2010 September | Christine Martell

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Using visuals to reach across cultures

We all see things differently. Simple concept, almost obvious. But do you keep it in mind every time you have an interaction? It’s hard to. We see the world through our own experiences, history, and culture. One of the ways I have found to dramatically increase my understanding of how differently we all see is through watching people interpret visuals. I’m regularly in awe by the range of possible ways any one thing can be interpreted.

No where is this more evident than when we work with people from other cultures. It could be someone who lives or was born in another country, but it could also be someone from a different profession. Culture is multi-layered and complex.

Unite Your Brain: How to Effectively Use Visuals in Training, Teaching & Coaching

I’ve teamed up with Intercultural specialist Cate Brubaker to offer a six week teleclass to help you work more effectively with visuals. We’ll talk about how visuals can be used to increase effectiveness and deepen communication across cultural differences.

Cate has more information, an example of a teleclass we recorded last month, and sign up information onCulturally Teaching. The class runs for six weeks beginning Sept 30 at 10 AM Pacific. Here is an overview of what we’ll be covering.

Session 1 :: Getting Started Using Visuals

How not to look foolish or take unnecessary risks
Visuals aren’t your content: You have time to use them
Simple ways to begin

Session 2 :: Designing Your Session

Assessing your audience
Identifying the desired outcome
Planning how to get that audience to that outcome

Session 3 :: The Facilitation Process

The logistics of the space and process
Asking the right questions at the right time
Working with what is in the room

Session 4 :: Using Visuals for Organizing

Using visuals to organize words
Using Flipcharts, whiteboard, sticky notes and other visual aids
Using visual templates

Session 5 :: Using Visuals for Conveying

Using presentation software more effectively
Using photography to increase stickiness
Where to find resources

Session 6 :: Putting it All Together

How the parts form a whole session
From icebreakers to multi-day retreats
Creating a plan for you

The class will be customized to participants needs. You’ll have opportunities to make suggestions and ask questions about your context in each week’s call.

I like to hear your comments and stay in touch.
I’m working on a new series of tools for personal and professional development. To be the first to know about them and introductory specials, sign up to be on the Early Explorer list.

Categories: Exploring My Work

Painting from the Studio

Written by Christine Martell · 3 Comments

Landscape with Vine

Here’s another painting from the series I have been doing that is created by digitally joining three paintings together. I’m enjoying playing with what happens with the segments when they are separate as well as how the perception changes when they become one.

Categories: Artwork

The Miracle in July

Written by Christine Martell · 2 Comments

I went to Wordcamp Portland this past weekend. My favorite session was with Michelle Anderson on Using the Apture Plugin to Tell Interactive Stories.

The Miracle in July is her semi-autobiographical genre bending interactive story. I’m fascinated on multiple fronts. On the technical side, the Apture plugin for WordPress offers all sorts of exciting possibilities for embedding media into a blog. On the creative side, I’m fascinated by Michelle’s approach to her project.
I imagine most people who embed media are doing it to enrich news type of content. Michelle is doing it to deepen engagement with story. She’s an engaging writer already, then she adds music clips, photos, videos, and maps to offer the reader additional insights into what she’s thinking. They don’t interrupt the flow of the text since they are just small icons that appear inline when there is something else to experience. It’s very different than reading with illustrations.

She’s also built the story over time. Sharing drafts and building interaction with her readers through social media. The story is intense, gutsy. Her words paint vivid images and sounds. It becomes all the more alive with the inter dispersed media. Almost dimensional.

The tension between the visual and verbal

So much of my work emerges out of the space between the visual and verbal. I haven’t been able to translate it into the online space. Or express, or explain, or inspire the kind of engagement I can when face to face. I don’t know if I can flip the engagement created by the Apture technology to be lead by the visual. Not sure if it can assist in creating the tension that emerges when you bounce between the visual and verbal by shuffling through prints and then telling the story they inspire. Or perhaps it’s something else. Another way to tell the painted stories I have experimented with? Just seems like there should be some really creative applications. Ideas?

Categories: Storytelling

Four Word Self-Help

Written by Christine Martell · 4 Comments

Patti Digh from 37days.com has a new book, Four Word Self Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives. I brought it with me on a mini vacation focused on relaxing.

Despite the number of times I have learned this lesson in my life, I’m still not good at relaxing. It takes a lot of work, which I realize isn’t really the path. In an attempt to do otherwise, I sat in the comfortable chair in the hotel and picked up the book.

I love the size, it’s 5″ x 6.6″. It has a lovely intimacy in the hand. It’s also a hardcover, which I appreciate for a book that gets revisited. I don’t read Patti’s work once, I reread it over and over as it seeps in differently each time. It’s also a lovely shade of purple under the dust cover.

