Creative Inventory Q&A Part 7

Does nature influence your creativity? How so?

In a word, yes.

But this sounds very similar to the question about whether or not there is a certain element that draws me.

I am a Taurus, and Earth-sign, and one that is definitely influenced by nature. Sometimes I am exasperating to others because I simply must stop in the middle of whatever it is I am doing to go and examine those roses over there, or the leaves of that tree, or the texture of those rocks. I am often compelled by Nature to stop and take in the beauty all around me.

I am always stunned by the amazing detail that is in the Earth. It's one of the things that leads me to believe in a Creator God and not just billions of years of accidental explosions - although I do have elements of the theory of evolution that I believe whole-heartedly. I just don't believe that it all came from nothing and will some day all return to nothing. (Call me crazy, it helps me feel like I have hope and a purpose on this waterball of a planet we call home.)

Side tangent - sort of. Often Christian ministers will remind their flocks that God is their Father, and the perfect father; the one who nurtures, and loves unconditionally and never fails, so unlike many earthly fathers, especially in our modern society. But I always had trouble finding God to be a heavenly Father because, well, my father was about as close to perfect as can be. I love my Daddy, and I don't think he has ever let me down yet. He isn't God, but he was unselfish and supportive through our entire upbringing. It's hard to replace that earthly father with God if you don't really have a reason to. It was at this point that I started identifying God as more of an Artist and source of true inspiration for me. Now of course, I recognize all the elements of Christian faith, but it was when I began to seek God for a facet of His personality that I could actually identify with, that I began to have a real relationship with him. God does fill gaps in our lives - He just doesn't fill the same gaps in everybody's lives.

Nature brings me  to my knees in wonder. Just as an example of how I draw inspiration, I will mention that I've always been a bit of a collector and still to this day I have a collection of stones and seeds and dried flowers lined up on my kitchen windowsill. The different textures, colors and patterns have incited different landscapes in my stories, specific details in my paintings and probably most importantly, make me smile during the day.

I thank God for the beauty and detail of his marvelous Art Project. Nothing brings greater joy to this artist's soul than knowing that He made it to help draw my best ideas out of me.

Creative Inventory Part 5

What activates your creative energy? What deactivates it?

I don't think I can even list all the things that get me in the mood to create!! I am inspired always by beautiful things. Now wait, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what can I possibly mean by that? I guess it's more complicated than simply "I am inspired by beauty".

Remember how I said I have a natural talent for seeing the possible? It goes along with that. I am inspired by blank canvasses. A raw, uncut piece of fabric. A huge open stretch of land that has nothing growing on it yet. Entire days where I have nothing that has to be done! (I can't wait for Wednesday, my day off this week!) A basket-full of balls and skeins of yarn that haven't been woven into anything yet.

Sunny days inspire my Earthiness and pull me out-of-doors into the sunshine to dig in the dirt, to design gardens of flowers and vegetables and fruits and to adore the beauty of Creation.

Stormy days bring out my 'hand-made' creativity. All things fine arts are produced on stormy days - new dresses, new crochet designs, new tales of haunted house, pirates, and best friends, new drawings and worst of all - encourage me to redecorate a room of the house. (This occasionally gets me into trouble.)

Days that are in between stormy and sunny make me want to play the piano for hours and sing. Cloudy days don't give a lot of leniency for sitting around, nor do they make me want to coax seedlings to grow taller, and so my heart begins to sing the blahs away.

BUT I begin to feel drained when the project has carried on for too long. This is my creative downfall and why I am so terrible at follow-through. I begin projects with gusto, anxious to bring the thoughts in my head into reality. Once they begin to take much longer than I originally planned - especially sewing projects if they must be ripped apart and resewn - I begin to lose my creative spark toward that project and it will become just another statistic in my pile of things unfinished. When something no longer stimulates my eye for the possible, I lose interest, and, often, move on to the next stimulus. This is something that makes me believe that I need a partner to work with - someone to hold my nose to the grindstone.

Deadlines are especially effective for me. If I promised to deliver something the next day, you can bet I will pull an all-niter to finish it!

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.

Beauty of the Earth

Spring has finally arrived to northern Indiana! And those greenhouse seedlings have been thriving in the warm, humid weather. We've had some great thunderstorms in the last few weeks as well.

Today is one of my rare days off from the bank, and instead of being beautiful outside for me, it's gloomy and they're calling for severe storms. So I have made a nice long list of things to be accomplished. I am discovering that it helps me to make lists - so that I can physically see what needs to be done and worked on, and that it isn't really as much as I think, and therefore keeps me from becoming to overwhelmed.

My darling Alex bought me a new lawn mower for our anniversary, and girls out there, I know that you might be a little put off by an anniversary gift like that, but it was a gift I really appreciated. Alex and I have an agreement when it comes to caring for our home. I do the outside work (that I am physically capable of doing, since I'm only 5 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds) and he does the inside chores that I don't like to do - like vacuuming. Yuck. So I was really pleased with the new mower, which has a catch bag on it, which now means that I can finally collect the grass clippings to use for mulch around the veggie garden.

I had some gorgeous red leaf and buttercrunch lettuces growing in the back garden, and imagine my shock yesterday in the morning when I stepped out the back door and found a family of bunnies muching away on them! So much for our fresh salads! But I'm not discouraged, because Alex finally said we would stop putting off the building of the fence and it's officially on the to-do list for this weekend. Sometimes it takes a loss to get other things accomplished.

I got the corn planted this weekend, and transplated the Early Girl tomatoes into bigger pots. They're almost 6 inches tall now, with 6-8 leaves, so they made it out of that brutal cold snap and are very healthy now. Still not ready to leave the greenhouse, but soon!

Had one of my little impatient moments the other day and got frustrated over my sugar snap peas, because they haven't shown a single sign of bearing yet! So Alex said "When did you plant the seeds?" and I pulled out my journal and was reminded that I planted them on March 30, instead of March 17, like I've done in the past. They take 60-75 days to bear, so I've still got about 14 days before they will show signs of flowers and pods. Silly me, getting impatient. :) I apparently forgot that the principles of sowing and reaping are not just for my spiritual life.

There are tiny buds on the raspberries, flower heads on the onions and leeks, and lots of broccoli, carrot and beet tops pushing out of the dirt. The potatoes are simply astonishing - about two feet tall now and a gorgeous emerald green. I've been building up the mounds around the plants so they will have plenty of growing space. I'm pretty sure I'll have spuds to spare this fall, but I'm also looking ahead to winter, and anticipating quite a haul for the root cellar.

Well, there's a lot to do today, so I'll leave you with these few pictures, which I snapped quickly this morning before the storm blew in.