Creative Inventory Part 8

What has been your greatest creative hurdle thus far?

Easily, my greatest creative hurdle is finishing what I start. This is even evident in the fact that I 'started' this blogging the answers to these questions, and it's been 4 days since the last time I posted. Not on purpose - I just have never had a really good drive to complete anything.

Starting projects is fun and new. It's enticing. The elements are sitting in various pieces all around the table and looking at each other, wondering how they will fit together. But once the project gets underway, it loses it's novelty and after awhile, especially if it doesn't turn out the way I intended, I will stop working on it. The poor project becomes just another of my unfinished pieces in a box. And I have a LOT of unfinished dresses and other sewing projects. A LOT of unfinished stories in Word files on the computer. A LOT of half-done paintings.

Finishing - staying interested to the end - it my greatest hurdle. It's also the reason I believe I need a partner to keep me accountable. I just haven't found the right partner yet. But I know he/she is out there!

Creative Inventory Pt. 6

"Do you have any creative rituals?"

This concept confused me. I have never had any creative rituals, and it struck me that I almost go about my creativity rather willy-nilly, simply starting and stopping whenever I feel like it and giving up on ideas that don't come out right the first time. It seems like an extraordinarily self-defeating way to work. After all, one of my greatest inspirations, Ludwig van Beethoven, couldn't work unless he dumped buckets of water over his head. There must be something to this 'ritual' thing that has never presented itself to me before.

So I am going to attempt to invent some creative rituals to help my ideas blossom and my drive to complete my work grow stronger.

Anybody know how to invent rituals? I do not.

What I hope to do is begin with the things that I know lead me into inspiration. Certain pieces of music will probably be listened to before I begin to write, and I will probably walk through the garden, enjoying my beautiful flowers and plants for a few minutes to help focus my mind. (Unless that doesn't work and instead, I begin to work in the garden.) I will try to get out of the house for at least a little bit every day, and I am going to experiment with whether creating before work, or after work is the best time of day for me.

And I'm going to be reading. Doing lots and lots of reading. I have already begun, and there are several more books on the way that I hope will help me fine-tune my skills.

I am curious to know if there are any tasks or rituals that anyone else out there might find useful? What drives your inspiration or brings out your best ideas?

Creative Inventory Part 4

4 When and where do you create? When and where do you wish to create?

I actually do not have a specific time or place to work out my creative musings, and I am beginning to think that I might be more productive if I did. My work tends to travel around the house, depending on when and where I feel like coming to rest. That's the problem with knitting and crocheting I guess - it's portable. It may start life in the living room because I'm watching TV, but then I might migrate to the music room or the dining room or even the backyard. Maybe my 'where' is just simply 'Home'. My sewing room, our extra bedroom, used to be my 'place' but now it's become more of a storage closet in the last few months, housing anything that I can't find a place for in the rest of the house.

As for time, this is probably an issue that I need to resolve. I do not have good time management skills at all - not even remotely good ones. It might take me half an hour to get one room vacuumed because I will get distracted somewhere in the middle of it and start doing something else. I do not have a set time for creativity. Whenever I am not at work, not teaching piano lessons, not cleaning the house and not caring for my husband's needs. Sometimes I get an entire day to be creative. Sometimes I don't have a single moment's peace. Most of the time I am lucky to get half an hour before bed in the evening and it's when I'm tired, my thoughts are going into hibernation for the night and Alex is trying to force me into watching television with him becase that's how he winds down. I have never had a set time for creativity to flow.

Another problem I have with the 'time' aspect of creativity is simply that I don't really have the support. Now, before you think my husband is squelching my creativity, please understand that if he didn't keep me on track with things, I would be a complete mental case. I would be a hoarder, the city would forclose on my house, and I would probably never bathe. This is because if I don't have someone reminding me to care for things, one task at a time, I get into obsessive grooves that I don't come out of. I could literally spend an entire week doing a certain set of projects and never do anything else that week except pee. I often forget to eat during the day if I'm working on something. There could be a small list of chores and I will convince myself that they will take care of themselves because 'I'm busy creating something dammit all!' I do not have a healthy mental state when it comes to living life like a normal person should. When Alex comes home and sees that I've literally done nothing but sit on the couch all day with a crochet hook in hand, he gets annoyed and starts forcing me into finishing the tasks I should have worked on during the day. Now do I get upset and annoyed with this? Absolutely. But I need it. I am very co-dependent in these regards. Does my creativity suffer? I think so. I think my opportunities for inspiration are already few and far between, and when my husband comes home after a long day at work to find out that his wife has more or less failed to hold up her end of the bargain, he doesn't really feel like supporting my hare-brained ideas. He's also terribly practical to my terribly 'out-there' way of thinking. They do say opposites attract.

