Join Robin’s Playground!

by | 22 Apr 2012

Please welcome the lovely and inspiring Robin Knight, my dear Goddess Circle friend and fellow Swede : ). Robin writes about her creative life and her latest project Robin’s Playground. Join us!

Big hugs,

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I started talking late. Not until after my second birthday apparently. It may seem a bit strange for those who know me that words took so long coming to me (I am quite good with words and languages), but there is another side to that story and that is that long before I started talking, I started to sing. My mother has told me that sometimes even before I had woken up in the morning, I would start singing.

And singing has always been with me. Later on I also discovered (with the loving guidance of my mother) drawing and painting, my father taught me how to play the violin, I started writing, and as a teenager I found my way to the theatre and acting. So all through my life I have surrounded myself with different kinds of artistic creation by different means. I know now that I was born to be some kind of artist. Still it took me some 30 + years to realize (remember) this. 

I have tried so hard to find “the right” profession and ways of living that comply with those norms that I have taken on from my surroundings. And that has brought to me a lot of pain. So, now I try to make room for what I truly am: an artist.

But this is not the full story. On this life journey I have met so many people yearning to create. They look at what I do (which to be honest really isn’t much so far) and they have been jealous or admiring or inspired or sad or made happy – all depending on where they currently have been on their own journey. And for a while I felt uncomfortable about people reacting those ways to me. Because I didn’t feel I was entitled to being seen as someone who creates, and because I didn’t know what to make of it. But now I think I do. 

I think in some way they were asking me (for some reason I don’t quite understand) to give them permission, and also to support them in finding their own creative spark again, and to have the courage to follow it – no matter whether they are naturally talented “successful” in creating at the level of the professionals, or felt that they really had no talent at all. It really doesn’t matter at all. Phone call doodles are also creating! Even if you are tone deaf, you still can sing!

I believe that being creative is part of what it means to be human. But this is an aspect of humanity that has been shot down and marginalized by the very materialistic and financially oriented culture/time we live in. To create art is not “financially efficient” and it doesn’t necessarily contribute to the continued “growth” that our governments and institutions have decided is so indispensable. 

So many of us feel that there is an essential part of ourselves that are missing. And I believe that one way to reclaim that part of ourselves is through the arts. To create ourselves and to experience the creations of others. Music, paintings, drawings, poetry and dance offer another kind of language that is sometimes more suited than our everyday verbal language. 

Every human is a unique and immeasurable universe, and through the arts we can find ways to really come close to each other. Literature, film and drama can be a vessel to travel in another person’s shoes and see the world through hers or his eyes.  

Creating also gives us an opportunity to be free, creative, develop our emotional life as well as our thoughts, and helps us process and communicate events, feelings and thoughts. 

And last, Art has an important role to play in society. It can put us in contact with the existential and spiritual dimensions in life. It can help us observe and reflect on the complexity of our existence. It also helps us communicate about difficult things. It can mirror, criticise, support and develop society and its’ citizens.

So, now you know why I think creating and the arts are so important. And it has been the longest introduction ever for this:
If you are one of those who wish to get creative, but feel blocked, or scared, or short of time, or feel you “don’t know how to”. Then please, feel this warmest of welcomes to a project of mine. I call it Robin’s Playground, because that is what it is meant to be, a playground. 

Once a week I will post a creative prompt on my blog, sometimes with examples, sometimes without, and next week I will show what I did, and those that feel like it can submit photos or texts of what you did so we can be inspired and learn from each other. 

To participate is free – this is as much for me as for anyone! And you can dive in and out as much as you like. Either you come to my blog every week, or you can get the prompts in my newsletter if you wish to sign up for it.

I do so hope to see you there!
Love!
Robin

Robin Knight is 36 years old and a mother of two: a soon to be three years old son and a daughter of eight months. She is a certified psychologist and also went to acting school. 

She keeps the blog http://robinhasadream.blogspot.com/ where she writes about her journey towards leading a creative and artistic life and tries to inspire others.


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