It was a powerful moment hearing President Joe Biden speak to the nation on July 24 with unprecedented humility, gratitude, and commitment as he passed the torch to a new generation of leaders. Capturing the message from my lens was a challenge as his speech was filled with quotable wisdom for the ages. Many messages resonated with my peacedoodle soul.
We are a good people.
There are uncertain times ahead. I want to remember the hope from his message and the strength of a 52 year electoral career where he has always enjoyed the love, devotion and respect from not only his, but from staffers of other leaders (thank you, Lawrence O’Donnell). I could not capture the entire speech in this note, but you can read it here.
Tell me what you thoughts are. We are a nation poised for change. In what direction will we turn? #ThankYouJoe #SketchnotesForChange #CivilityInOurElections
The UN established the International Day of Peace in 1981 as a day devoted to the ideals of peace by observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire and since then it has had a rich and storied history. This year as the entire globe strives to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic there is a call to think together creatively to create a more equal, just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable and healthier world. Peacedoodle wants to help.
There are so many ways to make a difference.
☮️ Sketchnoters are encouraged to sketch their solutions or an action step that can be taken immediately to make a difference. The art will spread peace and your ideas will ripple out far and wide.
☮️ Adults and students can take photos of acts of kindness witnessed around them.
☮️ We can all make peace with someone.
☮️ We can stand up against acts of hate both online and in our regular lives.
☮️ We can spread compassion.
Please join us and share your actions, images, and ideas – big or small. We will collect them here but you can share on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram with the hashtags #peacedoodleSept21 and #peaceday There is also a Padlet set up where you can upload your creations, write about your actions, record a video and more.
You can read morehere about the initiative and access many resources to share the information with others who want to take action for peace. Let’s make peace with one another. Let’s make peace with nature.
Let’s help the world recover from the devastating divide that has widened between people, especially the marginalized and underprivileged, due to the effects of the pandemic.
We have all had a moment when we have thought; “If only this world had more ….” Well I am asking you to name those essentials so that we can fill our pantries with positives. Get ready to sketch, doodle, and draw. This is another idea for spreading peace one doodle at a time. Sketch a jar and decide what you think is most needed to heal the world (earth, society, education, teachers, family, politics…) today. Share the image with me either on the Padlet, in the Google folder, on Instagram or Twitter and I will compile the images to create a gif for all of us to share. Keep your drawing nearby to give you what you need on the daily. Heck, give it away often, and share the essentials with your community. Tag @lorrainekasyan or @peacedoodle and use the hashtag #remedyjars2020. Let’s inspire one another through surprise and intention.
Join me. During this uncertain moment share your own creative idea for what the world (or ‘fill in the blank’) needs now more than ever. Label the jar with the word or fill the jar with icons representing the thought. I will build us a movie and share it far and wide so that everyone, in every nation, can fill their pantries with virtual essentials that will surely heal our world.
I have drawn and shared a template here – and I shared this image of a jar of thimbles during “Inktober 2016.” It was my hope for a writing idea at the time – a jar of inspiration! Copy away from the template (make a copy of this file) and share back to the world. Goodness knows we need it.
An authentic jar of inspriation and its doodled rendition 2016.
Entries from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, India, Florida, Oregon, and North Carolina. The goal is the same – heal our world through peaceful thoughts and actions. Thank you for participating everyone.
Peace is a Birthright, by Mauro Toselli
Peace Should be Global Everyday, by Wytze Veenstra
The World is Built on Love, by Steve Silbert
Love is the People I Care About, by Reid
Peace to Save our Forests, by Sue
Peace in the Pacific Northwest, by Indigo
Elegant Peace, by Ania Staskiewicz
Simply Love, by Elizabeth Paulson
Colorful, Natural Peace
Peace is the natural home, by Ben and Devon.
Peace is like a Welcome, by Lorraine Kasyan
Peace Starts With Empathy, Care, and Love, by Andrea Wendt
Steps you can take to get involved in the International Day of PeaceLink to this poster for clickable access.
September 21st the International Day of Peace was Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution 36/37. The theme for the International Day of Peace in 2020 is “Shaping Peace Together”
The theme celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This year “Covid-19 is a stark reminder of the need for cooperation across borders, sectors and generations. Our response will determine how fast the world recovers, whether we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and how well we handle pressing challenges: from the climate crisis to pandemics, inequalities, new forms of violence, and rapid changes in technology and in our population.
But just when we need collective action more than ever, support for global cooperation has been flagging. In many countries, public trust in traditional institutions is in decline and relations between countries have been under strain. Will this pandemic bring the world closer together? Or will it lead to greater mistrust? Global dialogue – and action – is now more urgent than ever.” (from https://www.un.org/UN75)
Here at Peacedoodle we believe that creativity spreads joy. Art in all its forms will unleash a world of good for our planet. Join us here to share your thoughts and your creations. What do you see when you envision a peaceful world? Stay tuned to view the images from our international community and from schools all over the world. Peace, one doodle, painting, drawing, icon, poem or essay at a time.
Fill out our form to share your thoughts and your image.
Grab a slide and add your image here as well. Let’s connect the globe with images of peace and heal the world for generations to come.
The power of visuals in learning is deeply rooted.
How many lectures have you attended, or books have you read, that made you vow never to forget their message? Only to find, as time passes and more words fill your brain, that the crisp recollections of these pivotal moments have blurred. Something happens that spurs a memory but you cannot conjure the words. Their meaning holds a feeling, a rich, warm, satisfying feeling, but the connection is just out of reach.
The feeling cannot be translated back into cohesion.
It escapes you.
If you had taken notes at these events, you might be able to find them, but chances are they would be illegible and hard to follow. But, if you had a sketchnote at your disposal, something you invested in, cared about, and experienced fully, just one glance would probably create that spark of understanding leading you directly back to the knowledge you seek.
