Permission To Play: A Creativity Blog Exercise #1

I wonder what part my being raised an only child had in my being creative? Others had brothers and sisters and I had my room, tape recorder, blank paper, my voice and the mirror. And I kept it lively believe me. It’s never been an issue for me to be creative and yet I run into people of all ages who proudly claim that they are not creative. I was doing art with kids back in 2001 and 2002 with a program called Project Liberty which used artists to help children cope with 9/11. One of my clients, an 8 year old boy named Orlando, told me point blank that he used to be able to draw when he was young.

What? “You’re still young!” I thought. Of course he was and of course he could draw it’s just that already at the age of eight he’d gotten it into his head that he wasn’t creative any longer, or at least in the area of drawing. He was definitely still young.

And you know what? So are you. I believe that anyone reading this with even the slightest interest in adding more creativity to their lives can do so and I’m gonna show you how on this blog. I call it Permission To Play. You’re no longer grounded, punished or unable to play.

So let’s go play.

Exercise #1 (Time: 3 minutes)

Take a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and draw any squiggly imperfect shape.

Draw an imperfect square around that.

Write a few sentences about that squiggle which start with “This is a _________. The most important thing you should know about a __________ is _______________.”

I’ll do it right now too.

This is a morphing witch’s mask. The most important thing you should know about a witch’s mask is that it is very spooky. Because after you put it on, your real face goes away for a while. Your real face travels to a storage facility out west where it’s kept safe and cold for a few weeks while you try out being a witch for a while.

And it’s that simple. It doesn’t have to be the greatest and it’s certainly not the worst. It’s just a creation. Let it be.

Will you please do this and then take a photo and either post it in the comments or email it to me at Permission2Play@DionFlynn.com. I’d love to see your work and to put it up on my fridge.