Figure Drawing Workshop for Healthcare Professionals
This workshop is part of the 2023 GHHS Well-being Workshop Series. There will be five more sessions of Figure Drawing Workshop for Healthcare Professionals, all in-person at UC Davis Medical Center North Addition Room 1115. You are welcome to one session or multiple sessions.
The other sessions will be Friday, March 17 (5:30-7:00 p.m. PT); Thursday, March 30 (6:00-7:30 p.m. PT); Monday, April 10 (5:00-6:30 p.m.PT); Thursday, April 27 (6:00-7:30 p.m. PT); and Monday, May 8 (6:00-7:30 p.m. PT).
In the course of our working day (or night) it is our job to care for the ill bodies and minds of others. Our own bodies and minds are can be strained by these duties; trauma is present not only in our work but sometimes is a necessary part of our interventions. This workshop is a series of figure drawing experiences open to all healthcare team members and students. It offers a mindful, rather than medical, approach to the human form through traditional figure drawing exercises. Participants can come to any or all of the sessions. No drawing experience is required, and supplies will be provided.
As a nonjudgmental experience rooted in the present moment, figure drawing is inherently mindful. Breathing regularly, relaxing, and being open to what thoughts and feelings come up are essential to producing any authentic art, and are the only focus of this workshop. The goal is not to make finished drawings, but to be restored by 90 minutes with arguably the most classical tradition in the arts.
3 aims: Participants of this workshop will
- practice mindfulness via drawing
- engage with the beauty of the human form
- learn drawing techniques and concepts
Jesse Koskey, MD is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UC Davis, where he sees outpatients and works with medical students and residents. He was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society as a student at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; he attended residency at New York University. For 10 years prior to medical school, he was a painter and sculptor as well as a drawing teacher. His works have been shown in the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center and other galleries in New York and New Jersey. His medical illustrations have been published in both surgical and art books.