PLAY: It's a practice that Nissa and I are committed to incorporating more of into our busy schedules. Who knew that we would have to schedule the time in our day-to-day to play? As a creative, it feels ridiculous—scheduling play-time— because it is the act of Play that got us here doing what we're doing. As a kid I would write and illustrate books for fun. I would make collages and was constantly reorganizing my bedroom...for fun! Not because I had to, not because someone was paying me to, but because I was able to get lost in the creativity and wasn't concerned about failure or doing it the right way or even if what I was doing would be considered "good" by anyone else. People need to play, especially creative people that earn a living using their creativity. Without it, I believe we risk the threat of our work becoming our job and that doesn't sound very fulfilling or sustainable.
Playing!
About a month ago, we wrapped up a big, long photography project. We were feeling spent— we were out of ideas. Nissa nudged me and suggested that I come in to the studio ready to style a few little photos and take pictures of anything that I wanted. Whoa! The open-endedness was such a contrast to coming off of a project with a team of people giving me direction and feedback, it was almost overwhelming!
We gave ourselves a time limit of about 30 minutes (I love timers, they keep me motivated and focused). Nissa geeked out with her macro lens and I cut up random little bits of paper. It was a blast. During the play-shoot, we thought about how we could incorporate more play into our actual client projects without veering too far from the expectations. We also agreed to have a play session after every big project to recalibrate. As busy creative business-owners and mothers, it has now come to the point where the act of Play is a form of self-care.
Curious: Do any of your schedule time for play? If so, do you play in the medium that you work in or do you get a kick out of experimenting?
Happy Play Day!
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Kristy
* All photos in this post were edited with the BOLD Preset from the Page + Pixel Toolbox. Get your own set of presets here to streamline your photo-editing process.