Tag: Creativity

It’s spring time-Use your noggin!

Engaging your brain in new tasks is a key to boosting brain performance, or at least that is what the website of “Brain World Magazine” says. I will summarize the webpage here to get to my point: Most fabulous inventions happened when someone asked themselves- Is it possible and how can I do it? When you ask the hard questions, you expand your brain. This makes sense for it forces you to think and problem solve. As healthy humans, we WANT to discover-to search for new. This process keeps our brains active and functioning. “True creativity comes from an integrated brain that establishes new, robust connections between the parts of your brain dealing with cognition, emotion, vital functions, and crosstalk between the two hemispheres of your brain.”  ( http://brainworldmagazine.com/ask-brain-spring-creativity-within/)  My thoughts today are about creativity.

Think about a snake, a crab, a caterpillar. They all shed one skin and start anew. If we don’t keep trying to rejuvenate ourselves, we too can get stuck in our old skin. It’s SPRING, the season of renew-Go For It! The transformations we create and abide by change with the times and what is going on within ourselves. It is this pursuit of transformations, this metamorphosis, that forms the very base of the process of LETTING GO!  I believe this shedding is the core of what I will call creative imagination. My imagination most often happens when I just “DO”, when I don’t worry too much about what I may be creating.  I might not know “the hard question” and that’s ok. My brain is stretched by the creative process regardless of a conscious question. The process relaxes me and lets the questions flow. Right now I am working on an array of new projects. That alone is maxing out part of my mind. Creativity churns and keeps my imagination going full steam. (Or would it be imagination churns and keeps the creativity going?) It’s hard to dial my brain down and do things like sleep sometimes.  One project is my third children’s book which is indeed about imagination. I am struggling with a cover design. Resisting the usual exploding of things from a cloud, or a head, is difficult. Colors are about the only thing I have come up with. I might resort to the ‘norm.” After all, it is tried and true- but, it doesn’t feel very creative or imaginative.

So far I have a line drawing of a book open and exploding colors.
I like the “look,” but it does it say – “Hey this story is about the main character, our friend Fuddles, who has lost his imagination and then it’s found! Ideas?

Possible book 3 cover
Possible book 3 cover

You can’t use up creativity. BUT…

I am still pondering the question of creativity and imagination. The part that is clear is that the power and magic happens when combined with actions.

“The biggest difference between c is that imagination is thinking of something ‒ whether it’s an object, place, time, etc. ‒ that is not present, while creativity is doing something meaningful with your imagination….

Sir Robinson explains that imagination is the “act of bringing things into conscious that aren’t here …

Imagination allows us to think of things that aren’t real or around us at any given time, creativity allows us to do something meaningful with our imaginations.

Knowing the difference: ask yourself how you are creative? How do you use your imagination to do something meaningful that is creative?”

The above is referring and referencing the book below. It was posted on March 16th, 2010 by Tanner Christensen on his blog CREATIVE SOMETHING.

Book Cover-The Element

“A New York Times-bestselling breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from the one of the world’s leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.  The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion.”

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”   -Maya Angelou

Creative activity aims to do something purposeful.
Imagination is something that emerges.

(I say to myself and you all.)
Go and Mix it up.
Show up and do something with your thoughts.
Use it… both your creativity AND your imagination.
Expand your universe.
Get out and Go and Try.
Read the poem, show the artwork, share the music.
Explore the idea.
Revel in the ideal.
Let the fear go.
GET THE IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD and INTO THE WORLD. –

“As an old peer of mine, Jez Burrows, once said:
“If you do nothing, nothing happens.” (-from Tanner Christensen blog.)

Imagination Makes the World a Better Place.

If you don’t use your imagination, does it mean you don’t dream of what’s to be? Do you have passion for your dreams? Passion drives the energy and focus for us to keep on trucking forward. Without that drive (passion) then what’s really up, i.e., what happens? If imagination is the act of thinking/dreaming stuff up then is creativity is the act of putting it in place? Is ‘in-place’ an action, a plan, a drawing, a poem, a song, a whatever? I have been pondering for this a while now. What do YOU think the difference is of imagination and creativity? Please leave your thoughts on this in comments!

Apparently, Albert Einstein said –“Imagination is everything. It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.” That’s excellent. In my mind, that translates into dream it up, work on it (probably with all the strength you can muster) and make it happen. Much easier said than done but that’s ok too. Which of course brings up the ever present famous Gandhi quote:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

My Version of this is below. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a pretty darn good mantra to live by.

SO…

What are you thinking about?
What are your dreams?
What’s in your imagination?

Dreams to Imagination

Huffington Post says imagination is better than reality! (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lamisha-serfwalls/5-reasons-imagination-is-_b_6096368.html_ )

True Friendship

 

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” – Anais Nin.

In regards to creativity, and in her case writing,  Anais Nin  also said – “You must not fear, hold back, count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings. It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing. Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow for the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications. Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” – Anais Nin.

…I would like to add that great art could also be born out of great joy, and the excess of goodness. It can come forth just because it’s bubbling out of you. It can be created to be shared or created for oneself. I don’t believe there are hard and fast rules about where art comes from other than it is most likely inside that person, and needs to be expressed. It’s as individualist as the person, the artist, who is busy forming it. However, I DO agree with Anais Nin, creativity often happens when you “Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications.” 

My inner circle, my community, myself, lost a very dear friend today-she embodied ALL the above. A wonderful woman. A very full spirit filled to the brim with amazing creativity and art. A true lifelong wonderful friend. She will be missed terribly by many, and will always be with me in my artwork and spirit. Here’s to the life she shared with those of us lucky enough to have been in her circle. Here’s to Deidre.

Deidre Artwork
Artwork by my great friend, Deirdre.- a.k.a. DDKW.