Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
Share What You Make
A few months ago I was visiting my friend Amy on Cape Cod. While there, we went to a cafe for lunch. It was a cozy place, the kind you could sit and read for awhile, and they had an assortment of magazines – the bright, beautiful indie ones with gorgeous photos, you know the kind. I happened to have a copy of Comestible (the food journal that I publish) with me, and I stashed it in the pile, my own small act of guerrilla marketing.
Thanks to Instagram, I found out that a few weeks ago, someone happened upon it while visiting the same cafe. The person was so moved by it that she wrote about it on her blog. The entry was titled “Hope.”
Here is an excerpt:
“While I waited for my breakfast, I paged through a short stack of literary journals with titles I didn’t recognize. Some were rich in bold, brash photography, but one in particular — a collection of essays and poetry called Comestible — stood alone. Stark in detail and void of ads, each page is an unvarnished offering from writer to reader.
The candor and vulnerability present in every piece reminded me that sometimes life on Earth is beautiful and sometimes it’s sufferable; expecting it to be different is the real mistake. Also, though our creations will be flawed, we should share them anyway. Doing so is a reminder to self and other that we are alike more than we differ. To create is to live, and to share what we make is to offer hope and healing from the inside out.”
I was so touched by her words, and it was the reminder that I needed that whatever we put into the world inevitably has an impact.
Creating, whatever our medium is – words, painting, dance, food – can often feel like a personal act, something that we do because it sustains us. I know that I write and make art because I just feel that I need to, it’s how I process the world around me. It’s what keeps me balanced and sane.
But when we share what we create, we have the opportunity to impact someone else. That might be someone that we know, or it might be a total stranger. Those moments of exchange can be small and individual, or larger, but regardless of their size, they are all meaningful.
What if as part of our creative practice, we included a sharing practice? Not to show off our work, not in the hopes of getting acclaim, but simply to bring joy to someone else.
We all have the power to inspire each other, to encourage each other, to help each other heal. In a time where it feels like we need more of that, why not take time for the little acts which do just that?
Awaken: A Creative Retreat
What is creativity? How do we cultivate it? Why do we need it? How does creativity keep us awake? How do we maintain a sustainable creative practice?
These are questions that I have been thinking a lot about over the last few months and I am thrilled that these questions are going to come to life in the form of a creative workshop that I am leading with my friend Sara Close as a Creative Expression Immersion for Hello Soul.
This October, we will be convening in Montana near Glacier National Park for a retreat called Awaken. This is a retreat that will combine yoga + soulcraft + creative work + whitespace, all intended to wake up that creative fire in you.
A few months ago, I did a workshop that Sara led. As a part of it, she led a yoga session that was focused on challenging us to exist in the space “in between” – in between our creative/expressive/emotional self and our rational/reserved/practical self. That yoga practice did something to me. I ended it by bawling my eyes out, something that has never happened to me during a yoga session before. It opened me up in a way that I really needed at that precise moment, challenging me to push myself creatively and throw myself into projects with a vengeance. Most of all, it helped me to embrace who I was and where I was and give impostor syndrome a swift quick in the pants.
All to say, Sara is amazing and I am so honored that I get to lead this retreat with her. If you need a few days to recalibrate, to reawaken your creative practice, to be inspired and find new ideas, to kickstart a new creative routine – this retreat is for you.
“When we become aware in the moment, we can look around us and consciously decide what to do with the resources available to us. We can make art: both literally, and perhaps more importantly, figuratively… after all, problem solving, empathy, conversation, leadership, our side hustles… it’s ALL art.
That’s what this retreat is about: creative practice as a vehicle to awaken the self. Getting out of the way of yourself.”
Awaken will take place October 18-21 at Dancing Spirit Ranch in Northwest Montana. More information and registration here.
The Winding Path of a Creative Life
In February, I worked on a project with Subaru and She Explores. This post is brought to you in partnership with Subaru, all opinions are my own.
“I don’t really think that I’m creative.”
I was road tripping from Taos, New Mexico to Marfa, Texas in a 2018 Crosstrek with my good friend and filmmaker Sarah Menzies. We were headed to a storytelling experience hosted by She Explores and sponsored by Subaru. I was driving and she was sitting next to me, and I had just asked her if she had some kind of a daily creative practice.
Sarah makes a variety of films, all focused on interesting characters and important issues, like my recent favorite, “The Mirnavator.” For the last couple of years, I have been working with her on “Afghan Cycles,” a film about women cyclists in Afghanistan and challenging gender stereotypes from the seat of a bicycle. I would certainly consider her a creative and passionate individual, and she’s one of my friends that continually keeps me creatively inspired.
“You don’t think you’re creative?” I responded back to her, not hiding my shock at her statement. This is a woman who always has interesting ideas for how to tell a story, is always drumming up new ideas.
