I have received hundreds of likes and positive comments on social media lately for the photo of me with blue hair. I started already a few months ago with a lot of different colors in my hair, but a week ago I colored it blue and green like mermaid hair.
Is it a statement?
What’s so exciting is that almost no people questioned or wondered why I did it. The only one asking questions has actually been my boss at my ordinary workplace, and I think he has had a lot of thoughts about what kind of statement I want to make.
I have laughingly explained to him that it’s not a statement at all. That, as an artist, I simply think it’s fun with colors, that I’m happy when I see myself in the mirror and that I love to see my colorful hair blow past my eyes.
Why didn’t I do this earlier in life?
One explanation is of that I’m the mother of four. When you are a mother it’s important to look pretty normal and act quite normally. A mother with blue hair might have people all around to question her suitability as a mother, and the children might be exposed to questions from other children and teachers.
But now my children are grown-ups. They stand steadily on their own feet. And to my great pleasure, they supported me wholeheartedly when I asked them in advance about their thoughts if I dyed my hair blue.
So maybe it’s a statement anyway.
It is a statement that, after taking care of other people for so many years, I now put myself in the first place. I have spent a lot of energy developing others and making them find themselves and succeed in their lives. Now it’s time for me to develop and to positively find out who I am and what I can become, especially in the artistic field.
I’m from an old family of artists, I was raised as an artist, so I’ve always believed I was an artist. But education, family and professional life came in between. At the same time the crazy creativity was always there, underlying, cheering from my inside. It made me quite often see things from a different perspective than others did, made me draw other conclusions, made me see other possibilities.
That can be quite awkward sometimes, but that’s when and why the art is so important. Art is one of the few areas where you not only are allowed but also strongly encouraged to be creative, to try new things, to dare to find your own ways. To simply find yourself and your own unique way of being.
Your own way of creating a mirror and translation of the world around us.
To succeed.
To fail.
To fall.
And to come back.
Though I have not understood it until now, my life has been guided by artistic creativity. Through the good and through the difficult. Through joyfulness and through loneliness.
Now I’m going to give myself enough space to be myself, to give myself time to follow the hard way, to develop as an artist, to allow myself to be nothing but myself, to not tie up my ideas, to explore the possibilities of life and art. And at the same time be fully present with all my friends and family.
And there is something that serves as a reminder to myself and everyone else that I’m doing this right here and right now:
My blue hair.
Want to read more about creative personal development? I can recommend:
Living with intensity – understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults. (Editors: Susan Daniels, Ph.D. and Michael M. Piechowski, Ph.D.)Creativity As An Order Through Emotions: A Study of Creative Adolescents and Young Adults (Krystyna C. Laycraft)
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