Begin with Grids

 A grid is just a way of repeating something — the same shape, the same gesture, over and over in rows. It sounds structured. It isn't. 

What kind of grids?

•   Neat rows of tiny drawings — leaves, flowers, stars, stick figures          

•   Fingerprints dipped in paint, pressed across the page

•   Wonky squares filled with doodles                                           

•   Circles that don't quite line up                                            

•   Patterns that shift as you go — flowers in one row, leaves in the next, words in the last 

• A simple grid of dots or stamps                    

No rulers required. No measuring necessary. Start somewhere and let the rows find themselves.  Your grid doesn't have to be even. It doesn't have to be precise. My grids never are — I start with seven in one row and six in the next, and then I fill the gaps. It still looks like a grid. It still looks like a pattern. And that's fine.

I'm okay with the okayness of it.

Any tool works — pencil, pen, marker, crayon. Dip your finger in paint. Use a stamp. Press a bottle cap in ink. One of my grids took exactly five minute and five seconds. A few fingerprints, a few words. Done.                      

Let your hand move. Let your mind rest.

🎥 Here's a video if you'd like to see how mine came together: 

Remember there is no right or wrong way of doing this. Your doing is the only thing that matters.

After you're done, if you feel like it:                                       

- Share a word about how repetition felt — meditative? freeing? surprisingly hard?  

- Let your grid meet the world — share a photo if you'd like

- Or simply sit with what you made             

No rules.

માનસી