Bye Bye Box

This summer I did a “reboot” for my brain.   My mind had been bombarded for years with poison darts and digs to my spirit. Since my brain has been boosted, I’m ready to embark on a sensory safari, prepare to launch, my long-lasting legacy – by offering my expertise in creativity, observation, insight, and idea implementation.

 

Many people fit in the box. Some people feel boxed-in.

A few people think outside-the-box.

I think about boxes. I build boxes. I certainly don’t “fit in” the box. Are you aware of my previous boxes? Did you notice my new business boxes?

What will I create as my future un-box?

Creative Coaching Company

Would you like to go outside your “inner-box” and discover the life you were designed to live?

 

“Thin”spiration

Welcome to a new “creative” blog writer who is discovering her place in the “wireless” world. She fits well into my iCygnet blog. Dana is developing her designs. We can encourage her to keep pursuing creativity. You are always Good Enough — just the way you are.

Office of One

Each day brings a new challenge for me as I determine where I will locate my portable office.

1. Will I work in my transitional space in which I was forced to take refuge after my multiple businesses were destroyed?

2. Should I locate a new eating establishment with WIFI and a suitable table for my laptop and papers?

3. Is the weather such that I can explore an outdoor space with a canopy of trees or gazebo?

Of course this is not the typical issues a regular office worker has to deal with.  Many TV shows portray an exaggerated work environment of friendships and personality conflicts.

Lately, I find the best office space for me is OUTSIDE with the unknown ceiling height of the sky.  Research has shown that work spaces and areas with high ceilings are more conducive to creative thinking, productivity and problem solving — yet most companies confine workers to cubicles for fear an employee or student will get distracted.

Today I couldn’t set up in one of my standard locations due to a towering oak tree propelling acorns at rapid intervals — boing, bounce, plop, plunk — either on my papers or head. What I did find was and enchanting surrounding — nicer than the previous location.

I update inventory for my website, write articles for the blog and plan for upcoming music programs and a potential replacement brick & mortar business.  I spend rainy/inclement days inside completing oboe repairs and sketching out new ideas.  Sunny/temperate days give me the greatest joy for work — outside with nature to accomplish the goals of the week.

My only concerns when working outside are rapidly changing temperature (too hot/cold), invasion of spiders, flies, mosquitoes AND rain, wind, darkness, too much light.   (hey, those sound like the same concerns during an outdoor music performance…)

Today, I had two visitors pass through my “office”:   a lady on her afternoon stroll and a stray calico cat on her afternoon prowl.  I sometimes have the pleasure of a ladybug, caterpillar, katydid and squirrels to check on my progress at work.

Oh — office hours are ending shortly — the battery on the laptop is 20% power !    I still have time for pad and paper till “lights” dim for the evening shift.

Dreading Treading

Tonight was a breakthrough in my process of discovering the “joy of fitness.” I was informed that in the early morning, by 6:30 am, the place is full — the fitness center . . . Who in their “right mind” would think of exercising that early in the morning. Oh actually — not any right-minded people — nope, only left-minded people. My first day at the fitness club was completely overwhelming and stimulating — sounds, bodies, TVs, machines everywhere.

The contraptions look daunting. I see an eerie similarity to a Medieval torture device. But no, these are modern engineered machinery to improve human condition and endurance. Go “figure.”

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And by the way, I have to take breaks often to build my brain muscle i.e. — writing a blogpost. Tonight was a new adventure for me. I was sensing a need to try something different and this week I visualized my plan. There it was right beneath me . . . as I tread lightly on the mill. I set the speed to low, held onto the side posts — and flipped around. That was it. My mind slipped into a form of euphoria. I was treading backwards!

Don’t think that’s an easy task for someone — particularly me — who can trip and fall on a flat, dry, non-moving service while not even walking!

Can’t say I’m adept with large motor skills, but this was a breakthrough. I hadn’t been that coordinated since the days of marching band. We were expected to march in tempo, hold an instrument, count, turn on cue — and even walk backwards.

 

Charming Community Connection

Discovering charm in small town establishments has become more difficult in the last few years. The expense and multitude of regulations make starting a brick & mortar” business difficult. Surviving beyond start-up is an even more daunting challenge.  I survived and thrived over 20 years in a small town.

I have always been drawn to unique, non-franchise style establishments. I understand the process of start-up, development, advertising, hiring, operating several businesses. A large gap exists between “cookie cutter” franchises and independent operations.
A chart and floor plan for where every item is to be placed — a standard for block stores — keeps employees from feeling connection to their workplace.

This Wednesday, I visited Pizza Phi in Lewisburg, PA. It had the standard look of a town pizza shop. The employees were at their job — pleasant, but there was no phenomenal friendly service.  As a customer, I was also not engaged in the establishment.

There is a spirit of spontaneity that will never feed my soul when I walk into other establishments.

I will have to build a new place with personality again — someday.

Creative Process

The creative process is not without its troubles. I too, am an artist, and snicker (or grimace) at the comments or questions about how easy it must be for me to draw, paint or create something “from your imagination.” I think “amazing what 15 years training will do for ‘ya.”

I can understand young children being in awe of my skills and assuming that if they just say the word “elephant”, I will know exactly how to draw one. (now is that an African or Asian elephant?) Dog or Cat (100s of breeds), horse (yikes, they have lots of muscles), chair (how many millions of those are there?). A person (running, walking, standing, sitting, age, etc)

So do you kinda understand how complex the “just draw something simple” comment is to a real artist? Sometimes people actually think that in art school you can do anything you want to do. You can’t be right or wrong — afterall it’s YOUR work. Not so. There are assignments with guidelines and grades. After art school, if you only do what you want to do … you may be a starving artist OR you just count on being the one in half a million artists to get “discovered” and make it rich.

