great love and vision. I feel this place will support a new level of creative inspiration. There are just a few spaces left. Contact us if you would like to know more.

I hope you enjoy this first issue of In Touch, and encourage you to send us your own stories and images for future use.

by Sue Mason

Touch Drawing was featured on the British BBC television programme "Inside Out" last autumn (2003), a regional magazine style programme. It formed part of a trio of alternative-style classes and workshops on offer in the south west of the country, and showed Sue Mason and her friends Val, Shan and Suzanne demonstrating the creative and fun side of TD. "Interestingly the presenter was very cynical" explains Sue. "and it took me ages to get her to actually get her hands on the board. She just couldn't see the point at all."

However, once the presenter did start to play - she went straight into her inner child mode and kept going even after the filming stopped. Her film crew (camera man, producer and researcher) took their turn after filming and all fell in love with Touch Drawing. The researcher went home to buy her own kit. Happily, the end result came across well and although no direct bookings manifested from the piece, Sue is now able to add "as seen on BBC TV" to posters which have been boosting
her local workshops.

by Curtis Manzano and Joanne Hobbs

Note from Deborah: Curtis Manzano is a young man who is devoted to developing his creative work, despite very difficult home conditions. Joanne Hobbs met him as his computer graphics teacher and is mentoring him as he enters his adult life. He has gone on to introduce Touch Drawing to other at-risk youth.

Curtis Manzano
When I first went to a workshop on Touch Drawing, I had no idea what the process was but I like doing art so I was up for it. After Deborah demonstrated the technique I was anxious to try it. I worked for several hours nonstop doing one drawing after another. It was so easy— easier than using a pencil or paintbrush. The images just flowed out of me and I have been doing Touch Drawing ever since. I have even sold some of the paintings and that is cool too. I sold one called Second Sight at my last reception. The couple that bought it was an American Indian couple who said that they could sense a spirit in the drawing that was speaking to them in a profound way. It was someone they had apparently lost.

I don’t know about that, but I do know that people respond to these drawings in a positive way. Another two drawings that I call Trance and Deer Man respectively seemed to be influenced by my contact earlier in the week with a Huichol shaman that I was supposed to take a trip with. Apparently the deer is the spirit or totem of their tribe as well as the guide and muse for their visionary art. I didn’t know this at the time. The deer just emerged during a Touch Drawing session.

My mentor is helping me find the opportunities to demonstrate Touch Drawing to kids my age. I would like to do more of that. Once they get past drawing the kinds of things they see every day on the streets, they do some interesting things. I hope I can demonstrate it to more people because everyone who tries it likes it.

Joanne Hobbs
I work with at-risk teenagers and young adults. My goal is to bring the process of Touch Drawing to them initially via Curtis, the twenty-year old young man who was the catalyst for my work with this population. The technique’s ease of use and paradoxical power for bringing what is inside, out, for reflection and healing makes it an ideal tool. This past spring I watched a group of young men from Watts, California gather around Curtis as he demonstrated Touch Drawing. Then I saw them begin their own drawings, merely scratching the surface at first, drawing the graffiti letters and whimsical characters so popular with this generation. They looked around nervously as though afraid that they were not doing it the “right way.” Curtis acknowledged their first efforts while pointing out how to follow and then accentuate the marks they made on the page, mixing imagination with intuition.

Soon the boys began to move deeper—perhaps because they had permission from one of their own to go beyond the popular art forms that surrounded them. Their drawings took shape, each one unique, reflecting the contours of their psyche. When the session was over, they gathered together in a circle and shared a few drawings that they particularly liked. The level of sharing and trust established during the session, a tone set by Curtis right from the beginning, carried over into the discussion and each one eagerly took materials home to continue their exploration. I knew then that I would have to find grant money to fund bringing Touch Drawing to this population—young men and women who are hungry for tools that help them make sense of their experiences and that teach them about the inner landscape.

by Noreen Wessling and 7-Arts Studio

Touch Drawing Workshops are a popular event at 7 Arts Studio in Milford, Ohio. I have facilitated these groups for the past 5 years. The creative juices from participants have sparked many innovative ways to expand our mutual Touch Drawing horizons, resulting in more interest and bigger groups as time goes on. A bunch of us were looking at my Dream Treasure Cards when someone said, "Why don't we make our own Touch Drawing Cards!" With big smiles on our faces and a gleam in our eyes... the rest is history.

Excitement rose as the word got out to other Touch Drawing friends. By early autumn, eight of us gathered to make plans for this uncharted new adventure. We decided on 56 cards with each of us choosing 7 of our favorite Touch Drawings to contribute. We brainstormed, mostly guided by our intuition and sense of comradeship, till things started to fall into place. We researched printers, lamination and how much each person needed to contribute monetarily, then said, "Let's go for it!" What fun! We decided to call it 'A-Musing Deck; Cards to Draw From'.

After they were printed, it was time for the Big Card-Cutting Party. We convened again, armed with various types of paper cutters. For hours we cut and listened to music. The atmosphere felt electric. The excitement of finally seeing the finished product after months of collaboration... Hurrah!

