How Improv Teaches Me About Art, Life and Nearly Everything In Between: More on the Joy of Letting Go

Creative Improvization means letting go of control - and getting comfortable with whatever flows your way.

Summer may be both a time of increased creativity as well as a time of squished creativity.

My days are sliced differently in Summer.

I find myself longing for hours of open time-space to immerse myself in some form of creative process yet I also find myself arriving in those spaces not ready to commune with the muses. Instead I find myself cruising facebook or instagram or pinterest and before I know it my time is frittered away rather than invested well.

This is why I am so grateful for challenges that are well suited to Summer creativity.

This index card features words from poet Sylvia Plath. It has brought me to thinking more of "What if"... been quite a heart opener for me.

This morning I spent perhaps thirty minutes creating backgrounds to be used on mini-mixed media projects that will be a part of the Index Card a Day challenge.

Now I have six 4 X 6 index cards ready to be used and in the creative process I felt completely grounded, present and in the moment. I let go of control and allowed the myself to partner with the media rather than controlling it.

I glued Russian language book pages I couldn't translate onto the cards and covered them with a layer of modpodge before I added acrylic paint or ink or tissue paper. No intellectualizing was involved, just playful experimentation.

I still don't know what will come next but as in life: this is part of the fun.
Once we learn improv is where life expands the best, everything else dribbles where it will without us pushing or shoving or relentlessly willing anything to go "our way."

To flatten my cards, they each get a 24 hour (or so) time period in a photo frame. Sometimes they even get fancy photos like this one.

These backgrounds serve as foundation for other stuff, just like my daily approach to this improvisational life become a surefire way to simply feel better about whatever comes up rather than confusing myself by believing I have control over anything except my opinion about whatever comes up.

John Lennon knew this when he said life is what happens when we're busy making other plans and Epictetus knew this when he said it isn't what happens that upsets you, it is what you think about what happens that upsets you.

My Summer creative self knows this, intimately.

My delight in these backgrounds is like the initial crack in the doorway.

You can smell what's baking a little bit, but the tasting will wait for maybe five seconds and maybe, for some of us, five decades.

How are you slicing up your creative life this Summer?

=====

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Coming soon - more creativity camps, playgrounds and workshops to grow yourself artistically (and hey, just for fun!)

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Related articles 5 Simple Steps to Get Over a 24 Hour "Apathy Bug": End Apathy (Block, Confusion, Blechyness) Top Ten Tips to Create Meaningful Conversation at Your Next Networking Event Surviving Summer: a Mom's Discombobulation on the Way to Peace (while Momschlepping!) How to Make Simple DIY Postcards with Items You Have at Home Now