Why Adults Need Creative Playtime, Too

At some point, most adults stop playing.

Not completely, of course. We still have hobbies, watch movies, travel, garden, cook, play games, and find ways to entertain ourselves. But something often changes as we get older: we become much more concerned about whether what we're doing is useful.

Children rarely need a reason to make something.

Give a child paper, paint, cardboard, clay, tape, or a box of markers, and the question is usually, “What can I make with this?”

Give the same materials to an adult, and the questions may sound very different.

“What am I supposed to make?”

“What if I mess it up?”

“Am I doing this right?”

And perhaps the most revealing one:

“But what would I do with it?”

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that creativity should have a purpose. If we're going to spend two hours painting, there should probably be a painting worth hanging on the wall when we're finished.

But what if making the painting was the point?

Play Isn't Just for Children

We tend to think of play as something children need while adults need productivity, responsibility, and results.

Creative play challenges that distinction.

It gives us permission to explore something without knowing where it will lead. We can try an unfamiliar material, combine colors we wouldn't normally choose, build something slightly ridiculous, or make an artwork that never needs to leave the studio.

There doesn't have to be a customer.

There doesn't have to be an exhibition.

There doesn't even have to be a refrigerator worthy of displaying the result.

Sometimes we can simply make something because making it is interesting.

Adults Become Very Good at Avoiding Failure

One advantage children have in the art room is that they haven't yet accumulated quite as many rules about what they can and cannot do.

Adults have.

“I can't draw.”

“I'm terrible with color.”

“I tried watercolor once.”

“I don't have any artistic talent.”

Those statements can become surprisingly permanent.

Creative play creates a different environment because the objective isn't mastery. It's experimentation.

What happens if you scrape paint instead of brushing it?

What happens if you draw with your non-dominant hand?

What happens if you make an entire painting using only shades of gray?

What happens if you cover the canvas with dots, build something from clay, tear the paper instead of cutting it, or use a material in a way you haven't tried before?

Suddenly, there isn't quite as much pressure to succeed because you're conducting an experiment.

And experiments are allowed to produce unexpected results.

Creativity Uses a Different Kind of Attention

Much of adult life requires us to think ahead.

What's next?

What needs to be finished?

Who needs an answer?

What did I forget?

Creative work can interrupt that cycle because making something requires attention to what is happening right now.

You notice the way two colors mix.

You feel the resistance of clay beneath your fingers.

You watch watercolor move across wet paper.

You discover that the mark you didn't intend to make is actually more interesting than the one you planned.

For a while, your attention belongs to the thing directly in front of you.

That doesn't mean art magically eliminates stress or solves life's problems. It does something simpler and potentially very valuable: it gives your mind another place to go.

Play and Learning Belong Together

There's another reason creative play matters: experimentation is how we learn.

Artists discover materials by using them.

You can read about how watercolor behaves on different papers, but eventually you have to put water and pigment on the paper.

You can study color theory, but mixing two colors yourself teaches you something a diagram cannot.

You can watch someone work with clay, pastels, ink, acrylics, or charcoal, but your hands eventually have to learn what those materials do.

Play removes some of the pressure from that process.

Instead of asking, “Can I make a good painting?” you can ask, “What can this paint do?”

That's a much more interesting question.

You Don't Have to Be an Artist to Make Art

Perhaps this is the biggest obstacle adults bring into creative spaces.

We divide people into two groups: artists and everyone else.

But creativity doesn't require a professional identity.

You don't have to sell your work.

You don't have to exhibit it.

You don't have to post it on social media.

You don't even have to show it to anyone.

You are allowed to paint because you like paint.

You are allowed to draw badly and enjoy drawing.

You are allowed to buy the good sketchbook before you think your drawings deserve it.

You are allowed to use your art supplies instead of saving them for the day when you're finally “good enough.”

And you are allowed to spend an afternoon making something that serves absolutely no practical purpose.

Give Yourself a Creative Recess

Children get recess because we understand that they cannot spend every waking hour sitting still, concentrating, producing, and behaving responsibly.

Adults could probably use recess, too.

So give yourself one.

Put some supplies on the table and give yourself an hour when the finished product doesn't matter.

Try a material you've never used.

Make a tiny painting.

Fill a page with marks.

Mix colors just to see what happens.

Make the ugliest collage you possibly can.

Paint something entirely in shades of gray.

Take a class about an artist whose work you don't understand.

The goal isn't necessarily to make something beautiful.

The goal is to become curious again.

Because sometimes the most useful thing you can make is something that doesn't need to be useful at all.

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Studio Notes | Alabama Art Supply

Alabama Art Supply has been supporting artists and creative people since 1969. In Your Art Store, you’ll find quality paints, brushes, papers, canvases, drawing materials, clay, tools, and more for artists at every level. Our Frame Shop provides custom framing and design services to protect and beautifully present artwork, photographs, keepsakes, and other meaningful pieces. And through the Alabama Art Academy, we bring people together to learn, experiment, and grow with workshops and creative experiences for beginners, practicing artists, youth, and lifelong learners. Shop. Frame. Learn. Create. — all in one place.

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