Posts filed under ‘creative • prompt’
Today’s Lesson: Perspective
For the visual artist this could be a simple lesson in vanishing points and horizon lines. How objects look in relation to each other. For a writer a scene is assembled or deconstructed in words. A point of view is taken or exchanged. Past, present and future can meet in an instant. Perspective gives us access to other lives. Empathy becomes our window on the world.
Creative prompt: What are the reference points that guide your imagination? When you look at this picture what is the first observation that you make? What are the sounds that you hear? What does it smell like? What is the temperature? Take a person or object from the scene and give their perspective. Are you early or late for your train?
today’s lesson: colour
Colour is powerful. It can scale tall buildings with a single bound. It can unite strangers and bring down empires. I have had a long love affair with colour starting with my first paintbox and Crayolas – they are all my favorites – though I tend to run out of yellow first. And nobody does colour quite like one of my favorite illustrators – Anne Wilson. Check out a sampling of her work (like the one above) here – they are all my favorites.
Creative prompt: Take off the rose coloured glasses and try on some blue ones. How does it flavor your point of view? What is the predominant colour in your wardrobe – on your walls? Where can colour take you that you can’t go alone? What is your favorite colour name? Chartreuse? Puce? discuss.
good morning vincent van gogh
I wake up to these eyes hanging on my wall. Penetrating. Questioning. And the Cyclops resting eerily awake as if startled from a dream. Every day is another self portrait. Another chance to add to the collective masterpiece. The crease of a wrinkle. The curl of a lip. Color that comes and goes. I wonder what he knew. What he would tell me. Time to go make breakfast
Creative prompt: Take a stab at a self portrait. With words or pen, cloth or playdough, notes or movement. How is it different today? How will it be different tomorrow? Find the mirror that best reflects who you are.
hidden inspiration
Yesterday I saw a chandelier discarded in the snow by the sidewalk. Someone had put it out for the trash. It was gaudy and broken but the snow made it beautiful and I was kicking myself that I didn’t have my camera. I wanted to take it home with me. But I took a picture in my mind instead and filed it away. The naked cherubs. The painted fruit. The white snow like whipped cream. Snow has a way of framing the world in white space. It crops the objects around it and helps us zoom in on the details. Bike spokes. The curve of a tree limb. Texture and pattern. The world can become monochromatic or full of contrast. Objects pop. Or disappear.
Creative prompt: What is the story snow tells us? How does the weather perceive us? Tell your story from the point of view of the elements. How many different kinds of white are there? Explore white space. Play in the snow.