Fast forward. The opportunity to teach a course on the Foundations of Education was presented to me in the Spring of 2019 and I found myself in the situation to accept. I was not daunted by the limited prep time, just eager to get started. However, the course was grounded in an important text. A text that I had not read before. I am a slow, careful reader. I annotate copiously, reread often, summarize and highlight. With one week to prepare, (and a full-time job) what was I to do?
Panic?
No. I could do all those things mentioned as a reader, but this time I would also engage my secret weapon. This time, my careful reading would also be accompanied by a SKETCHNOTE!
Visual images for the win.
That first week of the course I used my sketchnote to assist me. To promote discussion and clarification. Key points, defining facts, a way to check my own veracity. One student asked to see it again. He asked if they could have copies. I was delighted and shared it on our online learning platform. These notes, all in my own personal hand, helped me teach an important text. They were actually essential for me in this new role. More importantly they allowed me to assist and support my students as we embarked on our learning about educational policy, trends, and challenges. A visual reminder of key events and social issues. At just a glance I could remember policy shifts learned eons ago, (a lone mouse and Horace Mann) but long forgotten.
Teaching with sketchnotes is genius.
Thank you to Sarah Mondale (@sarahmondale), and Sarah Patton of Stone Lantern Films for their permission to share these sketchnotes with you. Their documentary of the book, School, the Story of American Public Education, can be found here. Educators, you can find more of their work on the PBS school series here.
Enjoy this short video of each of my captures. Reach out if you have questions or future projects you would like to consider.
Our International community of Sketchnoters is generous and kind. We genuinely like each other and relish in the diversity of the group. From neutron scatterers, to scrum masters, University Professors, graphic facilitators, artists and engineers. We support and encourage, share, teach and learn from each other.
When this season of virus began. The world watched as the virus overtook China. We marveled at the rapidity with which the government reacted. Building hospitals in the hardest hit areas with superhuman speed. Watching from a distance there was hope that the infections would stay localized, transmission would be halted, and the threat for the rest of the world would diminish.
We were shocked, collectively, when the spread to Italy became so swift and devastating. Back then, around March 11th, Claire Ohlenschlager came up with the idea to have our merry band of about 17 Sketchnoters, all share a sketch in honor of Mauro Toselli, and Mario Foglia, both residing near Milan – the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak. We would each sketch a message of cheer for our friends, tagging them in the post and reminding them of happier times. The messages, like our group, would be unique and multi-layered. We signed up for dates and started posting on March 13th, led by @Claire_ohl we used the hashtag #cocreate and began spreading smiles. Making a sketch a day for our friends in Italy felt like a way to ease the burden of isolation and fend off the infection for our friends. Sending my love to our friends in Italy. Entry #16. #cocreate
My date was March 28th and I was #16 in the que. By then, we learned of another Italian friend, Federica Tabone, to add to the message, and we were joined by many others spreading the focus outward as the quarantine, isolation, and death spread to every country in succession. Our virtual community had always communicated over digital devices, time zones, and languages. The quarantines did not impact the friendships we have developed over time. What it did was bring us closer in a virtual hug where we all took the time to reach out to each other, the hardest hit at first, to just say we are still here. We are thinking of you. Stay safe and sketch on.
#cocreate doodles from the heart to offer joy and to share smiles around the world. The group continues to grow. Sketchnoting to create change.
Art as Social Justice, Art as Change, Art that Brings Joy and Elevates the Spirit
Art is a Gift
What if you transformed the kindness you have experienced in your life and payed it forward?
Be it the generosity of time, talent, finances or spirit you have experienced.
What would happen if you payed it forward?
Recently I have been privileged to witness the creation of a work celebrating those that are disenfranchised. Those who the polite society in trendy towns try to ignore and exclude. Those who the Haywood Street fresco project embraced in a timeless medium of art on a precipice of an island in between main roads and interstates. I have watched the process from its inception, seeing the initial watercolor proof – to each individual subject sketch to cartoon and completion. There are no words for the magic of this process. Fresco, a medium once used to immortalize nobility and pay homage to patrons of the arts, is making sure in 2020 that we see those marginalized by society in living color.
I have attended the services at this house of worship. Watched as the attendees became the speakers to the word. What is offered here is not your standard fare. This is something different. Come as you are. Come when you are able. Be treated with dignity and respect. Share your experience. Help one another. Yes, help one another. Here, the sky is the limit and all are welcome. These folks cannot be categorized, and neither can this work of art.
I am honored.
Being witness to this project from ideation to completion: fund raising, implementation and celebration, has influenced my humanity in a profound way. This work of art transcends and for Peace Doodle it is notable. The subjects informed the art. Honoring them was and is the point. Volunteers, pastor, faith leaders, healer, addicts, homeless – these informed the art.
The service for the unveiling to the public took my breathe away. Not only were there no seats available, but the folks inside spanned every facet of human experience. Hopeless to those who seemingly sit on top of the world. I sat in the back and marveled at the tapestry woven in celebration. Living proof that all are welcome here.
Looking up to the finished piece I witnessed a drawing forth. For me, I was so micro focused on each aspect of the whole, I had not noticed the movement of the piece. Mary, the central character is heralding the welcome table forth TO the homeless on the ground, in repose, in the shadows. With sure steps and a proud air about her. The table above and the helpers behind urging this abundance forward.
As if they are saying: “We will not be deterred. We are sharing the grace with all and anyone in our midst.” The principal artist, Christopher Holt, made this drawing forth real. He, and the other artists, selflessly transferred the gifts and kindness in their lives to transform the lives of not only the people in the fresco but anyone lucky enough to view the fresco in person.
Timelessly paying it forward in word and deed – The Haywood Street fresco.
