lightness. fun.
focusing on the feeling.
Art making is a weekly newsletter about the practice of making art. I hope to encourage people to start their own practice to give themselves the space to explore, learn, and play…
Recently in my 100+ practice I’ve been playing with patterns. My nightly sketch is in b&w, then later I take it into Illustrator create the repeat and add color. Making the preliminary sketches has been quite freeing because they’re pretty quick and I allow myself to be loose with the sketches. Working digitally makes it easier for me to dive into pattern testing. Without the need to scan and vectorize art, I can spend more time drawing.
As I settled into playing with this rainbow shape, I noticed that the stress of my day had lifted and I was down the rabbit hole of playing with lines and shapes. I took note of the two feelings that stood out—lightness and fun.
Lightness was felt in my body—no tension or tightness from trying to make something ‘right’ and fun was both the playful approach I was using in my drawing and the overall energy of the work. It wasn’t about drawing rainbows that made it fun, it was the overall approach with space to explore and make mistakes, music to help the flow, and a general trust in my own skills to find a new solution as I sat down to another day of practice.
When I sit with the idea of fun, begin to breathe, and let my pen move, I can sense a widening of my perspective of possibility and wonder. Ideas start to come so I start doodling and decorating, then even more ideas come forward. I’ve noticed that when I believe in one idea and follow it through, even if it ends in a mess, another idea grows from that experiment creating a new path to follow. As I begin to work, more ideas pop up seeking to be made. The more I follow through, the more ideas flow.
I used to think ideas would run out—ha.
I’ll work with the ideas of lightness + fun for a time, then the next pair of words will come and I’ll make those my focus. My practice has cycles much like the rest of nature, and I’ve realized it’s best to flow with what arises and lean into the learning…💛
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