I just finished the book, Free Play, by Stephen Nachmanovitch. The subtitle is "Improvisation in Life and Art" and the book is a wonderful guide for exploring the nature of creating and creativity.

One of the chapters I particularly enjoyed is titled, "The Power of Limits," which is about how fixed constraints can drive our creativity.

Think Scrabble games, when you have three E’s, two O’s, an L, and a W. Or when you are desperately in need of a grocery run but are too lazy to go, so you figure out how to make a meal from what’s left in the fridge. (I recently did this and was quite proud to fashion a quick dinner from breakfast materials–two eggs, a bit of onion, green pepper, red pepper, zucchini, the last of some deli turkey, fresh rosemary, and a small potato all sauteed together, accompanied by an improvised cheese blintz made from leftover pancake batter, some very ripe raspberries, and three-berry swirled cream cheese that my sons had tired of. Topped off with a glass of OJ.)

The author describes further:

"There is a French word, bricolage, which means making do with the material at hand: a bricoleur is a kind of jack-of-all trades or handyman who can fix anything. In popular movies, the power of bricolage is symbolized by the resourceful hero who saves the world with a Swiss army knife and a couple of clever tricks. The bricoleur is an artist of limits."

The author then goes on to say that bricolage is seen in small children, "who will incorporate anything into their play–whatever piece of stuff is lying on the ground, whatever piece of information they picked up at breakfast."  I’ve often marveled at what my sons make with duct tape and index cards.

Another favorite chapter is titled, "Art for Life’s Sake," which speaks to how creativity is our avenue to living more deeply and richly. I particularly resonated with this description of how art plays into everyday life:

"I have never ceased to be astounded at the power of writing, music making, drawing, or dance to pull me out of sadness, disappointment, depression, bafflement. I am not talking about entertainment or distraction, but of playing, dancing, drawing, writing my way through and out. This process resembles the best in psychotherapy. We don’t go away and avoid the troubling thing, but rather confront it in a new framework….When you run into problems in our artwork, you may think you are working out a creative problem; but indirectly you are working out other life problems as well."

Become an artist in your own way, and discover more joy in living.