LiDona Wagner: October 2022

Monday, October 31, 2022

PLAY SPACE

Where is your imaginative play space?

We all like and need to play. A runner or hiker puts on shoes or boots and makes a bee line for the door. Rock climbers gather their gear and head for the mountains. Bikers jump on a bike and ride. Ballerinas grab a duffle bag of leotards and slippers and dance their way to a studio. A chef gathers up veggies and herbs in a well-equipped kitchen. An artist keeps colors and marking tools close at hand.

My play space requires surfaces at differing heights to allow
for various forms of play and for having fun with others.

All around lighting and comprehensive space utilization
enhance my play time.

Playing requires equipment and designated spaces. A musician without an instrument feels bereft of a beloved companion. Play connects us to our body and its senses of hearing, sight, sensation, smelling, taste, and hearing. More importantly, play opens us up to that which is beyond our current experience and expertise.

Cutting boards on top of a paper storage unit allow collage
opportunities at the same time as being involved in a writing project.

Are you stretching your imagination muscles?

Imaginative play is about pure potential. Do you have a space for daydreaming, journaling and making personal notes? Or for recording your dreams and inquiring about their messages? Do you doodle as you think about possible ventures or while talking on the phone? Do you keep your doodles and expand on them? Are markers, pens, pencils, and paper ready at hand when an idea floats at the edge of awareness?

Keeping track of files and having a closet filled with
multiple project options makes me happy.

As an experimental artist,
I require a variety of materials.

When I decided to record my experiences in oppressed communities around the world, I got a laptop computer and claimed an unoccupied room on the top floor of the former nunnery where I was living. Later I moved to an island that unleashed my visual imagination, so I began taking art classes. Soon my apartment kitchen had two folding shelves to hold my materials. Returning to the mainland, I graduated to a table and cabinet in the one-bedroom place I rented. Only when I bought my little townhouse was there a room that could become a full-on art studio.

My original bedroom cabinet stores paints, pens,
crayons, markers and all sorts of gluing and sealing materials

Because nature sparks my imagination, my creative
play spaces must have windows.

If you don’t have a designated imaginative play space, where could you make one? In the closet under the stairs? By removing an irrelevant piece of furniture?