Sarah Tavis and Jenn Berney want to give people permission to make their creativity playful. They encourage others (and themselves) to embrace making mistakes, taking risks, getting wild. They view the creative process as an end in itself, just as important as any finished product.
After years of experimenting, the two women will soon publish a book of their thoughts on creativity, The Joyful Practice Handbook: Analog Play for Dark Times.” When they recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the book, they found an audience hungry for their ideas: the goal of $4,600 was reached in just 12 days. They’re aiming toward a “stretch goal” of $7.000. (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joyfulpracticebook/the-joyful-practice-handbook)
Both teachers of writing at the South Pacific Sound Community College, Tavis and Berney know well this country’s “grind culture,” with its emphasis on long hours, competition and relentless hustle, trends accelerated by technology and social media. The two women have succeeded in this culture, with Berney’s memoir, The Other Mothers, a finalist in the 2021 Washington State Book Awards, and Tavis publishing a novella, A History of What Lies Beneath, in 2027.
But Tavis and Berney, friends as well as colleagues, believe grind culture success comes at a high cost that can harm people. Several years ago, they realized a common desire to slow down, step back from technology, experiment with creativity of a different sort. This process would be hands-on, analog rather than digital, with an embrace of discovery, spontaneity, and making mistakes.
“We wanted the humanity to be obvious,” Berney said.
So they closed up their laptops and turned to typewriters. The very process of typing, including the slowing down when mistakes are made, proved valuable in surprising ways.
“Writing on a typewriter changed my whole approach and thinking,” Tavis said. “I was more conscious of each word on the page. A different voice came out. When doing things at a human pace, things change.”
Other changes followed. For Berney, her increased creative risk-taking meant trying new things, allowing herself to be a beginner again. “A little voice began speaking more directly. It said, ‘Get watercolors.’”
Inspired by the changes they saw in their own creativity, they wanted to get the word out. A first step in 2023 was launching a Substack newsletter, “The Scrap Heap.” Wanting to form a community of like-minded people, they held local workshops, some in-person at Browsers Bookshop downtown, and most on Zoom.
And in April this year, they took another step, setting up space in Heart of the Deernicorn/Studio Golden downtown as a stop in the Spring Arts Walk. There, they offered Arts Walk participants the opportunity to dive into their analog artistic world, offering supplies and prompts for creative thinking. The prompts included “What trees have you known?” and “What animal thrills and fascinates you?”
A good prompt, according to Berney, is “like a key. It provides a route in the brain to go somewhere new, brings you to somewhere hopeful.”
They didn’t know what to expect from Arts Walk, and worried that no one would participate. And they were pleasantly surprised. Many who stopped by wrote their response to the prompts, which were displayed on a wall, while others tried out drawing with oil pastels.
“The conversations that came out of it were so sweet, so vulnerable,” Tavis said.
Arts Walk organizers liked the project as well. Joyful Practice was one of five (out of 125) Arts Walk events recognized with an Innovation Award, for “their inspiring and engaging art projects that contribute to the community.”
The next step for Tavis and Berney is self-publishing The Joyful Practice Handbook. On their Kickstarter webpage, they wrote that they hope the book, which they illustrated as well, “helps you to reclaim your time, your joy, your rage and find refuge in creative practice.”
Among other things, the book includes 17 (as of now) Emergent Principles of Joyful Practice, which evolved from the workshops. Some examples are:
Our work lives at the intersection of joy and grief.
Your body has the feedback.
We go slow.
We listen.
We play.
We seek connection with the collective unconscious through collaboration with friends, strangers, ancestors, dreams, chance and landscape.
We take care of ourselves, and each other.
This work is never finished, just released.
WHAT:
The Joyful Practice Handbook: Analog Play for Dark Times, by Sarah Tavis and Jennifer Berney While the Kickstarter campaign for the book is officially over, backers are still being accepted.
WHEN:
The self-published book, printed by Gorham Press, will be released in September.
WHERE:
Pre-order the book at www.joyfulpracticecommunity.com. Also, it will be available after release at local bookstores
COST:
$25