The creativity zone

Sometimes the creative muse is as elusive as a snow leopard. But then other times it seems to be everywhere.
Sometimes a situation will bring creativity because there is a problem that must be solved. Sometimes the synergy of multiple perspectives brings creativity calling.

But my favorite time for it is when I have the time and no particular demand for a solution or an idea.
When these times come I play a little game of what if.
What if I had 100 lbs. of newspaper?
What if I had the opportunity to just design jewelry?
What if I had the perfect kitchen?
What if I could travel anywhere in the word for as long as I wanted?

I just let my brain wander through the possibilities and then if I feel like anything is worth keeping I will jot it down or sketch it out. I do not put many restrictions on the game; no issues with access to resources, money, or time.
The next step I need to take with my creativity is keeping it organized so if I need a creative solution to a problem I can offer a few from my files.

curse of the specialist

There is an old saying that when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail. And a newer version that if you are a surgeon, all medical issues have a cutting solution.
There is a disservice to the creativeness within when we narrow our vision too much. Where I grew up they had an annual conference between world renowned members from different disciplines to contemplate the big issues of the day. Sort of the ultimate think tank. There is some validity to this approach, but I think the desired synergy has never really been achieved. Instead I think of a box filled with an equal number of red balls and yellow balls. You can shake the balls or arrange them in patterns. In the end you always have a box with yellow and red balls. You never get a box of orange balls. Maybe if you backed far away and squinted then the box might look a bit orangish, but closeup it is still red and yellow.
Over and over again I see TV series that explain the great discoveries of the world and time and time again it is those people who look at the world with knowledge that spans more than a single discipline that bring the insights that progress the fields of science, medicine, engineering and more.

There are people who will always be just yellow or just red or just blue or just... but then there are some who will take a little from the red and add a little yellow and they can be the orange (or plum or chartreuse) that the think tanks strive to be.

Passion and love, Passion and anger

Passion is about intensity. Love, hate, anger, joy. Self permission to have passion means all of these things become more intense in your life. How often we hear stories about those historical and fictional figures of passion; Van Gough, Edison, Don Quixote and shake our heads in bafflement and envy. If only we could all feel so strongly about what we are doing. But then again if you have ever entered a local government meeting about a contentious issue you might have an idea of what the world would be like if we all carried so much passion into the everyday realm. Everything in extremes.
All on or all off.
I lack a big passion that drives me to live my big dream at any cost. But I try to allow as much intensity as I can into my little passions. I cook with love and a desire to feed more than just my belly, I write with honesty and a desire to connect directly, I craft with a desire for perfection.
But still I sometimes wish for a big passion. I will keep searching. I hope you all keep searching as well.

thinking outside the parameters

Too often we get caught in a box. We only let ourselves become creative in a certain venue. Sure we are thinking outside one box but inside a slightly bigger box. Jewelry has been like that for me. When I see myself as a jewelry maker I put so much of my energy there and try very hard not to become "distracted" by other venues. But as I am limited by resources and space and time I find more of my ideas reaching to other corners and bringing different pieces into the mix.
So I find myself saying "Hey wouldn't it be cool if...
* they ran the Iditrod as dual teams and teams could share dogs, but they must come into the check points one after the other. It would be an interesting race with many strategies.
* I could use whiskey in a dry rub for smoking pork.
* I could create an erector set using ordinary hardware
* I could use plastic lattice to create enough garden space for a real garden here this year.
* I could get that article I want to write actually down on epaper.
* I could figure out ways to recruit more people to help with the bazaar in April.
* ...
Is there really any such thing as thinking outside the box. If the box is big enough would you even notice you were still in it?

