Urban Comfort

Thinking Outside the Box

 

I'm creatively hopping today.  So much so, that it's difficult to pin down where to start.  But I'm feeling visually inspired - ready to dip into my photography again - and not just composition but learning new editing skills.  The world of digital photography is such a great gift.  We're all free to compose bad shots, shoot the same subject a hundred times without worrying about the expense, and we have amazing capabilities to play around with our photos on a computer screen until they go from something ordinary to extraordinary.  I love it!  So while half of my brain is preoccupied with dragging out my Holgas, taping up the backs, and heading out into the unknown, the other half of my brain is ready to dip into manuals and learn a few new technological tricks. 

Lucky for me, I happened to take a peek in my Inspiration file and came across a Photo Distressing tutorial that I had forgotten about.  Tammy Fischer was kind enough to create it for her blog (now, sadly, defunct) and I'm really excited about the possibilities.  It's exactly the concise, easy type of tutorial that makes technology feel accessible.  Thanks, Tammy!   

 Download SUPER DISTRESSED PHOTO TUTORIAL

Deadline

 

I started the day with rain and Sidney Bechet and a quiet house, sans husband and child.  But then there was also that deadline looming and it put my head into a tizzy.  I made banana pancakes, hoping it would help me find my creative center.  By lunchtime, I was eating the last of the chocolate bunny from my son's Easter basket, with no creative center in sight.  Then there was caffeine and a lot of walking around and I finally hit my stride...about half of an hour before it was time to pick up Hudson.  

Is there a lesson to be learned from this?  A way to work more efficiently, to bypass all the settling in and brainstorming before actually getting down to the task at hand?  I know I'll get it done; deadlines make me perform better than anything else.  But I'd sure love to be one of those people who gets it all done calmly, with plenty of time to spare, and dinner on the table, to boot.  Is that possible?!  (And please, don't tell me to lay off the pancakes and chocolate!)  

Photo by Chewywong at Flickr.com

Creative Rut

Sure, I thought I'd come right out of the box with some amazing craft idea but then I stumbled across a little clipping that's been stuck in the bottom of a drawer forever - and it seemed like exactly the right place to start.

I make my living being creative.  I feed my soul during my "off hours" by being creative as well.  But there are always times when the well runs dry and I start to completely freak out and wonder if I'll ever have another good (or even mediocre) idea again.  Which is why I clipped this little snippet of an interview with Bono in the first place:

BONO:  When I was 10, I learned what unlocks creativity.  We were studying William Butler Yeats, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and my teacher explained that there was a period when Yeats had writer's block.  I put my hand up in class and asked, "Why didn't he write about that?"  It was like, "Oh, shut up."  I've since learned that there's something to being truthful.  The Scriptures say the truth will set you free.  The truth is at the root of every piece of creativity.  So if you're truthful about your situation, whatever it is as an artist--whether it's despair, whether it's hope, whether it's ambition--suddenly you're there.

I like that.  (It seems to have worked well for Bono, I might add.)  Sometimes the days are too long or too short, ideas don't come easily, children demand more than we feel we have to give, and our creative flow feels stifled under seemingly more pressing and mundane issues.  But it's good to recognize that it can be part of the process, that it's more than fallow ground.  I'm going to try to remember that the next time I hit my rut - and I'm sure that rut will come again.  It always does.