"Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe,
and the rest of the world is missing out."
-- Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
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| Wine corks 1-26-14 |
"Some of my best childhood memories are of being alone in my room --
writing, reading books, listening to the Beatles, living in my mind.
It's always busy in there."
-- Renee Zellweger
"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
I have a room where I go to to get lost, regularly, willingly and blissfully.
It's a room all my own, filled with my all my own art stuff, and costumes, and toys, and tools and supplies.
It's an extra upstairs bedroom that could have easily become a neglected "office," or a pretentious, little-used guest room for guests who rarely, if ever, stay the night. Instead, I have a big work surface in there where I can stand and work (if you can call it work). It can be as messy or as neat as I want it to be. It's OK to get paint on the table, and wood shavings on the floor. I'm allowed to shove push pins into the drywall, and stick stuff up with tape, and use spray paint, and take off all my clothes, and nobody tells me that I can't.
As with all of my previous 365 days projects, there are days when I go into my room with a specific idea, a strong intention, and I make it happen.
Other days, I go in with an idea but something happens to it. It changes. It morphs. As I play and explore, it becomes another thing entirely. An unexpected thing. A better thing than I could have thought of.
Oftener, I go into my room without an agenda, with no idea or even the hint of one. My head is empty, but that's OK because my room is full. It is a space flooded with natural light, and also possibilities. All I have to do is trust it and go in there and begin. Pick up something. Start smushing this and that together. See what happens. Try something. Then try something else. Rip it up, then take pictures of it.
My room is a place where my grownup self goes to hang out with my inner child. There are no rules or age distinctions in there. Sometimes the grownup takes the lead. Sometimes the child runs wild. Very often it's a mashup of them both. Together they commune, and create. They explore. They discover. They laugh. They cry. They struggle. They fight.
But mostly they just play.
If you need us, we'll be in our room.
