portrait of Tony Riemensnider Pencil on paper I've been drawing and painting portraits for upwards of 45 years, both as an art teacher, and as a portrait artist. And I've come to see how creating art overlaps beautifully with the practice of mindfulness. Art often requires a "top- down" type of concentration to get started- blocking out time and other distractions, and focusing on the project fully. But almost always, a more intentional focus turns into moments of flow, where a sense of time or struggle ceases and there is the joy of creation. Drawing portraits requires lots of energy and concentration- but a concentration of a wider kind, taking in lots of what is going on- both without, in the outer world, and within. This summer I drew a portrait of my good friend and colleague Lisa Skildum. We worked live (instead of from a photo), and had to work in a poorly lit hallway, because my classroom was stifling. Besides my drawing, we chatted on about ma