Communication Through Art

Remember the days when you were a child and you drew pictures to tell a story? I spent endless hours drawing, painting, and creating small works of art that told tales.

I didn’t really know how much of this skill would be leveraged during my Camino, and this skill brought other pilgrims and myself a lot of laughs, joy, and most importantly, a means to communicate.

Many times I found myself sitting at an albergue or restaurant table surrounded by non-English/French/Spanish speaking pilgrims. I learned real quick that language is a great form of communication, but by far not the only effective method to connect with others.

I recognize that some languages are so far away grammatically and word-wise from the languages that I speak and read. Therefore, understanding was dependent on our ability to communicate without words, using ways other than the traditional approaches.

I was never a good charades player. I can assure you I regretted opting out of that game when I realize that it can be quite challenging to convey a message without words or acting. I then recalled that my drawing abilities could be leveraged.

In the event of a possible encounter with non-English-, Spanish-, or French-speaking pilgrims, I often carried a few pieces of paper and coloring pens. When language would fail to connect me to others, I would draw rough sketches, and others would do the same. It really didn’t matter that the skills were poor, the idea was to communicate – and even the most bizarre-looking dog could be recognized as a dog.

I typically gave the drawings to my meal companions, signed and dated. Today, I regret not having taken a picture of the finished collaborative art pieces, as each one of those told one or more stories of that particular day.

On my next Camino, my intent is to keep each work of art as a visual diary. These little art nuggets will not only remind me of those who shared their talents and their stories with me, but also depict common scenes from my journey. Nothing can truly replace a wordy diary with long entries of thoughts, ideas, comments, laments, and joyful moments. However, those art pieces provide an added dimension of what wordless communication can be.

So when you find yourself at odds trying to communicate with other pilgrims, don’t be shy – a paper, a pen and some good laughs will offer you a new dimension of connectivity.

¡Buen “artistic” Camino! – Pilgrim Sylvie