Wanna Play?

Benedicte Caneill here.

I recently visited the exhibit: Gutai:Splendid Playground at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.   It presents the Gutai movement, a Japanese avant-garde collective of the postwar period, founded in 1954, whose members explored numerous art forms.  It is not my goal here to review this great show.  But this exhibit with the word ‘playground’ in the title reminded me that I need to play more despite deadlines or agendas.  

I am sharing with you something I do when I want to play.  I take a 4” x 6” piece of heavy interfacing and makes a postcard size little composition.  Nothing elaborate, just what I want to experiment with at that particular moment.  Here are some of the results of my playground experiments.  Since I love animals, they are very often the theme of those little works.  I draw, paint, print or collage, stitch on top and finally finish the edges.  Want to join me?  Choose a theme and jump in.  Those postcards might end up in the mail for a friend, on your wall or in your drawer, but you will always be rewarded by the fact that instead of procrastinating whether to go in the studio or not, you chose to give yourself permission to play!