Pick up a pencil, a crayon, a pen and get ready to doodle as you watch this podcast in which Jonathan Plotkin and Kathryn converse. Just let your doodles stream onto paper as their discussion flows through you.
My view of the world has always been one of connectivity and that no one single part of anything is the whole story. It’s the relationships of the parts that comprise the whole that make things much broader, much richer and more vibrant.
-Jonathan Plotkin
Chicago-based Jonathan and his musician son Noah Plotkin who is also a Facilitator in Living Whole Online, collaborate together in Quick Draw Animations which combine Noah’s music with Jonathan’s animations, and Storytime Theatre, a form of performance art bringing together memoir reading with steel drum beats.
Memoir writing is an interesting experience that can lead to a broader understanding and a healing process.
-Jonathan Plotkin
Jonathan is also a real estate developer. He views the people involved in Living Whole Online as humanistic developers.
Do you have a cartoon posted somewhere so that every day you can be reinspired by it?
Jonathan Plotkin is a nationally published editorial cartoonist, illustrator, educator and patron of the arts. His title as Artist and Chief Imagination Officer at Spontoonist tickled Kathryn’s curiosity.
During her interview with him, Kathryn watched as Jonathan frequently made a note of something that may give him ideas for a future cartoon.
As a child and to this very day I have been a prolific doodler. Just ask my wife or kids. There is not a piece of paper in the house that doesn’t have something scribbled or drawn on its surface. Growing up it would be years before I realized that doodling in school actually helped me to learn by allowing what I was hearing in class to be imprinted into the images I was creating. But help it did!
-Jonathan Plotkin
Jonathan is also Co-Founder and Strategic Business Manager of The Drawing Board , which brings the creativity of New Yorker cartoonists to businesses that want help with innovation and strategic thinking. He is a standing member of the National Cartoonists Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. His art can be found on the pages of the Chicago Tribune, American Bystander and other national print and online publications.
I am a firm believer in the power of doodling to assist kids and adults of all ages to retain information especially if they are inclined to be visual learners as I am. The Spontoonist , or spontaneous cartoons, is a direct result of this effort to teach and inspire others to pick up a pencil or pen and allow their minds eye to register and retain information through the magic of drawn images.
-Jonathan Plotkin
Here are some highlights of Jonathan and Kathryn’s discussion:
Having the time to listen to yourself in addition to others…boy, in my lifetime, I wish I had listened to myself more…The listening goes both ways. You have to listen to another human being, and you have to listen to yourself in order to process and make sense of the world.
-Jonathan Plotkin