Whimsy, Colour and Creative Curiosity
A woman walks up to my table at a craft show. She flips through my greeting cards and abstract paintings before discovering my sock monstahs, the playful little stuffed guys I make out of … well, socks (they’re ‘monstahs’ rather than ‘monsters’ as homage to my home city of Boston, which is famous for its dropped ‘ahs’).
The woman picks up a colourful monstah with sparkly ears and stripey arms and legs, giving it a wiggle so that its appendages flop around delightfully. She looks from the monstah to me, who is decked out in a stripey scarf with a glittery rose pinned in my pink hair, and hesitantly says “They kind of look …”.
“Like me?” I smile at her. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
It has indeed been pointed out to me that I’m the human embodiment of my art, which feels fitting since I tend to put the same colourful, playful, whimsical energy into my art that I try to manifest in life. I’ve always been a big advocate for people nurturing within themselves the joys of childhood – playfulness, silliness, curiosity, a sense of wonder – which is why it delights me that half the monstahs I’ve ever made belong to other adults. Childhood shouldn’t have to end just because we grow up.
My creative practice is all over the map. Aside from my sock monstahs, I’ve painted cityscapes, done playful pet portraits, and illustrated a beer label. I make abstract paintings (a meditative and soothing pandemic practice) and I’m learning embroidery. Currently I’m working on a series of vibrant bird-and-flower paintings on wood, inspired by the Mexican folk art tradition of amate bark painting.
Although I’ve been making, displaying in shows, and selling art for nearly three decades, I’ve never aimed to be a full-time working artist. Aside from a three-month artist residency in Colorado, I’ve always carved out time around my day job(s) to create art. I simply value my relationship with my craft too much to add a set of expectations to it and risk changing the dynamics. My creative process and I have a good thing going.
My energetic approach to art inevitably led to my teaching art to kids. From 2013 to 2019, I helped run an incredible children’s summer programme in Massachusetts called Summer Art Barn.
For the 11 weeks of summer holiday, we’d have two dozen kids come and do extraordinary projects with us. In 2018, the programme’s founder and I were approached by Storey Publishing about doing a book of our favourite projects, and thus was born Art Sparks: Draw, Make, Paint, and Get Creative with 53 Amazing Projects!
It’s a dream of mine to run a similar programme here in NZ. Last summer I tested the waters and ran a two-week art programme for kids, and it was terrific. This January I’ll be running more classes, and I hope to expand into adult workshops too.
Putting my art out there in the world has led to the loveliest and most unexpected connections. For years, a man I’ve never met sent me packages of old ephemera to use in my work.
A stranger on another continent tattooed one of my paintings on her back. And, most memorably, in 2018 I received an email from an elementary school teacher in France who had stumbled across my cityscapes online.
I became pen pals with her students, and in 2019 my mom and I went to France for a few weeks and spent a day visiting the school.
I led the students through an art project I used to do with the kids at Summer Art Barn. It was magical; a full-circle moment of creativity, connection, and joy.
At the heart of everything I make is a desire to spark delight, both in myself and in others. The world can feel bleak and lonely at times, and I love putting forth bright, playful work that makes people smile. If my art can do that – even a little – I feel deeply grateful. After all, the world can always use a little more colour, a little more whimsy, and a few more smiles.
Art Sparks: Draw, Make, Paint, and Get Creative with 53 Amazing Projects! is available at the Mercury Bay Library
Words by Hilary Emerson Lay
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