Automatic hooking – it sounds like a machine is involved. Or worse! Wink, wink! But when I typed automatic hooking, I was actually referencing the art technique developed by the Surrealists. For a quick idea of what I’m talking about, the following comes from Wikipedia:

Automatic drawing was developed by the surrealists, as a means of expressing the subconscious. In automatic drawing, the hand is allowed to move “randomly” across the paper… Hence the drawing produced may be attributed in part to the subconscious and may reveal something of the psyche, which would otherwise be repressed…

Most of the surrealists’ automatic drawings were illusionistic, or more precisely, they developed into such drawings when representational forms seemed to suggest themselves. In the 1940s and 1950s the French-Canadian group called Les Automatistes pursued creative work (chiefly painting) based on surrealist principles. They abandoned any trace of representation in their use of automatic drawing. This is perhaps a more pure form of automatic drawing since it can be almost entirely involuntary – to develop a representational form requires the conscious mind to take over the process of drawing…

You’re probably wondering why I might be providing this art history lesson when I am in no possible way an authority on art or art techniques (except, perhaps rug hooking, of course, and then only certain aspects of rug hooking). It’s because, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been participating in Sketchbook Revival 2021, and one of the workshops was about automatic drawing.

That workshop was presented by Shelley Klammer of Expressive Art Workshops:

Shelley Klammer is an online therapist who supports creative women to heal “unfinished emotional business” from the past. She is also an educator with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. Shelley supports women to authentically self-express through spontaneous art and writing practices as a way to anchor self-safety, self-confidence and self-love.
-Karen Abend of Sketchbook Revival

To be honest, I wondered how much my drawings were really made without conscious thought. Wikipedia mentioned that too when I was exploring more about automatism..

…surrealist artists often found that their use of “automatic drawing” was not entirely automatic, rather it involved some form of conscious intervention to make the image or painting visually acceptable or comprehensible…”

Artist Stephen Berry was also a bit skeptical, but he could appreciate it regardless:

It was very liberating and thoughtful. It was also an interesting way to explore different shapes, to watch myself as an artist from “the outside” and see what shapes I’m predisposed to, where I’m reverting to certain habits that are lazy, what was exciting and interesting to explore that surprised me, etc.

He had more interesting stuff to say about the technique. Click on his name above.

Scintillating as all this is, you’re undoubtedly wondering how it relates to hooking. In that aforementioned post of mine, which I wrote before I started Sketchbook Revival, I mentioned my night-hooking project, the one the boys are pictured with. It’s part of my “happy rug” series in which I’m trying to focus on the brighter aspects of life after such a crappy last year. And I wrote:

For this one, I’m trying to really just go with the flow; there’s little advance planning in it. Other than the holes, which the rug dictated to me as I sewed on his tape.

See the SYNCHRONICITY that’s happened?!!? I was already kind of doing automatic hooking before I even learned about the drawing technique. Each evening I sit down and hook whatever comes to mind at that moment with whatever I have in the two big bag and one laundry baskets of fibers I have next to me. (Yes, there’s a LOT of hooking stuff in my family room at the moment.)

Both the automatic hooking and drawing efforts are fun to try if you’re so inclined to experiment. For the latter, just Google “automatic drawing,” and a slew of options will come up in your feed. As far as rug hooking goes, just throw some hooking materials into a bag and go to town. I’m using all kinds of fibers: wool strips, wool yarns, novelty yarns, a plethora of fabrics, ribbons, and so on. There’s lots of textile recycling going on!

What have you done lately to spice up your regular practices be it hooking, painting, writing, or even working out?