Our global circumstances are concerning. Have you fallen into a pattern of waiting, worrying or grumbling? What would it feel like to turn off our news streams and get creative?
Let’s take our power back.
Tune in. Create. Let’s get the paintboxes and pastels back on the kitchen table. Bring out the Play Doh and the Plasticene. The Lego and the tissue paper. These are colourful antidotes to today’s stressors. Now is a perfect time to expand our play range, as we say in Expressive Arts.
We are the tools of our own possibility. Let’s raise our voices in song. Move our bodies freely. Paint sweeping strokes. Take our power back.
In expressive arts we see creativity as a resource – a tool for understanding and insight, by allowing ourselves to see things from completely different perspectives. Can you imagine a pantsuit made of fish leather? A painting made of beet juice, turmeric and blueberry tinctures? Challenge your imagination.
We will be surprised and delighted at the results. Sense of purpose. Fun. Creativity. Surprise. Curiosity. Delight. Bring out the masking tape, the Stapler and your recyclables. Build a bridge. A pair of cowboy boots. A tea set.
Where might you carve out a corner for a home studio? Gather art supplies, journals, and sketchbooks; put on your movement clothes and clear a space for a small dance floor. Get ready to breathe, dance and create.
Purpose, positivity and passion are elixirs in a Pandemic. We are the agents of change. Louis Riel famously stated,
“My people will sleep for 100 years but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”
The time is now.
If you have not already done so, reclaim the creativity that is our birthright. Sing, dance, make art, or write something. Enjoy the pleasure of Poiesis.
