Wendy MacNaughton

Artist, Educator/Teacher, Gay, Journalist

Wendy MacNaughton is a New York Times Bestselling artist and graphic journalist who uses the tools of drawing, social work and storytelling to help people pay attention and connect with one another. She gave a TED talk titled "The Art of Paying Attention" and got the entire audience to draw each other. Wendy is the creator and host of DrawTogether, the beloved drawing-based learning universe that builds confidence, curiosity, care and connection through art. The non-profit DrawTogether Classrooms currently reaches over 300,000 learners, providing educators with all the resources, training and support they need to easily introduce art and social emotional learning into classrooms with a focus on Title 1 schools. In 2023 she launched the Grown-Ups Table, a newsletter 55K members strong that offers drawing lessons, assignments and a deeply engaged supportive creative community around the world. Trained as a social worker, Wendy was the first weekly visual columnist for The New York Times, and the first artist sent by the NYT to document Guantanamo Bay. Her ongoing series of drawn journalism “Meanwhile” elevates the stories of overlooked people, places and things. Working out of a mobile studio built in the back of a Honda Element, she travels the country using drawing as a way to meet people and document their stories. Wendy was a columnist for California Sunday Magazine, has published 12 books including 3 NYT-Bestsellers, and created the artwork for the #1 NYT Bestselling “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.” She is the co-founder of “Women Who Draw,” the industry-changing organization that made it impossible for publications to say “we’d hire more (Black/Brown/Queer/Trans/Non-Binary/Women) artists if we only knew where to find them.” Wendy’s recent book “How to Say Goodbye: The Words of Hospice Caregivers”, based on her experience as the artist-in-residence at the Zen Hospice Project, was just nominated for the California Book Award's Contribution to Publishing. She is based in Oakland but is often in NYC. She's queer. And she loves to spend hours in the art section of used bookstores.

Close looking and deep listening.

Our world is increasingly fractured. People actively look away and avoid one another. DRAWING teaches us to SEE again. And when we slow down and look closely like that, we can't help but connect, care and take responsibility for one another and the world around us. Drawing is also a magic bullet for letting go of perfectionism, becoming more curious, reducing isolation, cultivating empathy and growing creativity, connection and care. Remember: before we could write, we used our hands to draw. While many of us stopped drawing when grown-ups introduced judgement into the mix, it's still in our bodies, and it’s one of our greatest tools to express ourselves, and see and connect with each other. And every single one of us already knows how to do it. We just need the support to start again, and the right kind of encouragement to keep going.

Amateurism, Art, People

Writing backwards.