Over the last few weeks at common art we have been thoughtfully preparing as we began to increase the number of participants and the art materials we can utilize in the parish hall. This has brought much excitement and joy to the place as we are ready to bring back the beloved acrylic paints!
This feels momentous for the community. After a year of difficult transitions to protect each other’s health and safety we finally can begin to find joy in some of those favorite activities or materials again. As an intern, I feel so fortunate to be at common art for this transition. Coming on during the pandemic, I wasn’t sure what my experience would look like and how it would differ from my initial visit to common art in February 2020. Of course, it’s been quite different. We have all made the best of it, but there is something quite thrilling about getting to see a bit of the “old” common art come back to life before my time here concludes.
As a part of common art’s process, a large blue tarp was always spread out across the floor to contain the mess of acrylic paints. Last week we rolled the big blue tarp out for the first time in a year, and it was quite a moving experience. The energy in the room immediately shifted; the room felt really lively and full of creative energy. We just unrolled the tarp. We didn’t re-introduce paints. Yet, in our afternoon meeting, someone remarked that seeing the blue tarp again made them well up with tears of joy. A tarp seems so simple. I had not anticipated that I would find so much joy spreading one out in my lifetime! In my learning this has illustrated the small things in an artistic or therapeutic space that make a big impact. In this case the tarp brings memories of a space that was to a space that is once again becoming. It symbolizes the professional quality of a working arts space. It acknowledges and even encourages messes. For all of these reasons and more, I see how a simple tarp can be an inviting and welcoming tool to inspire creativity and set the tone of the space. This is an experience I want to hold close in my own mind and heart when setting up in therapeutic and arts-based spaces in the future, to remember the big impact of seemingly small pieces in the environment.
-Isabelle Olsson