Photo Venture Camera Club, the club I belong to, schedules trips around town to areas of interest to photographers.  The Indianapolis Museum of Art recently opened 100 Acres IMA, an area rich in opportunities for engagement and, for the most part, interaction with large scale art works.  Becky and I went over to scout it out before scheduling our next meeting there.

Interaction with large scale art works.  I got there before Becky and was wandering around shooting whatever caught my eye.  I wanted to get an abstract image of metal and shadow at the first exhibit from the parking lot but kids kept getting in the way.

There’s one of the little critters over to the right in the image above.  His dad is watching from the left.  I tried to out-wait them but they kept showing up.

Here’s one dropping out the sky (although not very far).  It slowly dawned on me that whatever other reason the kids were there, they were also there as teachers.  They knew what to do here, it is not to ‘interact’ but to play.  A much simpler word and far more packed with meaning.  Time to play.

Becky got stuck in traffic and after awhile I sat down on a low wall in the shade to wait for her.  There was a gentleman already there and we struck up a conversation.  He was saying he was pretty tired from walking around the area (100 acres covers a lot of ground).  Then he allowed that he had worked out in the gym for an hour that morning and for someone 92 years of age that plus a long walk was indeed pretty tiring.   I think he was there to play too.

Becky showed up and off we went.  There is a good sized lake (30 acres I believe) and a young boy we saw knew just what to do with it.  He threw rocks into the water and I worked at photographing it.

Play.  I’ve been reading a book about how very creative people create.  A wide range of creative people are introduced ranging from Richard Feynman to Frank Zappa.  It is interesting to see how often the word ‘play’ comes up.  Play is central to the way some creative people work.  It is not a casual kind of play, rather it is intense.  But fun, and out of it, new relationships are discovered and presented.  Kids are pretty intense in their play as well and I suspect that is an important way for them to learn about the world.

I would like to say to my wife that I am off on a creative venture, one whose pure intent is creative work but she knows better.  She’s a quilter and she knows what fun is.

Go create.  Go have fun.