Have Yourselves a Creative Christmas (in Video Games and Elsewhere)

I know Christmas is a bad time for a lot of people. Those of us who have lost friends and family, those of us who don't have the money we think we need to properly celebrate, those who are ill or who love those who are ill, and those of us who through no fault of our own don't have a prayer of achieving a perfect Christmas with a perfect family can feel pretty awful this time of year. And of course those of us who aren't Christian naturally feel left out, and so do those who are deeply committed to their Christian faith when the commercial aspects of the holiday are offensive. Every cheery Christmas song can make one sad for many reasons.

Me, I hide out in my needlepoint when things go badly. At least if something is wrong there I can rip it out and try again--I can stitch an almost perfect Santa, even if Santa isn't going to visit me this year, or stitch beautiful ornaments even if I'm not putting up a tree. Our imagination and the creative spirit are balm for a lot of things, even Christmas Gone Wrong. I've been reading a series of articles by The Brainy Gamer on a video game called Little Big Planet that brought home to me how important a creative outlet is to folks and how much what I do with my needlepoint matters to me.

You've probably not heard of the video game Little Big Planet--heck, you may not even have ever played a video game--but trust me, this game is news for the Under 30 set, most of whom have at least a middling acquaintance with video games. The hero of the game is a little knit doll with a zipper in his tummy called Sack Boy. Sack Boy runs and jumps and climbs in a virtual world made from what looks like felt, string, rubber bands, yarn, cardboard, buttons, pulleys, wheels and such. Sound familiar? Any of us might have knit Sack Boys (or Sack Girls) for the kids to play with at home. Want to see a documentary of Sack Boy in his natural environment?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doF9mSSh03w

The point of the game is to run, jump and hop through the environments as you explore them, then use the built-in ability to make your own environments which you and other people can explore through their own Sack Boys or Girls.

However, as I read the Brainy Gamer blog, I started to realize how much Little Big Planet is like what Ido with needle and thread, except the creative impulse lives inside the Playstation 3 environment of video games instead of in a real needle and threads. Little Big Planet encourages the game player to make their own world in their own way. Which is what needlepoint does. Except I use needles, threads and NP canvas to create and populate my world in my own colors and threads and textures--I'm not using a game controller and software. Stitching the Three Women and a Peach Canvas, I gave the ladies clothing, hairstyles and what actors call a "back story" which is simply personalities and a personal history to help me stitch the design. I entered into a kind of dialogue with the designer, Gail Hendrix, and build on what she designed to make the women in the canvas come alive in a new, unique way based on my decisions on how to handle the canvas. Together Gail and I have created something that didn't exist before for other stitchers to enjoy and explore based on Japanese art and tradition.

Needlepoint painted canvases enhance creativity, encourage exploration and to work with others to make something more than what was there originally. Just like Little Big Planet does for video game players. I do have something in common with 18 year old boys! And they do something very similar to what I do even if you lined us up in a row and had to pick out who was the most creative, the kids might not be your first choice.

So this Christmas I'm going to be grateful for all the other treasures hidden in my stash and start thinking of ways to explore there to find new lands, new threads, new stitches and new designers. I'm not going to worry about a holiday that's missing something, not when I have so much to discover among my stitching. I'm going to work a bit on the stitch guide for Three Women and a Peach so that other folks can follow the path behind me and discover Japanese art and personalities through their needle also. And I'm going to remember that video games are another way to play creatively.

Happy New Year, everyone! Be creative and enjoy, no matter what medium you create in.

Anyone curious about The Brainy Gamer's thoughts on Little Big Planet can read the three articles that got me thinking here.

http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2008/12/made-by-human-beings.html

http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2008/12/family-plays.html

http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2008/12/creativity.html

The illustration of this article is Melissa Shirley's Red Christmas Cottage canvas, currently on sale at Needle Nook of La Jolla. Merry and Happy!
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/storedir/proddetail.php?prod=ms949&cat=192

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow