Creative Walks and Little Trash Objects
One of my favorite pastimes is to go walking in nature. It doesn't really matter the weather (except wind, I abhor wind, because it is the absolute worst!) but all other kinds of weather beckon to my sense of curiosity and I gladly go wandering into the great outdoors. There is something that grounds me in those walks, something that soothes my woes and reinvigorates me and my creative spirit.
It is usually on a walk that I am struck by creative inspiration. I'll look down and see a dried leaf and wonder how I could integrate the shape into my art. How can I capture the small pattern of a twig or the feeling of the sunshine on my face? A wordless poetry.
I'll collect little tidbits and bring them home, but word from the wise, one person's treasure can definitely be misconstrued as trash. This happened to me with the leaf pictured above. I brought this little beauty home, and my husband definitely threw it away! I was flabbergasted that he couldn't tell it was a magical source of imagination. "What?! You can't tell that this dead leaf is worth saving?", I mumbled mostly to myself as I bravely navigated the trash to make a heroic rescue. I suppose being married to a highly sensitive person is a landmine of moments like this. Poor guy. I'm just happy he seems to understand that there is a method to my madness.
Here is my formula for a creative exercise that sparks all sorts of spin offs in my art practice:
Take a walk
While walking look around- really look
Collect little objects of interest or take close up pictures with your phone
When you get home draw the object in as many different ways as you can. Get weird with it. Think how you can make it more simplified? How could you add pattern inside the outline? What color could you change it to?
I've created a little 7 day Mini Challenge using this method of finding an object on a walk and then sitting with it for a while in order to discover what kind of creativity emerges. I'm sharing it with you:
