Play as a Part of Studio Practice

I've been calling this year my year of no. Meaning, I have said no or been forced to say no to opportunities due to health issues, prioritizing mental health or just simply finally feeling comfortable to opt out and reclaim my time. Since I graduated college, I've held multiple jobs and gigs and once was very proud of myself for always being busy. I come from a family of overachievers and hard workers so it is more familiar to me to be busy and work all the time than it is to have leisure. In my year of no, I've rediscovered play in a way that I haven't in a very long time. My day-job/bread-and-butter is being the Assistant Director of the Center for Creative Exploration at PCA&D and I am happy that a good portion of my job is encouraging people to tap into their creative side. Often this means there is space for play and modeling play for creatives and the creatively curious! Just this past Friday, I spent my day working from It's Modern Art as part of the Peep Show with Executive Director of Center for Creative Exploration and long-time creative collaborator Natalie Lascek. We co-created a space that encouraged play as a vehicle to talk about the importance of funding the arts and advocating for the arts. 

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Natalie crafted a giant mouth that was our creativity creature and I created a zine about arts advocacy. We spent the day wearing satin red gloves and rewarding participants with knowledge (our zine) and a little alien friend. The whimsy of the project was both in the performance and in witnessing people stop and agree to be part of our weird experiment. Like most things I find myself doing in the play-o-sphere, adults said they would come back when they had time whereas kids could stop and jump right in. In my year of no, I am trying to be like the kids and jump right in. 

In that spirit, I wanted to share some un-precious water color sketches I made. I say un-precious because often I overthink my work, wanting every bit to be meaningful and precise. Instead, most of these watercolor sketches were more visceral in the sense that I had a thought or sometimes half a thought and went for it. Many of these were made as I was recovering from my miscarriage and just needed to do something with my hands. 

This year of no has also been part of a larger cycle of me reclaiming my childhood self. I've been doing more things that young me would want to do including embracing angst, obsessing over owls, and bringing bright and bold colors back into my work. My murals are generally colorful and bright, but my personal work wasn't for a while. 

What I've learned in my journey through play is the following: 

• Embracing play is embracing ambiguity
• Embracing play and ambiguity leaks into areas of my life where I can afford to be more loose and less anxious about outcomes and control and that is good for me
• Embracing play means I get to try new mediums I otherwise wouldn't try AND I get to experiment with how mediums interact
• Embracing play also means I can do other creative things like start line dancing! watch more cartoons! play video games! literally play with my nieces! These acts have not only brought more joy into my life, but they've reignited my desire to make in a whole new way
• Embracing play also means I get to take myself less seriously. As an enneagram Type 1, oldest daughter with generalize anxiety disorder, I know I need to take myself less seriously lol
• Embracing play has allowed me to connect with others and be more forgiving. Not everything needs to be perfect
• Embracing play has also allowed me to advocate for myself and my time. Saying not thanks and holding that boundary to keep my play-time is imperative

Take this as your sign to get a little weird! Start drawing even if you don't know what you're going to make! Find a felting kit and get stabbing! Play with paint just because it feels good gliding on paper! Learn a dance on YouTube! Schedule a play date with a friend! Go out and play!