Creativity tip: hack others' ideas

Being creative is often not more than taking two existing things or ideas to create something new.

So basically, you are stealing from others to create your own, new version.

It is not enough to add a new feature to an existing product.

It's more like working for a glue company, sitting on a plane, seeing a woman use a lipstick and coming up with the first glue stick. A-ha!

So look at common objects and think what you could turn them into.

Some examples:

• Simple Ikea photo frames to create wall art.
• Toast art
• Thumbtacks art
• Crayon totems and Crayon art sculptures
• Book art
• Eatphabet (alphabet with food)
• Bottles
• Clothes chair
• Coin sofa's
• Burger grease

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Some pursue things, others create them.

I have told you before that I am participating in the Art House Co-op Canvas Project with the goal to create a visual encyclopedia.

I was sent me 3 little canvases and my randomly chosen words are:

• ready
• chart
• curvacious

I have finally finished all three of them - nothing better than an upcoming submission deadline (1st  September) to get me going :-)

Here they are:

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The first flamboyant

A friend of mine recently went to Tanzania.

She knows I have a thing for seedpods.

So when she saw the first Flamboyant Tree (in the picture on the right) on her trip, she immediately bent down to collect its seedpods (or maybe she climbed the tree, I don't know). All I know is, here she was, thousands of miles from home in a foreign land and the first thing she does is think of me...sniffle...


She lugged them all the way back to the US and then sent them to me via post all across the ocean.
Oh and what a delightful surprise that package was...


So below is the painting called "The First Flamboyant" which is now on its way back over the ocean for a return surprise.

Those pods have seen the world!

Thanks Laura!

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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. -- Christian Friedrich Hebbel

As you know, I love the Arthouse Coop and their projects and am currently participating in one.

I like the fact that they prompt me to create, give me a set of rules and even send me the canvas or sketchbook.

Which got me thinking... Why do I need someone else to prompt me?

So last week, while I was attending a training on 'Performing with Presence', and it prompted me to start a little art project of my own, out of the blue.

I was inspired by the 5 P's of Presenting:

1. Preparation
2. Purpose
3. Presence
4. Passion
5. Personality

And especially number 4: Passion. Because that's basically what life, art, outstanding work, etc is all about.

So I took some 10x10 cm canvasses with me to class and asked the trainers and participants if they wanted to participate in my art project, which I call 'The Art of Passion'.

The goal is to collect passions from the people I meet.

I give them a little canvas and they write one word (noun or verb) on it that represents their passion, the reason why they get out of bed in the morning, something they love doing and would do even if noone paid them.

So what is your passion? What gets you all excited so that you could talk about it for hours?

image: Passion by Ludmila Andersson http://www.anderssonludmila.com/en/art_gallery/abstract_art/passion_painting.html

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Life is a canvas

I am participating in the Art House Co-op Canvas Project with the goal to create a visual encyclopedia and have received my three little canvases.

My randomly chosen words are:

• ready
• chart
• curvacious

While I was sitting on the terrace, sipping my tea and watching my boys play and fight in their sandbox, I started painting them all red. Nothing better to get you going on a project then to take a first step, or in this case, lay on a first coat of paint.

I have to submit by 1st September and then these little pieces of art will be exhibited at The Brooklyn Art Library and a book will be created entitled "The Canvas Project Encyclopedia VOL. 3".

So here is my first attempt at the word chart...

To be continued...

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A picture of you

Have you ever been asked to provide a picture of what you consider to be your passion/hobby?

Would you consider this an easy task?

I came across so many questions and thoughts:

• a picture is something defining
• one picture is limiting
• how much do I want to show?
• will people know it's me when they see this?

So below is ME. Or at least a big part of me.

I decided to provide a mosaic using the Mosaic Maker:

Go to Flickr.
Type your hobbies into Flickr Search.
Use only the first page of results, and pick one image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Show me your mosaic:

Photo credits:

1. Let your creativity grow!, 2. Color Me!, 3. the 'i got a new camera' shot, 4. Acoustic Guitar, 5. Roadwork girls, 6. Lime & Teal, 7. write me a letter..., 8. Winding Road!, 9. Just another Saturday morning.

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True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The last few days I have been very creative painting. To the point that there are paint stains on my nice white keyboard :-)

In line with a painting I did a while ago, below is the result of recent creative outpour.

And here is a painting done by my sons today.

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On being creative - and finding your passion

Being creative is so much fun. It definitely fills my cup at the moment.

And I haven't even been painting much lately.

