Quilting artists that play

Play: To engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation 

Play is the way children learn.  It is the way they see the world.  Everything around them is to be explored and to be used in a number of different ways to find out the best methods of use.

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” 

― Plato

Adults seem to lose the ability to play.  Life takes over and the 'serious of life' seems to come ahead of having fun.  Learning seems to change its form from play, to sitting down and listening or reading. 

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” 

― Alan Wilson Watts

Adults can relearn this secret.  They can learn to play all over again.

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” 

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

The secret is letting go of all the learnt inhibitions that have been collected over the years.  It is learning to see again like a child and wanting to experiment and create.

“Dance. Dance for the joy and breath of childhood. Dance for all children, including that child who is still somewhere entombed beneath the responsibility and skepticism of adulthood. Embrace the moment before it escapes from our grasp. For the only promise of childhood, of any childhood, is that it will someday end. And in the end, we must ask ourselves what we have given our children to take its place. And is it enough?” 

― Richard Paul Evans, The Christmas Box Miracle: My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope

The rewards from play are worth the time invested in learning to play again.  

Play is really important when making art.  Experimenting with surfaces, mediums,  thickness, techniques etc is all part of growing as a artist.  Play helps the artist understand how the medium works and what the medium can create.  Without experimentation of themes, ideas and subject matter art would never change and artists would never grow in their work.  

But how can an adult learn to play again?  Practice.  Like everything it takes lots of practice.  To start with it may seem awkward or silly.   It make take time to feel comfortable with playing again. 

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.” 

― Charles Schaefer

Take time to play and come alive

Quotes from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/play website