Kid’s Stuff
When we're kids, we're natural collectors. Nobody has to teach us. Nobody has to explain why.
Serious Collecting
When we're kids, we're natural collectors. Nobody has to teach us. Nobody has to explain why.
We collect rocks from the beach. Trading cards from the corner store. Stickers that make us smile. Leaves that caught our eye. We fill our pockets with treasures that most people walk right past.
And the weird thing? Each of us collects differently. Your rocks might be smooth and black, while your friend only picks up the textured ones. Your trading cards might be all about the stats, while your sister's all about the pictures.
That's not random. That's your creative DNA starting to show.
But somewhere along the way, we get the message that collecting isn't serious. That we need to focus on producing, not gathering. That inspiration should look a certain way, come from certain places.
We start thinking we need to be "serious" about our creativity.
But what if collecting is serious?
What if those early instincts - to gather what fascinates us, to pay attention to what makes us wonder - weren't just kid stuff after all?
What if they were showing us something important about who we are as creators?
TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT
Make a collection
Draw or write about things that come in a ‘set’. The set can be whatever you define.
All 4 Ninja Turtles could be a set.
Batman Logos could be a set.
Spider-Man villains.
Disney Princesses
A bouquet of flowers.
Ingredients for a dish.
To repeat this prompt simply make a different collection.
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Adam, I’ve lost the link to your chat where we can post stuff like this.
Were we supposed to stop collecting when we ... cough cough ... grew up? I'm constantly picking up things. My hubby asks "What do you want that for?" I say "I like it." He just shakes his head. Feathers, stones, and shells are my favs. Here's the sketch I did today. I don't much like it, but I can see what I need to do to make it something I do like. The light feathers don't show up well. They need a dark background, and to make them fluffy I need to dampen the paper first. Also I used too much ink in places, which is distracting. Some of the feathers I found where a bird had met its end and I picked them up as a momento mori. Others I found on my walks in the woods. Oops. Seems I can't add an image here.