The Value of Playin’ Around
Want to write a blog post, an article, or maybe a book? Or tile the bathroom floor? In many and diverse enterprises it is often a good idea to try things out without preconceiving where it might lead; to just start playin’ around.
I was playin’ around with the images I captured at Dale Chihuly’s glass installation in the Desert Botanical Garden (see previous post), looking for a new computer desktop background. My first temptation was to skip over images that I didn’t like, but I didn’t do that because…well, who knows why I didn’t. This is one of the images that I was tempted to skip:
It is busy, mundane, and lacking any central focus; not the kind of photo that attracts me. It’s a snapshot and that’s all it is.
The image files are too big to fit in the desktop, so what shows up on my monitor is the center of the picture and not the whole image. When I gave that mundane picture permission to appear on the desktop, here is what showed up:
Pretty cool, huh? It came from playin’ around. This whole post happened that way. Or, better to say, is happening that way. I don’t know where it is headed from this point. Don’t know what might happen. Just like when I was playin’ around with the pictures, I am now playin’ around with ideas and words. For the post I started with the pictures and nothing else.
That is also how I wrote my first book, Artful Work. I was playin’ around with what I knew, with concepts and stories. Then it all started to add up to something.
That is also how The Scout and I found a tile pattern for our bathroom floor, by pushing tiles around until something happened that we both liked. I haven’t yet set the tiles so you will be spared a picture of our bathroom.
The attitude of playin’ around removes pressure from the enterprise and keeps ego at bay. It makes the thing less serious. Or, I should say, makes it so that we take ourselves less seriously. Then, when something wonderful happens, it is always surprising and seems like an accident.
So what are you working on that might benefit from being taken less seriously, or from taking yourself less seriously? What might benefit from a bit of playin’ around?
Tags: Chihuly, Creativity, ego
Thanks Dick for reminding us all of the value of playin’ around! when I started blogging about Shimla, I had a vague idea that I wanted to write something about my adotped home-town. But then, a pattern emerged: a pattern of randomness, because I would be grabbed by one sight, then another, and yet another. so I told myself, I would not tie myself down to the idea of describing Shimla, its sights, sounds, flavours & fragrances. Insitead, I’d just play around with what I saw & leave it to the people who drop in on it to develop their own mental image.
The advantage of playin’ around is that you don’t get trapped in pre-drawn grids.
Spontaneity rules!
Geetali — you say “a pattern emerged” and that is the beautiful part of playin’ around. A pattern for a book, a blog, or floor tile. Playin’ around depends upon trusting the creative process rather than trying to control it.