the never empty jar

Here it is the holiday season and once again I have not had the time to indulge my interest in creating things for the bazaars. But that has not stopped me from being creative and finding all kinds of ways to use my ideas. In some ways have the one easy out flow blocked has created many smaller and manageable outlets. (or at least manageable so far)
As many of those who read my blog know I have been spearheading the fund raising efforts for our school garden. Those of you have known me a long time know that I am rather a shy salesperson and I find myself reluctant to ask other to do what I would prefer not to do. So the packaged fundraisers were not on my list.
Small efforts such as a donations table at all parent events and keeping a wiki, and asking for donations have all garnered us a fair amount of money. Our biggest efforts though will be in the form of a spring bazaar.
Nothing small about this effort though. I want it to be well worth the price for vendors and well worth the effort for attendees. The simple reason beyond the need for the money is that I want to create an event that serves the whole community and becomes my legacy to this place I live.
And yet in spite of all the time and energy it is taking and will take to pull this event off I still find myself with the flow of ideas unabated.
Gifts for family, food for parties, uses for the oak trim I picked up, making a garden birdbath and mosaic gazing ball sculpture. knitting patterns, creating a Facebook page for the garden committee, writing that article on recycling...
I guess it would not make sense to fear running out of ideas, because there will always be more coming or at least some I can try out.

biting off a big chunk

some folks know they should start small, gain skills and then move up scale. But that would not be me. I seldom picture the final result of any of my creative outlets on a small scale. oh sure I will revise a plan if I find the going is getting too tough, but I try to use no more than one practice shot for whatever I am creating. Back to my earliest childhood philosophy of never practice just do and surely if you give everything in that attempt then it will be great. I admit that almost never worked.
Practice is important. so then I adopted the secret practice philosophy.
Its ok to practice or to try and then fail as long as no one sees you. Sure we all wish we had some secret talent waiting to burst forth full formed, but alas for me at least, practice will remain necessary.
But then when my first endeavor is something huge and it can not be tucked secretly away if it fails I more often than not smack myself in the forehead ask "what was I thinking". My first real quilting try... a king size quilt. Its not finished yet; its packed away in some box in storage. It still needs the two halves sewn together and then backed, filled and quilted. Which brings up the other problem with huge first projects. sticking with it. I don't tend to get bored as much as I tend to get distracted by the next neat idea to come along.
Now I am planning my first bazaar. you a know a couple of tables a few items here and there. yeah right. I don't think so. not in my world.
Now my goal is at least 70 tables and 6-8 workshops and a silent auction and food booth and...
The good news is its still 7 months away. The bad news is thats 7 months for me to get distracted by the next great idea. EEEEK!

Tools vs. Toys

When doing something you love the distinction between tools and toys becomes quite blurred. A rake and hoe can enhance the fun of the experience to someone who loves gardening. To others they are tools to get a job done. They might make the job easier, but there is still no passion and no joy in it.
To me the angle grinder my spouse got me for my birthday has all the potential of becoming a toy. I plan to experiment on how it works on different materials. and if it works well and I feel comfortable with it, it can indeed become a toy that lets me explore sculpting and texturing and polishing a variety of things. However if I never use it for fun, it stays firmly rooted in the world of tools.
Maybe every tool aspires to become a toy in the hands of someone who love the things they can do with that tool. I only wish every tool I picked up could become a toy. But alas, much as I wish it otherwise, the rake and hoe will remain tools.

building the future touching the past

As I spend so much of my creative energy these days on construction I am often thinking about my family; specifically my father and grandfather. Both brought their skills and creativity to bear when they built the house I grew up in.
Every block in the foundation or piece of siding knew their touch.
In the heat of the day, struggling with the effects of anemia, I still push on to finish whatever phase of the project we are working on. I keep the vision of my grandfather and father with their masonry and carpentry skills before me as I push back the wish for some strong virile young back to come finish my work.
The creativity is a collaborative effort with both my husband and I working to bring to reality a comfortable house where we will hope to raise kids, entertain and shelter friends and live the many decades we have ahead of us.
I also think of my mother as I work. She too was an integral part of the house they built. She helped to design the floor plan, selected materials for construction, and planned the landscaping, all while taking care of 4 kids.
I do not know what my forefathers would think of my results but I feel sure they would appreciate my process and effort.

