Hello to everyone out there in the Do Art Nation!
October is almost here and that means…spooky season! Every day is an excuse to be creative and wacky, but Halloween is perhaps the wackiest holiday of all. It’s the one day where it is socially acceptable to dress in an absolutely silly and whimsical way, to transform yourself and your living space, generating a vibe of spookiness, creepiness, and don’t forget… Wackiness!
One of my favorite of things about Halloween is that costume stores pop up all over America, which gives me an excuse to walk in and ask myself a very important question: what wacky hat will I add to our acting Workshop repertoire? One of the ways that we encourage kids to act is we include a selection of hats that they can choose from before they perform. Some of these are straightforwardly hats, but the selection also includes masks, wigs, headbands, and other odd-ends that make our acting more wacky.
My favorite hat of this selection is of course the banana hat. It comes with me wherever I go. I use it not only for acting, but also to add a little pizzazz to the pose drawing exercises that we do. Our comic book and graphic novel workshops I tell people, and I’m a firm believer in the idea that by being silly yourself you open others up to participating in the workshop, and bringing out some of their own wacky energy. Sometimes this takes courage, and oftentimes it requires a whimsical hat, but the rewards are immense. You see kids, both shy and outgoing, embrace their creativity, come out of their shells, and grow in their creative skills alongside their friends.
How do you like to make Spooky Season more wacky? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to keep creating!
