Whimsy

whim-sy (hwim-zee)

noun

1.  capricious humor or disposition, extravagant, fanciful, or excessively playful expression

2.  an odd or fanciful notion

3.  anything odd or fanciful, a product of playful or capricious fancy

Yield to whimsy is the motto of Djerassi.  I've always been attracted to whimsical artists - Miro, Kandinsky, Calder.  There's something childlike and magical in their work -playful.

I wouldn't say my work is whimsical, but I am interested in exploring how to make it so, imbue it with a sense of play.  I think I myself have lost that and become too serious.  How can I loosen up in a way that isn't too uncomfortable.  Because you can't force whimsy, you can't make playful happen, can't jolt it out of you if you're uncomfortable.  It has to just move out, like a child.

So I'm taking baby steps.  Dancing around my studio to music and just letting the movement happen, not judging if it's good or not.  Not wearing a watch, which is like a third arm to me.  My wise and wonderful friend just wrote me "white man's time will give you stomach cancer," which she was told by an indigenous elder.  And not writing one single grant while I'm here - something I haven't done in I don't know how long.  I usually write grants every single weekend of the year.  Again my wise friend said "let the universe work on granting you things now."  So I'm going to try and be open to that.

I'm inviting whimsy in, leaving a space in my being for it to enter and swirl around.  I'll see what happens.