Sparking creativity : September workshops

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With the sweet feeling of renewal sparked by the arrival of September, I wanted to shake things a little, do something inspiring just for me. It seems that the universe had a compatible agenda, because these two cool creative gals were planning cool creative workshops when I was on the look out for just the right project !

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I decided to treat myself and registered for both workshops. These will be my Christmas present to myself ! Elise’s one, the Big Mini workshop, just came to an end and was chock full of very helpful information, basic and not so basic steps and ideas to  make minibooks of all kind. Elise’s workshop was just like her blog : fun, inviting, inspiring ! I took another of her workshops last year too and she managed to make it even better this time. I have wanted to try my hand at minibooks for a long while and never actually completed one, each of my attempts ending in me over-thinking the whole process, trying to make it “perrrfect” and being completely overwhelmed… which is the fastest way to kill any project !

Thanks to Elise, I am now equipped with  detailed guidelines, clear advice and fun suggestions to build my own minibooks, and I feel very grateful to her for making the whole process seem so much less daunting than it used to be.

Then this weekend began Kal’s workshop : Nurture your creativity & be bulletproof. The first session was inspiring and quite an eye opener for me.　I can’t wait for what’s to come. I.am.excited !

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In my own words

“What are you about right now?”

This is the question I found on Beth Hemmila’s blog, and I liked the idea of answering in the form of a word cloud so much that I was in the game almost immediately.

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I’ve used Wordle before, mostly to make cards or…mm…as a major procrastination tool. It’s a very nice and simple application : input the words you want to use, chose the colors, layout, font, et voila ! You can even customize the color palette, which I found so useful when I made cards for friends, as it allows for so much more choices.

But let’s go back to the question : “What are you about right now?”. This is something I ask myself so often (too often ?) that i had a light chuckle when I read it. And instead of over thinking it, I just jolted down (on Wordle, in this case ) the words that came to my mind as spontaneously as possible. I didn’t hold back and at the end was a bit surprised by a few of them. Which was nice. I have to admit that the first version of my answer was much longer than the version you see here…!

Doing this I thought it would actually be really nice to do this little exercise every once in a while. Not only in my head – that, I do rather too often, but leaving a trace, be it on Wordle and then printing it, or as a drawing/painting. I think it’d be nice to have these, as a reminder of who I am/was at a certain moment in time.

Just a few words about Beth, if you don’t know her yet. She is an amazing jewelry designer. Not only is her work (her hand sculpted silver charms are so lovely they make my heart ache) beautiful, but her words are so inspiring. If you have the chance, prepare a cup of your favorite beverage and go and spend a little while in her world, you wont regret it.

Good day everyone !

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Favorite space and creativity – 31.05.2009

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Today is the last day of Everyday in May. A month (well, almost, because I started a bit late) of daily pictures, of a bit of journaling too. It’s the first time I committed to doing a certain creative thing daily for a month, and the commitment itself made the process very interesting. The assignment (a photo a day) was simple enough not to be too overwhelming, and flexible enough to fit my schedule and/or my mood on any given day.　This self-imposed assignment motivated me to take the time to go outside and really look. It also was a good opportunity to look at my daily environment a bit differently. To look at it with a purpose. To really see what’s around.

As I’ve written before, I learned a lot about what kind of photos I like, what stops my eye, what taking pictures actually means to me. These were all good things that I feel are going to continue influencing the way I take pictures from now on. I really had to push myself sometimes to get outside of my little comfort zone and not focus exclusively on leaves, rusty pipes and water…all things I could take picture of endlessly.

I’d really like to do commit again to one specific creative activity daily for a month. I yet have to decide which one, but I know it would be an opportunity for growth and the source of many discoveries !

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From the train – 29.05.2009

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I took the train back home in the afternoon, after a very busy-rich-interesting-motivating five days. I’m here, typing from my sofa, and though I am home now, I haven’t completely arrived yet. I need to readjust a little bit after the swirling days that just went by.

I had the opportunity to talk with a few persons, and the essence of some of these discussions boils down to “publish or perish”. I’m a part time lecturer and if I want to even think about applying for something more permanent, I have to publish papers, there is no way to escape this academic reality. Sigh. I wish I had the kind of healthy confidence that makes you try and go for it, instead of the “what-i-could-write-will-never-be-good-enough” paralysis. But I guess the time has come to power through this . Mmm.

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What kind of weekend are you all planning ? Have a good one !

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Self portrait of sorts – 28.05.2009

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A lot of things today set me a little bit offtrack, a little bit off balance. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It led to questions such as “where am I heading ?” or more precisely “where do I really want to be heading ?”.

That’s when I started taking pictures of my eye(s). I don’t know exactly why I started. Somehow I did. And it was pretty fun. Not the obvious kind of fun, but fun nonetheless ! I like this partial self portrait. Probably because it is me, but not exactly/totally me. I think this is something I might like doing : trying to do some self portraits of sorts, all focusing on details.

So I still don’t know exactly where I’m heading, but I think I know what my next photo project is going to be !

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