Page of Cups

Page of Cups is the energy of childlike exploration, wonder, silliness. The energy of turning things on their heads and looking at them from a different perspective. Children do this naturally; they imagine what it would look like if the ground was on the ceiling, if the forest floor grew in the sea, if the moon really floated in the water, if fish could fly through the night sky. All these possibilities, children turn over in their minds with ease, and any of these threads of imagination are fuel for play, enchantment, and wonder.

This type of play and thinking is always available to us, but grown ups often forget it. We often choose the current of grinding productivity, reason, logic, adhering ourselves to the idea that all work worth doing must be hard. It’s not that things worth doing aren’t difficult or challenging, but consider; children do difficult and challenging things all the time, but often, if you watch, they are doing it in a spirit of play, curiosity, and exploration.

One of my dearest friends is also an artist, and when one of us is feeling “stuck” we tell each other, “Just go in the studio and make a mark. Just start, make one mark.” In making this artwork, The Page of Cups, I am reminding myself that play is crucial to the creative process. A spirit of play, silliness, wonder, the willingness to turn things around, upside down, sideways to view them from every angle - that exploration leads us down the path of delight in our work.