Saturday, January 8, 2011

"The enemy of creativity is fear" Seth Godvin

The etsy blog by Danillexo titled "Fearless Creativity" is a must read.  I will try to write my interpretation here.  I find if I rewrite something in my own words I will digest it better.  She starts by writing about the forms of fear that come in when you are trying to be creative.
Snobbery - "That's been done before" "I am not creative"   These are forms of snobbery that will stifle your creativity.  Let yourself go and draw, sew, paste i.e. brainstorm.  The time to be critical is later in the process.  In the beginning let yourself go.
Taskmaster - Open your mind and give yourself some time when the creative energy surge hits.  The floor will get vacuumed or the lawn mowed.  If you really feel it- get to it!  Give yourself an hour to brainstorm an idea and see where it goes.
Apathy - "What's the point?"  "I will never be as good as her" "Maybe later"  To fight apathy, get curious.  Just see what you might come up with or what might happen.
Teach - Teach what you know but you don't know it all.  Don't  be an expert.  Who you teach can often inspire because they are open to new ideas and are enthusiastic.  Planning is good but sometimes it is good to just throw the lesson plan out.
Practice -  Schedule creativity.  This blog is my attempt to do this.  There may be days when I don't want to create but by committing to this endeavor I will be making myself do it.
And if all else fails, fail big - If you fail big or fail small you still have to dust yourself off and start again.  Same effort to start again but bigger rewards if you succeed.
Study - There are lots of books and magazines and galleries and workshops and artist groups.

Fortune favors the brave!

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