“I haven’t drawn since high school, and I want to see if I still can.”
“I don’t really write or journal, but I’d like to.”
“When I was young, I drew and painted, but I haven’t had time for that in years. I want to get back to it.”
“Do I even belong in a creative community? I mean, I’d like to try to make art, but I don’t consider myself an artist.”
Most people come to Art & Soul with a sense of curiosity. Maybe they hope to restart their art or to spark their flickering creative energy, or to dip into art and see where it might lead. Even the working artists who come to Art & Soul with experience and a deep love of artmaking want to inject a sense of curiosity and exploration into their art practices within an art-curious community.
I recently heard someone mention the need for “a third space,” a space that’s not work and not home. That’s what many discover Art & Soul to be—a space where it’s safe to ask, “What if?” What if I paint without a plan? What if I let my charcoal dance across the paper with no goal in mind? What if I listen to the sound of my own voice? What if I move to music the way my body and soul feel like moving? What if I stop judging myself?
The goal is to play. To explore. To discover not only who we are as artists or art-curious beings but also who we are as creatives outside the studio walls.
Judgmental? Practice non-judgment. Wrapped up in work? Try playing. Sitting long hours at a desk in front of a screen? Explore the freedom of intuitive painting or movement. Stuck with the strict “right” way to draw or paint or move or write or sound? Discover and honor your own marks, your own way of moving, and the sound of your own voice aloud or on the page. Let go, be you, and put your curious artistic self on paper or canvas, in movement or writing. Let yourself be art-curious.
