Many wondrous comic strips were made by 40 or so participants at yesterday’s Swedenborg House explore and draw event, the second in a series of events for children.
My workshop in the Whispering Room started off with one or two exercises including drawing a self-portrait made with your eyes closed, and then erm, feeling the bumps on your head …
Participants learned about some of 18C polymath Swedenborg’s inventions, and the mystery of his lost skull, accompanied by suitably mysterious and muffled sounds coming from one of the cupboards …
Who stole Swedenborg’s skull? Why did 18th and 19th century collectors want the skulls of famous people? Do bumps on a skull indicate what sort of person you are? Some people believed this at the time.
What happened to the skull in the time between its theft and its discovery hundreds of years later? Young (and older) artists yesterday had plenty of ideas about this, and about new Swedenborg inventions. They drew in their leporellos, there were more exciting activities to try out in the Magic Lantern Room downstairs, and afterwards … book signing … and cake!
