Creative Practice

Creative Practice #2

I have concentrated my efforts in exploring a new creative practice during my week vacation. The vacation is a family trip which includes my two grandchildren ages 10 and 12 years old, my husband and daughter.  The activity is coloring with colored pencils on adult coloring pages. We have been distributing the adult coloring page to patients, but I have not actually tried it for myself. I prefer using a plain sheet of paper for my doodles so this will be a new experience for me. Packing an art bag for my trip I included four clip boards, several copies of coloring pages and a pack of colored pencils. My hope was to engage all passengers in this process with me. I have to admit it did lessen my travel anxiety and made the trip seem shorter to our destination.

Next day we planned another road trip shorter than the first.  The children seem more restless and my daughter was in a parental role so tension was high. I was asked about what I thought in regards to the situation. In an attempt to stay neutral I reached down for my pencils and said I’m feeling a lot of negative energy in this car and I’m going to see if these pencils will make me happy again. It seem to be the catalyst to turn around the situation, before I knew it we were playing a word game while coloring. 

 Presenting as my creative activity I would like share several of my colored pencil renderings using the adult coloring page format. They really did help keep me less anxious, and the children remain calmer while traveling, however for me personally, the coloring pages would not be my first choice for stress reduction. My plans are to return to the studio dipping my paint brush in color for a more comprehensive and complete form of self care.