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.