The great American author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, says we all have a responsibility to find our “genius.” Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit can help you get there. The book spans creative pursuits from the left brain to the right brain with the aim of getting you to think differently, not to try and make you a writer or an artist. It teaches you to explore and to have fun along the way. Chapter 17, “Play as a Way to Fire Creativity,” invites readers to blow bubbles, visit the kids’ section of the bookstore, leap into a pile of leaves, lie on the side of a hill and remember the ways you played when you were a child.
Okay, maybe it sounds a little strange, but some of the most successful corporations in the U.S. today boast “fun as a core value.” Kicking it back to childhood can free up some space in the brain.
There is a lesson from the Velveteen Rabbit, a personal favorite childhood story of mine. The message: Be Real. That’s right, with a capital “R”. Everywhere you turn there’s a fashion magazine sending the message that some people are flawless, a business book convincing you that there is an absolute definition of a good leader, that being happy all the time makes people like you. Smile, even if it hurts. Fake it. This book helps you creatively redefine what it means to be real, according to your own idiosyncrasies. Fantastic.
It also asks you to pay attention to the world, to be observant, to pretend you are an alien experiencing this world for the first time. What would you see? How would you interpret it? What would you change?
I was a cynic, but whenever I need a break from seriousness, I delve into this book and starting writing with purple, pink, green, blue, orange, or black ink. And sometimes I highlight my own words with violet or minty green. It’s one thing I’ve really latched on to – writing with different colored pens, pencils, markers, highlighters. I don’t know what it is really, but I find myself choosing colors based on my moods, changing colors each day so I can easily find where each days’ notes begin and end, I find myself switching pens when I want to skip topic, but the most fun I have are the real life dialogues (and sometimes strange looks) my specific pen needs spark (I also require roller gel ink).
I have not tried the glowy-glittery ink on black paper. Hmmm, what would I say in glitter? Something dreamy or wintry. Or maybe I’d try to drawn a fairy. I love fairy drawings and the stories of these sweet, sometimes mischievous creatures. Drawing is not my forte, I’m always free to admit I can’t do it – maybe it’s time to trip back to childhood when being good or bad didn’t matter, it was just the joy of sinking my fingers into the paint.
Hmm, how's this for a set of pens?
"This set includes 12 opaque gel pens, 12 glitter pens, 12 metallic pens and 12 mixables (which are two colors in one pen that mix when the ink is layed down).”
Cool.
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