Free Saturday Workshop #1 — Emotional Trees in a Collective Forest with Carmen José

When and why did we learn to draw trees in a certain way? And what does this reveal about our relationship with the world?

Join Carmen José in a workshop that explores drawing beyond academic canons of control and violence. Together, we will create a forest on large textiles, which will come together as a collective installation hanging from the ceiling.

The facilitation is composed of exercises in observation, care, and emotional relation — following intersectional feminist and queer perspectives. The workshop is linked to the poetry and illustration book I don’t know how to draw a tree(Rotopol, March 2025).

Similar workshops have been organized at different cultural and social spaces in Rotterdam: Garden of Queerdom, Dokhuis, Ferry Books, Rotterdam Illustrators, TENT, WoLK, and Grounds. From 10–23 August, the artworks from the book will be exhibited at Het Park Paviljoen, together with three workshops about nature journaling for kids, young people, and adults.

Workshop 1

You are invited to draw a big tree on a textile. They are imaginary trees, they can be connected to the trees we see from the window, the trees we remember next to our house or from our childhood memories. Who are these trees? Let’s give them an imaginary name, how are they feeling today?

We start with the roots, how deep do they go in the soil? Are they connected, are they entangled to each other? Then we follow with the trunk, how big is it? How is the structure? Finally we go to the branches and leaves, how far do they go? Do they cross each other? How many leaves? Which shape do they have?