I’ve always loved painting. The idea of seeing my imagination come to life on a blank canvas thrills me. Other than the excitement of creating something new, I also find painting very therapeutic. Seeing the colours merge into each other, feeling the smooth strokes of the brush, all of it gives me a sense of fulfilment.
I usually buy my art supplies in bulk and stock it up. But earlier this year I hadn’t gone art supply shopping much and when suddenly a nationwide lockdown was announced, I was stuck at home, low on my art stock.
I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, I for sure am grateful that my family and I were safe and did not face any problems. But I so wished to let my imagination cover a blank canvas. One day I just let my creative juices flow and used Canva, to make a simple creative for our social handle (another reason for this sudden burst of inspiration was because our graphic designer was on leave and we needed a creative super urgent). After that first time, it was an avalanche of creativity. It became a fascination not only for me but also for the entire team. We all started creating exciting and pretty amazing templates and creatives using Canva. It became our new, break-time fun!
For me, Canva kind of became a digital substitute to painting. Choosing from numerous illustrations, going through the innumerable fonts, and exploring the colour palette to find just the right one gave me a thrill. When my head seemed to be preoccupied and I couldn’t concentrate on work, exploring and creating anything on Canva helped me unravel my thoughts and refocus. It wasn’t only a downtime personal therapy for me, but anything that we created could be used productively on our social handles. Of course it cannot replace the subtlety and aesthetics of actual painting for me, but it for sure is a good digital substitute.
It became the blank canvas on which I just let out all my thoughts and feelings, all the unsaid emotions. Anything that was occupying my mind found its way to my Canva screen. Sometimes in the form of the colour combination, or the font I used, even the template that I chose.
Especially during the lockdown when there was so much going on, yet everything was silent. Where everyone on social media were posting the so called ‘challenges’, I felt myself being underproductive to that of my peers. This kind of sent me on a downward spiral professionally as well as in personal life. It did not stop just there, the feeling of being underproductive actually became more real as the lockdown stretched. I became less interactive and withdrew. I did not feel like doing the usual things that I loved to cheer myself up. I couldn’t read a book even if I tried to, I couldn’t write even if that was the one thing that I wanted to do the most. I realised that to stay sane I need to look for something that I enjoy doing, isn’t too strained and which is easily available. And that is when Canva came to my rescue as something different that I hadn’t tried before but also something that I enjoyed immensely.
It did not only help me through lockdown, it has also become another of my hobbies.
Read more: Serendipity Arts Foundation To Launch A New Digital Art; Called SA Virtual
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