Cartoonists — there are limitations to the space alloted in newspaper publications. Ever wonder why you see the same cartoons for decades even after the death of the artist? Comic books have morphed into “graphic novels” — picture books for mostly teens and grown-ups. The artwork is fabulous, skilled, creative, dynamic. Artists making their mark — tiny as it may be — in the huge world of art. There are SO many styles of “cartooning” you could spend a lifetime studying, exploring them.

See what Laurissa is learning about the process of creating art:
Today I Learned: 100!.

lestwentytwo

This is the 100th official “Today I Learned:”!  Technically though, including Interims / con reviews / other drawings / etc. I have posted 136 things on here!

Again, thank you to everyone who reads this comic, it’s awesome that so many people like it! 😀  Onward to more comics in the future!

Also, I wanted to thank Melissa and John, who I went snowboarding with a couple of days ago, and they took that awesome first picture.

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Capture Creativity

You can enhance your creativity by surrounding yourself with diverse stimuli–and, even more important, by changing those stimuli regularly.  Diverse and changing stimuli promote creativity because, like resurgence, they get multiple behaviors competing with each other.

Here’s the great news: Research shows that everyone has creative abilities. The mechanisms that underlie the creative process operate all the time in each of us. Every one of us has the creative potential of Mozart or Picasso or Edison or Einstein. To boost your creative output, capture your new ideas as they occur, challenge yourself in order to get ideas competing, broaden your training so that many new repertoires of behavior will be available to compete, and surround yourself as much as possible with diverse and ever-changing stimuli.

Anyone can master these creative strategies. They’re all that stand between you and the most creative people in history.

Something called “The Shifting Game” uses a team optimally to increase creative output. Two teams are selected from the larger audience. One is instructed to stay together for a 20-minute brainstorming session. The second team is instructed to “shift” twice from five- minute private work sessions to five-minute team meetings. Each team must generate names for a new soft drink, and each has a total of 20 minutes In which to accomplish the task.

The “shifting” group typically generates twice as many Ideas as the brainstorming group. Why? Because creativity is always an individual process, and social disapproval is the major deterrent to creativity our entire lives. Groups are far better at selecting good ideas than at generating them.

Discovering Danny

There are so many possibilities and so much amazing information to be discovered online.   The vastness and clearness of images makes me feel as if I met this person.   I haven’t met Danny Gregory, but I’m already in awe of his abilities and creativity.   I’m impressed with how organized he keeps his kitchen and art supplies . . . I’m certain that gives him more time to work on his craft.  Perhaps he has a personal organizer or cleaning company to help him.

If it weren’t that I am so busy developing and posting on my blogs, I’d be painting, composing, performing — oh, alas, I’m WRITING and healing.

Reach for a Raspberry

Here’s a delicious and delightful blog written by a blogger in the UK.

http://annewheaton.co.uk/2012/08/16/raspberry-vinegar/

Artist Networks

Social Networks for Artists with the link.

 

Bcre8ive

Here’s a link to a cool creative blog with multitudes of idea stimulators.   http://thecre8ive.blogspot.com/

Break it, Build it

Creativity Training

Creativity training and innovation programs work by asking people to deliberately break the normal rules of planning, behavior, decision-making, just to mess up current patterns. By overturning the predictable, new possibilities will emerge, including the absurd, the inappropriate, even the dangerous.

However, out of a bit of irreverence and rule-breaking comes original and innovative thinking, even for those who absolutely are convinced they aren’t creative.

Your company may need to have various individuals or teams sharpen their creative capabilities to keep pace with your aspirations. Like so many organizations right now, you may be undergoing big changes and your people have to rise to the creative challenge to stay on top.

It may be that you simply need to have some additional innovative tools to spark creative thinking and get people outside those proscribed ‘boxes’ even if those boxes have proved excellent in the past.

— the above info was found online — 

inform, inspire,
mARTi

Brain Map

Creative Genius

The days of the ‘lone genius’ locked away in a room coming up with brilliant ideas are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. New research shows that teams of disparate people working together with a variety of points of views accelerate the creative process and make innovation more possible but of greater importance, more relevant to the whole company. I want to give people a road-map so that they can think and work creatively with more ease.

Creative Brain-Freeze

But I’m not creative

A heartfelt cry I hear a lot. “It’s those folks  in Marketing who are creative, not me.”

Whether you’re in IT, Accounting or even Marketing, you can learn to be more creative and innovative. Creativity isn’t about painting a picture or composing a piece of music or writing a novel. It’s about looking at things from a different perspective; it’s about trying out something new even if you’re not sure it’s going to work; it’s thinking up lots of fresh ideas and having a go; and it could even be that dreaded clich ‘thinking outside the box’.    Those of us that are already creative go ahead and ‘design the box.’

Very few people are truly uncreative. Sometimes people do get stuck occassionally and need a boost of energy to get their creativity and innovation focus back on track. And sometimes it’s that the job hasn’t been about being creative before and now it is a sure recipe for brain-freeze for people whose day to day job isn’t looked upon as creative.

 

— the above info was found online — 

Making Mousetraps

Creativity and Innovation

These are buzz words right now and for very good reasons. With the current economic climate, companies are looking to their people – their best and strongest asset – to help them survive and thrive. And that may mean doing things differently.  A company that wants to achieve or remain cutting edge can’t do it by resting on its laurels or past successes. It needs to be continually building a better mousetrap or at least making the present one more attractive.