NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
A creative proposition for insomniacs

 
This was a free participatory project open to everyone.
To view the results up close, click: HERE.
To see photos from the exhibition and event at Galerie Spree, click: HERE.

 

This project was inspired by Marc Blackburn a Los Angeles-based graffiti artist, painter & graphic designer. A drawing he did by candlelight at the kitchen table at 3AM during a recent bout of insomnia knocked our socks off, so we decided to build a project around it. We also decided to give it a cheeky title. We couldn’t resist. Forgive us.

 

To see Marc’s drawing, click: here.

 

Marc’s middle of the night drawing reminded us that insomnia, rather than being a frustrating experience, can instead become a terrific opportunity for unconstrained creative expression.

 

Here’s what we propose you do:

 

Next time you can’t sleep, don’t distract yourself with TV or the computer, just calmly get out of bed, keep the lights off, light a candle, take a deep breath, and try to relax your grip on the ruminative thinking that’s keeping you awake and just let your thoughts flow naturally.

 

Grab a pen, pencil, or whatever you have on hand that leaves a mark and just start drawing. Try not to consciously pick a subject to draw, just let your hand glide where it wants to and express whatever is floating around in your brain.

 

Don’t worry about what you draw being ‘good’, it doesn’t matter at all if you ‘can’t draw’ (that’s a subjective notion anyway) what’s important is that you relax your mind and shift its focus from aggravation about your insomnia to the paper and the candle and to simply enjoying the moment.

 

Drawing in the middle of the night in this manner is a great way to let your mind out of its cage and see what it’s all riled up about. We bet once you’re done drawing, you’ll go back to bed and sleep like a baby.

 

In the morning, we hope that your drawing will not only have inspired you to express yourself creatively more often, but that it will also provide you with fresh insights into your mind and what lies beneath your conscious thoughts.

 

If you’d like to share your drawing and ‘officially’ participate in our project, here’s the info:

 

Deadline for submissions is: August 15, 2013

 

All submissions will be reviewed by Marc Blackburn and Melissa Unger, founder of Seymour.

 

All drawings we receive will be published in Seymour Magazine.  Selected submissions will also be considered for inclusion in an exhibition that will take place in Paris this Summer 2013.

 

-Please email us the items below to: contactseymour@gmail.com:

 

1. A photo of the drawing you created

 

2. The date, time & location in which you did your drawing. A few sentences about yourself, and if you feel like sharing something more personal: tell us what was keeping you awake that night.

 

3. Two photos of one of your eyes ~ photo #1: eye open. photo #2: eye closed

Check out the photos above for inspiration. You can easily take them yourself on a computer/phone camera the next morning. We’ll present these photos with your drawing if it is selected for the exhibition.

 

 

ps: If your drawing is chosen for the exhibit we will ask you to lend us the original, so please keep it in a safe place until we contact you.