"It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. ” - D.W. Winnicott

 

How have you been playing around with our first un-slump prompt? What has it reminded you of or inspired? I hope you're having fun! It's been SO fun for me to get to see what you are creating and I am excited to share them below!

 

 

For those of you who share on Instagram: I noticed recently that sometimes, even when I am tagged in a post, I don't get notified! Luckily I've been seeing the posts organically in my feed so I don't think I've missed any of them (stories tag seem to be working fine). I don't want to miss anyone's work so if you remember, next time you post and tag me, can you also send me the post in a DM? All you have to do is go to your post, click on the little paper airplane icon, and select me as the recipient. You don't need to add a note, I'll know what it is :) If I did miss anything please let me know!

“I'm out of town but I did make a mark before I left! I pulled out my little inexpensive gouache tubes which I haven't used for quite a long time maybe almost a year (some of them actually dried up) but I managed to squeeze paint out of a few of them on to a big wide palette knife and then use the knife to pull across my page." - Claudia

Vanesa S. used paint that she made (!) and a card to make one swipe to create her mark! 

“had a lot of fun with this prompt. a little bit of water, some liquid watercolor, a sprinkle of glitter and a tiny funnel to blow the paint around!” - Archna

"Sky Play to begin with 2 colors DS Cobalt Blue and Alizarin Crimson. Abstract landscapes/ Landscaped Abstracts (first image).

Caran D’Arche Neocolor II, DS Paynes Grey watercolor, Rembrandt Soft Pastels. Spontaneous Movement. Limited Palette. Abstract landscapes/ Landscaped Abstracts." - EB

Do you know what game this is? :) Vanesa used “Neocolor II (water soluble wax crayons) and color pencils as a trial run. So far, paint has been better. 🙃😎😂” And for those of you wondering, this is inspired by Catan and the Cities and Knights expansion! “C&K expansion is so good 👍🏼no one ever goes back.” - Vanesa S

“Honestly I feel like I play a lot in my art, but I loved a link Olivia included on Surrealism play prompts, so many sounded like fun to play with things in new ways. But had to save most for another time. I had a procedure on my right shoulder last Thursday..and I’m right handed so very limited in mobility right now. Yes this is very bad timing with my move, but it needed to be done. So for now, I took one of the prompts for automatic drawing and drew a continuous black line on the page with my left hand..then used neocolors (which let’s face it is just our grown up version of crayons) in my left hand to color it in. It felt very childlike and playful in a week where I really needed that.” - Melissa M

The first thing I thought of was bubbles—sticking my little fingers into the soapy liquid to get the wand and blowing bubbles at the park! And also blowing bubbles in my drink—I can’t remember the last time I did that! I’m using soap, acrylic paint, and water—about 1 part soap to 2 parts the rest. Then I added more paint if it wasn’t coming out dark enough. This was so much fun to do and I love how it looked after it dried! I had intended this to be a background so I made a cut out to layer over it. This reminded me of play because I had no plan, doesn’t doing what I feel like it that feels really free and fun! I also love not knowing how something will turn out so getting to unfold it and find out was fun for me too! Art doesn’t have to be perfect, serious, or boring—it can be playful, colorful, imperfect, and fun! Here's a process video of how this page came together. 

I hope you continue to find fun, whimsy, and play throughout the week! Talk to you on Friday for the second SSUS prompt!

PS: The photo gallery should be updated by Friday! Every time I went to upload a pic it would be slower than molasses and most of them would time out! A Spectrum tech came out and it ended up being that the connectors and cords were all corroded since it's probably been 10 years since they've been checked out. Luckily it was an easy replacement and now everything's running smoothly again! So even if you haven't worked on this prompt yet, are making more pages, or are catching up on some previous ones, be sure to send me your pics so I can add them to it :)