Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

A New Year Begins

Daily Sketch 01/01/2014 'A Cup of Beach Finds'

A new year began today, with continuing blustery showers. I had a few hours to myself in my studio and the chance to think a bit about how to proceed creatively into 2014. Not too keen to venture out I stayed inside and sketched a cup of shells on the window sill for my daily sketch. 

To me the new year represents among thousands of other things a peculiar new challenge since deciding to sketch daily. It's a funny thing really, looking forward into the next 365 days as if down the wrong end of a telescope, with December 31st 2014 a mere dot on the horizon. But that's what we do isn't it, in an effort to make some sense of where we are in time and space? We have our calendar more or less shoehorned into the various rotations and perturbations of our solar system and it works and makes sense for us most of the time. However when I see the 365 neat little blank squares on my planner I can easily go from feeling a huge sense of opportunity to make and do good 'stuff' to feeling an equal sense of responsibility not to waste a single square! 

Happy new year friends.


Sunday, 6 January 2013

Steal Like An Artist

I have been the lucky recipient of a marvellous little book entitled 'Steal Like an Artist' by Austin Kleon, a gift from my good friend and erstwhile fellow musician/artist/blogger Peter and have been itching to share some of the brilliant ideas and advice contained within. If you're a creative type (and maybe if even not ) I think you will do well to get hold of a copy, as this is the type of 'dip in and out' reference book that could become a very firm friend. Why? Well here are the ten titles of each chapter...
1) Steal like an artist. 2) Don't wait until you know who you are to get started. 3) Write the book you want to read. 4) Use your hands. 5) Side projects and hobbies are important 6) The secret: do good work and share it with people. 7) Geography is no longer our master. 8) Be nice. (the world is a small town.) 9) Be boring. (it's the only way to get work done.) 10) Creativity is subtraction.
That surely must have your appetite whetted. This little book is full of wisdom gathered from creative people from all walks of life ie:- "Be regularand orderly in your life so that you can be violent and original in your work" - Gustave Flaubert "We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops." - John Cleese and this one I love; "In the digital age, don't forget to use your digits!" - Lynda Barry. You get the flavour, I'm finding it very inspiring already and I strongly recommend it to you if like me you often find yourself in a creative cul-de-sac, or worse still up a certain creek... it may just unlock your creativity. Thanks again banksyboy for introducing me to this little gem.