Back to Kindergarten!

Still crazy after all these days!  Time for art is still usurped by organizing, packing, cleaning and all the other myriad things that come with a major move and transition.  So, although I don’t have any new art to share, this has been much on my mind:

Listen to Mustn'ts, child, listen to the Don'ts.
Listen to the Shouldn'ts, the Impossibles, the Won'ts.
Listen to the Never Haves, then listen close to me.
Anything can happen, child, Anything can be.

-Shel Silverstein 

There are times when we just need to move our minds and creativity away from a world that says things should be a certain way; that there are right ways and wrong ways to be ourselves; that feeds us full to bursting with expectations and rules and can silently and insidiously steal away the gift of our creativity.

Remember when you were a child and every moment was an exploration, a joy, an inspiration?  Where every new creative act took place in the now and was met with enthusiasm and wonder?  When it was okay to color the sky purple, to build a house for the fairies or a shelter for a frog? 

 

All children have the capacity to live in the moment; to create from their hearts and experience joy.  It’s only as they grow and take in the “mustn’ts, the don’ts, shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts” that they lose touch with their creativity.  I love it when my 2 year old grandson climbs up next to me, asking to make art.  That pure creative spirit that brings him joy in the act of creating inspires me and lightens my heart!

Give yourself the gift of reconnecting to the child within you!  Keep it in Kindergarten, as one of my mentors used to say.  Simple, uncomplicated and fun…Here are some ideas to start with:

• Watch the clouds!  What shapes, animals, newly created wonders can you discover there?
• Look online for free coloring pages.  You can use these to simply color, as patterns, or as a springboard for simple collages that will use up some of your paper scraps.  The inspiration for my “Vision” collage was a coloring page!
• Cut a crown out of card stock or colored paper, decorate it to your heart’s content and wear it.  Be Queen of all you see for a day!  Add a beautiful, handmade wand and be your own fairy godmother!
• Sandwich various colors of tissue paper between layers of waxed paper, make a frame out of colored or scrapbook paper and hang in your window for a stained glass effect that is beautiful in its simplicity.
• Finger-paint!  Mix salt and flour with a little water to make a paste (the consistency of thick gravy).  Divide into small containers or dishes and add just a bit of food coloring to create different colors. 
• Create temporary stamps from vegetables—cut a green pepper, cucumber, etc. in half or cut a simple raised design into the raw side of half a potato.  A red onion, cut in half and allowed to dry out makes a lovely rose stamp – as does the bottom of a celery stalk!  For more permanent, reusable  stamps, cut a shape out of the bottom of a clean styrofoam meat tray.  Clean well, then use a pencil or pen to press a simple design into the smooth side of the foam.  My  kids and I made a whimsical floral stamp one year, which we used to decorate gifts, including a gardeners apron and tee shirt.
• Stir up a batch of bubbles, and revel in some fun!  To one quart of water, stir in 1/2 cup of sugar until the sugar dissolves, then stir in 1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid.  You can make bubble wands out of coat hangers, making sure there are no sharp edges.

Feel free to discover and add your own inspirations (and share them with us)!  If you’re in a place where creativity seems to have packed up and taken a vacation, giving yourself the gift of playfulness may be just the thing needed to invite it back into your days.

 An Arthur Rackham illustration from a vintage children's book, circa 1902