I started writing this article months ago and then left it unfinished. I wanted to express ideas I had about how our spaces at home can inspire and encourage a creative family life. However, what I had written sounded authoritative and preachy. Not a place I want to be.
Last week I read an article from Wendy MacNaughton of Draw Together. She had recently visited Casa Azul; Frida Kahlo’s home in Mexico City and wrote about how a home can inspire creativity.
Whilst visiting Casa Azul, and based on her experience exploring other artists' homes, Wendy felt that there were consistent elements shared by these creative spaces.
‘Color. Light. Collections. Materials.
..when these four things are present, we feel like we’re in a creatively charged space. Maybe these things are in fact magic ingredients for a creative home?’
Reflecting on these four elements and Wendy’s article, I came back to my own writing on creative spaces and found that I had drawn similar conclusions about consistent elements that had helped to inspire creativity with my children in our home.
For me, the four elements are:
Materials, Collections, Space and Time.
MATERIALS
I feel this is probably the most important element; having easy access to a range of materials to experiment with. This doesn’t need to be excessive; it could just be some coloured markers, pencils, a few paints and paper. Items from your household recycling, like cereal boxes or cardboard tubes, also make cheap crafting supplies. We often hunt in second hand shops and find great supplies too, like fabric and yarn.
The most important part of this, for me, is that these materials are freely accessible to my children. In our home this looks like a shelf of pens, pencils and paints in our kitchen/dining area and a cupboard of further supplies that my little ones can easily reach. I also try to support them in keeping the supplies somewhat organsied and not in an overwhelming mess, so items can be easily found. (I fully admit that often our craft cupboard is a huge mess!)
COLLECTIONS
Frida Kahlo was a big collector of art and objects from around the world; her house was filled to the brim with inspiring artifacts that often showed up in her paintings. For us, our collections include a huge shelf of books on a broad range of topics, art on our walls and textiles I have collected from places we have traveled. For you it might be something different that sparks inspiration, maybe it is flowers, music or comic books, anything really.
Our collections of art also include my children's creations, which are regularly displayed on our walls. I feel displaying my children’s art shows them that I value their creativity, which in turn gives them confidence in their creative abilities. This self confidence is another important element in encouraging creativity.
SPACE
Let’s be real, very few of us, including myself, have the space to have a dedicated art studio in our homes. Having said that, we can still make space for creative activities. For us, that is often on the kitchen table. For you that might be a corner of a bedroom or lounge, or even outside. When my children were younger, we used to paint outside a lot to reduce the mess in our home.
My daughter also has a small desk kitchen/dining area that is filled with her creative projects, which inevitably spill over onto our kitchen table too. I admit on occasions, having to tidy up all the creative mess before we can eat is a little overwhelming but I love it too. Being surrounded by my children’s art gives me so much joy.
‘Creativity needs space to emerge’, that could be literal space or figuratively ‘holding space’ for them by being willing to assist in tiding up after!
TIME
I feel sometimes in our often over scheduled lives, time is an element that we forget to consider as important in encouraging creative explorations and pursuits. Our children need time to experiment and play. Time to try and fail and try again. Time to develop ideas. Time to practice and master a skill.
Whilst sharing these ideas for inspiring creativity with children at home, I want to add that even though creativity is important to me, it’s an integral part of who I am, I always try to remind myself that my children are not me. They are their own people with their own interests, skills and passions. I may choose to share my creative passion with my family, in the form of supplying materials, curating space and allowing time, but they are free to take from it what they will, without judgment or pressure.
INVITATIONS TO CREATE
I thought I would add a little in here about creative invitations. If you don’t have room at home for a dedicated creative space, setting up an ‘invitation to create’ is also a fantastic option, particularly for younger children. It allows children the same freedom to explore their own ideas but on a project-by-project basis.
So, what is a creative invitation? Very simply, it’s when you arrange an inviting selection of art and craft supplies then allow children to create with minimal instruction. They can interpret the materials in any way they choose. The best part of this kind of child-led making is that there are no rules, there is never a wrong way to do something, it’s just about exploration, creativity and playfulness. I often use this method when I am running art workshops.
I first came across this term reading Barbara Rucci’s book Art Workshop for Children, which I highly recommend for little artists.
REFERENCES:
Can a home inspire creativity? - By Wendy MacNaughton of Draw Together.
Embrace the Mess - by Jen Bloomer of Creatively Rooted
