Body Mapping with Ise Sharp

Making body map drawings of our inner experience

Welcome back to AND THE SUN, your favorite newsletter about creative, artistic, and inventive approaches to meditation. Thanks for tuning in again.

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This week, weā€™re introducing our first artist interview and meditation collaboration. Our vision is to work with artists, designers, and makers to explore their works through the lens of meditation. Weā€™ll release collaborative projects and meditations together, inspired by their work.

Two updates before we start:

  • We had a technical snafu last week when we tried to send the newsletter from a custom address. The result was that last weekā€™s newsletter went to many peopleā€™s spam folders. Womp. If youā€™d like to check out last weekā€™s piece ā€“ about Averyā€™s caffeine addiction ā€“ you can read it here.

  • This past weekend, Evan Leed and I hosted a successful workshop on attachment & authenticity, and we will be hosting more down the road. If you want a sample meditation from the workshop, just reply to this weekā€™s newsletter and weā€™ll hook you up!

An Interview with Ise Henriques Sharp

Ise Henriques Sharp is a Jamaican American artist. She is currently completing her MA in painting at Royal College of Art in London. Her work explores notions of consciousness and being through iconography, color, and form, converging her interests in metaphysics and spirituality.

Avery & Ivan:
How did you first get into your current practices?

Ise: 
I was living in New York, working in art galleries, and I didnā€™t have a healthy lifestyle. So I decided to leave New York and ended up at my momā€™s yoga retreat center in Portugal. Thatā€™s where I met a young man from India who practiced Kriya Yoga. I got really into it, inspired by Autobiography of a Yogi. That led to a daily meditation practice and deeper exploration, and eventually I happened upon somatic therapies.

I had a spiritual background growing up - and grew up in an artist household - but I entered college with a rebellious mindset to study environmental science and physics, partly because art had felt like this expectation that my mother had for me growing up, and I was trying to get away from that. It wasnā€™t until later on that I found my way back to art and the spiritual side in a way that resonated with me and allowed it to feel like something that was truly mine.

Avery & Ivan:
Can you tell us a bit more about how this path has influenced your artistic and spiritual journey?

Ise: 
I switched from STEM to art midway through college, and now, in grad school, Iā€™m seeing a lot of artists who have science backgrounds. I think it brings a grounded perspective to the way we think about existence, meaning, and how the metaphysical / spiritual intersect with the material world.

I donā€™t really see a distinction between metaphysics and spirituality. I believe in a universal consciousness. Thereā€™s this idea in metaphysics that matter behaves both as wavelengths and particles, and when you interact with it, it collapses into matter. For me, that ties into energy, tooā€”when you pray or manifest, youā€™re putting out wavelengths, which, through action and laws of attraction, aligned wavelengths collapse into something tangible. Itā€™s how I think about our relationship with the universe.

Iā€™ve had moments of what people call ā€œego death,ā€ where my previous sense of self completely dissolves. I find the understanding of self that emerges has to slowly find a new balance. This push and pull between detachment and recognizing the meaning in every moment and interaction is always present.

Itā€™s tied to my belief in universal consciousness. The deeper I go in meditation, the more I see everything as divine. And when I realize weā€™re all part of the same consciousness, it changes how I interact with the world. Even something as small as how I treat my clothes has shiftedā€”I used to just toss them on the floor, but now Iā€™m more mindful. Itā€™s about being gentle with the world around me and moving toward surrender.

Avery & Ivan:
You recently started a masters program in painting. What went into that decision?

Ise: 
It was kind of spontaneous. A couple of years ago, I experienced significant loss, which led me deeper into my meditation practice. Over the past year and a half, Iā€™ve been trying to live more in the present and let life reveal itself to me, instead of planning everything out. Thatā€™s how I ended up applying to art school.

I was participating in a somatic therapy program in the UK. One of the instructors, who was also a former art professor, saw my drawings and suggested I apply for a masterā€™s. At the time, I had no plans to go back to school, but I checked the deadline and saw it was about to pass, so I pulled together an application in two weeks, appliedā€¦ and I started school a few weeks later. It was one of those moments where I just went with the flow, and it worked out.

Avery & Ivan:
As a meditator, how do you approach your art-making?

One of Iseā€™s loose and wild pieces.
Anansi, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 30 Ɨ 60 inch.

Ise:
I feel like in both English and American cultures, we tend to live in our heads. Iā€™ve been working on dropping more into my heart, tapping into emotions and feelings. When I make art, I try to balance between planning and letting things unfold naturally. If I overthink, I get stuck.

I do quick sketches of my paintings before I start painting, but I try not to plan too much and just let the piece flow. The emotional state Iā€™m in guides what I create. For example, today Iā€™m feeling agitated, and I know that when I get to the studio, Iā€™ll create something loose and wild. If Iā€™m in a more solemn or sad mood, Iā€™ll work on something more controlled and precise. Itā€™s all driven by the emotions and energies Iā€™m experiencing at that moment.

