Over the past eight months I’ve been overwhelmed by the love and support I’ve received from friends and blog followers regarding our mural project. ‘I love your wall!’ They’ll exclaim as we catch up. And following that I’ve started to notice we get into a loop of similar questions. ‘Is it all the same wall?’ When I answer yes, there’s usually a bit of a shock. ‘So you just paint over it?’ Yes. Yes we do. Sometimes, after debuting any version of the ‘latest one’ I’ll hear, ‘You’re not going to paint over this one though, are you? It’s too beautiful.’ But yes, yes we are. I’ve begun to realize how powerful of a creative lesson this is for myself and my children.
So often when we create, we are focused on the final outcome. Did we make a painting beautiful enough to hang up for everyone to see? Is the wreath I made good enough for my front door? Will I hang my child’s drawing on the fridge forever? There are so many questions and expectations that the thing we create is perfect and beautiful. And then there’s our mural project which for me has broken every mold of what I thought the process had to be.
Some murals have a very structured idea and plan that I followed the whole way through. And some I free flowed ideas and created as I went. There was not one specific way that felt better. I created what I thought would be fun and tested out different processes along the way.
We always paint over each of them. This huge lesson came to me only through the glory of a friend’s comment. She could not believe we kept doing this. And she marveled at the joy we got in the creation without unwavering support to the outcome. We had fun creating. We shared our final project joyously. We used the mural as a backdrop and conversation piece at home. And then we started again.
I didn’t love the outcome of every wall we painted. Some ideas were better than I thought they’d be at the end and others were better in my head than in reality. And because I wasn’t tied to them forever, it was okay either way. The stakes were low.
I realized, ideas will keep coming. The more you create, the more you envision creating. And I know this to be true every time but it’s worth mentioning all the same. If you want new ideas to come to you, you have to be working on the ones you have. The creative energy compounds. The consistency compounds.
My biggest lesson as a mom has been that it is always worth the extra work to involve my children. And it is so much extra work, I cannot undersell this part. Two year olds are not great painters! Two year olds make messes! But if you are patient with them and guide their hands, they can do it. My little guy was so glad to be included in the projects his mom and big sister were working on. As for my five year old, it’s safe to say that painting the walls have made a huge impact. In her preschool class each Monday the teacher had them draw in a journal something from the weekend. When the book came home at the end of the school year, there were pages filled of us painting the walls every single time. I cried tears of joy seeing those memories through her eyes.
Let me tell you, friends love when you have a perfect backdrop. The walls have been a great excuse to have friends over for an ice cream party or newborn photos. I love the joy they bring to others. The most recent wall came about as part of a matching theme to a bridal shower I was hosting. For the first time, I expanded my paint crew to include the mother of the bride and a fellow bestie. We rarely get to spend that amount of time together with that little distraction. We spent several hours painting and catching up. I was reminded how much joy I get in bringing people together to create.
If there’s anything my kids take away from our mural painting adventures I hope it’s this: ideas are worth exploring and celebrating. There’s joy in creation and bringing people together to witness it. But, there’s no need to elevate the final product above the process and the time spent enjoying being creative. The creative process is magic and when we create, we are magic too.
