Thursday, January 31, 2013

art from space

Cmdr Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut, scientist, photographer and artist. His photos of the planet are almost mind-blowing. Painterly and abstract these images serve as a reminder to us that the simplest images can be so beautiful. They also serve to remind us we NEED to take care of our home!

For more images from the ISS and Cmdr Hadfield check out his Twitter page







Friday, January 25, 2013

Fear of failing. Fear of creating


Most people's first reaction when they hear the words 'art' or 'creativity' is to say "I'm not artistic. I can't draw. I'm not creative." My response to that is baloney, I laugh in the face of the naysayers! I used to say exactly the same thing, and believed it for years. Now I AM an artist.

Everyone of us is creative, and at some point in our lives we were all artists. Remember the drawings we did every day as children? Bubble gum pink taffeta Princesses, fire breathing dragons, ancient mossy dinosaurs, our houses and families. They were beautiful and creative, and everyone knew exactly what we had drawn.

What is creativity?

Dictionary.com defines it like this:
cre·a·tiv·i·ty  [kree-ey-tiv-i-tee, kree-uh-]
noun
1. the state or quality of being creative.
2. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful newideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.
3. the process by which one utilizes creative ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

In other words....

Monday, January 14, 2013

Back to basics


The other day I was looking for something to help me get back to some real basics with being creative. Still being in a serious block I needed some ideas and prompts to jump start me. I like the idea of combining art, doodles and quick sketches with words and writing. I've been keeping journals like this for years but didn't even realize that's what they were. I thought they were just notebooks I filled with notes, reminders and memos to help me remember day to day stuff. But when I look back at them I realize they're more than that and they already have my "perfect" combination of sketches and words and lots of doodles.