A month of curiosity - Swapping purpose for exploration

I’ve been in a bit of mental gridlock recently, unable to make decisions or move forward, so when the artists’ membership group I’m in explored the theme of curiosity, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

When we talked about curiosity, we unpacked what it would mean to move without purpose; to push on the doors with no agenda, no particular outcome. We talked about what could support this curiosity and how the word actually made us feel in our bodies. What I felt was a weight lifting, and the word itself made me feel excited. Some things I’d been wrestling with for a long time suddenly became much lighter and more playful, I could just be curious and see what happened.

So this summer, I booked the concrete casting course I’d been eyeing up and spent a hot summer week in a dusty workshop at UAL exploring a completely new medium with all it’s successes and failures. It felt like being back at school (in a good way).

I RSVPd YES to a meet up in Paris with one of my licensing companies and had a fun weekend meeting other illustrators IRL and strolling around the Picasso museum.

And inspired by my son, I signed up for the collagraph course his art teacher recommended. I started last week and I’m loving how playful it is.

This of course is a privilege and I have a freelance life and older children, so I can choose a less busy time to go and explore. But this article about the US obsession with purpose versus the French more playful attitude, illustrates that your job doesn’t have to determine your happiness and success, I found the comparison really interesting. So when purpose feels debilitating, just be curious. It’s helped me no end.