My creativity was concentrated on setting up a third session of my Creative Workshops at work and have them taken up in the company's training catalogue (Yay!).

I have also worked on a corporate social responsibility project that I would like to get off the ground at our workplace. So far we are well on track.

And my first children's book 'Rufus' first night alone' is almost finished in both prose and rhyme. You will hear about the launch soon.

And I am equally excited about all of the above - which explains why my blog lately goes from one Sunday laugh to another without much substance in between. The fun is clearly happening outside of blogging world.

Lately I have been talking with people about creativity a lot. And these discussions have led into many different directions: from how creativity relates to quantum physics to how one can find one's passion.

And I think the last one is the secret of creativity:

PASSION = CREATIVITY

If you find your passion, you are bound to be creative independent of the field your passion is in.
Whether you love to create images on your computer that look real but do not exist or whether you can see yourself entering the delicatessen world.

The secret is realizing what your passion is and then pursuing it. And when it comes to pursuing it, most people never get off the ground. They seem to find themselves so many reasons to remain in their status quo. They see their passion, their plan as a big elephant, as the big project and they just do not know how or where to begin.

And it is so very easy: Baby steps.

Just start by doing one thing (attend that delicatessen fair, or buy that computer program which allows you to manipulate your pictures).

And when that baby step is done and you have had the satisfaction of ticking it off your list, choose the next one (working out one product line of delicatessen, publishing one picture on a dedicated website). And so on.

We often get held back because we only see the big elephant project. But even an elephant moves by setting one foot in front of the other.

So what is your passion?

What are you doing to get closer to living it?

What are the baby steps you can do now and achieve?

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An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one -- Charles Horton Cooley

While I'm sitting in the sun on a camping in the Provence, I wanted to share with you a new painting I recently finished.

As you may be able to tell, I am fascinated by aboriginal dot paintings.

It takes forever to fill a large canvas with dot, believe me, but the result is stunning.


I am all in the BE-DO-HAVE model Christine Kane is suggesting in her course.
I AM an artist, creative, happy, positive, complaint-free person first. I behave like one. And the rest just follows. And it does.

The reason most resolutions don’t work is that they address only one level of your life. The DO level. It’s the DO-HAVE-BE model. “I will DO this thing.” (i.e., Lose weight) “So I can HAVE this other thing” (Self-Esteem) and I can BE this thing. (Confident.)

The average New Year’s Resolution doesn’t address the core of the issue – the “BE” level.

The best order for creating positive changes in your life is the BE-DO-HAVE model. This means you start from the BE level. When you begin changing on the BE level of your life, then the DO level and the HAVE level follow more easily.

When you start only on the DO level, then all the blocks on the BE level will often become the obstacles you can’t overcome.

Enjoy the sun, seize the day.

Mimi

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The creative process is a process of surrender, not control -- Julia Cameron

Release your creativity, create your art. Then share it and release it.

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He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed - Albert Einstein

What can happen to you on any given day at Antwerp Central Station.



What happened to you today to bring a smile on your face?
What have you done today to make someone pause and smile?

The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.
-- Jerzy Kosinski

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Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success

You may have heard about bookcrossing.com, an online place where you can set books free and find some.

At thingsweforget, it is not books but post-it notes that are left behind. Like this one.

Another simple and original idea.

*******

I am working on the creative workshop project for my colleagues. The closer the date comes, the more nervous I get.

Christine Kane suggested I allow the nervousness. Let it be there. If I weren't a little nervous then what would be the point.

I guess it is the famous fear of failure everyone has experienced at some point.

Christine's answer to that was 'Or fear of success! :-) (omg - what if you're actually GOOD at this??)'.

That little sentence made me stop right there, sit still and think.
What IF I am actually good at this? :-)

That made my day today. Thanks Christine.

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There is no delight in owning anything unshared -- Seneca

image by Archana Sreenivasan

Have you ever heard about
?


Memetales is a children’s picture book bazaar. Memetales brings together inspired storytellers and most talented illustrators to help the world fall in love with creating and reading picture
books!

Memetales provides a platform for collaboration and helps create unique, incredibly useful and high quality picture books by bringing together people with complementary skills. These books will be read and loved all over the world through the Memetales bazaar.

While providing a high visibility launch platform for first time authors and illustrators, Memetales strives to be THE children's picture book repository of the future. Memetales will become the unified marketing platform for all self-published authors and small publishing houses that create the best picture books for the children of the world.

