✨ what if you had fun? 💫

we gotta take ourselves less seriously and and what artists can learn from athletes

I promise this isn’t the do you ever figure skating recap (you can listen to the pod this week for that) I promise I have a point! I have watched 💆🏻‍♀️ so much Olympics 💆🏻‍♀️ this year. As a “not sport person” I see so much of myself and my craft in the Olympics. It feels weirdly relatable and simply human. Despite whatever weirdo pseudo rivalry the “jocks vs freaks” trope tries to instill in us, artists and athletes have so much in common. Fundamentally, we share craft that requires massive amounts of paid and unpaid time to just get our foot in the door. Our passion is exploited so that people can pay us less, or not pay us at all. But, I think the most precious thing is ultimately we show up, because it’s fun.

It’s the first thing we learn. It’s why we show up to the page, the notes app, the rink, the street hockey game, the painting, the stage. Fun. To express ourselves in the ways we find joy in. A stroke on the page, some stage time, an opportunity to try and work out how we feel and what we wanna say.

I think artists forget this. In our toiling over the “right” colour blue, we get hung up on our perfect expression of the thing instead of just our expression. The reason we ever picked up the pen in the first place. And it makes sense, everything outside of us tries to strip the joy from all that we do. Optimize and control the outcome and measurements of “good art”. Especially if we try/hope to get any sort of external approval for our work (get paid etc).

I get nervous before I go one stage almost 100% of the time. Even when I feel confident, prepared, the stakes are low etc etc. I don’t think that ever really goes away, I think we just get good at being nervous. But every single time I go on stage, and feel that little rumble in my belly and twist of “omg hope I don’t have diarrhea in my pants in this weekday brewery open mic”, I take a deep breath and whisper to myself “have fun”.

Our sweet queen Alysa Liu exemplifies this GLORIOUSLY. She skated a program infused with her artistry, on her own terms and had fucking fun doing it.

Because that’s all we can “control”. Is OUR enjoyment of the thing. We can train, we can practise, we can tinker but when the curtain call comes, it’s show time. The least we can do is enjoy ourselves.

I am avoiding the argument here that “if you have fun you’ll win a gold medal” cause like, you might not. And that’s not really the point. But I think if we as artists can be ok internally with how we delivered our performance, the external doesn’t really matter. One of my favourite moments the last week was when Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier finished their free dance routine immediately exploded “OH MY GOD!!! 😭”. Before the scoring (which btw they wont bronze and were the only ones literally leaping and bouncing around on the podium, I digress) before any external markers of good it was just them and their pride for delivering a stunning routine. They were proud of the skate.

Piper and Paul being the most excited people on the podium after winning bronze is just STUNNING BEHAVIOUR

We love Alysa not only because she has fun on the ice, but because she has fun everywhere. In interviews, with her hair. She carries her experience of being an artist into everything she does. Creativity isn’t just utilized when waffling over what colour blue, but in problem solving, in sharing and showing up.

Think about who you were before someone offered you $50 for a painting, or graded a painting in an art class. The way you preformed in the living room with your cousins. The performances with your stuffed animals in your bedroom who always gave you a standing ovation.

All we can do for our crafts is show up and try. And at the very least we could have fun while doing it.

ME LORE 🧙 having fun sharing our work

A Big Fat Guide to having fun on social media for the sake of promoting your art, your business, or your big, beautiful ideas! Below you will find prompts, shot lists, inspiration, and a whole lot of cheerleading to get out of the rut of talking about your work online, start to have fun, and other magic that happens on the other side of ✨ sharing your art ✨.

💫Grab your notion guide here 💫

We have a notion guide full of hooks, prompts, shot lists and a BUNCH of cheerleading so you can:

🍊 Share your work (what you make)

🧙‍♀️ Share your story (why you make it)

🤸 Have fun on social media (it’s possible, we promise)

Thanks for journeying with us DYE, if you’d like to stick around, we release a new podcast each week, plus artist studies and green room eps 👇

AND! We’d love to here from you in the comments below! Who are yah? What are you working on? And how are you having FUN doing it? ⛸️

We believe in you, your art! We’re proud of you! You’ve got this! Keep going!

Xx

P+J

Ps S/o to friend of the pod Olivia Rafferty ✨ for releasing Mortal this week. SO many figure skating lessons. All we can do is our best 🥇