Language in the Open Studio

I went to the Open Studio Project in Evanston for its Introduction To The Open Studio Process: One Day Workshop. Here is my drawing done this afternoon.

Overall, I enjoy and appreciate the experience very much. The workshop is a very process-oriented group and we have a no-comment rule which creates a safe environment for art making processes. It focuses on improving the awareness of our own thoughts and feelings. The facilitator is informative, gentle, and professional. I would recommend this studio and its workshops.

One of the activities was to spend 5 minute writing down our internal reactions, ideas, or connections to one picture we select in the studio. Then, we need to read it aloud and share with people. But we are not allowed to comment on each other. It's called " Witness to an Image".

It was interesting that I had an impulse to write in Chinese. Here is the passage I wrote down:

即使是下坡，他還是努力踩著踏板；
像被什麼追趕著。
前頭有光，但他看不清楚；
山那麼巨大，怎麼騎上來的，
他並不知道。
下坡會比較輕鬆嗎？
需要更多注意力吧。
翻落山谷的恐懼，不可違逆的地心引力，
他必須把持那手勁、力道與專注
與之對抗。
天上沒有一朵雲，他努力踩著踏板；
會像這樣一直往下騎嗎？
他仍努力踩著踏板。

When it was my turn to read it, I said I can read my short passage aloud and then translate it into English for people to understand it. The facilitator rejected my idea. He didn't want me to translate it. ( I was a little bit upset but now I feel grateful.) So I read it aloud in Chinese in front of five White people. I read and read and suddenly I HAD AN URGE TO CRY!

That was the Ah-Ha moment.

None of them understood my passage, not even from my tone because I read it in a very plain way. They just listened to me. They just simply paid attention to something they did not and they can not understand at all. Then, I realize language is not just for communication (I knew it on a conceptualized level, but now I feel the power of it). Language serves the narrator. Language completes itself. It is so powerful and touching while tasting the indescribable connection- in that room, at that moment, we isolatedly share my intentionality.