Creativity Break: Crayon Naming

“An enterprising child set up a table at the park, selling crayons for a nickel. I gave her a dollar for Tickle Me Pink.” @WordWhispers

Let your creative nature come out and play, assign a new name for at least 8 of the color crayons you see in the image below. What story, memory or "fantastical" world will your crayon names leap from within your imagination? Alternative: pick 2-3 colors and create a name for each shade of purple or green, or blue, etc. Please feel free to share your names :)

Image: dreamstime.com

Forces of Nature

Inspired by the forces of nature. A twisting canyon inspires me to transform difficult forces from my life history into wondrous and beautiful creations. Through admiring the geologic features in a weathered, shaped and twisted canyon, we are reminded to embrace the depth of our life experiences and let it flow into our art, our written word--into something beautiful, from our creative soul.

Creativity Tool: Spirals

Spirals have inspired artists for ages, first appearing in megalithic art in the form of petroglyphs. Spirals have symbolized the sun, growth, evolution, hypnosis, and the universe. In nature, spirals can be found everywhere—perhaps the source of ancient inspiration—and are usually described as whorls when found in plants and animals. In mathematics, “a spiral is a curve which emanates from a central point, getting progressively farther away as it revolves around the point.” (wikipedia.org)

What does a creative spiral signify for you?

How could you use spirals in your art or writing?

How would spirals appear in your work as a chef, or a dancer, as a sculpture?

SOMETHING TO TRY: seek out spirals, any size, shape, or form for 3 days. Take notes, photographs, sketch, or mentally list your finds for possible jumping off points for future projects. Where do you notice spirals most, in nature or man made environments and structures? Do you find more while you’re purposefully looking for spirals, or when you’re occupied with other tasks? What do your answers tell you about your creative process?

Full article here.

Nature Time: Clay Play

Clay play is up for comments now that there is a new nature time exercise (side bar). Please feel free to share you experience from last week's exercise below!

It’s all about texture and patterns. Grab some clay, Play-doh®, modeling clay—even natural clay if you are lucky enough to have a source. Roll out and pre-cut flattened, 4” x 6” pieces to take with with you into your backyard or nearby park. Find patterns and textures to start pressing your pliable, flattened pieces of clay onto. Try trees, interesting building surfaces, rocks, leaves, man-hole covers, outdoor sculpturs, sidewalk cracks. Use these pieces to stamp patterns onto your work or apply to clay works, or assemblage pieces. Or, let these impressions inspire a character or setting. Use as you creatively wish!

Nature Time: The 5 Senses

With the new "Nature Time" awareness exercise posted in the sidebar, the previous exercise comes over for any feedback:

Inspired by Leah Piken Kolidas’s April challenge (The 5 Senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch). I invite you to create something that stimulates at least two senses. Whether you paint, write, cook, dance, teach—how can you integrate an additional sensory experience? If your work already connects people through more than one of their senses, challenge yourself to add another. How does this affect your creative process?