Thoughts are Like Seeds

We all receive inspiration and from that inspiration come ideas and thoughts.  All thoughts are seeds.  Some seeds we want to nurture carefully and help germinate.  Often, like a baby in a womb, a seed is cocooned and protected during the germination phase.  Our ideas, our inspirations are like that--we should cocoon and protect them so that they can grow strong and bloom.  It's far too easy for our tender shoots of ideas to be trampled by our selves or others.  Be careful choosing what seeds you plant and then protect those you dearly want to see come to fruition. #InspiredArtProject2015. #inspiration

"Seeds Germinate" (c)SZing 2015.  Watercolor, ink, on watercolor paper.

Combining Ideas

Sometimes the best thing we can do for our artwork is to combine ideas and mixing mediums together we have never used before.  This can result in amazing new techniques and outcomes.  A core concept of creativity is the combining of unrelated ideas.

Here are some favorite medium mixes of mine.
1.  Combine tissue paper with acrylic paint.
2.  Combine ceramic paint with glass.
3.  Combine found objects with glass.
4.  Combine wood and paint.
5.  Combine paint and metal.
6.  Combine sand with paint.
7.  Combine textiles and text.
8.  Combine digital art with wax.
9.  Combine tinfoil with glass fusing.
10. Combine ink and photographs.

Here is a quick and easy, fun and intriguing way to combine unrelated ideas as subject matter for your art or writing project:
Create a list of items you like now or liked at an earlier time in your life—here is a random list of items I like:  butterflies, bicycles, gardens, swimming pools, seashells, clouds, bluebirds, cats, party hats, fancy dresses, high heeled shoes, books….

Now I could take two or more of those items and create a piece of art that combines them.  For example:  A cat with butterfly wings riding a bicycle; or A bluebird in a party hat and fancy dress lying on a cloud.

Here is a great link for some more thoughts about combining ideas and creativity.

Creativity from Antiquity

I love to go to flea markets, thrift stores, auctions and antique shops.  Sometimes when I am in a "down" time from my creative flow, I make a trip to one or more of these types of shops to add a bit of a boost to my creative energy.  When I am in an antique shop, there are many times when I find myself completely mystified by the objects in front of me.  Their usefulness has either gone out of vogue or more often than not, completely become obsolete.  Who actually needs a shoe button hole hook after all in this day of laces and Velcro stays?  There are tools and farm implements, kitchen utensils and home improvement tools that once were considered the very best in new technology.  Now, they adorn walls of restaurants and people's homes as country style decor.  I sometimes wonder if these ancient tools led to the invention of newer tools....

Antique shoe hook (looks a little like a modern latch hook for
making latch hook rugs)

I like to imagine what life was like both before and after the implements were invented.  How exactly did people close the buttons on shoes before the button hook came around?  and what sort of method was used long before the food processor or food choppers or even blenders were around for making melanges of fruits or vegetables, much less a smoothie?  did they have any concept of the smoothie or would that have been one of those anachronistic items?

Kitchen utensils.  Being myself almost an antique,
 I recognize most of these tools.
Do you?

It seems like in the art world, the tools and implements really have not continued to evolve--though perhaps the advent of acrylic/synthetic brushes shows that they do continue to move forward.  The painter still uses canvas or paper (albeit, many buy them pre-stretched and ready to go instead of creating the frames and stretching the canvas themselves) and paints with pigment and brushes with water or linseed oil and rags. The stained glass artist's tools have evolved to the point of electric soldering irons and sticky back copper foil, fluxes that are far more clean and efficient and solders that are cleaner and more pure than ever before.

Farm tools. Huh?

For all of our advancements, we are still attracted to the antiquities and for myself, a part of my admiration of a true Lewis Comfort Tiffany stained glass panel is exactly a result of the challenges that had to be faced to create such astonishingly beautiful pieces.  From the masterwork paintings, I admire not only the painting itself and the techniques used to create the art, but the  lost or dying skills of not just mixing pigments but identifying and crushing them correctly for paints, among other difficulties in obtaining the tools of the art.

