Posts filed under ‘creative • musings’
Spring Cleaning
Spending some time cleaning my desk and found again a snippet of an e.e. cummings poem I had cut from a book, painted and framed. The word “Spring” caught my attention. And I was reminded of the way poetry helps me keep time. Like a calendar I come back each year to versions of my self – to new ways of reading the familiar.
I went to search for my yellow paged copy of 73 poems and saw this line from 35 that I love
(existing’s tricky: but to live’s a gift)
- e.e.cummings
Creative prompt: Take stock – What’s in/on your desk? Is clutter the sign of a creative mind? When are you at your most creative – when things are in disaray or organized? What seeds of inspiration are hiding beneath the rubble of time and neglect? What can you unearth today that will grow into something new tomorrow?
Creative Spark: TED Talks
Something old. Something new. Sometimes it just takes the intervention of someone else’s ideas to help inspire/shape/transform/challenge our own.
Technology, Entertainment, Design
TED talks are one way to see how leading creators and thinkers view the world as we explore our own thoughts and actions in it.
Here is a talk by Sir Ken Robinson on the state of education and its impact on creativity.
You can find more talks on creativity at the TED website.
Trash Season
It’s trash season again. What elsewhere would be called spring is the slow unveiling of 5 months of the dearly discarded. On our postage stamp of once green – I collect the unusual suspects – wrappers, a dirty diaper, newspapers and plastic bags. The city brings out the power hoses and the sidewalks return to their usual gray/brown. In another month, a season of looking at your feet for fear of falling on the salted slopes of ice and snow will be replaced with occasional glances toward the sky. The welcome return of birds and leaves and even bees. Windows will be rolled down. Music will return to the streets. And people too. All who lived cloistered in quiet hibernation. Ready for a rebirth. Ready for color and song to thaw the senses.
Growing a Money Garden
Growing up I always loved looking through the Burpee seed catalogs. Amazed by the varieties and colors of things that could mysteriously emerge from beneath the boring brown dirt. Gardening is a creative adventure – you never know exactly how it’s going to turn out. But the best part is that you can enjoy seeing, smelling, touching and tasting whatever pops up.
+ In these cash strapped times who couldn’t appreciate the promise of $650 worth of vegetables from a $10 packet of seeds. Tell me how it goes.
A Day of Quiet
Quiet can be hard to come by. Even if there are no sounds outside, there are often the distractions of busy lives broadcasting 24/7 in our heads. That’s why I appreciate this quote by Evelyn Underhill
“Try to arrange things so that you can have a reasonable bit of quiet every day and do not be scrupulous and think it selfish to make a decided struggle for this.”
The Evelyn Underhill Association is sponsoring the 20th Annual Evelyn Underhill “Call to God: A Day of Quiet Reflection” which will be held on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Cathedral College on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral.
Radiant Magazine Article
Join me over at Radiant where I discuss “Spiritual Disciplines” and manage somehow to work in gelato and one of my favorite quotes from Evelyn Underhill who says in her book The Spiritual Life,
“We mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have and
to Do. We are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to Be: and that Being, not wanting, having and doing, is the essence of a spiritual life.”
Giant House of Cards
Charles + Ray Eames -
Giant House of Cards -
available at Modernseed.
Literal or Figurative – you decide.
Paper View
For anyone who has ever gone giddy holding a Neenah Paper swatchbook (ok, that would be me) – Now there is Paper TV. Maybe only slightly more fun than watching paint dry. You can see paper being made at the Appleton Mill. Or watch someone reading a paper swatchbook.
+
More fun for the paper lover.
Paper + Scissors = Rock
Creative people see potential where others see just a piece of A4 paper.
Artist Peter Callesen’s intricate papercut creations celebrate the omnivorous
scope of the imagination.
Each piece reminding us to push past our preconceptions.
You can see more of his work here.
Rock. Paper. Scissors.
Some of the most beautiful ideas begin with the simplest elements.
I am always amazed at what people can do with a piece of paper.
Joseph Wu’s origami site has a wealth of ideas.
Origami artist Eric Joisel shares about his
creating - process.
