One Word - Playfulness

Play is the highest form of research.  Albert Einstein

And finally, it's time to write about the word I have chosen to help give me direction and inspiration throughout 2013 - playfulness.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 'playfulness' seemed to be the word that kept coming to my mind as 2012 drew to an end.  I can be rather serious at times, especially in the creative process and find myself caught up with the frame-of-mind that I have to produce a certain amount of work and it needs to be great and there's no time for mistakes and there's no time to play, after all creating is a serious business, right?  There's not enough time to just create just for the fun of it, there's no time to explore and discover new techniques or develop new skills, there's not enough time to do all that and produce work suitable for publishing... well there's no joy in that!!!!!  I suspect too, that the ability to produce work which communicates 'life' and 'beauty' and 'joy' can not be produced without somewhat of a playful heart.

So one of my great ambitions for the year is to develop a more playful heart!  And guess what!?  Not only have I had a great time in the studio lately, playing to my hearts content.  As I write this post I am wearing a red and green hair extension (a Christmas gift from my lovely In-Laws) and it's putting me in an even more playful mood - watch out world, it's time to play!!!