I love
when a theme runs through my life for a short time. The subject at the moment is art. As I wrote last week, I believe we all have
creativity residing inside of us that if we are to express it in some form,
life will be that much richer. Well,
Friday evening I read excerpts from a Julia Cameron book about children and
creativity. Here is a quote I especially
liked. “The act of making art is both
scary and healing. Art brings light to
places that have remained dark. Art
brings perspective. Making art, at any
level, is an act of courage and an expression of faith” Location 495.
When my
husband deployed to Iraq, the day after he left I went to a number of
stores. Once I came home, I draped red,
white, and blue fabric in an alcove above the television. I placed a number of 4th of July
decorations on top of the fabric. The
display was very artist and soothed my soul.
Years later, when my oldest child left for BASIC training, I knew I
would miss him terribly. I removed all
the items from his room. With the help
of my daughter, we redecorated the room with two new colors, a horse border, a
painted tree and clouds. The room is
darling and helped me get through the first couple of weeks. Because of my artistic projects, I was able
to transition easier to the changes in my life.
Art is very healing and keeps the darkness away from me.
Art
education is very important for children.
“If schools do not, in general, foster creativity, then the
responsibility falls on the parent to find these opportunities. If art classes are not offered at our
children’s schools, then we must find or create opportunities for our children
to explore the arts” Location 403. I
want to take that even a step further.
We need to create fun art for them within the home. Now, I cringe when my children want to
paint. I want everything to be tidy and
perfect. Over the years, I have worked
very hard at letting them paint anyway.
I have spent hundreds of dollars finding new creative projects to
attempt. Of the three children, I have
tried to teach two of them to crochet. I
have printed hundreds of coloring pages.
Lately, my youngest has found sites on the internet showing her how to
draw her favorite characters. And I
praise every effort they make even if it makes me wonder what they are
attempting. We have been fortunate to
have a good art education in our schools, but the teachers can’t teach it
all. I have built on their education to
show my children how they can continue to learn and explore all areas of art:
writing, music, cooking, drawing, pottery, painting, crocheting, and other
areas.
I also
model the creative process at home with both successes and failures. “As parents, we have a responsibility to
model imperfection, especially if we are adept in an area that interests our
child” Location 308. I do this all the
time. My kids know I am not the best at
anything I do and that is awesome. This
gives them the freedom to be an amateur.
“Amateurism-which translates to “for love”-is a wonderful goal as we
urge our children not to be perfect, but to explore creative outlets for
pleasure and for pleasure along, without the pressure of someone else’s
“perfect” performance as the only worthy goal” Location 323. My kids, husband, and friends still tease me
about our pink house. I was tired of
having a drab colored house to come home to everyday after work. I wanted a fun, unique color. Boy did I get it. I swear the chip looked like brown with a
tinge of purple. Coming home one evening
after a day of work, the sun touched the garage wall in just the right light,
pink. My house was pink! Failure.
Now, I do strive to do a good job
on every task I accomplish. I do not
strive for perfectionism any longer. “Perfectionism
is not a quest for the best-it is the pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the
part that tells us we will never be good enough. Perfection is egotism parading as virtue”
Location 338. Wow, that quote says a
lot. I also believe that when I strive
to be perfect, I end up being a blocked artist.
Instead, I try to laugh at my flaws in all I do. Now granted, I struggle with my flaws in the
area of writing because I want to be great.
I want the world to read my work.
However, the other side of me will be happy if all I write for are my
children. I leave my career up to God,
though I move ever forward. But when it
comes to my artistic hobbies of gardening, painting, crocheting, and the like,
I smile at the imperfection of it all and enjoy the process.
In the
book, Julia wanted the reader to reflect on this unfinished statement, “If I
didn’t have to do it perfectly, I would try ________” Location 343. I have been putting off a couple of projects. So this summer I will try making stepping
stones, wooden quilt squares, wine or mead, and barbed wire art. If you didn’t have to do it perfectly, what
would you try?
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