Wendy MacNaughton: The art of paying attention | TED

Summary

Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator and graphic journalist who draws stories by having intimate conversations with people. She explains how drawing someone's portrait, while maintaining eye contact, forges an immediate connection. Wendy discusses how she uses this technique to uncover deeper truths about people and places that photography often misses. She explains how the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly led her to teach thousands of children to draw online. Wendy argues drawing helps people, especially children, process emotions and trauma by slowing down to closely observe details they normally overlook. She concludes that purposeful seeing leads to greater understanding between people.

Takeaways

• 😊 Drawing helps us slow down, pay attention, and see the world in more detail
• 😮 Drawing faces based on what we see rather than symbols reveals more truth
• 🤔 Libraries provide critical resources for elders and homeless beyond books
• 😌 Drawing strangers can forge connections by starting authentic conversations
• 🙂 Teaching kids to draw helped them process emotions during the pandemic
• 🧐 Letting kids draw without fear of failure builds creativity and self-confidence
• 🥰 The speaker built bonds and understanding across divides through portrait drawing
• 🤨 We fill in the world with patterns and expectations instead of closely looking
• 😢 Grief over his wife's death shaped the bootmaker's life and connection with speaker
• 😃 Drawing brings out hidden stories and depth in people we might misjudge at first

Q & A

What technique does Wendy MacNaughton use to connect with people when drawing them?

She holds her sketchbook low to keep an open channel between her and the person she is drawing, which often makes people curious and leads to an authentic conversation.

How did the library help serve the elder community, beyond just providing books?

The library had dedicated social workers, outreach programs, public computers for job/housing searches, sinks for laundry/showers, and was a safe quiet place for homeless people.

How did Wendy's preconceived notions about Don the bootmaker change after spending a day with him?

She initially judged him based on appearances and assumed he was an ultra-conservative hunter. But after talking to him, she realized he was a grieving widower finding meaning in his craft and looking forward to a special trip with his son.

What happened when Wendy decided to teach kids how to draw during the pandemic?

Her DrawTogether classes went viral, with over 10,000 kids joining daily. It became a way for kids to process emotions and trauma while building skills and connections.

How can the act of drawing help people process difficult emotions?

Studies show drawing helps kids and adults express and work through emotions. The focus and flow state also reduces anxiety. Wendy calls it "looking is loving" - a way to see ourselves and the world with more empathy.

Why does Wendy criticize symbolic shortcuts like the 'standard' smiley face?

She feels those oversimplified symbols prevent us from truly seeing the world and people around us in all their complexity. We risk missing depth/truth by relying on expectations versus carefully looking.

What was Wendy's goal in having the audience do a blind contour drawing?

It forced people to truly look at and focus on each other without judgment or expectations. It created an immediate connection and showed we can overcome barriers to intimate observation.

How can improving our ability to carefully observe impact our lives?

Mindful, non-judgmental observation builds empathy and appreciation for the world. It counteracts negativity biases and helps us see more truth versus just expectations or assumptions.

Why does Wendy emphasize practice over talent in learning to draw?

She wants to encourage people to try drawing as a way to see better, not become great artists. Letting go of perfectionism allows more creativity and connection.

How did Wendy adapt her career when the pandemic prevented her usual work?

She found new ways to use drawing virtually to help kids and families. This led to unforeseen success in building community and helping youth process trauma.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Drawing Faces and Looking Closely

The speaker recalls how adults often correct children's drawing of faces to match an abstract icon instead of what faces actually look like. She then leads an exercise to draw faces by looking closely while making eye contact and not lifting one's pencil, resulting in intimacy and revelation about seeing clearly.

05:00

📖 A Library's Unexpected Role

The speaker describes how her assumptions about activities in a public library were proven very wrong once she slowed down and observed closely, discovering critical resources and services provided to marginalized groups.

10:02

🤝 Connecting Deeply Across Divides

The speaker recounts an unexpected, transformative experience where she ended up spending an entire day drawing and listening to a bootmaker's stories after initially judging him superficially, forming an unlikely but meaningful connection.

Keywords

💡drawing

The main theme of the video is using drawing to really look at and understand the world and people around us. The presenter talks about how drawing someone forces you to truly pay attention and capture details, unlike photography which can objectify people. She provides the exercise of drawing each other to illustrate this concept.

💡looking

The presenter stresses that drawing is really about carefully looking and observing, not producing quality artwork. She wants people to 'rewire their brains' to truly pay attention instead of relying on patterns and assumptions. The drawing exercises she provides aim to facilitate mindful looking.

💡faces

The iconographic 'face' drawing that adults often show kids is contrasted with the real complexity and uniqueness of actual human faces. The presenter wants people to appreciate these details instead of abstract representations.

💡stories

The presenter shares stories depicting how taking time to draw someone and talk to them revealed deeper truths and connections, beyond superficial assumptions. This ties back to the theme of attentive looking and listening.

💡trauma

Drawing is presented as an outlet for kids to process emotions and trauma during the pandemic. The presenter's DrawTogether sessions gave them a supportive environment for self-expression.

