Last Saturday was the opening for my show at the Solomon Wright Public Library. In lieu of wine and cheese, I invited people to make collages with me. I brought a bunch of supplies: old magazines, grease pencils, chunky Stabilo crayons, and borrowed glue sticks and scissors from the library’s stash. I had everything arranged on a large table in what is called the community room. I asked my daughter to help, and I had invited some friends of hers to join us. My daughter’s friends were some of the first to show up. They were happy to find a place at the table and get started. I asked if they needed any help, and my daughter told me very wisely, “We’re kids. We know what to do.”
A few friends showed up with their kids, and I was delighted to see that they were more into collaging than their kids were. A friend’s son was playing a computer game, while she very happily was creating collage after collage. Another friend sat down with her daughter, and after encouraging the daughter for a few minutes, started a piece of her own. A family came in with two boys, and they wound up looking for books in the kid’s room while their dad, a local chimney sweep, filled an entire piece of paper with his collage. Their common responses were that it felt so good to be in the flow and to make something with their hands….which was exactly my point.
We forget that adults need moments of pure flow and joy. All of us need time away from our email, our social media, the things we do online to take some time to ourselves, with no particular goals or outcomes in mind. It doesn’t feel worthwhile to sit and make something for the sake of making, yet it’s so important to our well being. Like my daughter said, kids know this. They will happily spend time enjoying the process of making something. But adults, including myself, need a reminder.