A Sense of Play
This year has flipped over from how I originally wanted to tackle it. I wanted to come into the year with a plan. A plan for what I would do each day with my art. A plan for how to run my business and use social media. A plan to go through all the art books I have recently accumulated. Basically, I wanted to have EVERYTHING planned out. If you know me, I am a planner… I don’t really do that well with spontaneity. So, I reasoned that having everything planned out would lead me to a sense of calm and also a very productive year. Well, we are on the last day of January and this month has not felt calm or productive.
I am not writing this to get sympathy. But rather to share that we can have the best intentions and if we take the time to be honest with ourselves, realize that those intentions aren’t actually the best thing for us.
Here are a few truths I am working through. 1. Creativity doesn’t just drop down from the sky (usually). I do need to show up consistently to foster creativity. 2. Having everything planned out pins me in a corner and does not leave room for me to be creative. 3. A balance is where the magic will happen.
So, here’s a story… A few weeks ago, I got some kind of bug and was down for the count for the entire week. At the beginning of the week, I thought I would take the time to make my daily art plan since I wasn’t doing art. I went through some of the art books I wanted to work through and put them on my calendar. I chose daily art prompts and added those as well. I was all planned through September with things I wanted to learn, practice and try. Well, I guess the universe was trying to tell me otherwise because after I made that plan, I was too sick to do what I planned for the rest of the week and was already BEHIND! The entire plan was already off and I hadn’t even started. This I could sense was going to lead me to being on edge and not enjoying my creative time. After I started to feel better, I went through that entire planner and used a white-out pen to cover it all up. It was over before it started. But I felt a sense of calm once I realized that I do show up consistently and decided to have a loosely held list of a few things I wanted to focus on. And to notice what I felt lead to work on… whether that was painting, sketchbooks, collage, drawing exercises, markers.
Ok you might be asking how does all this relate to the title “A Sense of Play”? Because I am a planner and like routine, I find that art gives me a break from all that planning. I do have to resist my natural urges to plan and make it into a checklist, but when I do, PLAY and FUN happen. It’s such a JOY when that occurs and it feeds my life and happiness. All that strict planning was not going to foster a sense of play for me.
Let me ask you, do you need to put a sense of play into your life? Do you need a place to release and recharge? Do you need a way to just let go? If you answered yes to any of those, let me encourage you to put art in your life. You don’t need to be good at it. You don’t need to share it with others. You don’t need have a purpose for it (like hanging it up). It can just BE something that you enjoy and it feels good. And let me also say that it’s a safe space to let go. I don’t “let go” very easily because it can feel scary. Art just for you is safe!! You can throw that paint on the paper and not care where it lands. Scribble on the page and laugh about the squiggly lines. It’s your time!
How can you add a sense of play in your day today? Grab a coloring book and some markers or colored pencils. Do you have old paint from a craft project? Use that and cardboard from your recycling and make a painting. Take a pencil or pen and scrap paper and sketch things around your house. Doodle with your favorite pen in a journal. Use water-based markers as watercolor (if you add water to the color you put on the paper it will bleed out like watercolor).
Join me in the creative process! Create a sense of play! I would love to hear what you are trying currently. Send an email and let me know your current creative pursuits.