Don’t you just love creativity? Don’t you just love that little endorphin zone that kicks in? You know, where when you sit down to work, one glance at the clock tells you it is 10:30. After creating awhile and it feels like 30 minutes have passed and you glance back up and it’s 12:30? Love that! And I love that feeling of everything coming together and it actually looks like the sketch or the picture that you had in my mind’s eye. I’m pretty much a self-taught artist/crafter. Like most of you, have been making things and drawing since I was a kid. Started a commercial art degree, but never finished…hated almost all of the classes except for life drawing. I did take several life drawing courses here.and just being there always made me feel like a real artist. Only recently have I stumbled onto paper arts. I have so much to learn. Many years ago, one of the coolest things that I ever did was take a one-day creativity workshop. A lovely woman, by the name of Karen Royer, taught this course. It was in the small town of Round Top, Texas (which is really known for the fantastic flea market that takes place there twice a year). When we entered into the workroom area, each place was set with a workbook, a pad of paper, a flowerpot of crayons on the right, a flowerpot of miniature snickers candybars on the left. I almost peed by pants. As they say, a simple mind is easily amused, but crayons, paper AND chocolate? We’re taking bliss here people. What I remember most about the day (other than the fantastic lunch provided by their restaurant) was the emphasis that creativity is not some glittered winged muse that sweetly sits on your shoulder, tapping you with her wand at whim. It is more about thinking. It is more about looking at things differently. "Thinking outside the box" which is a term that is probably over-used these days was very much the theme of that day and the process still applies. Are there those blessed with the natural aptitude to conjure up fantastic things in mere moments, seeing things in a different light from the rest of us? Yes, I think so. But I am also open to the possibility that the rest of us can learn this process. Sometimes it can be so simple. For instance, you can make a glass of ice tea for a friend by merely pouring tea into a papercup. Or you can put crushed ice into a really pretty teaglass, add a piece of mint, a lemon slice or two, and then pour your tea. And the same concept can be applied to paper arts. Why just plop a photo down? Adhere it to pretty paper, add an embellishment or two, scribble over the outline and then chalk the edges. It's just thinking. It’s just looking at something in a different way. This same process can be applied to everything, for instance, tying a gift box with shoe laces rather than ribbon. Using a cup towel for a napkin. Using a piece of graphpaper in a layout, rather than scrap paper. It’s just a matter of thinking and being open to all the possibilities. Then as we begin to think and do in different ways, we learn. And over-time, the process becomes easier, faster and over-flowing, much like a muscle that with regular workout becomes stronger and stronger. So let’s raise our pretty-lemon sliced-mint-added tea glasses to creativity and the continued learning of it. How was your creativity today? What did you do differently? Here are some great books for inspiration:
A Creative Companion by SARK
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
