Process of Drawing Mary Magdalene

First step: Idea and basic lines.

Second step: Define the face and hands.

Step 3: Redefine.

Step 4: Add value and details.

Drawing, for me, is a symbol of my practice. Writing is too.

I always liked art, but I started drawing more seriously when I was around 13 years old. Before that, my father always used to bring me how-to-draw books from his trips to the United States. I too used to purchase books in Puerto Rico. There was a bookstore that had an art section with how-to books. I purchased a book that taught me how to draw the human face. I still have that book after all these years.

As for writing, I always liked to write letters and I started writing feelings in a school notebook around the same age that I started drawing. I used to read a lot since a young age, so writing was natural for me.

When I decided to reclaim my life and identity as an artist, I chose the two practices that got me started and that I consider basic and essential to my creative and spiritual practice: drawing and writing.

Those are the symbols of my creativity. For a different person, there may be other symbolic, essential practices that signal the mind, body and soul to return to harmony with Spirit.

And what can be the next step after identifying those symbols? To place ourselves in a position of action. To be ready. To make space and time to get started. To have the necessary ustensils to start without thinking.

Attempts to start are often clumsy and frustrating. After 7 or 15 or 40 years of being lost, our being needs time to reconnect, remember and restart. We might need several attempts. We might need to clean our space, organize, or go through any of those rituals that feel both good and like a waste of time.

By developing a process based on what we know about ourselves, we can find a path back to ourselves.

As children, we knew ourselves. We still carry that child inside. It’s in the same place where the Magdalene inhabits our souls.