At Memetales, they strongly believe that there is an incredible amount of passion and talent waiting to be shared by a number of people. With the advances in technology and publishing formats, Memetales gives them a way to share their creativity with the world, while helping them advance as writers, illustrators and artists.

When taking a large part of the pain away from the process of creating a children’s picture book, incredibly special things start to happen and it is already happening at Memetales!

So if you are a writer or illustrator, with lots of ideas and are looking for like-minded people, please go to the Memetales page and sign up (for free).
You can also visit the Memetales blog.

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Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind - Samuel Johnson

I am still on a high experimenting with all sorts of different art forms. Art journaling allows me to do that. After all, I have a page a day to fill. And I like them to be different.

I have recently (re)discovered doodling. Here is one example of doodles over the last two days...

I googled doodles and doodling and found an amazing world of art. I stumbled across to Zentangle (Anything is possible ... one stroke at a time). Googling Zentangle and then looking at the images results is amazing.

Doodles have the advantage of being an art form that is not thought through. One usually starts doodling on a page to pass time or because one is bored. Hence one has no final result in mind. And it is always a surprise.
Some people seem to have taken doodling to a different level though and some pieces do not look haphazard at all.

I surely will delve into it and experiment with it some more.

For those of us who are merely doodling without a plan:
Doodle analysis in a funny way.
Doodle analysis in a more serious way.

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The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls -- Pablo Picasso

For the next year or so, Craig Frazier will post a new drawing every week in desperate need of a caption.

Craig invites YOU to write the words that you think belong to that drawing.

Please submit a line no more than 30 words in length by that friday 5pm. Every week’s submission will be judged by an editorial review board of one and the winner will be posted the following week and remain forever in the book.

As a reward you will receive credit, including your website, if you wish, and a copy of DraWords when it is finished.

What a creative idea!

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Today is life - the only life you are sure of.

“Today is life - the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.”

--Dale Carnegie



Another art journaling page.

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In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could do to any person; I create myself - Susan Sontag

What can I say? When I start something new I am always all excited. I have been filling pages of my 'art everyday book'. Above is a sneak preview of my entry into art journaling... I think I will have to go to the art supply store tomorrow to get some more stuff :-)

Does this happen to you?
You discover something new and it inspires and excites you. And you begin with it and can't seem to stop. It gives you satisfaction, empties your head, makes you feel creative, alive, full of joy.

What have you recently discovered that had this effect on you?

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Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity - Bo Bennett

I am a fan of creative people. I love them for fuel to my own inspiration. I am amazed at what some people come up with.
Meet Jen Stark, a young artist who has found a way (by 'accident' or 'chance') to turn cheap paper into art.





Since I am filling my 'one year of white pages' book with daily art and creativity, I have been inspired by art journaling sites and blogs. Meet ArtJunkGirl who has some very interesting stuff out there as well as tips on how to journal. So I hope that my pages will become more and more interesting and colorful as I move along the year.

(the above journals are from ArtJunkGirl)

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It takes a long time for a man to look like his portrait - James Whistler

The first time I went to a drawing class I was supposed to draw a picture of a ballerina. Beautiful, skinny woman in a tutu. I thought 'Yeah right! I'm outta here'.

But then the teacher told us to turn the ballerina image upside down. Huh?
Yes, upside down.
Why? Because turning an image upside down turns the left side of your brain off. It stops recognizing features and does not double guess anymore. When the image is the right side up and your drawing the hand, your left brain says 'hand' and has preset concepts about what a hand is supposed to look like. And the result is all about those preset concepts and not about the hand in front of you.

When I turned the image upside down, I just got started on drawing the lines as they came along. I stopped worrying about the foot looking like a foot, the tons of details of the tutu, the delicate, fragile beauty of the woman.

We were not allowed to turn the image around and after we were finished I almost fell off my chair. The result was stunning. Ok, it was not Mona-Lisa-this-needs-to-be-in-a-museum quality, but it bore a resemblance I could not have dreamed of being able to draw.

When I try drawing something now, I know I need to switch the left side of my brain off. I need to focus on lines, areas, shadows, darks and lights. Anything human is very good to train on. And portraits are the most difficult.

As I am at home with a serious flu - sitting on the couch under a blanket with my notebook, surrounded by a cup of chamomile tea and a box of tissues - I am filling pages by copying 'human things' from a book:


Drawing on the right side of the brain
Learn to draw
Michael Gelb on How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci

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You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus - Mark Twain

I am filling my little white pages, and I am devoid of blog post inspiration. So here is today's creative result. A little less flawed than the cup...

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