Play with art

Week 10 Day 1: Play with art

Can working with art at some point be considered as "playing" with art? Is art fun? Is art an experience? Is art an experiment?

I must admit when I hear the word "play" by itself, I immediate visualise a stage, with actors in costumes, reciting lines in something like a school play. Things are organized and practiced, rehearsals happen and new things are tried. Preparing for the ultimate performance soon to happen in the future. The show is perfected up to the performance. However there is another word "play" and that is when I think of children in a park, girls with dolls, boys with trucks using their imagination creating situations even calamities to overcome and eventually figure things out. It is a learning process, taking things they have observed and putting it into application. Practicing for the future. Can "play" be applied to art?

While I work on my art, often times I make mistakes, or something happens I wasn't prepared for (good or bad) and I have to make alterations and adapt in order to continue with my creation. I half the time experiment. Vincent Van Gogh said " I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." In that sense I end up creating a situation that I need to overcome. If I look at it through the theatrical word, I am rehearsing, perfecting, trying new things in my studio, preparing for my final piece that will later be shown. While the art is being viewed or in an exhibit, shouldn't it be experienced? Just as a child experiences the rush of a slide in a playground could there be an experience in art? Isn't a school play an experience for the audience?

Even though most of what I have written down are questions, I have an answer for myself. That art can be play, art can be playful, art is experimental, art is practiced, art is an experience, yes art can be play. However, that is the answer for me...not necessarily the answer for you and thus art is subjective.