John Morris Artists Christina Ayala and John Morris explore the concept of connection between people with their exhibition "Telepathy Drawings" at Montgomery College's Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center in Silver Spring.

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For husband and wife duo John Morris and Christina Ayala, sometimes the best art comes from being in the right frame of mind.

The couple has created an experimental art project that consists of transmitting and receiving telepathic messages in the form of drawings. An exhibition of the resulting art and photographs of the process are on display through Oct. 28 at Montgomery College’s Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center in Silver Spring.

The art is created in seven-minute sessions in which Morris telepathically transmits an image or phase — such as “fortune cookies” or “bird flu” — to Ayala, who then draws what she receives. Seated only a few feet from each other at a table, John also sets up a camera to take a long-exposure photograph of the session, which is often displayed along with the resulting drawing.

The concept began as a 14-image book when Morris and Ayala were graduate students at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has expanded during six years of telepathy sessions.

In order for Morris to force his mind to stay on one track so he can best transmit a thought to Ayala, he writes all his words or phrases down ahead of time and sits behind his laptop. They complete all the planned series of sessions before Morris reveals the words to Ayala.

“Part of it that is very important to me is we don’t start going in one direction,” Morris says. “If we did a drawing and I told her what it was, that might trigger in her something that made her start going down a certain path.”

At the conclusion of each series, the individual drawings are titled according to the thought Morris was sending. Ayala often paces around the room before returning to draw quickly in the last few minutes.

“Sometimes it takes me a while because I’m sitting there and really concentrating, and trying to process it, so at the last minute, I’m scrambling,” she says. “You can see in some of the drawings [that] it drives me crazy because I can’t finish them.”

In addition to a collection of artwork made during their sessions, Morris and Ayala like to showcase participatory work others create. With each exhibition, they set up a telepathy station, consisting of a timer and basic drawing materials, where the audience is invited to attempt their own telepathy drawings.

Montgomery College students Jason Chomycia and Raven Wood had been walking by the telepathy station accompanying the Silver Spring exhibition for several days until they decided to try it.

Wood missed the mark on correctly receiving the message “panda bear” and instead drew something resembling money.

“If you sit here long enough, I think it might work,” says Chomyia, 18, of Gaithersburg.

After trying the experiment twice, Wood never correctly interpreted Chomycia’s thoughts, but she was glad she was still the one with the crayon instead of having to do the concentrating.

“I’d prefer to be the drawer anyway because my thoughts wouldn’t stay in one place,” says Wood, 18, of Silver Spring.

The most direct success Morris and Ayala had was for “Mickey Mouse,” in which the resulting drawing very closely resembled the famed cartoon character. But even if the images don’t represent the target word, it can still be meaningful, Ayala says.

“We’ve had a couple that are really spot-on,” Ayala says. “But typically I think we find it more interesting to find a different dynamic. It doesn’t have to be an apple and a drawing of an apple.”

The welcoming aspect of audience participation was something that attracted Lincoln Mudd, exhibitions committee coordinator for Montgomery College, to the artwork and concept.

“It questions this idea of collaboration and the collaboration between artists,” says Mudd, who is also an assistant professor of art. “It extends that collaboration between the audience viewing the artwork.”

Mudd appreciated the art’s “spontaneous simplicity” and unique concept that draws the audience in rather than challenging them with a concept that may go over their heads.

“That is one of the nice aspects of it; it’s a participatory art project that doesn’t demand of people or have this expectation that you have to be this expert artist to make art,” he says. “It’s picking up a crayon and trying to draw for the pure fun of it.”

The show clearly means a lot to the artist couple, who recently moved to Atlanta from Baltimore, and has even served as the medium for important milestones in their lives. Two years ago, Morris transmitted a marriage proposal to Ayala, who in turn drew a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch. The piece hangs in the exhibition and is titled “Will you marry me?”

It doesn’t bother Morris if the audience believes in telepathy or not, because he values the connection and collaboration the project has brought.

“For us, it really is a vehicle; it’s a conceptual idea.” Morris says. “For me, I believe in the process.”

ccalamaio@gazette.net

“Telepathy Drawings” by John Morris and Christina Ayala will be on display through Oct. 28 in the Open Gallery of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center of Montgomery College, 930 King St., Silver Spring. For more information, call 240-567-5821 or visit www.montgomerycollege.edu/arts-tpss/exhibitions.