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Our A-Musing Deckers would love to make tons of money selling these cards, yet the over-riding reason for this project continues to be the heart-warming feeling of mutually creating. Due to the success of this project, quite a few of us now intend to make our very own Touch Drawing Decks.

We encourage other avid Touch Drawers around the world to try this approach to honor their own favorite personal images. We are eager to hear of your adventures in Touch Drawing. Who knows where this could lead! Please contact me and I'll pass the word to the group; namely, Fran, Janet, Jim, Jakk, Julie, Shirley and Todd.

NoreenFW@cinci.rr.com http://www.creativespirit.net/noreens7artsstudio

by Kathleen Denton

Two years ago I met my soul partner. I had the richest year of my life and after a year we married. Two months later my husband had a grand mal seizure. The doctors discovered a malignant brain tumor deep in his brain. They told us he had at the most five years to live. Our joy and exuberance for life was paralyzed. We spent a year fighting the cancer and the agony of lost dreams and plans. It wasn't until the last few months that we realized we had been handed a very unusual gift.

Recently I attended a seminar given by Cristina Baldwin. Towards the end of the gathering she passed around a basket of Soul Cards, face down, and asked each of us to select a card and then to write down the inner dialog we were having with the image. When the basket came to me I reached in and selected a card. When I got home, I went to the internet and purchased a set for myself. When my cards came I sat quietly in my candle lit room. Without looking at them, I shuffled the deck and drew the same card as before!

The one piece my husband and I had been missing was our spiritual connection to the universe. I have always been very intuitive but I didn't listen to my inner soul and acknowledge my innate spirituality. We are now learning to slow down, listen to that inner voice, get back that joyfulness and feel our connection. Sometimes the negative energy from the tumor consumes us. It's then that I stop and look at my SoulCard. I see my message so strong and clear and I know the reason I drew this card twice. I will continue to use my Soul Cards as a conduit for those inner and external voices.

by Leland R. Kaiser, PhD

One of the ways to accelerate your intuition is to remember to use it each day. This card exercise helps you do that. Pick “at random” one SoulCard at the beginning of each day. Before you draw the card, silence your mind for a few moments. This will help you “tune in” and select the most meaningful card.

The doctrine of correspondences states that your drawn card will correspond to what happens to you during the day. In other words, the SoulCard is a microcosm of the world as macrocosm. When you do this exercise, it is important to listen to the cards. The symbols may seem a little strange but should seem meaningful and inviting. If you don’t like the SoulCards, they will not work for you.

Study the card at various times throughout the day. Try to place your consciousness within each symbol on the card and determine what it is saying to you. Also, notice if the card seems to fit the events that occur during the day. This simple exercise develops your skill in drawing appropriate cards and also helps you develop an internal intuitive symbol system.

Over time, you develop a personal relationship to your cards. They become attuned to your distinct energy field. For this reason, it is important to keep the cards to yourself. Do not leave them lying around. Do not loan them out. Keep them wrapped in some type of natural fabric.

Certain SoulCards may become your favorites. These cards are central to your uniqueness. Study them even more carefully. They will appear often in your life.
I have used the SoulCards many times. They tap archetypal themes and are excellent navigation aids for exploring your unconscious and superconscious minds.
Leland Kaiser is founder of Kaiser Institute Program in Intuition. Deborah is on the faculty. http://www.kaiser.net

These days more people are concerned about the "toxic fumes" in oil paints. There are two scents associated with oil paints - the paint itself and the solvent used to thin the paint.

What you smell in the paints themselves is linseed oil. This is a non-toxic, plant-extracted oil. It has a sweet, organic aroma. The other familiar scent is turpentine, mineral spirits or other solvent used to thin and clean up after painting. Solvents ARE toxic to breath or touch, to varying degrees. We do NOT use turpentine or other toxic solvents in Touch Drawing.

The Center for Touch Drawing uses only AP Approved Non-Toxic Water-Mixable Student Grade Oil Paints. They can be washed off hands, clothes, tables and drawing boards with soap and water. Regular (not water-mixable) student grade oil paints can also be washed off with soap and water. It just takes a little more effort than with the new water-mixable oils.

There can also be a concern with toxicity of pigments. Student grade oil paints are made with non-toxic pigments. Expensive artist grade paints have certain colors that are made with toxic pigments like cadmium. This is one reason we always recommend using student grade paints.

If someone has an extreme case of chemical sensitivity, there could be a reaction to the paints. Thin rubber gloves could be helpful in this kind of situation. As an extra a precaution, it is always good to use adequate ventilation when working with art materials.

A new California law states that art materials that register even a millionth of a part of toxic materials say that they contain toxic materials on the labels. I spoke with the chemists in the factories and they told me that new study techniques allow them to find the most infinitesimal amounts of toxins in the paints. But, according to them, the fact is that facial makeup has more toxic ingredients than student grade paints. But out of concern for liability, many paint companies now have toxic materials labeling on their student grade paints. There is no law that requires that makeup companies disclose the toxicity of their ingredients.