Sometimes (most of the time, actually) the creative process leads me to unexpected outcomes. This was one of the photos that emerged from our creative foray this morning, but it wasn't what our initial intention was.
All four members of our family really enjoy and highly value creativity. It can be anything from painting, drawing, poetry, dancing, photography, sewing, flower arranging, cooking to playing with words as puns to seeking unconventional solutions and different ways to look at life. For me, retreating Into creativity helps me keep my sanity as a parent, and allows me a sense of sovereignty over my time.
This morning while running at the beach, my husband Oliver came across several large, brightly painted sticks stuck into the sand out on our local sandspit - kind of like an art installation that somebody set up for display. It's not what you see there every day. He came home inspired to do a photography project including those bright sticks and asked if I would join him at the beach to collaborate.
in the meantime, the kids set out to do a painting project and discovered that we had run out of watercolour paper. They embarked on a mission to walk into town to buy some more, leaving my husband and me on our own to head to the beach together (yay- an impromptu date!).
Walking, walking, walking down the sand spit, in search of the painted sticks.... they were nowhere to be found. So instead we just took a few photos by the sea.
On the way back we found the holes where the sticks had been, along with the residual splatters of paint on the sand. Too late. They were gone.
in any case, my husband and I enjoyed our journey out together, relishing time together as a couple.
The children came home empty-handed since the stores were all still closed for the New Year's holiday.
In pursuing creativity none of us came to the result we expected, but we were all happy for our little adventures.