Why we build sandcastles...
Why we build sandcastles…
The great thing about pure creativity
It’s hot right? Sooo hot!
I’m hearing that the UK might break temperature records today! All I want is to grab a cool beer from the fridge and jump into the sea. Hey, I’m going to do one of those things now.
I was at the beach at the weekend and I just felt the call. Not the call of nature or of the sea, the call of the sandcastle! Three grown adults immediately felt a desperate need to take up shovels and fill our buckets to make a mighty sand fortress. Nothing was said. No planning meeting held, no committee assembled, we just did it. BUT WHY?
A sandcastle is just the most feeble of constructions. We knew that a breath of wind, the rising tide or a territorial dog could have destroyed the whole thing in a moment. We’d leave this beautiful construction to the elements at the end of the day and for what? The joy of PURE CREATIVITY!
Creating something that you know will be destroyed is so empowering. If your creation is temporary then you gain an extra lightness in the creative process. It’s much easier to start making when we know the outcome doesn’t matter, it’s the process itself, the creative journey that counts. You can really experiment, try out new ideas and effects. If it doesn’t work, throw it away and try again! For those of you who maybe have a little fear about getting creative or just getting your ideas down on the page, I’d really encourage you to make something simply to scrap. See how that change in mindset frees your imagination.
Tonight I’m hosting OldSkool Art Battle at the Reading Fringe. This is something brand new for me, I’ve never done anything like it. It’s taken days to put together but it’s here now and I’m so proud of it. No I’m not going throw this one away but I approached this show as a total experiment which will conclude tonight in the sweaty box that is the After Dark Club. I was lucky enough to be given pretty much total creative freedom to fill half an hour and it was super fun. I think we should all give ourselves time for pure creativity. Not just in our leisure time but at work too. It’s pretty well know now that Google introduced a framework for innovation that allows employees to spend 10% of their time on “blue sky“ projects. I’m pretty sure it works for them. It works for me too. This experiment certainly needed some time invested in it but I’m happy to say that I’ve learned three completely new things from doing it which I can now use to help at Craft Box Club.
All of the kits at Craft Box Club contain enough stuff so you can have a few attempts at something. Come try it out and promise yourself to make your first work of art to destroy!
We run adult craft clubs every month in Reading but if you have a group of five, we’ll come to you!
P.S. here’s the promo for Art Battle. I’ll be running it again so if you’re interested, join the mailing list for details.
