I started a little project and shared it with my Creating Wild community this week. I called it Small but Mighty Making. The premise behind it was pretty simple. Choose a thing, set a time limit, and do it every day for the next week. A dedication to a short creative practice.
To be honest, nothing about this project was planned. The motivation was purely personal. I was launching a private SOS. I needed to hold onto my sanity as week of chaos washed around me.
It makes sense logistically, of course, that in times of turbulence things like drawing or writing or art of any kind get pushed out to the side, but I craved them with the same ferocity as a thirsty person needing water.
I threw seeds into the air and when I woke, there was color all around me. My community, it turned out, had joined me, unexpectedly, on my little mighty mission.
All week, I’ve been surrounded by images and stories of all different kinds.
Put together poems from cut out pages of old nature books.
Experiments with soaking paper in handmade oak dye.
A drum bag being made from scratch, for a drum also made from scratch- a first time for both.
Ink and watercolour paintings of the mesmerizing kind.
Drawings of Sandhill Cranes from a recent visit to witness their migration.
Illustrations and contemplations on how we might keep our head above water when times are tough.
A beautiful torrent of creative confetti of all different kinds.
If there’s a better balm for a weary soul, I’m yet to find it.
I started with my own ideas of what I would make, and mid-week found myself shifting. I had planned to begin a slightly complicated piece with careful, detailed lines but it turns out, I am at my most peaceful when I am crafting illustrations of the ordinary everyday, the little moments that catch me in a smile.
These last few days, I have been frequented by Flutterings of Fantails. Winged delights that are fast moving, other worldly. They flit and we chatter and they dance and I giggle, even if moments before I felt quite heavy.
I wasn’t planning on writing a Happiness today, but as luck would have it, here we are.
A happiness built on community and birds and creating of all the different kinds.
This might just be my favourite.