Touch Drawing ~ Listening Deeply with Deborah Koff-Chapin

Each year at the opening night of the Women of Wisdom Conference, I carry my drawing board, paper, ink, cushion and trusty milk crate up to the front of the aisle. It is usually a slow progress. There are so many beloved friends to hug, some of whom I may not have seen since the previous year. As I set up my portable studio on the floor and roll fresh paint onto the Touch Drawing board and the singing begins, I feel the rising joy. It is as if Women of Wisdom exists in a timeless realm of its own. In this magical space, we generate a field of inspiration that transforms our lives and reverberates throughout the year.

I have had the honor to listen deeply to so many great women leaders and translate their thoughts and energies into images. Each year, a few drawings have been sold to benefit women’s shelters and the WOW Foundation, but there are plenty left — tucked away in my drawing files.

I recently had the impulse to dig through those files and see how many I could locate. I found WOW Touch Drawings going back to 1995 and clear through to the present — except for 2005, when I was too sick to draw. Since I recently set up a new page on my website to share the drawings I do in public settings, I thought it would be interesting to put together an ‘ online retrospective’ of the WOW drawings. They hadn’t always made it home in an organized fashion. Sometimes I found clearly marked folders with the names of the presenters; other years were a bit more confusing. I did my best to get them organized, and selected about a portion of the drawings from each year.

You can see the retrospective touch drawings here. I hope they transmit some of the wonderful energy that inspired them. You can order signed giclee prints in three sizes, and a portion of the proceeds all be donated to WOW. If you are interested in purchasing an original, please contact me. Thank you to all the wonderful women who have worked so hard to keep the spirit of WOW alive through the years.

Deborah Koff-Chapin has been developing Touch Drawing since 1974 and has introduced it at conferences and graduate programs internationally. She is creator of SoulCards 1&2 and author of Drawing Out Your Soul. Deborah is adjunct faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies and Wisdom University, and founding director of the Center for Touch Drawing. See more at www.touchdrawing.com.