3 ways to help you experiment with your creativity. Ready to play??
Here are 3 things I remind myself to do to get through the guilt that shows up when I am trying to get into a creative flow, how YOU can achieve more joy in creating, gain more freedom to experiment, and help you to release your fears in your creativity to0!
Playtime!!!
1. Dropping perfectionism
We all hope that when we begin to make something, we will be proud of it and enjoy the process, but sometimes that little sneaky Mr. Perfect (and not the good kind) creeps in and whispers….”but it could be sooo much betterrrrr…..” okay, I know, now he’s sounding creepy…
This happens more often when you are making things that will be shown outside of yourself.
Because then there is added pressure and perhaps a whole lot of fears of judgement thrown into the mix; you’re not just producing a moment, you’re producing an outcome, and you’re not intending anymore to just paint for pleasure alone. Maybe you’re trying to make artwork that you know other people will see, maybe it’s a gift that means a lot to give to someone, or possibly you’re hoping someone will buy your thing and that’s when you stop creating solely for yourself, and when that pressure kicks in, and perfectionism can really become a problem.
If we let it.
Trying to make things perfect every single time we create is like running after an invisible horse we can never catch. It’s simply not achievable, unless you can poop out exact replicas of all your artistic creations… and quite frankly, I don’t have the butthole for that kind of malarky.
What we need to bring back is that sense of magic, fun, and spontaneous flow.
So to start to get that back if you’re stuck in the roundabout of perfectionism, a great thing to remind ourselves is that….
Sometimes the best creations have come from whoopsies, mistakes, a spilled coffee, a left turn that took you somewhere you’ve never been before.
I have a guitarist friend that used to tell me, “if you play the wrong note, just play it again so it sounds like you meant to do it.” Making the mistake a feature, in a way. And also the reminder that, this is ART! It’s meant to be messy, unique, and a little weird. It’s kind of expected, so you have a get out of jail free card to be as imperfect as possible!
And if you’re just experimenting with things, you in no way have to show people what you’re in the process of creating. In fact, some creative people recommend you don’t do that, but that is totally up to you. The most amazing Austin Kleon who wrote the very famous “Show your work!” said
“Not only do I think it’s a bad idea to share while you’re actually doing your work, I think it’s a fast track to destroying your work.”
But ultimately, this choice is completely yours; for you, are the creator, after all!
I like to think I am getting better at imperfectionism every year, and if that is you, then you are BRAVE! It takes courage to show your flaws and make them bloom. But it is oh so rewarding!
Here’s another quote I found in my brain today….
”if we were all perfect, everyone would do us”
—Me
Or is the quote
“if it was easy everyone would do it”??
meh…potaoes, poTAtoes…..teeheee
2. You’re not wasting time. You’re learning
“Paintings are but research and experiment. I never do a painting as a work of art. All of them are researches.”
— Pablo Picasso
We’ve probably all heard the story of Thomas Edison and how long it took him to create the first commercial incandescent light bulb, making a stack of attempts before he gave us all a light bulb we can now screw in and…..
…..look….light!!
He wasn’t wasting time when he was doing that. He was learning each time what did and didn’t work and it’s the same process with every new thing we try to do that we never knew in the beginning. Walking, using a spoon to feed ourselves, being an adult….
……..I’m still on the ‘trial and error’ plan with that one…
And even if you think that you aren’t good at learning new things, remember that learning is in itself a skill, and the more you do it, the more you find the joy and wonder and awe in it which keeps us a little more mesmerised by it and ultimately makes us want to do it more.
My childhood mantra was someone continuously telling me to stop mucking around. One of the reasons I wasn’t exshellent at schoolz. I swear, our childhoods have so much to answer for with our creativity hurdles…. Because someone might as well have told me to stop thinking because that will never, ever happen and my whole entire life is one big muck around 😂. (Being silly is one of my proudest obsessions) Even though, the thought of ‘wasting time’ when I should be productive is still hard for me to do without a mega plate of guilt and a side salad of icky afterwards.
But I can guarantee I’ve wasted much more time trying to make something work that just wants to be something else and I could’ve used that time more wisely in the beginning, or at least, when I knew I didn’t have all I needed.
I could’ve stared at clouds and fueled my imagination, discovered, learnt more about my process through trial and error, attended a workshop, I could’ve tried a short course in the subject or ‘mucked around’ with arts and crafts, and found another way to attempt my creative endeavour.
Trying out a different way of doing things, and learning something new along the way either by accident or purpose, could possibly be the thing thats been missing from your creativity all along and EVEN revolutionise your creative mindset, or maybe how you do things along the way.
Learning and the secret art of (not) wasting time is an important part of getting more confidant at that thing, before you put that thing, into practice.
And confidence is so essential!
It’s the difference between utilising your imagination and utilising your imagination without allowing other people to judge it.
And believing our worth as a creative allows us to flower like the beautiful petals we already are.
So go stare at some clouds and waste some time precious petals, I dare ‘ya 🥰
❤️
3. Learning to play
”We don’t stop playing because we grow old…we grow old because we stop playing”
—George Bernard Shaw
What if you remembered that we, as children, had the most amazing imagination? Children experiment all the time without thinking about it becoming a masterpiece.
But we, as adults, often that’s the first thing we do! We usually have a crystal clear intention about exactly how we want this to play out; what we need to create it, what we will do with it afterwards. It’s not about play it’s about product.
Children, on the other hand, experiment with things all the time.
The first idea will turn into so many others, and you can see their little brains ticking; when they mix colours together to make a goopy messy mix of one you can’t name, not thinking about a reference photo, just going in with what they think it looks like in their imagination….. ….until…… possibly even best-intentioned adults step in and tell them it’s not right or they shouldn’t have chosen to draw those mice long instead of short, or… “are daisies really black though, Kara?” or a million other ways we lose that sense of playful imagination to the informed ‘right’ grown-up world.
What if one day, we decided to NOT make something masterful?
What if our intent for the day was to create the most weird, strange thing ever seen from everything you have put in your trash (apart from the gross stuff unless you’re trying to bring the neighbourhood dogs around to share in your art piece) and a pile of gloopy glue you made in your saucepan from good ol fashion cornflour and water that literally cost you two dollars?
The thing about play is we have to drop all judgement and just be in the moment. Try not to see your project how another artist sees it, or how you think others might view it.
It is expression, it’s your way of looking at the world that other people want to see.
How you view light and colour, mushrooms and monsters and sunsets.
We love viewing art because it transports us, takes us behind the eyes of the creator, and we are lost for a time, in where they are, in what they feel, in what they see. So allow others to see how you play and inspire them through you, to play too.
Who knows where it might take the world if we could all play more!!
Because playfulness is not frivolous! Playfulness is not silly, wasteful, or stupid; it isn’t something that you stop doing when you reach puberty… and yes, even adults can do it!
Playfulness is an essential part of experimenting creatively. The only hard part is allowing yourself to do it.
We experiment with things all the time…recipes, clothes, hair styles… learning to play in our creative life can bring us so much more than freedom. It can bring us fun!!
Also… keep a record your experiment results, a sketch or take an image of them and put them in a creative freedom folder. They might be your next big idea, or kickstart your creativity sometime you are feeling not so creative; and they will remind you how taking creative risks yields some pretty awesome results, just from play!
And if all else fails, remember this…
“Only one who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.”
— Miguel de Unamuno
So go be absurd. I know I will be! every. single. day.
If you would like to see the video I created from these thoughts, you can find it here!
Thank you so much for including me in your play time!! ❤️