#DrawingTogetherGM 12: Concerning a Ritual During the Lockdown

Yesterday evening, our warm-up exercise was to draw a page full of smiling faces. We were encouraged to draw different eyes, ears, hair, mouths and noses. It was harder than I thought in 15 minutes to come up with new faces ... I began with the ones I knew ... Pomme, myself, a cat ... and then I had a go at finding some other people ...

thinking about some of the rituals that we have had during lockdown, we were then invited to choose one and draw it.

I chose our evening ritual of watching the RAI1 TV programme Soliti Ignoti (literally, the "usual unknowns". It doesn't translate well. The contestant has 8 professions from which to choose, and 8 people to which they may be applied. If they guess correctly, they win money. At the moment, famous guests are playing for coronavirus charities). At the end of the show, there is a "Mysterious Relative" who appears centre stage. S/he is related to one of the professionals, and the contestant has to guess which one it is. All the money is bet on this final guess.

We have watched this show most evenings throughout lockdown, and get very involved in the final game. So I drew the Mysterious Relative. When we watch, we look at all the faces, and try to figure out if they look like each other, or if they have an "aria di famiglia". It's quite difficult, and we rarely get it right. So that was some context. Here is what I drew:

What do I seek? Perhaps it is just another expression of the desire to connect during a time when we've all been so solitary. On the other hand, we got a lot better at the game after listening to some advice given by a contestant who said that they would choose based on whether people looked like they would be happy to hug each other. Not on ears or eyes or noses. That makes more sense, and when we guess from that point of view, we seem to be a bit more successful!

This drawing group is about to shift from a weekly meeting to a monthly one. I'm sad to hear that, as I have really started to see it as part of my week, and feel that the group is starting to gel. At the same time, it is a wonderful gift from those who run it, and they do kind of deserve to get back to their own lives. It's not stopping, just spreading out a little. So, non vedo l'ora until the next one!