Creativity in Business...

When I first began this adventure just over 6 months ago, I had visions of setting out a clear pattern to each day, imposing my Creativity on the world around me.  Instead of being the teacher, I became the student.  Creativity gently and persistently reminded me that I learned best when I kept myself open to possibilities, looked for opportunities instead of answers and just kept walking this journey to see where it would lead me.

Right after my last post, I received a call from an ad agency here in town who wanted to meet with me to look over my portfolio and quote on a job for a possible colouring book for one of their clients.  I stayed up printing things out, reorganizing my portfolio and booked the day off from supply teaching so that I could meet with them first thing in the morning.

Once I arrived at the agency, I discovered that most of the staff was French, so I just switched languages and did the rest of the interview “en français”.  To my slight disappointment, they’d received permission to use the Nova Scotia version of the colouring book and just needed me to redraw some items that were different between our two provinces on 4 inner pages and the cover.  It would have been easy to match the existing style of the book, but it wouldn’t have been something I would have wanted to show off.

Then the little voice of Creativity whispered in my ear as the person interviewing me went off to make me photocopies.  When she returned, I told her that I would be happy to quote on the 5 pages needed, but that for $200, I would also offer to redraw all of the pages and make it something unique to our province.  

I returned home and quickly spent the next hour redrawing one of the sample pages in my own style, scanned it in and sent it off to the agency so that she could submit it to their client along with the quote.

Today, I found out that I not only got the job, but they will get me to draw the whole book and I meet with them on Monday.

It pays to listen to that little whisper and not ignore it. It may have taken me half a year into this adventure, but I am learning.  Oh Boy... am I learning!  They’ve also asked me to quote on 2 other jobs...

INHALE:  Life has cycles and opportunities.  This past week has been a reminder of how much we need to respect that cycle instead of just expecting to impose our will on the world around us so that every day proceeds according to some inner plan.  The unexpected Snow Day yesterday was another reminder that plans sometimes have to change.  Substitute teaching at a new school today where I ended up jumping in to help a student teacher with her lesson instead of just sitting back and twiddling my thumbs was a reminder that there can be Creativity in unexpected opportunities.  The students were learning about travel vocabulary in French at a very basic level, so I drew a huge suitcase on the white board and asked them what they would take on a trip.  If they didn’t know the word in French, they had to look it up in the dictionary before I would draw it in.

EXHALE:  What possibilities and opportunities might have you overlooked in the past few days because they didn’t fit in to the little plan or template that you were carrying around in your head?  When our lives become too scheduled, then we miss out on unexpected moments and Creative opportunities.  So many business experts proclaim that when you find your passion, it can also become a business or a way to bring income into your life.  While I know that when a hobby become a source of income, it does take on a more businesslike edge to it and lose some of the fun, there is also something very powerful about loving what you do.

Never lose sight of opportunities to be Creative at play and at work.

Be Creative In Your Failure...

It was a rough week.  I filled in for a resource teacher at my daughter’s high school again this week which meant that I was not only filling the new SEP information (Specialized Education Plan) into the computer systems for the new terms that just started, I could also be pulled out for any emergency supply work in the building.

Part of that included shepherding a group of 14 students down to a conference at a downtown hotel where they were fed lunch and then became test subjects for a new pilot program to help Grade 10 students determine their career paths, their dreams, their goals and their FOCUS.

As someone who has tried to live my focus for 33 years now, I found this both inspiring and incredibly depressing.  

Inspiring, because there are so many more choices for young people than there were in my day going through high school and anything that helps them figure out where their gifts, talents and passions lie is a good thing.

Depressing because I have tried to be true to myself throughout my whole career path in all the ways I have juggled Creativity with other work, motherhood and daily tasks... but I watched my income from something I had built up over 16 years crumble to almost nothing thanks to the Internet and people who felt no guilt about scanning in my cross stitch patterns to share illegally with others. 

Sometimes, in the darkest moments of the night, I wonder if I have somehow let my family down by not having a “regular” job that would have built up more job security, benefits and pension over the years and just done my art as a “hobby”.

Then I take a deep breath and remember that working from home gave me time with my children that no money could ever buy back.  I see the proof of those years in the young women they are becoming.

I exhale and remember that I have had the joy of seeing my name in print in magazines and on bookshelves.

I inhale and realize that I have tried more often than I have failed...

and that is what being Creative every day as a way of life is all about.  It is supposed to be as easy as breathing. It is supposed to be something we just do without thinking.  It will probably take me the rest of my life to learn how to do this without my own daily worries, frustrations, criticisms or failures getting in the way.