BTW, my husband is an AMAZING guitarist, so if I have portrayed him as not being a creative type, it's incorrect. His musical genius surpasses most - he just channels it differently. He has logic and practicality to his advantage. I..... do not.

Since I will begin a lighter work schedule next week, I am going to start establishing my creative times and getting the routine into a set schedule. I am hoping to establish 3 times per week where I can simply sit down and produce ideas and work on projects. I have to work this out with Alex, but I think in the long run it will be a great advantage to both of us.

And as for the migrating projects, I don't think that's likely to die as quickly as it should, but we DID start cleaning out the sewing room again.

Creative Inventory Q&A Part 3

3. What elements (water, wood, fire, etc.) draw you toward them?

I won't get all New Agey on you with this one for the sakes of those folks who only believe you can be inspired by God and not His Creation, but let's be practical for a minute. Elements of nature exist, and certain people are drawn to different elements in different ways. Let's meet somewhere in the middle and say that you can draw inspiration out of things that are elements of God's Creation. I find God to be the original Artist, and that is where I find His presence.

I was born on May 6, which means that I'm a Taurus in the astrological chart. It's an Earth symbol. Guess what? I am absolutely drawn to the earth. Not all Taurus's are, but I am. It's what prompts me to dig in the dirt, plant seeds and sit back and watch them grow. I love the smell of the earth, especially after a good storm. The rise of mountains, the cracks of riverbeds and canyonlands, the lush colors of wild places - whether they be open field, rainforests and jungles, or painted deserts - the beauty of the Earth inspires me.

I am also drawn to water, but in a lesser degree. I love to see the ocean, and the colors and fascinating oddities of the creatures that live beneath the sea always amaze me. But when it comes right down to it, I think the thing I have the most healthy fear for in the world is probably dangerous water. I'm not a hydophobe by any stretch of the word, but you likely won't find me on a ship during a storm, and my experiences white water rafting were terrifying enough that I probably will never do it again. I do not wish to die by drowning - the thought of it scares me more than most other types of death.

I am not really drawn to fire, air, wood, or metal in any way. I don't need candles burning, or open windows to draw inspiration. I can usually find what I need by walking through the park or sitting in the grass for awhile.

Creative Inventory Q&A Part 2

The second question in the creative inventory challenge in the book 12 Secrets is one that I don't really like to answer. I'm not sure why because who doesn't like to talk about their talents and abilities? Me, I guess.


2. What natural talents do you have?

It's difficult for me to produce a 'natural' talent. I have them, to be sure. God gives beautiful talents and abilities to everyone who is willing to open their eyes to them. But I wasn't BORN knowing how to play the piano, or paint a mural, or crochet a dozen pairs of baby booties. Those talents were acquired through someone teaching me - patiently. (I'm difficult to teach. I'm left-handed, right-brained, and stubborn.) I think my natural talent comes in my ability to see the possible. I have an eye for color and for sorting and combining. You can see this talent in my home - my fireplace mantle is always changing because I will find things to display in different sizes, shapes, colors and textures. I have a knack for seeing potential in found objects. I always have a finished product in my head - but never in my hand. That makes me laugh, but is also kind of sad. When I worked at the fabric store, I would walk through the apparel department and pull out the different prints and textures and already have a finished dress in my head before I could even measure the yardage to see if there was enough available to make the dress.

Possibility and Potential.

Those are my natural talents.

Creative Inventory Q&A

Earlier today I posted 9 questions from the book The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor. The purpose of the questions were to take an inventory on your creativity and begin to acknowledge your creative side. I journalled my answers to these questions and want to share them. I am hoping that some of my fellow creative friends will also desire to share some of their thoughts on these questions as well.

Q: When did your creative awakening (or reawakening) occur?

A: I feel like I have always been creating. I can't think of a time when there was an awakening in my creativity. As a very little girl, I was very ill and almost never slept. I spent my long nights wide awake, telling myself stories. I was always making up my own little games and adventures. I loved to color and play with building blocks. I spent more hours at the piano than is probably healthy for a little girl. :)

My mom, Sally, and my aunt Twyla were both insanely creative people. They were the right women to have around when it came to encouraging creative growth. The two of them often had hare-brained schemes that involved large amounts of paint and fascinating tools and fabrics. I remember a time when they decided to have a craft show - during the 80's when everyone's style was 'country'. My grandpa built type-set boxes for them that they painted in a variety of colors and embellished with stencils. Then came the wooden knick-knacks, the geese, bunnies, sock monkeys, pillows and painted sweatshirts and t-shirts. If we wanted to paint murals on the walls, we could. I f we wanted to cut an entire ball of yarn into tiny pieces because we were pretending to cut hair (like Mommy in the beauty shop) we were allowed to. There was no such thing as 'no' when it came to nurturing ideas in our household, and if things got out of hand, there were always suggestions for something else to try instead. My mom's motto in life seemed to be "It's only...." For example - "It's only paint! Just paint over it!" or "It's only hair! It will grow back!" 

