Get Messy
Yes, those are my hands covered in paint.
Yes, it was a giant mess.
And yes, it was so much fun to squish my hands into paint and I would definitely do it again.
No, there was no point to it.
No, it was not part of the artistic process of what I was making.
And no, I had no plans to use my paint covered hands for any reason.
I just saw a whole mess of paint and I had to put my hands into it.
That’s all.
The sensation of putting my hands into globs of wet paint.
The cold paint sliding against my hands. It felt surprisingly pleasant and refreshing.
Plus the factor of feeling like a little kid getting away with something you’re not supposed to do.
I’m on week twelve of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Each week, according to the way, you are obliged to take your inner artist on a lil date. Just you and yourself. No one else is goes with you. You’re supposed to do something that engages and wakes up your inner artist, your inner child.
Over the 12 weeks, I:
went to the citywide vintage sale
photographed a cemetery
walked the fortress walls of an old European town
laid in bed all day and read novels that made me intrigued and happy
did a day trip to the beach
went to a silent retreat
visited my favorite local bookstore and went on a lil book buying spree
went on an art supply buying spree at the creative reuse store
went on a Halloween decoration shopping spree (since which I’ve been driving around with a skeleton in the passenger seat scaring people! ha!)
wandered around Michael’s craft store with my headphones in and bought some paint by numbers canvases
made a vision board
All of which culminated in today, the last artist’s date of the twelve weeks, when I went to a place called Hawaii Fluid Art and learned how to do acrylic pour painting and made a huge, beautiful mess.
I think, especially as grown ups, we shy away from making messes because inevitably we have to clean up our messes. It sucks to have to clean up messes. It makes us less inclined to do anything messy. Why mess around with paint when you’ll have to clean up the brushes? Why cook an extravagant meal for one when you will have to clean up the kitchen? Why paint your bedroom walls (even when you hate the color) when you have to clean up paint rollers and paint trays and tape? Why do anything that will make a mess when just living every day life is messy enough and requires vacuuming, laundry, dishes, dusting, and more?
The thing is that living so buttoned up to avoid messes removes joy from our lives. Is a messless, joyless life worth living?
In the twelve weeks that I’ve been doing this, I’ve found that being messy is worth it. It is glorious.
I am definitely happier than I was 12 weeks ago. I am definitely freer and more creative than I was three months ago. I think one of the key things I’ve learned from letting messes happen is that they aren’t such a big deal. By letting myself be free in this are of my life, it is spilling over into all areas of my life.
I am getting braver, bolder, and experimenting more. I returned to writing this blog. I published two books. I am taking classes I was scared to take before, but always dreamed of taking someday. By letting myself be messy, someday is now. I am letting me be me and the results are a glorious fun mess that I had always wished I’d get to be.
And that is definitely worth the mess.
Here’s what I did today:
