Like a Child

04 Jun 2010 3 Comments

by danka in Uncategorized Tags: ,

Give a child a bed sheet and they build a tent. They imagine it’s surrounded by trees (a coat rack) and wild animals (the pillows from the sofa). Give a bed sheet to an adult and they fold it and put it away in the closet.

So begins this article I found several weeks ago. It hit home with me because I had just finished folding and putting away the laundry – bed sheets included – before I read the article, and also because I have been feeling creatively stuck.

I had a bit of an epiphany. And since then, I have been very quietly observing things around here. Here in my home. Here in my head. I haven’t made any moves or decisions. I’ve just made some observations.

Adora, who is a child, and not an adult, and who is the most creative little soul I know, and who draws about a dozen pictures each and every single day, approaches her creations in a different manner than I do.

1. She draws the same thing over and over and over and over. She gets an idea. She tries, and it’s not what she wants, so she tries it again. She does it over and over and over and over, adding more detail each time, until she can do it perfectly. With her eyes closed even.

2. She doesn’t hoard her imperfect attempts or try to make them something they’re not. She has made friends with the recycle bin.

3. Virtually everything that doesn’t hit the recycle bin is given to someone as a gift.

4. She takes equal pleasure in hiding in her closet to do art away from an audience, and pulling the supplies out to the dining table and having an art party with anyone who will participate.

One day she will grow into a woman and if the world doesn’t ‘justify’ her art by rewarding her with money or notoriety, she will most likely (not certainly; not for certain) cease to do art every day (and then every week, and then every month) and she will take to folding the laundry efficiently and rushing off to her job. And when I think of it I cry motherly tears. And then I vow to do something about it. But what? I guess I will have to begin by changing the way I view my own creativity.