Creative thinking and activity, ahoy! Today’s Glassics post features all the artsy posts I’ve done on Crooked Glasses since July 2011, from writing to papercrafting, music to drawing. You can also view my first Saturday with the Spark Glassics post for the creative posts I did before July.
Sparking Creativity
I’ve written a good bit about tapping into one’s own creativity. Using dreams to inspire yourself is one way; I’ve also used Play-Doh as an analogy for creativity (sounds funny, but it worked out well!). I want to encourage people to stop thinking they’re not good enough to be artists, allowing themselves to use things in their everyday lives to jump-start creative thinking.
Philosophies of Art
The big philosophical question I pondered this season was: “Is art for entertainment or for meaning?” This is one of the deepest-thinking posts I’ve written in this entire category so far, and I think it gets to the salient point of why we create art at all, as humans.
Writing
Knowing a good bit about the craft of writing (and doing my best to practice it and get better), I have blogged about practicing your writing skills every way you can, as well as inspiring yourself by finding a topic you love to write about. I also covered how to deal when writing feels like punishment, when it feels like your brain has locked up on you and won’t produce a single syllable more.
And, since I’m practicing my noveling craft (is that a word? Wellp, it is now), I’ve written a few articles as helpful advice for myself and other novelists. Wading through a tough/boring part of my book by experiencing what I’m trying to write has really helped me get back on the writing horse; my post about expanding the world inside my book made me remember to go back and add more details to my own works.
Crafts
Along with my thoughts on beautiful beaded jewelry designs, I began a series of papercrafting posts this season, as well: making greeting cards and gift tags, and learning the skills of ornare, quilling, and origami. I plan to expand this sub-category a good bit in the new year!
Visual Art
I’m not much of a visual artist, but I have written a few posts this time around about art. I did one that shows how to shade your artwork for a more 3-D look, and I also depicted my own versions of digital cut-and-paste art. (Might not be the best in the world, but it’s fun to do!)
Music
Since I’m a longtime pianist, composer, and singer, this category understandably exploded with posts on music this fall and winter. I wrote about how singing in choir saved my life, trying to write a “catchy fast song”, and musical exploration with just a keyboard. My great love for the key of C-sharp also peeped in this fall, as well as my affinity for making my own movie soundtracks (it’s not as laden with mad leet skills as it sounds, but it’s still quite fun). Lastly, I discussed my peculiar ability to find the musical note that matches someone’s personality, and even write songs about them.
Get Comfy, Read, and Be Inspired!
I hope these posts get you thinking about the types of creative work you’d like to do; I hope they also expose you to different creative thoughts and activities that you might like to explore more. They’ve certainly helped me explore the various reaches of my own creative thought, and even gotten me to try my hand at art techniques I never would have explored otherwise. 🙂 Enjoy!