I actually own a Kerosene torch like this (two in fact), that I got at an auction
...but not with the soldering iron attachment.
That part I will have to invest in next time I see one. I imagine
stained glass would take a very different look from this.

I'm not sure why, I'm not sure how exactly but I do know that for me, a visit to an antique shop rejuvenates me for getting back to my creative work. Perhaps there is an alchemy that occurs in accessing the curious objects of the past and activating the curiosity of the mind in thinking about how things were made and created.  Perhaps there is a bit of magical allure and some of the creative genius that rubs off when one handles antique objects so that that magnificent creative force can be harnessed to the new-fangled methods, techniques and tools of the modern artists' studio.

So here is the challenge of this day:  visit an antique shop.  Question what things are, what they were used to do, how they were manufactured and be in awe and fascination with the creativity of our forebears.  For the day, let go of the modern and the new.  Let your mind play with ideas and ponder the uses of unknown tools.

Rules? What Rules?

There are rules for cooking and rules for dating.  There are rules that govern our behaviors in society and rules in most households.  They all have their place.  But I just want to go on record and say that in all my not inconsiderable life experience I have yet to see a Rule Book for writing or artwork.  Yes, I am well aware that there are “schools of thought” and “best practices.”  I am also aware that there is, through numerous peoples’ prior expertise and experience, a significant body of knowledge about what seems to work well, effectively and provide “success” in both writing and the art world. 

I also think it is a good idea for an artist to learn at least the basics of their craft.  I believe it is a good practice to hone one’s craft. 

Having, at times in my life, been a rule breaker and sometimes rebel, I find it equally important to break those non-existent rules--oh, the irony!   Perhaps Pirates of the Caribbean had it right when they said that rules are more of a guideline.  To be constrained by rules in art and writing is a double edged sword. 

There is the value of creating something in the normal and expected manner.  But for the sake of creativity and the sake of an artist’s (I use the term inclusively, as writers are also artists) sanity, constraint by rules can be a death knoll to genuine expression and creative intent.  Rules can stymie the flow of ideas.  And when the flow of ideas stops, the art stops.

Not only does the art stop, but the exploration of the use of mediums vanishes.  What would have happened if the Van Eyck’s had not experimented with pigments and oils?  We would have no oil paintings.  What would have happened if the studio art movement did not play with the production and manipulation of glass?  So many unique expressions in glass would not exist. 

What would happen if artists had not broken the rules?  Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, among many others, immediately come to mind.  Now I realize that there are certain sets of critics and artists who “don’t like” or at least are not fans of these type of artists' work, but it is my belief that our artistic vision, our artistic evolution and the culture of art would be stagnant if not for the rule breakers. 

Sometimes you just have to allow something new to be born that has never been seen before.  This can’t happen within the confines of a fenced in belief system.  Even if there WERE a book of official rules for which an artist should follow…I still would say…rules?  what rules? 

A Creative Tease...

Sometimes you just have to take a vacation.  Apparently, I'm still on mine.  Looking forward to a month of exploring creative solutions and creative thinking.

In the meantime, in joy, enjoy....

The Future is Rosy…or is it?

Magazines are tactilely delightful.  They feature glossy pages, bright colors, and advertisements for new stuff I might not have known I needed otherwise.  In between all that, there are sometimes articles we like to read and pictures at which we like to look.



A favorite magazine I like to check out is the bimonthly called The Futurist.  I get it for the articles.  Really!  What an interesting magazine.  Full of all sorts of ideas and inventions that may someday become real and life changing. Fascinating.  Get a little peek at trends for the future, find out why we won’t have any more car crashes, or discover how to overcome the curse of the infrastructure. 