tick tock

Time seems such a precious commodity these days. Somehow from morning till night I never run out of things to get done. finding a way to schedule in creative time is really tough. I reentered the facebook realm and I have been swallowed as I try to figure out all the ins and outs. What happened to those 2 hours I was going to spend working on designs or calling friends. Instead i have washed through the lives of others like a peep show they have orchestrated for my amusments. harumph. I think I will be putting that away until another day when I do not feel the drive to do something creative so strongly pushing at me.
The irony here is that I came back to post something on my blog as I plan to list it among my websites on my facebook page.
gotta laugh.
K

creativity and time

As I sit between work and a very busy summer I find my mind turning over more ideas than I have seen there for awhile. Where have all these thoughts been lurking? evidently they needed time for me to sist still so they could catch up. Creativity is like that. not always very aggressive, it will not force itself when there are more pressing matters. One way anthropologists measure free time in ancient civilizations is by the art they produce. The theory being that a group of people who are in sheer survival mode and devoting all their energy to food production and staying warm will not produce art.

So time is a critical element in the process of creativity. As I look though the groups I belong to and the beading magazines, I get I am often disappointed by the step by step how to's for producing jewlery. Sure I could do that and end up with a nice pair of earrings or bracelet, but I would feel very unfulfilled, and self gratification is a big part of why I create.
My mother used to put together kits, embroidery, latchhook... But I found more satisisfaction in creating the kits. I designed many of the pieces she worked on. She was able to make substitutions in colors and rearrange some stitches to make something unique, sort of. She worked in a similar way with food. She loved to cook and loved readding through cookbooks to try something new at least 3 days a week. But she always insisted on making things by the recipe at least the first time. She would make notes on the recipe to add a touch more this, take out that and such until she was satisfied with it, then she would type it on a roledex file card and add it to the stash.
In our society everybody most likely has time to be creative. I do not know why so many people are afraid to let themselves be creative. Or they keep a tight leash on those impulses. On the other hand if everybody felt creative it would limit the market for those of us who are.

creativity and marketing

In these tough economic times marketing yourself or your product effectively becomes more crucial and more difficult at the same time. There are more and more outlets for making those connections, but doing it the wrong way can be far more devastating than missing a few opportunities.
Here is an example. I belong to a group of artists whose work is sold through a particular outlet. the group of people that runs the outlet occasionally sends out an email with news about the shop or monthly events and classes. By accident one day they sent out their email without the bcc protection on everybody's email addresses. I personally barely noticed this glitch. however one person whose product was marketed there took all those email addresses and began a marketing campaign. Spam hit everyone's email accounts. and while it was not voracious amounts it was a little disconcerting to get offers for products I had no interest in. The folks who made the inital mistakes have been trying to get the spammer to give up the use of these addresses. Since they have refused the store has recommended that people block the incoming email address. but I will probably do more. I had seen and heard of this tea shop before the spam started and had even talked about joining my coworkers on a little shopping trip there, but now I will very likely share this story and encourage them not to give their business to an operation that would take advantage of such a mistake.

So then the question is where and how to use as many tool as you can to reach the audience you want. There are lots of options to consider and that will be the topic of my next essay eventually.

supporting creativity

I recently took a writing workshop and one of the ground rules was to keep all critiques positive no matter what. But what if there was nothing positive to say? The rule was there to build trust and allow virtual strangers to be more open in their written expression. It is easier to be brave if you do not have to fear hearing negative comments.

This seems to translate to other creative groups too. Moderators, or workshop leaders keep everything so civil as to be almost pointless in terms of seeking feedback.
We are certainly vulnerable to flaming and pointless hostility if we allow anything negetive. Right?

But here is my point in writing this entry. There are people who assemble beaded jewelry and seek great praise for their cleverness. Well I am sorry. Go ahead, throw some beads on a head pin, bend it into a loop and add an earwire. Yes you made apiece of jewelry, no you were not creative or clever or even highly skilled.
Again string some beads in a pretty pattern add a clasp and yes you have made a necklace but again not so creative. following a pattern or a tutorial you bought with the beads of your color choice is only marginally creative. But for the most part this describes 90% of the beaded jewelry being sold today. How sad and how tough for a buyer to choose between all the options that are nearly the same.

How do we educate buyers and beaders to go beyond the most readily available formulaic products?