 Then there was my grandma Betty, who was determined to make sure all of her granddaughters knew how to crochet, sew, embroider and cook. It was she who taught her poor left-handed granddaughter, ME, how to do such things - not an easy task. And it's because of her that I have had success with my crocheted baby Chucks and other designs. It's because of her that I have cross-stitched amazing pieces of art that are framed on the walls of our house. It was her coaching that led me to become a concert pianist.

And thusly, I can't think of a time when I haven't been creating or at least writing down ideas. Most of my ideas were unmanageable - either physical impossibilities or simply out of reach for the time being and then forgotten about.

How about you?

12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women

As usual, I am frustrated with my station in life because I live in a society that makes it hard to be creative and live comfortably. Thus, I work a job that I'm not crazy about, but happy and grateful to have, and my true love - my creativity - suffers.


My greatest downfall is my inability to finish what I start, or carry anything to the end. I have time-management issues, as I have been made uncomfortably aware of by working at the bank, and while I don't believe for a minute that I have something like ADD, I do believe that I have let a good portion of my memory and focus dwindle away. (But I am told that such things can be regained.)


I picked up The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women at Barnes and Nobel in Fort Wayne last weekend while we were killing time before a wedding. It was on the discount shelf, and definitely doesn't have the gorgeous cover art that the book on Amazon.com has. But I've never been one to concern myself with cover art - but instead, the text inside. After all, there's a great song about not judging a book by looking at it's cover.

The author, Gail McMeekin, and I seem to have a lot in common. Both of us have struggled with places to put our creative energy, both have struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome, and like her, I have noticed that women are often expected to push their creativity into the backmost parts of our minds in order to become productive members of society.  I am no feminist, not by a long shot, but I do agree that our modern society still has some expectations of women that aren't very fair. (However, I believe they were brought about BY the feminist movement, and they aren't doing anything to help get rid of them.)

I remember a time when I was putting together an elaborate scrapbook to chronicle my journeys through the south-eastern countries of Africa. My mom loved it, but I remember her saying, "It's great that Lindsey has so many creative outlets. It will really help her get through life." My parents have struggled their entire lives with poor financial choices and having to work minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. In short, they have both had to labor while pushing their creativity in the background. Sure, it came out in other places - my mom owned a salon for 20 years, and our house was the most attractive in the neighborhood. But my parents never got the opportunity to follow their true dreams.

I dread the thought that such could be my case. When I think about the years to come, I have a sense of foreboding that I might be one of those folks who simply travels around from job to job because they can't stick with any of the work - I have only worked at the bank for 3 months and I'm already hoping that another opportunity will present itself so that I can quit. I don't want to be one of the millions who pushes their true passions out of the door and conforms to expectations of them.

I particularly like that this book offers challenges to help a woman unlock her creative potential. I have already noticed that there are things I could be doing to help encourage myself into better ideas. I have recognized for a long time that I need a partned - but the right one hasn't come along yet. I am co-dependent in the sense that I need a coach - someone to help me follow-through. I am unsuccessful alone - but with that other person, I can do almost anything.

The first challeng in "12 Secrets" is to take a creative inventory of yourself. I am a little more that halfway through adding that to my journal. I am going to post the questions, and hope that someone out there feels like adding their thoughts on one or two of them as I put my own answers out there for the world to read in future postings.

Creative Style Inventory

1. When did your creative awakening or reawakening occur?
2. What talents do you naturally have?
3. Which elements (fire, wood, water, air, etc.) draw you toward them?
4. Where and when do you create? Where and when do you wish to create?
5. What activates your creative energy?
6. Do you use creative rituals? What are they? If not, invent some for yourself!
7. Does nature influence your creativity? If it does, how?
8. What has been your greatest creative hurdle thus far?
9. What time of day are you most receptive to inspiration?

In the next few weeks, I am going to put up passages from my journal exploring these questions and it would warm my heart to see one or two responses from others out there. Who knows, maybe somewhere out there is that creative partner I've been waiting for and haven't opened my eyes to seeing yet!