My Adventure of Improvising in Life and Art
By: Mayra
A little abandoned cabin I found on the island during one of my walks.
Romina was waiting for me barefooted at the island’s dock stop, it was the blue hour. She was carrying a small antique lantern and the longest smile I had seen all week. This was our first time meeting in person. She reached her hand to grab my backpack and hugged me like we were the closest friends on the island. I am instantly relieved.
“Photo Residency Among the Trees” This was the name of the photo art residency I had found online and applied for as a part of an assignment to then forgot about it for almost two months before being selected. Now, I was crossing the tropical forest of a small island in Argentina with 22kg of clothing and photography gear on my back and the excitement of a child in my heart.
Romina making dinner at our little art house.
A little blue cabin, lifted from the ground with thick wooden pillars was our home for two weeks on the island. We spent hours drinking yerba mate tea, weaving endless conversations around our questions and passions in life and art. Romina showered me with the most diverse and rich work of artists, photographers, social activists, poets and musicians.
Every reference we explored carved a new pathway in my creative process, but there was a particular book that would stay with me forever. A turquoise, heavily textured hardcover book titled “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art.”
I was 24 years old at that time; I had just graduated from my Photography Degree. I had no plans, no job, and no return ticket home. I felt blocked, confused about my future and looking for a deeper meaning in life. Crossing paths with that book saved me from living in a fearful state in life and inspired me to practice trust and surrender to this day.
Free Play, was written by Stephen Nachmanovitch, a psychologist and improvisational violinist. It is a book that reflects on the inner sources of spontaneous creation, exploring the philosophies and practices around improvisation. It reveals how inspiration arises within us, how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life and how it can be liberating – how we can be liberated – to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play, with our own authentic voice.
Nachmanovitch's ideas inspired me to playfully jump into the unknown and after devouring the book in a few days on the island, I decided I was going to follow my intuition and use my trip across Argentina as a playground to practice improvisation and self-trust.
“As I reflect on that trip and how it transformed me, I realize just how much I had been stifling my creativity without knowing it. Growing up, I became so focused on planning, achieving, and getting things “right” that I left no room for play or experimentation.”
I embarked on my three-month backpacking adventure with a playful spirit and a renewed curiosity about life’s surprises. Instead of meticulously planning every detail, I gave myself permission to be spontaneous. I’d book hostels only a day or two ahead, decide on my daily activities based on how I felt that day, or sometimes plan nothing at all and just wander to see where the day would lead. This approach led to unexpected friendships, sharing houses for weeks, nights dancing milongas at the smallest towns, and random hikes to hidden colourful mountains I might never have discovered otherwise.
Inspired by Nachmanovitch’s invitation to infuse play into everyday life, I even invented simple games to play by myself, for example, there is this game I call “Dreams Come Thru” and it consists of choosing a small element or action of any dream and making it happen the next day. During my trip, one night I dreamed I was in a gigantic market that only sold green apples, so the next day I went to the local town market and bought a bag of green apples and ended up having a lovely conversation with the fruit store man and trying sweet cucumber for the first time as a gift from him. These small, whimsical acts aren’t about achieving something in particular; they are about creating magic, playfulness and embracing the improvisation in life.
“This approach led to unexpected friendships, sharing houses for weeks, nights dancing milongas at the smallest towns, and random hikes to hidden colourful mountains I might never have discovered otherwise.”
The book taught me that improvisation isn’t limited to art or games, it can show up in the most ordinary parts of life – cooking dinner, weaving a conversation, or taking a walk. I found there’s always room to approach the world with play, and by playing I felt I could tune into a lighter version of myself.
As I reflect on that trip and how it transformed me, I realize just how much I had been stifling my creativity without knowing it. Growing up, I became so focused on planning, achieving, and getting things “right” that I left no room for play or experimentation.
I thought being serious and structured was the way to succeed, but in doing so, I was losing touch with my creative spirit. I learned that the paradox of trying really hard to be good at something – whether art or life – blocks my creativity and keeps me within the boundaries of what feels safe and predictable. But when I let go of control, I make space for discovery. The fruits of improvisation, I’ve learned, aren’t the immediate results of an action or a plan but a richer, more adventurous life, deeper self-trust, and a strong intuition.
When I was walking on that island with Romina on our way to the cabin – It never crossed my mind, that the child-like excitement I felt in my heart was just about to become the guiding star of my trip, opening my eyes to the tenderness and playfulness of the world around me. So now, whenever I feel lost or weighed down by fear, I return to this experience. I remind myself to surrender, trust, and invite spontaneity back into my life; because in an increasingly unstable world, just being willing to play freely and authentically, can be utterly transformative.
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A little blue cabin, an art residency, a backpacking journey without an itinerary, and a book on improvisation. Mayra, a Marketing student at Sheridan College, shares her insight on “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art” a book that opened her world to one full of creative possibilities while travelling across Argentina.