In my last post I suggested we need to be creatively active every day in order to ‘stay in love’ with our muse.
When I first came across that idea, I argued with it. “I couldn’t always be in my studio. Sometimes, life gets in the way. I need a break when the well is dry.”
Then I shifted my idea on what “being creative’ actually meant. After all, I’m the first one to tell others that creativity isn’t necessarily art, dance, literature, etc. Which, of course, is what many people flash on if you say ‘creative’.
Apparently, I’d fallen into the same narrow mindset.
So I dusted it off (my mind, that is) and put my thinking cap on. Surely I could come up with a list of alternatives for those days when the Muse takes a break.
Some suggestions
1. Try a new recipe.
I confess. Cooking isn’t my favourite thing but I do love baking so my new recipe will probably be a sweet treat. No one in my house will object.
2. Do a small daily sketch for 30 days.
Committing to 15 minutes a day during a Passion Project is what started me down this road. I highly recommend it as a practice. Cathy Nichols, a mixed media artist I follow is doing hers on small tags. I may give this a try myself.
3. Do some gardening.
Get your hands dirty. If you live in an apartment, offer to help a friend. Gardening is guaranteed to fire up all your senses.
Toting my camera, I notice more details and special moments. So yes. You could just take a walk, but I find the camera is a good reminder to stay present and not make up a shopping list in my head.
5. Get out old art materials and see what ideas they trigger.
I bought the materials to make rubber stamps awhile back, made a few stamps and had fun. Now the materials sit in a basket in a cupboard. Time to get them down and make some new ones.
6. Quilt.
It doesn’t have to be a large project. Make it “hand-sized”. Something you can complete in a day or two. Fabric and thread offer pattern and colour in a different medium as well as a tactile experience. Piecing a project means deconstructing and re-imagining. Totally creative and inspiring.
7. Have projects bookmarked in magazines and books?
Grab one randomly and do the first marked project. Or go to the library and browse a section you don’t normally visit. Pull out a random book and see what it inspires.
8. Rearrange the furniture.
A fresh perspective on a familiar place always gives me a lift.
9. Draw a mandala.
I love these geometric forms. I don’t have to think about them the same way, especially if I use a compass and protractor but they always feel so satisfying.
10. Zen Doodle.
Not much to add to that except to say it’s highly addictive.
11. Browse Pinterest.
Find some artists you admire and see what they have on their boards. (Here’s a link to my boards in case you’d like to check them out.) Or just search on random words or ideas like “pink”, “winter”, etc.
12. Again on Pinterest, create a board of images that inspire you.
No need to second-guess or explain it to anyone. Let it be your highly personal source of inspiration.
13. Find your creative “ancestors”.
What creative person inspires you? Find out who inspired them. Who is in the creative ‘family tree’?
That’s my list. Thirteen creative alternatives.
What’s on your list? Share your ideas and inspire us!
These are some great ideas! Here are some I enjoy (the traditional art forms are still scary for me):
• Brainstorming on paper about all the words for a certain color. For example: BLUE: azure, sky blue, cerulean, turquoise, blue green, etc. The same exercise can be applied to an emotion.
• Sitting quietly—preferably outdoors—and focusing on one sense at a time. If it’s using my eyes, I look in every direction and mentally articulate what I see. Then I zoom in and look at something very close — a weed growing out of the sidewalk or moss growing on a wall. If I can grab a magnifying glass, I will. Other times, I’ll choose another of the senses: smell, sound, taste, and touch.
• I love cutting words, pictures, and designs out of magazines and pasting them into my journal or making a collage. I’ve got colored pencils and washi tape to spiff things up too.
• I love fountain pens and have four, each with a different ink in it. Using each one seems to tap into different moods. When I’m prayer journaling, I write my prayer in one color and use a different color for anything that feels like Spirit answering.
Love these ideas. I’ll be adding them to my own list. Especially the fountain pens. I LOVE writing with a fountain pen.
Play music at random from old casino and dance or sing.