Color Connections Part 1/3

Stimuli of the world profoundly affect us. Senses are navigational context tools, but they also determine mood and behavior. Color, like scent, is an especially powerful trigger. Most influence occurs on an unconscious level. We pay attention to strong stimuli but subtle ambience evades our conscious thought.  The atmosphere, the feeling– somehow, color has the …

The Antidote for Creative Blockages: Compassion and Curiosity

Building creativity is practice in being receptive and present. Nearly everyone struggles with this practice and it’s the unstable foundation of most problems, creative or otherwise. The equivalent of artist block can occur in any career, hobby, relationship, religion, lifestyle, etc, to any degree of severity. When we become insular and shut off, we struggle …

Art to Check Out (Petroglyphs, a Gay Kiss, and a Belt of Stone, Coral, and Bone)

My writing has been minimal the last couple months, partially due to my wedding and honeymoon, but I've been absorbing some old favourites and new discoveries in the art world. I encourage you to follow the links to view the works on their websites or gallery pages. The first is someone I've been following for …

Learning About Learning About Learning

Accepting the process of learning: difficult at times, but at other times, easy, natural, instinctive, simple. The carrying out of life is fraught with inconsistencies and surreal coincidences and I don’t understand any of it but I’ve still learnt. When I’m older, I might better understand the circumstantial variables, today I merely need to be …

Initiation of Inspiration: Recall

When the itch isn’t accompanied by ignition, when we struggle to take initiative when hit with the urge to create, we must practice our information recall. Every interesting thought we’ve had since our last creative session has disappeared. Notes may jog our memory but lack the internal flow of a natural spark— we’re detached from …

The Pull: Describing Inspiration

Certain aspects of reality appeal to us by crossing the boundary between Self and Other. Not just reflections, inspiration is an external twin of our most internal core. Exactly the same, yet separate, in union they form something new. Within me is the child naturalist and when I stumble across something related to the natural …

Inspiration as Proof of the Soul

All ideas come from somewhere. They’re a reaction, like fire, spawned from a connection. This is inspiration. The moment a connection is made between you and the subject, tinder and heat, some intrigue or recognition begins creating something new that’s neither tinder nor heat. Layers, boundaries, and relationships are the equation for inspiration. An idea …

Learning to Flow: Word Counts and Short Story Writing Goals

I’ve dedicated this month of November to finishing the first draft of my short story compilation during the annual novel writing contest NaNoWriMo. On November 24 I surpassed the 50k word count that signifies a winner and continued on as my compilation wasn’t complete. Yesterday, just a day or so shy of December 1st, I …

Art Practice: Stream of Consciousness

Art practice is a tool belt. We collect exercises and processes to advance our creativity and ability to derive and hone in on inspiration. My fiancé’s professor recently advised the two of us to start every day with stream of consciousness writing.  Much like brainstorming (which I write about in Making Conceptual Connections in Art) …

Making Conceptual Connections in Art

Ideas must be nurtured and fed. We are custodians to our thoughts, there are ways to grow a concept into contextual creation. Making connections outward from a core idea helps drag your work from shallow waters into the depths. Not all art must be complicated and we don't want to convolute our core concepts with …