The Inner Child is Creative!
Each workshop I facilitate brings up at least one person’s wounding around their creativity. The teacher that criticized them rings in their ears. Someone told them to give up on their aspirations or that they weren’t good enough. Color in the lines they said, you’re too slow they said, do it the “right way'“ they said! What a load of BS!
Most recently, a participant remembered being told to give up on sculpture as a teenager by an art teacher. When this woman showed me her work I was floored. She is immensely talented but gave it up because of his words (he must have been jealous). As the mother of a professional artist, I am deeply saddened by these so very common experiences. What if my daughter had listened to people tell her being an artist isn’t going to be lucrative career (some tried)? She would be living someone else’s version of a life. How many of us gave up on creative dreams because we were told to be realistic, practical, and so on? Productivity is the push in our current culture but I think it is shifting. Doesn’t it seem like we are all seeking out simple ways to enjoy life? A craft night with friends, buying fresh local produce, a stroll at Deep Creek, paddle boarding on the lake. Joyful creativity is my rebellion! Want to join me?
I can see all the happy inner children sitting inside the adults I am interacting with at Wildflower Craft Night. I see the twinkle return to their eyes as they choose their flowers, fabrics, or plants. I feel the child in all of us that needed to hear -you are doing great, nice work, you’re so creative, what a cool choice, or I never thought of that way to do it! Creativity is a birthright, not something reserved for only gifted people. Show me a 3 year old that isn’t creative when given some finger paint and the freedom to explore with their 5 senses!
My workshops are not therapy but they are therapeutic by design. Accessing your inner child to try something new is joyful and fun. Sitting around a table of others playing along side you is liberating. Joy is contagious. We aren’t solving the world’s problems by crafting together but we are carving out moments of peace, liberation, and happiness.
With Joy,
Emmy