Art Friday- Play!

(I am loving me some Instagram. It’s life-changing as far as life documenting goes- make it simple, make it easy, make it fast, make it fun, and this mama o’ six will resist the urge to kiss you for bringing her creative mojo back. Don’t worry Pinterest. You’re still my first love…)

This is all about the dreams… I wanted to start (and did have, for a while) an Etsy store, and I see that in my future. I’ve been fiddling with a lot of prototypes. I’ve been dreaming Kelly Rae Roberts sized dreams- licensing. Creative business. The thing is, after my stint at my job, I have the back side of the small biz down to a veritable art form- now it’s just dreaming big, creating big- and a lot of that? Just means play.

Perhaps one of the biggest gifts I’ve received in the last two-ish months is realizing and identifying my style; knowing what just makes me want to go crazy with the paint and paper. It’s definitely mixed-media. Paint. Patterned paper. (Lots of pretty, pretty, patterned paper.) Words. The Word, more often than not. Knowing what makes me love creating has opened up a freedom- I don’t need to try to work outside of that style (at least right now, and there is always play, of course), and I can hone the techniques that really fill me up creatively. I really, really want to learn how to do encaustics- I’m hoping I can catch a class the next town over, soon.

I took a Zumba class ( a latin dance-aerobic class, thing- Mostly shaking what your mama gave you, honestly…) for the first time the other night and man, was it fun. We were talking about yoga and dance and Pilates (all of which I used to do back in the day), and I was delighted to discover that at least, as far as dancing and yoga, I haven’t lost the skills- even if it did totally kick my bum. I haven’t even attempted Pilates yet. I have goals for a few months from now to start picking it back up- but..*ahem*…the rest of them are real ballet dancers, so…uh…I’ll have to screw my courage up. And the thing is, making art is just the same. It’s getting back on the bike, pedaling for the joy, and letting go of the handlebars and just letting go. It’s lovely.

If your feeling intimidated by your creative endeavors- whatever they may be- cooking, scrappin’, painting, sewing, whatever just fills up your cup- can I encourage you to just get in there and play? Don’t think about all the details. Just go at it for the sheer love of it.