Defining Fun

People have emailed me and commented on my last post in ways that make me want to clarify my language.

Fun (to me) means enjoyment, happiness, satisfaction, acceptance, going with the flow.

What it doesn't mean is stress, angst, fear, resistance.

I think fun is often interpreted as silliness, as having no purpose, as play without direction and yes, we can all have fun in those ways. But when I say I want to have fun doing my art I mean I want it to be a good time, a happy time, a satisfying, productive, heart warming, lovely time and most of the time it is for me. When I am drawing or painting I am in a zone. The outside world no longer exists. And for me, that is fun. I am my own world for those moments and nothing else is real. That is why I do art.

Just because it is work doesn't mean it can't be fun. I have fun working a lot. I love meeting people, planning out projects, marketing, teaching, writing and drawing. I love being out in nature, learning new things, putting past things in perspective. For me it is a good day when I've had fun. Luckily for me I have fun pretty much every day.

The picture I have included is of little animal sculptures I made with a bunch of kids on a rainy afternoon. We had a lot of fun making them. We had just as much fun squishing them and putting the clay back in the container for another day.

Are you having fun? How do you define fun?

Comments

[sara]

I'd like to have more fun. but yes, I do have fun.
I have a blast knitting my little animals, and deciding which papers to use for my pendants. It would be more fun if everything was just wildly selling off the shelves, so I could quit my day job, which is no longer fun.
A conundrum....

[Cathy]

Well, I think fun is actually an art! Fun is taking deep pleasure in life and in everything we do and creating opportunities for that pleasure! All for it here. Art is hard work sometimes but also there is a deep, deep sense of joy and connectedness. I do take my art seriously also. Right now I'm not pushing it into the world though I did plenty of that in the past. Right now I'm just doing the work and trusting it will take go somewhere in time. I'm giving myself the chance to explore and trusting the work itself will create something when there's enough of it. We'll see!! Thanks, Mary—you ask the best questions!!

[Renee]

fun, um I guess when I really see the picture in my head come onto the paper and as you said the world goes away.I'm lost in a memory or wish.

[patti]

Fun is getting paint of many colours all up your arms and down your jeans. You're having fun when you lose sense of time and fear drops away and you experiment with everything and anything, just to see what happens. Fun is creating something out of nothing and this is very satisfying. You should never 'work' in a studio.