Does it count as relaxing if you are moving really fast?

Just a few minutes later I am on page 66. I can read ‘four word self help’ insights really fast since each one only has four words. I suspect I am missing the point. I remember the thousands of reminders in my life pointing to this, many of them from Patti herself. I recognize a 4 word insight:

Slow down, absorb words

My illustration in 4 Word Self Help

Then I remember the book is full of lovely art created by readers of Patti’s blog. How could I forget, I even painted one of them. So then:

Slow down, absorb art

Why do I feel so guilty?

I run fast so I feel productive. Relaxing doesn’t feel productive. It makes no difference that my head knows better, or even that I have proved to myself over and over that I am actually more productive when I don’t overtax myself. I haven’t been able to uncouple the auto-response.

Page 68: Breathe deeply and often
Page 69: Let the tears fall

I run fast to stay ahead of the feelings. Positive is easier fast. Overwhelmed and frustrated sneak in when I slow down.

Countering with good behavior

If I do healthy things I think it will balance out. So I continue with a checklist.

Page 70: Keep flowers nearby

I no longer view them as a nice to have, but they are a need to have. Food for my soul. Inside and out. Flowers on my desk, on my deck, in the yard.

Page 71: Use smaller dinner plates
Page 72: Eat more real food

This year has been a shift to more local food. Belonging to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and buying local meat. Easting less higher quality food. I’m doing good. Look how many of these things I am doing!

What am I thinking?

Am I getting any of the messages of this book at all? Running, keeping score? I return to the dust jacket:

life is simpler than we try to make it

I don’t even have to try to make it complex. After so many years of practice it comes naturally. Simple has become complex from all the layers I have to remove to get there.

What would I rather focus on?

Patti invites us to create our own 4 Word Self Help. She offers four guidlines:

Keep it very simple.
Make them four words.
Avoid the word “don’t.”
Make each an action.

What would I like to move toward? Or remind myself of regularly? Here are a few to start.

Make art every day.
Move toward my desires.
Greet difference with curiosity.
Find possibility in all.
Offer benefit of doubt.
Keep doing it anyway.

Thanks Patti

For continuing to inspire me with your writing, and inviting me to contribute art for your books.

Categories: Exploring Me

Resists and Salted Watercolors

Written by Christine Martell · 5 Comments

I get asked a lot about how I keep the white lines in my paintings and how I get the textures. While I’d like to pretend I have incredible eye hand control, in actuality, there are simple techniques I use.

Very much like a cartoon, I start with drawing the general shapes with pencil, then go over them with masking fluid. This is latex or another blend that goes on with a brush or squeeze bottle, dries, and blocks off the area I want to stay white. It rubs off later in the process.

	The process starts with drawing the lines that will be white in a masking fluid, letting that dry, then painting tinted water into the largest segment of the painting. I'm using a watercolor block where the edges are glued except for a place at the top. This also tends to be where the paper buckles the most and water collects.
	I like to paint very wet. I start with water, then flow the color into it, allowing the nature of the pigments to create texture and depth. Some pigments granulate, which is an effect where parts of the paint act differently.
	Sometimes I put multiple colors onto the wet paper, other times it is done in multiple layers. Some colors have stronger pigments and can be put down in one pass, others are more transparent and work better in layers.
	Here the water is pooling into the places the paper is buckling.
	Sometimes I blot the pools of water with a paper towel or cloth, which adds another type of texture.
	I rough in the colors for the rest of the painting, once again, working very wet and allowing the color to flow.
	In order to use salt to increase the texture, you need to have strong color, since it will be lighter after the salt dries.
	The color needs to be intense as well as very wet. I start by creating texture by spraying water onto the wet color.
	Here I have scattered salt into the wet color. I use a course sea salt, a larger kosher salt, and a chunky ice cream salt.
	Here you can see how the color pools around salt crystals.

	It takes a while for the paint to dry under the salt, particularly under the larger chunks. At times I get impatient and assist it with a hair dryer. When dry, the salt gets rubbed off and the texture is underneath. It can be pretty rough on your fingers, so sometimes I'll use a wooden tool to help.
	Each color responds differently to the salt. It's not controllable, you can guide the process at best. You develop a feel for just how wet and how much salt to use.
	I fill in the smallest areas of the painting last. In this case, I wanted a smoother look to the road areas, so I applied the color after the salting process.
	When everything is completely dry and I'm satisfied with the color, I peel of the mask to reveal the white of the paper beneath.
	The mask isn't always perfect, sometimes there are edges that are rougher than I want, or where the paint leaks under the edge.
	Here is the finished painting, which will get scanned into the computer. I make additional adjustments in the digital image. There are some things traditional media is better at, and some that digital media is better for. I tend to mix them up and use the whichever tool gets me the effect I am looking for.