Hello! My name is Carla Sonheim and I am the author of a new book, “The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone.” Today I’d like to talk a little bit about creativity, drawing, and… silliness!
Being creative enriches our lives. Besides the more “serious” benefits such as developing problem-solving skills, etc., expressing ourselves creatively is fun and rewarding. (It can also be frustrating and challenging, but what worth doing, isn’t?)
But finding the time to be creative can be difficult when we have kids to feed and ferry, reports to write and analyze, dishes to dirty and do. “Life” can keep us scurrying around from one thing to another, keeping us from taking the time to slow down, focus, and just enjoy making something new.
For me, drawing is one of the quickest and easiest ways for me to nurture my creative side, and especially so if I don’t take it too seriously. (In fact, the sillier I am regarding drawing, the better, especially if time is short.)
Author Julia Cameron writes, “The creative part of us is always childlike.” Being “silly” is a great way to tap into your inner kid!
Do you want to try? This assignment should take less than five minutes. (Can’t draw? Don’t worry! Just do the prompts, one by one. Outcome is not important.)
- Skip down the hallway, in your house or at work, by yourself or with a friend. Do it!
- Now quickly draw 5-6 cats — including eyes — using just one curvy and loopy line (see this video for tips on how to do one-liners: .
- Make up a nonsense word (a “Fleep” word) that starts with the letter “Z.” (For example, “zashing.”)
- Define your Fleep. Just start writing. Write two or three “definitions” very quickly, then pick your favorite.
- Now draw another one-line cat with your eyes closed.
:D
Okay… that was silly. And what was with the skipping?
Try not to worry about it, but just focus on how you felt afterwards. It was fun, right? Just a tiny bit?
Meet the author: Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator, and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. Her latest book is “The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone.” She holds online classes from her website: http://www.carlasonheim.com and lives inSeattle,WA, with her photographer husband, a game-playing teenager, and her blog.
What we thought:
I hope you followed along with Carla’s creative exercise! I think that we get so wrapped up into day to day life that we just forget to stop and have fun sometimes. A little bit of silly can go a long way to creating smiles in the family!
I had the pleasure of receiving a copy of Carla’s book, “The Art of Silliness” and I must say I’ve been having a lot of fun with it! I love all of the different ways this book prompts you to express your silliness. There is doodling, drawing, word creating, games, scribbling and so much more. I have always been a doodler so found those prompts to be the most fun.
It is wonderful being able to put aside any stress about how to draw or what to draw and just do it! Letting the kid come out once in awhile makes the world a little less serious, for a bit anyways. I would buy this book for myself and would happily give it as a gift to anyone, especially tweens and up.
How to stay in touch!
The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone is Carla’s third book. You can keep up to date with all of the silliness by following Carla Sonheim’s Blog, @carlasonheim on Twitter and her shop on Etsy.
CLOSED – Win a copy of The Art of Silliness!
To help spread the silliness, one lucky reader will win their very own copy of Carla Sonheim’s “The Art of Silliness”, WooHoo! To enter, just leave a comment telling how you try to add silliness to your life!
For a extra entries, Tweet or share this post via G+, Pinterest or Facebook, using the share tools at the side or bottom of the post. Tweet daily for extra entries (leave a comment each time you share).
Giveaway is open to U.S. ages 18+ only and will end November 30, 2012 at 11:59pm est. Winner will be drawn randomly and contacted via email. Must respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be drawn.
AND THE WINNER IS
The post Get creative with The Art of Silliness author Carla Sonheim appeared first on A Hen's Nest - NW PA Single Woman Mom Blog.