stickers!

unicorn metallic sticker from Jennifer's own childhood collection,
now living in ZBOOK.(& see above that for piece of orange glitter
 sticker sheet, as mentioned in last post)  >>click for larger view

Jennifer and I were hanging out in her room at the apartment she had just moved into in 1996, in Isla Vista, CA.  (Was that Trigo St, Hemphill?)  Still fresh in the first season of our friendship, we were reminiscing over stories about when we were kids... and we both started to remember how much we had loved stickers!  All the different kinds... such as metallics, iridescents, oilies, fuzzies, scratch n' sniffs, etc... and Jennifer said she still had her collection at home (! which she retrieved and presented to me a week or 2 later).  I had let my affection for stickers go dormant since the 6th grade, having shed my devotion to them in an attempt to"grow up", I suppose.  Suddenly, here in this room, at the age of 21, my love for stickers busted wide open once again.  This was the moment I gave myself permission to adore stickers again, have fun with stickers again, and simply have FUN again. This marked the moment I got PLAY back into my creative and life experience.  Thanks to this inspiring reflection, this I'm-possible connection with a long found friend, I made the great return to a vital part of myself that I had denied for 10 years. Stickers were simply the catalyst.  

As I write this I am realizing that it was indeed middle school when I began to turn away from my art (and thus my heart) in which I had been fervently active since birth it seemed, and began to buy into all the voices of fear delivered by my parents and teachers.  Voices that said that art would deny me a future, that I needed to get "serious" and calm down, that I can't let a "hobby" get in the way of my "real" future career.  I was in an emotionally vulnerable state at that time and maybe that's why I did so choose to buy into these notions and proceed to sacrifice my (he)art for the pursuit of getting "serious."  When Jennifer and I met, at age 21, I had just months before finally emerged from this abyss, no longer being able to deny myself of myself, and had decided to stay a 5th year at UCSB to add Art Studio to my degree (English).  

click for larger view

And thus Jennifer & cec did meet, and our friendship made it possible for so much further awakening.  Not only did I get back to stickers, I got back to PLAY.  And then ZBOOK gave us a place to play, a place to collect and create with our beloved stickers and our every whim of inspiration, a place to truly BE creative.

PLAY, I have come to rediscover, as most kids well know, is the liberation of pure creativity.  Through what the hands make and the ideas the mind innovates.  Thank you Hemphill, thank you ZBOOK, and thank you cec, for playing.  :)

∞ ceci

6

PS(L): happy Bday today to our dear PSL brother Millar, a man devoted to play in notably athletic and musical ways....!