Whimsy…

This week’s calligraphy prompt was the word ‘whimsy’. It made me think about Dr Seuss and Court Jesters, both in my mind are whimsical and creative beyond the norm. I thought long and hard about how I wanted to express whimsy, and here is the result. I worked on it while I was framing new art for our gallery downtown. While the backs of a couple frames were drying I doodled at my table with markers, stencils, and paint.

This doesn’t look like anything I have ever created before. I had fun and it challenged me to not try to be organized and methodical. I randomly placed stencil shapes within the lines to work towards filling the white within the letters, like the funky costume of a court jester. I must confess that the yellow dots outside the letters were a mistake. I wasn’t paying attention and the first batch of yellow dots ended up outside of the lines. I liked it, so when the markers and paint were dry, I added more yellow dots across the whole piece. Before I knew it the frames were dry and I was now waiting for my work to dry.

I’m not sure I experience much whimsy in my life. Yes things are creative and yes innovation and fun slips into each day…not sure there is much whimsy. The dictionary defines whimsy as capricious humor or disposition; extravagant, fanciful or excessively playful. Maybe this prompt will encourage me to be a bit more playful in my daily life.

I think we could all use a bit more playfulness in the world. Everything is so serious. It’s ok to take life seriously, just. not ourselves. After all we are only human. We fail, we fart, we giggle, we sleep, and eat, work and play. We run our lives, manage our time, accomplish our goals, and plan for the future. Maybe adding a bit of whimsy into that mix would make it all go much better. And if my process for creating is any example, we need to better leverage our mistakes and turn them into features. Taking life as it comes, dealing with the cards we are dealt, and playing the game while laughing and giggling, and probably with the occasional fart. That sounds like fun and whimsy to me.