💡perfectionism

For kids especially, drawing can help let go of perfectionism and fear of failure to facilitate creativity. The presenter aims to undo the self-judgements adults gained over time.

💡pandemic

The pandemic prompted the presenter to start DrawTogether online drawing sessions for thousands of kids stuck at home. This became an active way to help them process the crisis.

💡emotions

Studies show drawing helps kids effectively deal with their emotions, including difficult ones like trauma. The presenter leveraged this in her sessions.

💡love

The mantra "drawing is looking and looking is loving" captures how mindful observation can reveal beauty and dispel assumptions about others. This facilitates connection.

💡truth

Key stories depict how taking time to draw someone and talk openly yielded truer understanding between two very different people. This ties back to careful looking beyond appearances.

Highlights

Drawing exercises help people make intimate connections and reveal deeper truths

Drawing faces based on observation rather than symbols creates more authentic connections

The continuous line drawing exercise forces focus and connection between people

Drawing reveals stories and truths that go deeper than appearances and expectations

Public libraries serve many overlooked needs for marginalized people

Assumptions about people fade when taking time to listen and draw their stories

The practice of drawing cultivates the skills of careful observation and listening

Drawing helps process emotions and trauma by focusing attention

The pandemic disrupted lives, but drawing sessions created connection

Drawing slows us down so we pay attention to overlooked details

Letting kids draw without judgment builds confidence and connection

Symbols and icons prevent deep connection with the world

Stories reveal deeper truths when the storyteller feels genuinely heard

Drawing fosters curiosity and openness to unfamiliar people and ideas

Truly seeing ourselves and others requires patient, non-judgmental attention

Transcripts

All right, I'm going to go out on a limb here.

I'm going to say that every single one of us in this room

made drawings when we were little.

Yes?

Yes? OK.

And maybe around the age of like, four or five or something like that,

you might have been drawing,

and a grown-up came over and looked over your shoulder and said,

"What's that?"

And you said, "It's a face."

And they said,

"That's not really what a face looks like.

This is what a face looks like."

And they proceeded to draw this.

Circle, two almonds for some eyes,

this upside-down seven situation we have here,

and then a curved line.

But guess what?

This doesn't really look that much like a face, OK?

It's an icon.

It's visual shorthand,

and it's how we look at so much of our world today.

See, we have so much information coming at us all the time,

that our brains literally can't process it,

and we fill in the world with patterns.

Much of what we see is our own expectations.

All right.

I'm going to show you a little trick

to rewire your brain into looking again.

Did you all get an envelope that says "do not open" on it?

Grab that envelope, it's time to open it.

Inside should be a piece of paper and a pencil.

Once you have that all prepped,

please turn to somebody next to you.

Ideally, somebody you don't know.

Yeah, we're doing this, people,

we're doing this.

(Laughs)

Great.

Everybody find a partner?

OK, now look back at me.

OK, now look back at me.

You are going to draw each other, OK?

No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I promise this is not about doing a good drawing, OK?

That's not what we're doing here,

we're looking, this is about looking.

Everybody's going to be terrible, I promise, don't worry.

You're going to draw each other with two very simple rules.

One, you are never going to lift your pencil up off the paper.

One continuous line.

No, no, trust me here.

This is about looking, OK?

So one continuous line never lift the pencil.

Number two,

never, ever, ever look down at the paper you're drawing on, OK?

Yes, it's about looking.

So keep looking at the person you're drawing.

Now put your pencil down in the middle of the paper, OK?

Look up at your partner.

Look at the inside of one of their eyes.

Doesn't matter which one.

That's where you're going to start.

Ready?

Deep breath.

(Inhales)

And begin.

Now, just draw but notice where you are,

you're starting there and you see there is a corner,

maybe there's a curve there.

Notice those little lines, the eyelashes.

People are wearing masks, some aren't, just work with that.

Now just go slow.

Pay attention and draw what you see.

And don't look down.

Just keep going.

(Murmuring)

And just five more seconds.

And stop.

Look down at your beautiful drawings.

(Laughter)

Right?

Show your partner their incredible portrait.

It's so good, right?

I want to see them.

Hold them up.

Can you guys hold them up?

Hold up, everybody.

Oh my gosh.

Are you kidding me?

You all are amazing.

OK, you can put your drawings back down,

tuck them under,

put them on the paper.

That was wonderful.

I mean, they're all terrible, but they're wonderful.

Why are they wonderful?

Because you all just drew a face.

You drew what you saw.

You didn't draw what you think a face looks like, right?

You also just did something that people rarely do.

You just made intimate eye-to-eye,

face-to-face contact with someone without shying away

for almost a minute.

Through drawing, you slowed down,

you paid attention,

you looked closely at someone

and you let them look closely at you.

Good job.

I have found that drawing like this

creates an immediate connection like nothing else.

Alright.

So I call myself an illustrator and a graphic journalist.

I draw, I tell stories.

I spend time with people looking and listening.

And I take the words of the people that I speak with

and I put it together with drawings that I do, mostly from life,

just like you all just did.

I found that drawing like this does a lot of things

that photography can't do.

So when somebody points a camera at you, how do you feel?

A little objectified, right?

When I'm drawing, I hold my sketchbook low

and it keeps an open channel between me and the person I'm drawing.

A lot of time somebody will see me drawing and they'll get curious.

They'll come over to me,

and a real, authentic conversation begins.

Let me give you an example.

So a while back,

I wanted to do a drawn story

about how the public library serves our elders.

But after spending a few days kind of lurking around with a sketch pad,

looking over older folks' shoulders and asking them what they were reading,

I wasn't really getting the story.

Until I stumbled upon Leah.

Leah is the first, and at the time was the only, full-time social worker

dedicated to a library in the nation.

Turns out, public library definitely serves our elders.

It is also a social service epicenter of a city.

This is Charles.

Charles works with Leah.

And he does outreach within the library to folks

who are experiencing homelessness.

And he took me around,

I carried my sketch pad and I was drawing everything I saw,

and he showed me a very different library than I'd previously seen.

So computers that I assumed were for checking-out books,

or, you know, looking at emails,

were in fact a lifeline for folks who are searching for jobs and housing.

The sinks in the public restroom,

they are a laundromat and showers for folks who are sleeping on the street.

A library is a safe, quiet place

where anybody can go and find resources

and rest for free.

See, the moment I stopped looking for the story that I expected to see,

an entirely new and richer truth was revealed.

I found this to be true with everything and everyone I've ever drawn.

OK, so I draw from life, right, like you guys did.

And so I built myself a mobile studio

in the back of a swanky Honda Element --

So that I could go anywhere,

talk to anyone at any time and then draw and paint and sleep in the back.

It is very cozy.

I was on the road in Utah,

drawing and talking to people,

when I spotted on the side of the road a hand-painted wooden sign.

It said "Bootmaker."

I stopped.

A tall, white, handlebar mustached man wearing a cowboy shirt,

opened the door and found me,

a sketchbook-carrying, jumpsuit-wearing, urban, lefty lesbian,

smiling like, waving like a dork.

(Laughter)

When I spotted the stuffed cougar on the wall behind him,

this vegetarian thought she knew all she needed to know

about Don the bootmaker.

But there we were.

So I asked him if he'd just show me quickly a little bit about his craft.

He agreed.

And we ended up spending the whole day together,

as I drew out Don in his workshop,

and he told me about the sudden death of his beloved wife,

about his deep, deep grief,

and about this hunting trip that he was planning,

and so looking forward to taking with his son.

Every tool in that shop held a story.

And he was so, so happy

to share it with somebody who was genuinely curious and interested.

By the end of the day,

Don and I looked very different to one another.

And this drawing,

which ended up in my visual column in the New York Times

or as Don likes to call it, the fake-news media --

(Laughter)

now hangs framed on the wall of his big game trophy room.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So I was getting ready to start on a new drawn story

when the pandemic hit.

And overnight I was, like so many people, just unable to do my job.

It was my own mother who suggested that I teach drawing to kids.

Kids who were about to lose their routines,

be stuck at home,

and to help give parents a much needed short break.

Now I'm trained as a social worker,

but I'd never taught kids before.

But the night before school closures in San Francisco,

I went on Instagram

and announced that the next day we'd try something called DrawTogether.

10 am.

I sat behind my drawing table in my home studio

and my wonderful wife pointed an iPhone at me

and pressed "Go live."

And what I thought would be 100 kids,

ended up being 12,000.

All eager to draw a dog.

The next day,

14,000 kids came

and we drew a tree,

and that drawing exercise that you all just did.

What was supposed to be five minutes for five days,

ended up being 30 minutes a day,

five days a week,

for months.

And yeah, we talked about line and shape

and we learned about perspective

and light and shadow.

But what was really going on

was we were actively looking our way through a global catastrophe together.

See, drawing slows us down.

It keeps our hands moving

so we can pay attention to things

that we usually overlook or that we ignore.

Studies show that drawing is one of the most effective ways

for kids to process their emotions,

and that includes trauma.

It helps us talk about hard things.

We say something in DrawTogether, it sounds hokey, but it is true.

Drawing is looking

and looking is loving.

If we can give kids the right supportive environment,

drawing helps them let go of perfectionism and fear of failure

so that they, unlike you and me,

and especially those of us who might have freaked out just a wee bit

when I said earlier we were going to draw, right?

We can let go of these harder self-judgments

so we don't have to undo them later in life.

OK, I don't expect you all to become drawers.

But I do know that all of us, kids, grownups, everyone in this room,

we can all be better at looking.

Because this is not a face.

And when we live like this drawing,

we miss out on all of the depth and detail of the world

and people around us.

This is a face.

And this is a face.

And that is such a face.

(Laughs)

And these are faces.

And if you slow down, I promise,

pay attention and really look.

You will fall back in love with the world and everyone in it.

And after the past few years we've had,

I think we all desperately need a chance to look closely at one another

and at ourselves,

and tell the real truth about what we see.

Thank you.

(Applause)