Creative Visioning

A big part of my creative process involves visioning. If you haven’t guessed already, I am a highly visual person. So it seems only natural that visioning would play a large role in my creative process. But not just my creative process for designing a collage, website or poster but also for creating my own life.

I’ve written about this before in Create a Visioning Collage to Inspire You, where I described the process for designing a visual collage for your dreams. But, I’ve never showed you one of my personal collages till now.

I started with an idea of what I wanted the coming year to look like based on the following quote:

“Kindness can make miracles happen!”

Then I followed the steps from the book Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams to construct what this would look like visually. I found images, words, and colors to represent and reinforce the image I created in my mind of what my goals for this year would be.

I placed this collage on the inside of my planner and look at it every day, when I open my calendar to plan events and goals for the upcoming day to support my vision.

  • How do you use visioning in your creative process?

Creating More Little Aha’s

Maybe it’s the new year or maybe it’s the winter weather, but recently I’ve had some revelations that have changed the way I think about creativity.

First, I had an inspiring conversation with a very creative friend. We were discussing our thoughts on creativity and comparing them to what we normally see portrayed by other creatives. What we came to the conclusion is that unlike of them, we were more interested in practical creativity.

The kind of stuff that gets you through your day. The small innovations you make to your daily life to make it easier, more interesting, etc.

Then, while reading ahead for one of my classes, I came upon a chapter on creativity and business innovation. There was an abbreviated version of an article published in 2006 in BusinessWeek, entitled The Myth of Creativity. In it, the author declares the whole concept of creativity training to get the big aha out of people as merely a waste of time.

Why?

Because creativity is more about the little aha’s and the small changes we make to our lives than the big idea that would make us a hero. Every one of us does this on a daily basis, whether we are conscious of it or not. So instead of encouraging people to have grandiose creative ideas that change the world, let’s encourage them to start with the little aha’s that grow into big aha’s.

  • How can you create more little aha’s?

Becoming a Life Change Artist

Are you planning to look for a new job, new career, or just a new perspective on life this year? Then Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life by Fred Mandell, Ph.D and Kathleen Jordan, Ph.D is the book for you!

Before I planned to interview Kathy Jordan for my Five {5} Creative Questions series, I won a copy of her book. I was so excited that I dove right into it and have admitted that I never wanted it to end. Yes, it was that good.

I also have to admit, that as a trained art historian and personal development enthusiast, this is the book I wish I would have written. It explores the creative process through the work and life of such artists as Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo. Using the creative process of artists and translating it to personal growth is genius.

Throughout Becoming a Life Change Artist, Mandell and Jordan, share accounts of people, just like you and I, who have overcome adversity to achieve their goals, whether it was going back to school, switching careers, or choosing to stay home and care for their children. Interspersed with this are the stories of successful artists and how they used the creative process to complete some of the finest paintings and sculptures in the canon of art history.

Not only will you learn about the creative process of artists, but you’ll also learn the specific skills involved to make your change real. And with plenty of exercises after each chapter to get you thinking, this book keeps you involved in your own creative process.

Finally, my favorite part of the book happens to fall at the end, in the appendix. There you’ll find some pretty amazing resources including the Creativity Calculator, where you can test your own creative skills and learn which part of your process could be improved. Plus, the Preparation Activities appendix provides a ready-made list of creativity-enhancing triggers.

It looks like Becoming a Life Change Artist will be my go-to creative companion for the next year, as I get ready for big changes in my own life.

  • How can you creatively reinvent you life?

New Year, New Creative Goals

As I looked at the list of my creative activities from  last year, I was startled and saddened how few there were. Yes, I started school, took a few art/jewelry classes, attended some exhibitions but none of those were planned, they just happened.

I have also mentioned in the past how much I dislike New Year’s resolutions, because, well I never have time to do them in the beginning of the year and then I just feel bad for the rest of the year because I don’t have any!

This year I’ve decided to be more intentional about my creative activities. That’s why I’ve chosen to focus on three specific creative goals. The activities for each goal are meant to not be spontaneous but involve planning and stretch my creativity in ways that may have scared me in the past.

Here they are:

  1. Learn the art of glass blowing by taking a class at the Glass Bubble Project.
  2. Try improv by taking a class at Something Dada.
  3. Write some poetry and have it critiqued during a workshop at the LIT.

As always, I’ll be blogging about my creative adventures during the year. I hope you’ll join me!

  • So what are YOUR creative goals for this year?

End of the Year Musings

As we close out this year and usher in a new one, I thought I’d do something I’ve never done before: a yearly wrap up!

This year has been a wonderful one here at Dose of Creativity, and a big thank you goes out to all of you who made that possible by reading, commenting and sharing.

Here are my favorite 5 posts from the year:

1. My Everyday Creative series in which I spent an entire year following The Creativity Book by Eric Maisel to see if I could really become an everyday creative person.

2. The Five {5} Creative Questions series. It was exciting to introduce you to an amazing group of women and learn their creative secrets.

3. I had the honor of reviewing Dawn Devries Sokol’s book Doodle Diary, which was a great delight. The book brought out my inner doodler and so much more.

4. After creating my first list of favorite creativity blogs last year, I wrote another one and included even more fabulous reads.

5. Finally, I created and went on my own creative retreat. I had such an inspiring time I am already planning my next one!

  • Stay tuned for a super-creative 2011

Five {5} Creative Questions With Melanie

When I started this interview series earlier this year, I envisioned getting a peek into the lives of some of the creative women I am surrounded by virtually.

And while I did this and shared them with you, I always thought about what my own answers would be. So here they are:

1. What does creativity mean to you?
What creativity means has changed and evolved for me over the years. When I first started thinking about creativity in high school and college, I assumed it was something I didn’t have. So I spent my time admiring it in others, also known as studying art history! It wasn’t until later, while working as an educator at a museum when my boss told me, “to just be creative,” on a project that it hit me. That statement stunted me, because I did not know what that was. After that, I began to really study creativity (mine and others).

So today, creativity means to me a connection of new ideas to make something that moves us forward somehow, whether it is spiritually, personally or professionally.

2. What is your creative process and what tools do you use to stimulate it?
Since I am an introvert, my creative process involves A LOT of internal musings. It usually starts with me being in a quiet place, which could be in nature, bed or even the shower. These are places where I do my best thinking. Once I get the initial idea to create, I usually run with it from there.

For instance, if I am designing something, it usually starts with an idea. Then I try to tie a theme or process to it. I am very big on connections and am always thinking about how things relate to one another.

3. What is your most creative time of day?
First of all, let me say that I put this question in because of a blog post I wrote about this a couple of years ago. I was curious to see if there was any connection between the time of day and when people were most creative. There turned out to be none.

4. How do you infuse creativity into your daily life and tasks?
After completing Eric Maisel’s The Creativity Book, I’ve become more attuned to being everyday creative. For me that doesn’t mean simply doing something artistic but living my life creatively. This might mean taking a new route to work, eating a new food or even getting up on the opposite side of the bed. Anything that I can do to create synergy, I try. I also do simple things like improvise a new recipe, mix up my wardrobe with different colors and patterns, and decorate my planner with images.

5. What creative tip or resource would you like to share with our readers?
Over the years, I’ve definitely shared with you a lot of my personal tips. That’s why my best resource is also the one I subscribe to the most and those are my Top Ten Creative Cures. There’s bound to be a tip in there that will ignite some sort of creative spark within you.

  • Happy Creating!

Everyday Creative: Work


While I spent the month before in rapture with love, I spent this month – the last of my journey- buried in work. It only seems appropriate that that was the theme of this final month of the Creativity Book.

The first section encourages you to wake up working. With final tests and projects to be completed, it wasn’t a far stretch for me to wake up working. But really, Maisel wants you to go bed thinking of a question surrounding your work and wake up with the answer. I must admit I’ve tried this many times with little or no success so will have to continue working on this…

The next suggestion was to go directly to work. Another, not so difficult task for me. It seemed like that’s all I did for the month was work. Maisel encourages you to go to your work, even if you don’t feel like it. I know for me that there were days that I struggled to get up but knew the work wouldn’t wait. This, and deadlines, kept me going!

By the end of the month, one of my favorite suggestions was to create a plan and/or schedule for your work. This is an area where I need a lot of work. I tend to be good coming up with ideas but fail to deliver on most of them, because I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work involved. If I could create and stick to a stricter schedule, I am sure I would end up more successful.

And if I stick to my schedule, there is a helpful list of pick-me-ups that Maisel suggests. Here are a few that I might use:

1. Surrender to the feeling
2. Remember a success
3. Be of service
4. Consciously choose hope

Finally, after an exhilarating year of exploring my inner creative, it is time to create. And as a creator, Maisel explains that you will look at “everything through the lens of creativity.” I think I already do!

Sketch Book Swoon

While I have always used sketch books as a way to chronicle my collages and work through compositions, I’ve recently fallen in love with the idea of the sketch book as a concept book.

One of the (many!) things I have learned being back in school is the importance of the concept book to the creator and designer. On the first day of one of my classes, the instructor mentioned how we should all be using concept books to sketch our ideas and document our creative process.

At first I was skeptical, but then I discovered a new passion for this type of creative process. It allows me to see my ideas and then execute them – a much easier way to create then straight from my head!

Since then, I have used my sketch book to design a poster, a visual story book, a single frame story and mini-book.

