Recently my 5 year old friend Matthew told me that grown ups are boring because all they do is work. Sadly I had to agree with him. Adults do work, that’s our job. Children play, that’s their job. How unfortunate that we lose this ability as we grow older. How sad that we become so serious, so wound up, so unbalanced.
The truth is that we need to play as much as the children, and fortunately, it is never to late to put it back into our lives. When we give ourselves permission to play,we give ourselves valuable gifts: the gift of relaxation and renewal, the gift of spontaneity, the gift of the imagination, the gift of the moment, the gift of timelessness, the gift of pleasure, and the gift of reclaiming the self.
A vital, life affirming way to re connect to the gifts of childhood play, is to use the tools of the artist that we were all born with…what I call artsplay. Mucking about with paint and play do, singing songs, dancing, playing dress up and bashing pots and pans are as natural to the young child as breathing. In these early stages of artistic development, children delight in the process of exploration, experimentation and discovery. We can go back to these early stages and re discover the pleasures of childhood. All that is required is a desire to play again. Approaching art from this willingness to play, eliminates the pressure of making “ real ” or “great” art, taking art out of the realm of the “professional” and bringing it back home to the self.
Play through artistic expression has the power of bringing balance and harmony into our lives. Drawing, painting, pottery, sculpting, writing, playing an instrument, singing and dancing removes us from the pressures of day to day life by tuning us in to the task at hand. The creative process takes us out of the logical left brain world where we spend so much of our time, and into the intuitive, imaginative right brain. During this process we are deeply connected to our own life force, expressing our feelings, releasing pent up emotions and tensions and making important discoveries about ourselves. Playing with others connects us to people in a profound way, joining and blending together in the moment, in community.
Approaching art through play, and play through art helps us to grow in new directions, and puts us in touch with the creative spirit, the essence of who we are. And it’s fun.
- Barbara Karmazyn
Post a Comment