 

I’ve been intrigued with the Futurist ever since I heard a gentleman talk about the future of technology during a leadership seminar back in 1998 in Washington DC.  He was telling us about a little hand held device that had a fruity name that would enable us to make telephone calls, keep our contacts straight, provide a method for sending email and much more.  It seemed like pleasant fiction for me since I was trying to figure out how to get a larger purse that could handle my PDA and a charger, my cell phone (and charger), my IPOD (and my charger...), my camera (you get the picture?), etc. and not entice muggers on the Metro.  Then a year later it actually was out and on the market.



Why does this matter to an artist?  For me, besides the fact that I’m generally quite curious about the world.  I am also interested in the creative endeavors of others.  Reading about upcoming technology and thinking of the future stirs my creativity up and makes me wonder what I can do today that might survive into the future.  I might not have the scientific or technical skills, but I’ve never yet come away from reading about potential futures without being awed and inspired.  I recommend it if you feel you are in a rut.  A rut is no place to be.  I’d rather be back in the future.



Whatever we are thinking about right now, is creating the future.  Whatever we are living right now, is a result of the past.

Read a Book

Short and sweet.  Sometimes, the fastest way to jump start creativity is to read a book. Yes, it could be any book.  Sometimes the mind needs relaxation.  For me, at least, reading is a very relaxing activity.

But if you want an even quicker jump start, let me suggest some reading materials in no particular order:

1.  The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (getting to be a creator classic)

2.  Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie

3.  The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

4.  The Bodacious Book of Succulence by SARK

5.  The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara Call

6.  Creative Sparks by Jim Krause

7.  Caffeine for the Creative Mind by Stefan Mumaw

8.  The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith

9.  Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg

10.  Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed by SARK

Yes, I've read all 10 of these books.  I regularly refer back to some of them.  Several of them have been read by me at least three times. Of course, you can always pick up a book pertaining to your preferred medium(s) or autobiographies/biographies about other artists.

The more we expand our brains, force our synapses to function and make connections, it is my belief that we will be not only healthier and more mentally alert, but more creative.*(I'm not a doctor so my opinion may or may not hold water in a lab test.)

If you can read this, get a book!

Do a Little Image Search

My website update is going slow.  I worked diligently on it for two nights, only to have some whacko glitch occur that caused my files to all be corrupted and blah, blah, blah….as a result of technology hampering me in the extreme these past few months (I have lost count of how many technology related difficulties I’ve run into), there comes a time when a body, or at least a brain, just doesn’t seem to have an iota of creativity left to it.  I’m there.

My brain. Fried from technology glitches and being
put on eternal hold with the help desk.

Unfortunately, I have a little project that I need to finish by Friday.  And I’ve got no good idea how to go about doin’ what needs doin’.  And I don’t have any energy for exhaustive or extensive website searches at the moment nor do I have the luxury of time to have inspiration strike.

The quick and easy shot to the arm is to do a little Image Search.  I put random words (well, not entirely random, they usually have something to do with my upcoming project) into the search bar of my browser.  Then I choose an image search.  I pore over the many images that invariably come up to see if any of them sparks an idea.

Let me be clear here. I’m not doing a hit and run where I steal someone’s artwork. That is copyright infringement.  Instead, what I’m looking for when I do an image search is something that Freud's  psychotherapy tool of free-association did for the baby boomer generation--it helps me find myself again.

I might see some color that I like, or maybe there is an image of a baby, or a flower, for example.  My project might not be right for a baby image, but I might find something about the baby that makes me think of something else…let’s say bottles.  And when I think of baby bottles, I think of milk.  And when I think of milk, I either think of a cow or cookies.  Depending on whether it’s before or after lunch.  Now I have something I might be able to work with.  A cow.

And what can I do with that cow in my work?  Well, I’m not sure.  Since this is all hypothetical. But, as you can see, it’s only a few hops and skips before the brain tangents into an entirely different way of thinking and the creativity inevitably begins to flow.  Barring that, I stop for a snack.

(c)SZing, 2012. All rights reserved.