  • Start your own sketch book today!

Five {5} Creative Questions with Linda Naiman

I have long been a fan of Linda Naiman’s work. So much so that I asked a mutual contact to introduce us last year. Linda and I have stayed in contact since then, and I am delighted  that she agreed to answer my questions on creativity this month.

Linda Naiman is a creativity and innovation consultant, coach, and speaker. She is founder of CreativityatWork.com and co-author of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work. She has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Business Magazine.

Linda has spoken about art, design and transformational leadership at US Navy Leadership Symposiums, The MIT Club Singapore, The Banff Centre, and at international business conferences. Organizations who have sought out Linda for her expertise include American Express, AstraZeneca, and Intel.

To find out more about coaching for creativity and innovation: visit Creativity at Work, follow Linda on Twitter @lindanaiman and @alchemize, and join the CreativityatWork fan page on Facebook.

1. What does creativity mean to you?
I define creativity as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.

2. What is your creative process and what tools do you use to stimulate it?
Creativity is both a process and a lifestyle. Turning ideas into reality requires whole-brain thinking. I use L-mode (left-brain) logic, and planning, as well as R-mode (right-brain) imagination and kinaesthetic intelligence, depending on what phase of the creative process I am in.

I apply metadisciplinary thinking in my work. For example, my interest in art and leadership led to exploring how we can apply arts-based principles and practices to leadership and management innovation in business.

I feed my brain with diverse stimuli by taking an interest in arts, science, popular culture, conferences, and by conversing with people who come from different backgrounds, disciplines and cultures.

I take notes, keep journals and collect links/docs for future reference. I tend to download thoughts or images on paper, or on digital media, then edit. I also take time out to meditate, dream, reflect, and walk in nature, allowing ideas to incubate. When inspiration strikes and ideas coalesce, I seize the moment and take action.

All of this prepares the ground for creativity. Sooner or later my interests give me new ideas and insights, which inform my creativity/innovation consulting and coaching practice.

My explorations in bridging art, creativity and leadership, led to developing arts-based learning in organizations, and to the publication of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work, the training book I co-authored with Arthur VanGundy.

3. What is your most creative time of day?
Mornings mostly –but creativity can be triggered at any time. I think the question to ask here, is what situations spark creativity? The key for me is to refresh my brain chemistry by eating well, getting enough sleep, and switching gears when fatigued. When my brain is fatigued by L-mode activities, I switch to R-mode.

4. How do you infuse creativity into your daily life and tasks?
See Question #2

5. What creative tip or resource would you like to share with our readers?
Expand your radar, and be on the lookout for clues from the world around you. Juxtapose ideas or practices from one discipline with those of another. Be curious, ask questions such as: what can I learn from X that I can apply to Y? eg art and science, art and business, or business and science. Creativity happens at intersections, at edges, when you experience a change in consciousness and an interruption in your patterns of thought.

Try something new, take a risk, and above all act! Learning and creativity go hand in hand. Don’t worry about perfection right away. Experiment first, develop your craft and iterate.

  • THANKS Linda!

Everyday Creative: Love


Last month found me delving into all that is love. Ok, well not all of the ideas covered in the “Be Love” chapter of The Creativity Book, but most of them anyway.

Love is such a strong emotion and one that I feel should be part of the creative process. I mean if you are creating something that you don’t love then, really why bother. With that said, these last couple of months in design school, I have embraced how much I love creating.

Because I already realized this, I bypassed the first section on renewing your vows with your art and the act of creating, since I think I’ve pretty well lived this for the last several months. Everyday it seems when I start a new project or complete one, I am renewing the vow to create.

The next exercise to love logic AND intuition was one of my favorites. So often, we (me included) get caught up in being too logical or too intuitive when creating. This exercise asked you to love and embrace both of them, because creativity is about whole-brained thinking and equally relying on both of those skills. To create a balance, Maisel suggests the following :

Spend about a half an hour completing the sentence, “I love logic because….” and then the sentence “I love intuition because…”

The section that I reacted the most strongly discussed helping others. I took up this challenge and reached out to someone and offered my assistance but was rebuffed. I realized from this that I should have asked if they needed help before offering it. Just because I love helping others doesn’t mean everyone will willingly accept it.

For the next few weeks, Maisel talked about loving another person and becoming intimate with your work. It seemed a little too weird for a book on creativity, so I skipped those exercises.

I concluded the month with an exercise on rewards. It was enlightening to come up with both big and small ideas to reward myself and to celebrate my achievements. It’s been a busy month of creating for me. I finished a 10 page typographic story book, surrealistic Photoshop composite and multiple small design exercises. So an earl grey tea latte and walk by the lake seemed like good rewards.

  • Next month, I’ll “be working”