What if play is exactly what you need this Easter? - Happy Easter!
Published 7 days ago • 2 min read
✨ Welcome to The Journaling Muse – Issue #13 The Power of Play
A soft space to reflect, reconnect, and create with feeling. My mission is simple: to help you slow down, explore your inner world, and unlock your creativity through colour and gentle self-expression.
Dear Reader
There’s a moment in creative life when something shifts: You stop trying to get it right—and start letting it be fun.
This week, I want to invite you back to that place. The one that doesn’t care about technique, outcome, or neatness. The one that’s just curious.
"Serious art is born from serious play." — Julia Cameron
It might sound lighthearted, but it’s deeply true. Play is how we begin to trust ourselves creatively. It’s how we explore, combine ideas, and stumble onto something that surprises us.
A Galaxy Built on Play
When filmmaker George Lucas couldn’t get the rights to adapt Flash Gordon, he didn’t give up. He played. He pulled from mythology, comics, fairy tales, and classic sci-fi, mixing them freely. The result? Star Wars—a universe born from joyful imagination, not strict planning.
Let that be a reminder: you don’t have to know where it’s going. You just have to begin.
My Personal Story: Pouring Color, Stirring Memory
One of the most playful phases in my creative journey was when I discovered acrylic pouring. I was mesmerized by how colours danced, split, and formed little “cells” when I added oil or silicone spray.
It reminded me of my high school chemistry labs—where I spent three hours a week creating mixtures, watching reactions, feeling the joy of something becoming something else.
That joyful experimentation—mixing, not knowing exactly what would happen—brought me back to a part of myself I didn’t even know I missed.
Artists Who Embrace Play
If you need permission to be bold and playful, let these artists show you the way:
Cy Twombly – With scribbles, scratches, and scrawls, his work celebrates emotion over polish.
Jean-Michel Basquiat – A master of layered graffiti, spontaneous symbols, and intuitive marks.
Joan Miró – His floating lines and dreamlike shapes speak in the language of curiosity and wonder.
None of them asked for perfection. They followed energy, instinct, and play.
This Week’s Prompts: Let Yourself Play
Art Prompt: Create a page titled “Permission to Play”. Use colors, scraps, tools, or marks you don’t usually use. Make it wild, messy, free.
Journaling Prompts:
What did you love to play as a child—and what of that still lives in you?
What would your dream creative project look like if there were no limits?
Write a playful dialogue between two characters about the importance of fun.
Imagine your own Star Wars: what world would you create from scraps of what you love?
Literature Thought
“Play is the highest form of research.” — Albert Einstein
Your journal is a playground for discovery.
Closing Words
This week, forget the rules for a moment. Forget the outcome.
Let your colours spill. Let your words wander. Let your hands move in ways that don’t make sense yet.
Because in that space, you might just find something you’ve been missing.
Cheering on You, Beáta
P.S.1.: I've been working on my website lately. Let me know what you think—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
P.S 2.: This Easter, I don’t have anything grand to share— just a quiet moment of beauty from my little corner of the world.
I went to a concert that moved me to tears, wandered through the World Flower Show like a dream, and stood quietly in front of my own paintings—still on exhibit till the end of the month— feeling grateful they get to speak without words.
This season reminds me how deeply art and nature echo one another: both ask us to slow down, to feel more, and to believe in gentle transformations.
So here’s my wish for you: 🌸 May this spring fill you with softness, colour, and light. 🌿 May you find beauty in small things—a note of music, a bloom, a brushstroke.
Warmest Easter wishes, Beáta 🎨 Art is the spicy cure for your soul
