Freedom nurtures the creative mind

As an art student, I try my best to keep informed about any interesting art related events or activities around my area. However, the one I want to address today came as a total surprise (literally). I had never heard of the concept before but let me tell you that after having participated in the activity, I think every artist should at least try it out. This all sounds very mysterious without actually describing the activity itself, so let me tell you.

The concept of "Colore ta vie" is that in a certain time frame with a group as big or as little as you want, you find yourself in a room with a blank canvas, paint and a range of traditional and unusual painting utensils. Let me give an example from personal experience: I painted with boxing gloves.

As one would expect when stripped from their comfort zone, in the beginning I didn't know where to start. Overwhelmed by the endless supplies and possibilities. I chose to shut off and go with my instincts without really thinking about an end result. I began by applying a simple layer of blue to ease into the madness. The calm didn't last for long, as I soon found that applying paint carefully was overrated and that throwing it at the canvas was a more exciting alternative. So, I went on splashing all the colours of the rainbow at that canvas, watching it come alive splash after splash.

Up until that day, I would always imagine the final product before even touching the pencil, which in some way confined my creativity. The fact that I was taken out of my comfort zone meant that I didn't have those previous experiences to base a final piece off of them. So, I had 2 roads to chose from: 1 - give up and not start 2 - start and see where the paint leads me. (I chose 2, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this).

Starting and letting the medium guide me is now something I aspire to do more often as the canvas I created that day will forever be one of my favourites. Materials have so much more potential when you let them do a little bit more than just be something on your brush.

Let go of the creative steering wheel sometimes, the roads you will go down are unimaginable in a restricted creative mind.