Permission to Play

Paint the Horse Purple!

At my last art show one of the other artists exhibiting at the show came by my booth and commented that she really liked my work, then proceeded to make another comment about her own work that was not so complimentary. She said her work was too realistic. Later on I went by her booth and noticed that her work was very good, very quality art. She was obviously talented. So I couldn’t help but wonder what was keeping her from stepping outside of her comfort zone and into something that was more “unrealistic”, and more of whatever it was that she longed for with her work.


I had an art instructor once who, on the first day of school, asked for a number of volunteers to go up to the chalkboard. Then he asked each of them to draw a circle. He wanted to prove a point about how limited our thinking is based on what we assume others expect from us. Each and every one of them drew a stereotypical circle like sample #1. He had to remind them that this was an art class – they have permission to think outside the box. Their next set of circles were more creative.


We need to give our ‘Selves’ permission to play (with our work), and not wait for someone else to tell us it’s ok. Loosen up the boundaries – forget the rules. And let go of the worry and concern of whether or not other people will like it or if it will sell. What the heck -- Paint the horse purple!


One of my favorite ways that I like to play with my art is sketching people in public, because I’m forced to capture their gesture as quickly as possible. That’s the fun part for me – to be able to indicate the movement or weight or emotional expression with just of few quick strokes of my Conte’ crayon, or pencil or whatever drawing tool I have on hand.

I don’t really care to get an audience of people watching me –because they often have a way of ruining the fun with ridiculous and unnecessary comments like – “What is that”, or “hey, you missed a spot”. But if I’m really into what I’m sketching then I don’t notice the audience. I like losing myself in the moment, to not worry about whether my strokes are accurate, or if my rendering resembles the person I’m modeling on paper. No rules. I like to allow myself to become immersed in the creative process where I’m not even aware of an hour having passed by.

I know that many artists like to keep their colors organized by values like a color wheel on their palette, and some like to use a different brush for each color, because that’s how they were taught in an academic setting. I think, as artists, that we really need to be suspicious of what we've been told, and how we ought to do things, and what we ought to think. For some reason such an organized paint palette always felt too confining to me. I find that it’s often best if I just let my paintbrush do the talking and my instincts pick the colors. Ideally, I think you need both a bit of mind and a bit of mindlessness to make a painting. It's a play between control and surrender.

Art and Life is simply a series of improvisations anyway -- right?

When our work becomes dull and boring in its perfection (to us), then maybe we should let (us) become an amateur all over again! Regress! Become like a child, so we can learn to love what we do – again (or maybe even for the first time).

The French definition of 'amateur,' -- 'lover of.' "

Permission to Play