Creativity leads to more creativity - Ideas feed on possibilities!
Have you ever noticed that when you open your mind to possibilities your mind opens up to you? I've always known that my artistic creativity fed on itself and the more I involved myself in being creative the more creative I became.
I've discovered in the last couple of months that this creatvity flows over into the "non-artistic" parts of my life if I pay attention.
Case in point, I am working on a Martini Recipe book. I am either at or very close to the 100 recipe mark at TheMartiniDiva and I promised myself that was the magic number for a book. I knew I was going to do art for the book - hey, I don't do anything without art - but an interesting thing happened along the road to the book's concept.
Here is the scenario. I write a Retro Pop Culture blog and relate a lot of my posts to my life growing up in the fifties, sixties and seventies. It would have been wonderful to post old photographs of my life and my family, but I do not have any of my photos with me, they're all in storage in California. So, I did a quick little pencil sketch for one post which evolved into a cartoon of me in the eighties.
I took one look at the sketch and realized it would be a wonderful chapter illustration for a book I was thinking of writing about growing up a baby boomer and my illustrated "comic, retro graphic novel" began!
Then I realized that this could be a great way to bring art into my Martini Book as well and did a quick sketch of a martini glass. But the really cool thing was this sketch inspired a little one page story and all of a sudden my Martini Recipe book evolved into something much larger.
So, I am in the middle of writing and illustrating two books and it all came from the fact that I didn't have a photograph to post to the PopArtDiva Retro Pop Culture blog.
Of course, this all comes at the same time as a big ad campaign that I'm designing for so my work load has increased on an exponential level! But the busier I get, the more organized I get and the more I get done. Amazing what can be done when it has to be done and when you let the possibilities in!
Not only that but I am gearing up for the holidays. Today I designed this year's Halloween Martini Recipe Card and completed the last 9 of my 14 Halloween recipes for posting in October. Next weekend I'll start my holiday designs for The PopArtDiva Boutique!
VISUALIZE VISUALIZE:
I am already checking out format options at Lulu.com for publishing my books. I can actually see the finished books in my mind! That's powerful visualization. I'm really excited and this encourages me to continue the sketches and the stories.
IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT IT:
I didn't plan to get back into a lot of advertising design when I "retired" from the art shows, but it seems I'm in demand and I've always enjoyed the challenge of turning crappy input into decent graphic design. And you get a lot of crappy input sometimes. But instead of doing my usual complaining about how no one understands what it takes to turn crap into art, I've decided to treat each project as a challenge to develop a visually appealing layout no matter what kind of input comes in or how disorganized it is. I'm getting paid by the hour so if they want to pay me graphic design rates for basic office work, fine by me!
This new view of "crappy input" as "input challenge" has eased my stress and detoured me away from my usual path to bleeding ulcers!
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE:
- I am grateful for the graphic design work because it means income.
- I am grateful that I didn't have easy access to my old photos because the sketch I did turned into something that is going to be a joyful project and, possibly, a profitable pair of books.
- I am grateful that I was able learn a new attitude towards an old irritation.
- I am always grateful for Pixel and her daily playtime needs because she makes me laugh and teaches me to always spend a little time every day to play!
Halloween Designs coming soon to The PopArtDiva Boutique!
Buy Great Art Inspired Products at The LIFE IS LIKE ART Shop!
8 comments:
And sometimes creativity can be contagious as is evidenced that I left a very long phone call with the PopArt Diva full of new ideas for projects of my own. I can't wait to get started! And it's good to know that if I run dry of ideas, I can pick up the phone and be re-energized!
Melodieann - idea exchange is one of the best "think tanks" available to all of us - brain storming is what we used to call it in the old days.
Ideas feed us more ideas if we keep ourselves open to the possibilities around us.
Powerful skill to have developed -- shifting perspectives in the moment -- not always easy. It does however serve us well to wield the Law of Polarity in our favor. For every negative point of view there has to be a positive. The latter speeds up your vibration and thereby attracts positive vibes right back 'at-cha'!!
Leslie - This blog is one of my training aids in turning negative to positive and because I make myself post at least once a week it forces me to take a look each week at my "old baggage" and my new travels!
I also have a rant blog(The BRAT in the HAT™) where I let out some frustrations and I end each post with an On The Upside comment that forces me to view the issue from a positive outlook and end the post on an upbeat note!
I can totally relate to your post, Terri. Writing my book has spawned about six more, just from thinking about the content of the one I was working on.
You are so talented, that I'm sure there are hundreds of books in that mastermind of yours!
Pam - Right now all I'm worried about are the two I'm working on now, lol. If there are more I hope they pop up after I've finished these two!
Hey! Wow! Are you my evil twin or am I yours? (And are you a friend of Bill W.? LOL) Anyway, I'm so pleased that you stopped in and left a link to THIS blog! I love it! I'm putting you in with my dailies... oh, f- that... with my friends. I can tell already.But the busier I get, the more organized I get and the more I get done. People think I'm nuts when I say this, but for me it is SO true!!!
Since I've come back (from grief and depression), I've decided to give the political blogging and rants a rest and seek blogs that feed my spirit and inspire me. Yours is one! Yay!
Thorne - I am not a friend of Bill W, though I am a friend to those who are!
Maybe I am your doppleganger - they say we all have one! If I'm anyone's evil twin I am my own, lol - I swear sometimes I think there's 2 (or more!) people inside of me!!
Creativity is such a wonderful medication for depression, sorrow, grief and sadness. It is my favorite panacea to all my ills. Do you find this to be true too?
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