So be Creative in everything you do... even the moments you think of as failures.  If you look at them from another angle, you’ll probably discover a new perspective.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas Edison

INHALE:  Remember not to judge yourself by the current world standards.  I see kids who think that they have to be “discovered”, become as famous as Miley Cyrus or as wealthy as the Olsen Twins before they become adults.  They dream of being on television, in movies and of taking You Tube by storm.  Adults think that they must live in huge homes, drive flashy vehicles and have all the outward trappings of SUCCESS... in order to prove that they have lived their lives right.  They need all the right things and logos in their lives or  need to become brands in their own right for the world to stand up and take notice.  The recent disaster in Haiti and other world events keep reminding us that we need far less than that to stay alive, far more basic things to truly be happy and that the basic human, creative spirit is a powerful, creative force in its own right.  Take a deep breath and just take each day at a time.

EXHALE:  Today’s exhalation is in honour of the Olympics underway right now in Vancouver and the overwhelming Creativity displayed last night during the Opening Ceremonies.  Find a quiet corner and take some time to think about areas in your life that you are truly satisfied with.  Not all successes can be measured in monetary means or by the world’s standards.  With Fimo, tinfoil, glitter, ribbon, Photoshop or anything else that inspires you, make a medal or a trophy to celebrate at least one achievement that you are proud of and tuck it into your keepsake box, sketchbook or put it out on display.  Be proud of the ways in which you’ve been true to yourself, your beliefs and your Creativity!

Creativity in Taste...

I am sitting in a home that is not my own, having finally convinced my niece and nephew to settle down and go to sleep. Today, I wrestled with DVDs and TVs that were not familiar to me, European washing machines to help with laundry and ovens to try to bake cookies with nephew. Everything feels slightly different and yet the same.

What defines the familiar in sensations, sights and tastes that make us say “HOME”? Is it the smell of a favourite recipe baking that takes us back to our childhood, the feel of a certain pillow, blanket or toy, the sight of certain stars to anchor us in space?


Tonight is both a celebration and a shout-out to one person’s creativity as I sip a glass of my favourite wine in the world... one that can only be purchased in Provence near where my brother and sister-in-law have a house and from where they were able to buy bottles to keep here in Geneva.


“à mon père” (accents probably disappeared) means “To My Father” in French. This full-bodied red wine is produced in the Cotes du Ventoux region of France by a son who took over his father’s vineyards and began experimenting with artisanal wines. This one is actually made from a type of grape that was going extinct and was dedicated to his father and the generations that made wine before him. It is an earthy, rich wine that takes me back to sun drenched valleys, sitting by a pool looking down into a French valley and spending time with family. To true craftsmanship and Creativity, I lift my glass. Tears flowed as I sipped this, thinking of my own father, missing my husband who also thinks this is one of the tastiest wines on our planet (and he usually sticks to beer) and celebrating how one person’s creativity in one area can create something to savour.


SCEA Château Blanc, propriétaire récoltant* 84220 Roussillon, France * Tel 04 90 05 64 56


Cheers!

INHALE Today’s post is dedicated to those who pour their Creativity into tastes that we enjoy. In a world where the emphasis is on fast and cheap or convenient, we need to speak up and reclaim the idea that tastes can nourish our souls as well as our bodies. Think of the favourite dishes from your childhood that make you feel loved, the smells and tastes that recreate a holiday you enjoyed or food that is so beautifully crafted that it becomes an experience on more than one level. Creativity can leap out to us in so many ways if we just watch for it or go looking.

EXHALE Think about a food or taste that evokes a Creative response in you. How could you bring a little bit of that into your life this week? When so much of society seems to place an emphasis on QUANTITY rather than Quality, it is important to remember that feeding our eyes and souls is as important as filling our bellies, especially when so many people in our world go hungry every day.

When Someone Else Can Say It Better..

I’ve been struggling with how to post the scattered thoughts I’ve had all week as I struggle to find little ways of being Creative while getting back into a regular routine.  To complicate matters, I also gave up drinking Pepsi a week ago and the headaches were pretty bad at first.  I still find myself missing my Dad at odd times or wondering how to work in some time for creativity at the end of the day when I need to exercise and pack lunches.  Sometimes, it feels as if I am starting over from scratch every day...

Then a beautiful entry on my sister’s blog reminds me that each of us wrestles with that on any creative journey.

Her gift with words sometimes takes my breath away!  Then I remember to just take the next breath... and repeat... again and again and again.

INHALE: How often does trying to be perfect get in your way of doing anything at all?  How hard are you on yourself when you create anything?  How often to you stop before you get very far and think about starting all over again?  Maybe it is time to stop trying to be perfect and just concentrate on being.

EXHALE:  Instead of trying to do it all ourselves, we can learn from and lean on the wisdom of others.  When you feel flustered or frazzled, remember that you are not alone.  When you feel like giving up, go looking for words of comfort or inspiration from others.  I found these gems tonight and plan to scribe them into my sketchbook!

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.”

-Alan Alda

“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”

-Edwin Land

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”

-Henry David Thoreau

Life is "trying things to see if they work."

-Ray Bradbury

Tearing Down to Create Again...