One of Iseā€™s precise and controlled pieces. Yemonja, 2022, Ballpoint pen ink and watercolor on paper, 16.5 Ɨ 11 in.

Avery & Ivan: 
Many of your works feature a repeating rectangle motif. Can you tell us about that?

Ise:
Yeah, that was something I did with my earlier work. Iā€™d make these paintings, and then Iā€™d cover them with tiles. I think it came from a fear of what was actually coming up in the loose parts of the painting, like I was afraid of how raw and free it was. So I would cover it up with tiles, creating a sense of order over the chaos. It was like putting up a facade, and Iā€™m still exploring that in my current work.

In process

Completed

Process (left) and completed (right) versions of Duppy, 2022, Acrylic, paper, and ink on canvas, 36 Ɨ 24 in.

Avery & Ivan:
What ideas or experiences influence your art?

Ise:
Iā€™ve always dealt with paradoxes, even in my identity. Iā€™m white Jamaican, and on my momā€™s side, we have ancestry from West Africa, China, and Europe. On my dadā€™s side, thereā€™s English ancestry, and theyā€™ve been in Jamaica for generations, so my family history is deeply tied to colonization and enslavement. I grew up between two homes, living these double lives, and that has carried into my work.

In my art, Iā€™m constantly exploring the paradox of life being both meaningless and deeply meaningful. I draw inspiration from movements like Dadaism and minimalismā€”absurdity and the tension between meaning and meaninglessness.

Avery & Ivan: 
How do you see your work evolving? 

Ise:
Iā€™ve always enjoyed working in extreme sizesā€”either really big or really small. I do feel like Iā€™m being pushed to go bigger now, even though itā€™s uncomfortable. When the piece is big, like my size or even bigger, it feels like it controls me, and thatā€™s overwhelming. But I think Iā€™m starting to move in that direction, especially with the foundation Iā€™m setting in my current work.

Assortment of smaller works by Ise.

The smaller pieces feel more personal, and theyā€™re where I get to play and experiment. But the larger works are where I see things evolving. I imagine the work Iā€™m doing now will eventually become much larger, standing alone as individual pieces.

Avery & Ivan:
Weā€™ve seen your ā€œBody Mapā€ works, and are excited to talk about it, because it feels really aligned with some of the things weā€™ve been talking about at AND THE SUN. Can you tell us about them?

Body Map 8.3.24, Gouache on paper, 58 Ɨ 83 in.

Body Map 8.28.24, Gouache on paper, 58 Ɨ 83 in.

Ise:
I learned about body maps over the summer through somatic therapy. Itā€™s about tuning into places where you hold tension and connecting with the energies within your body. What stood out to me is how your body needs to feel safe before it can release tension. Itā€™s like when your body doesnā€™t feel supported, it canā€™t let go of what itā€™s holding.

In practice, it starts with a body scan, but you focus on the parts of your body that feel good. You draw an outline of your body and intuitively fill it with colors or shapes to represent what youā€™re feeling. Itā€™s a no-judgment space, and as a practice, it evolves over time. It has helped me ground myself, especially when meditation felt like an escape.

Avery & Ivan:
How has body mapping affected your meditation practice?

Ise:
Itā€™s definitely helped me stay more connected to my body. Meditation can sometimes be a form of escapism, especially for meā€”I loved how it allowed me to disconnect. But the practice of body mapping has balanced that by bringing me back into my physical self. Iā€™m learning to appreciate my body more, and though itā€™s still a work in progress, itā€™s allowed me to feel more grounded in my body.

Guided Meditation

Materials Needed:

  • Paper

  • Color pencils (preferable) or a pen or pencil

How to:

  • On your paper, draw a simple outline of a body. Alternatively, you can print a simple outline to draw on here.

  • Iseā€™s audio will guide you through a body scan and mapping exercise. After the body scan, youā€™ll use your colored pencils or pens to draw any significant marks on your body map. These marks can look like anything! Zigzags, dots, scribbles, shapes, swirls. It may be helpful to scan down your body again and draw as you go. Donā€™t worry if youā€™re not a ā€œdrawerā€ ā€“ neither are we šŸ˜‰ šŸ‘‡.

  • You donā€™t have to add meaning or make sense of what appears, as certain associations may change if you repeat this practice.

  • Additionally, there is no need to label or attach the markings to a certain experience. Over time they might start to reveal more about your relationship with your body. This is just a way of tuning in to develop a deeper relationship with it and accepting where it is at this moment.

  • The practice can be done anytime! It is not necessary to begin with a body scan.

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P.S. Can you guess which one is Ivanā€™s, and which is Averyā€™s?

Send us a picture of your body map and tell us how the exercise felt. šŸŒž