The exercise
We took a portrait painted by Arnkjell Ruud as the starting point for the artistic exercise. The initial idea was to immerse oneself in the painting by having everyone copy or imitate it. Through imitation, one can recreate the brushstrokes, movement, colouring and composition.
A sheet of paper was attached to a board and placed on an easel next to Arnkjell’s portrait. One person at a time copied the portrait, whilst the other participants observed the movements of the person copying and tried to imitate them.
Aligning while excluding
Tor Aleksander was the first to start painting. His impulse was: ‘aligning while excluding’. We wondered: ‘How does one align to such an impulse, which inherently involves exclusion?’ But there wasn’t much time to think, as Tor Aleksander was already making his first brushstroke. However, he was painting on the portrait of Arnkjell and not on the blank sheet of paper we had provided. We quickly intervened and said he couldn’t paint directly on the portrait. In this intervention, aligning to Tor Aleksander’s impulse to act emerged almost of its own accord: we excluded one option. He began painting on the blank sheet of paper. During the reflection, Tor Aleksander stated that it felt liberating when there weren’t too many options at once. (Further thoughts on the impulse of ‘aligning while excluding’ can be found in the window ‘The Impulse to Act in Activities’.)
Creating a connection
Now it was Vera’s turn to continue painting on Tor Aleksander’s picture. Vera’s impulse to act is: ‘connecting while nurturing’. This had already become apparent just moments earlier in the way she had attached the paper to the board. I tried to guide the task in a way that aligns to Vera’s impulse to act, and asked her to pay close attention to the lines in Arnkjell’s painting and, so to speak, to transfer them onto the new painting – in other words, to connect the images of Arnkjell and Tor Aleksander. Albert noticed Vera’s hesitation and added that she should look at what was already there to see what she could use from Tor Aleksander’s beginning. The connection between the two paintings seemed to give her a good starting point. When, after a while, she hesitated again and didn’t know how to proceed, we realised that a new connection needed to be established. This time, Albert suggested to me, Runa, that I should make a few small adjustments to get Vera going again. My impulse to act is: ‘pulling up while spreading out’. It took only a few strokes for Vera to know how to complete the portrait.