This launched us into a conversation about creativity, what it is and whether or not we “have it” or not. The idea that some of us are creative and that some us aren’t, based on the idea that creativity is some kind of talent, simply isn’t true. Creative thinking is a skill, one that takes work and practice. You don’t get off the couch and run a marathon in record time, and you don’t go from zero creative practice to coming up with a masterpiece. We have to work at creativity, work at doing the things that make our brains better able to think creatively, better able to make connections between ideas, and come up with new ones.
Our conversation about creativity continued, and we began talking about some of the difficulties that come with working in a creative profession. Creative work can be exhausting. There’s a privilege to being able to say that. I am well aware that I don’t have to go work in a mine every day, and I am thankful that I have a profession where I get to do things that I love. But one of the big fears that I often have is that eventually, the creative ideas will cease to come. When your income is tied to your creativity, there is a real fear in wondering whether or not one day you’ll run out of ideas. What happens if you don’t have another idea for a new project? Then what?
The Journey is as Important as the Destination
“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.” -Louis L’Amour
I love this quote that my friend Dan sent to me this week.
We are so often focused on the end goal – be it a destination, a deadline – that we forget to enjoy the process in between.
That is of course very true when we travel; we forget to slow down. But I also I think about this a lot in terms of doing creative work. You are always hustling to get something finished, it can be hard to focus on anything besides that list of things that you need to have accomplished by a certain time.
I have to force myself to stop and ask yourself, “why do I write?”
When I step back and think about my work, I remind myself that I do in fact love to write. If I let my mind wander, it immediately goes to envisioning a day when I can just sit in a quiet space with a cup of coffee and just write whatever I feel like writing.
But that’s the romantic version of writing. Instead, when I dive into my work, I am mostly stressed about getting an interview, getting to a certain word limit, or cutting something down. In the midst of the madness of the freelance hustle, I completely forget to appreciate that I am in the middle of actually doing the thing that I like to do.
The process isn’t always enjoyable. It can be downright frustrating and hard. But it can also be fun. That moment when you get into a certain flow and you feel like you could just keep going forever. It is those constant ups and downs – the seemingly never-ending roller coaster – that make the entire process so gratifying.
Overall, do you enjoy the journey? If not, it’s time to change paths. What can you do to slow down and appreciate the process?
If we don’t slow down, we forget what pushed us on our various life paths to begin with. There’s a routine to the everyday, but you can’t led it become a rut that silences your passion.
We are all on a journey somewhere, and it’s not just the destination that counts, so let’s all take a little time to slow down.
The Ten Commandments That Block Creativity
My mother sent me a photo of a typewritten piece of paper this week. It’s a list, titled The Ten Commandments That Block Creativity. Actually it’s written in all caps, since whoever wrote it down thought it was very important.
I assumed she sent it as a push towards creative inspiration as I plugged through deadlines. Deadlines which I am procrastinating on right now by writing this. Mothers are good like that.
The list is credited to Stanley Krippner, and I don’t know where he published the original, but I did see it made an appearance in the 1973 book Child Development and Learning.
In his commandments, Krippner was writing specifically on children, and the cultural norms at play that hamper their creativity from an early age. But I think that as adults, particularly in a creative field, we can find truth in these.
The full list of the commandments goes into detail on each one of them, but I think that they stand for themselves.
The Ten Commandments That Block Creativity
by Stanley Krippner, PhD
1. Everything Thou Doest Must Be Useful
2. Everything that Thou Doest Must Be Successful.
3. Everything Thou Doest Must Be Perfect.
4. Everyone Thou Knowest Must Like Thee.
5. Thou Shalt Not Prefer Solitude to Togetherness
6. Remember Concentrated Attention and Keep it Holy.
7. Thou Shalt Not Diverge From Culturally-Imposed Sex Norms.
8. Thou Shalt Not Express Excessive Emotional Feeling.
9. Thou Shalt Not Be Ambiguous.
10. Thou Shalt Not Rock The Cultural Boat.
So here’s to rocking cultural boats, learning to not be perfect and reminding ourselves that not all we do has to be a success.
Vow to Never Be Normal
Good words from Van Gogh that act as a the perfect reminder to cultivate beauty and color in our lives.
Via: Fresh Hues
To Inspire Creativity
An excellent quote for creative inspiration.
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.
– Jim Jarmusch
Printmaking: Winter Trees and Rosehips
I made a commitment to set aside more time to being creative (read: spend time away from the computer) in 2010 and so far, so good. Result? First prints of the New Year!
I was inspired by wintry flora, which turned into a tree series as well as a rosehip print.
Both of the prints were carved onto simple erasers and then printed onto white and brown paper. Need some printing inspiration? Check out the fantastic book Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin.
blog.annabrones.com 