WEEK 13 - Follow Your Fun
Hey there, thanks for joining us for Week 13 of HOMwork 2020!
Hi friends! I hope you’re staying safe and keeping your spirits up. It’s been super inspiring to see all the positive ways you’re spending your time as we navigate COVID-19. Over the last few weeks I’ve been able to dig into my personal resolution to “follow the fun” even more than usual.
In the last 6 months I’ve been trying to be a lot more purposeful about including fun in my life, both personal and professional. The whole thing that got me started on this was realizing that I’d do something super cool, think to myself: “gosh that was fun,” and then not do it again for like… a year.
From what I’ve heard from you, a loooot of us do this! Especially with work, we tend to look back on fun projects as one-off events that are totally outside our normal experience. And I think that’s a mistake, especially for those of us in freelance creative work.
Here’s why: Fun is a powerful teacher and compass.
Things you feel pulled to and drawn toward are not a coincidence. They are an important part of what motivates and what inspires you. So many artists’ stories about finding and developing their signature style involves their efforts to follow their own version of fun. Paying attention to your fun can teach you a lot about your own artistic voice.
And using fun as a compass to guide your work means that your art will inherently reflect your personality and attract followers (and clients) that you like. Whether you’re into game nights, literature, home improvement, or a bazillion other fun things, following your fun is a way to make your art truly personal.
The bonus is that following your fun will continuously infuse your work with things that make you profoundly happy. For me, that has meant a lot more food-oriented art haha. When I realized that making food was something that was a ton of fun for me, I started carving out more time to cook and bake. At first, this meant setting aside a few hours to experiment every weekend. And because I’ve been doing that so regularly for a while (ie: I’ve kept on “following” it), the fun of making food has spilled over into my business more and more!
As you start to “follow your fun” more purposefully, keep in mind that what’s fun for you might not be fun for others (and vice versa). For example: I love baking and dick jokes. Just because you like my art doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to find baking (or dick jokes) fun. The reason we share our fun is to inspire others to follow their fun.
Which leads me to this week’s assignment...
Yes this is a real cookie! Swipe through this Instagram post to see the fun process.
Your assignment: Recall the last thing you did for fun (like, real fun) and create a piece of artwork celebrating the activity or experience!
Getting started:
Think beyond work! Maybe the last fun thing you did involved a night out with friends, or trying something new, or singing your favorite songs to your pets (or plants haha). This assignment is about recognizing things outside of your current artistic practice that give you joy and make you smile.
Caption thoughts:
Try to explain your version of fun as if the person reading your caption has never ever considered it as a “fun” thing to do.
This will do two things: 1) make you think deeply about why and how that particular thing is so fun for you (which will help you when you’re using fun as a compass) and 2) it might inspire someone else to try out your version of fun!
Engagement idea:
Ask your followers to share their own version of fun. Or ask them to share the last truly fun thing they did. If your own “fun” includes other people or companies, tag them in your post!
Don’t forget to share on Instagram with the hashtag #HOMwork2020 and tag me @homsweethom when you post. I’ll be sharing my favorites in my Story all week!
x Lauren
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P.S. Have you been following my new blog series about painting murals? If not, head on over to my blog and add them to your weekend reading list.