Today, one of the Creative women I admire most took the courageous step of announcing that she was closing down her cross stitch design business.   Sometimes you have to end something in order to create something new.

Teresa and I met through cross stitch just over a decade ago, but we quickly formed a friendship that went beyond just working in the same industry.  As cross stitch began to falter, she and I began to act as sounding boards for each other and talk about if and how we could take our Creativity in other directions.

Four years ago, we went to Dragon*Con in Atlanta to see if we wanted to transition into Fantasy artwork on the con circuit.  She also helped paint me green for my She-Hulk adventure as mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Last February, we went to the SCBWI conference in New York together to see if children’s book illustration would offer new possibilities.

The joy of having her as a friend is that we share some of the same hopes and insecurities, interests and insights as well as quests and questions.  While we have very different styles, we both feel called to continue to share our Creativity with the world... we’re just still trying to find the next way to do that!

I do know that the past 5 years would have been a lot more scary and stressful without her encouragement, support and sense of humour.

I stayed home today to take care of Bethany who is still running a fe er.  I also got up the courage to tackle a demolition of my own.  A year ago, I overhauled my Dragon Dreams website to reflect the change my artwork was taking as I honoured the 98 published cross stitch designs that I had created, but also tried to showcase the different directions I was heading in.  Then I created a separate website for illustration once I got feedback that Art Directors don’t have time to sift through intensive sites looking for your artwork.

I’ve limped along since then feeling very fragmented and slightly confused at how to make things better.  Today, I realized that the only way to rework the site was to start over from the very beginning, look at what works, get rid of what doesn’t and focus on what truly needs to be covered by the website while making it an informative place to visit.

I am in the middle of the destruction and rebuilding process, but I am actually pleased at how well it is turning out. I'll post on my blogs as soon as the new site is uploaded.

INHALE: Sometimes we have to rebuild from the ashes as friends of ours have done with their house, shut down a business to start in a new direction, crumple up a drawing that isn’t working or go back to the beginning and start over.  Any Creative person, crafter or artist has experienced this more than once.  I’m not sure it ever gets any easier, but I am finally learning to trust that something even better may come from drastic measures.

EXHALE:  I tried to explore today's topic in a fun way.  Find a few magazines for images or inspirational photos.  Instead of trimming them carefully with scissors, rip and tear them out then glue them into your book so that they overlap and create a collage background (you can leave white spaces).  Next, write some words over the images or around them that add to your Creative inspiration.  If this seems too time-consuming for your hectic day, try a simpler exhale: crumple a plain piece of paper and then smooth it out again then draw or write a message to yourself on the less than perfect paper as a reminder that we often set ridiculous standards for ourselves.

Creative Thankfulness...

I love to bake.  Every year for Thanksgiving, I make both apple and pumpkin pies from scratch.  This year, Erin asked if she could help.  There’s something special about hands-on creativity.  I remember learning from my grandmother and this time I became the teacher. She helped take pictures as I got the dough ready.

As pretty as pumpkin pie is in colour, poured into a pie shell it looks rather plain.

A few years ago, I saw a photo spread of a Thanksgiving meal where the baker had cut maple leaves out of pie crust to place in the centre of the pie.  Of course, since Aikman means “Men of Oak”, I’ve done oak leaves and acorns on our family pie ever since.  Cutting out the shapes from pie crust is rather fun...

and the results are so magical once the pie is cooked.

Bethany helped peel all of the apples for her favourite pie.

With our pies cooling on the counter, we switched to fixing the supper meal for last night in celebration of my Dad and Barb arriving for Canadian Thanksgiving.  We made a party sushi mound known as chirashizushi.  Using shrimp, avocado, tamago,  cucumber, lobster and salmon that Nick’s mother brought back from visiting his brother in Prince Rupert, it was a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds!

Erin even got creative with the napkins...  (Hmmm! Maybe Creativity is contagious after all!)

Tonight, after a wonderful day of memories and great food, I am THANKFUL for Creativity!

INHALE:  There is something powerful about creating BEAUTY with your food before we consume it.  That’s one area where the North American culture falls sadly short of many others in the world who understand that they eyes can be nourished along with the stomach!     We need to celebrate the art and creativity that can flourish on our plates if we take just a few moments to add that extra touch.

EXHALE:  Experiment with how you lay your food on the plate.  Let your kids make their own pizza faces on english muffins, try putting as many colours of the rainbow as possible in your salad bowl, fold your napkins and add a sticker to them.  Creativity can be experienced in large and small ways.  I no longer begrudge the extra time, I savour the way it seems to recharge something deep inside me when people let out an appreciative sigh as they stare at the plate.  No one can do this every night, but the next time you have company or share a special family meal, add a little creativity in your presentation and see what happens...

Being Thankful for Orange...

Getting ready for a show always narrows my focus.  I get fixated on tiny details, scatter floss and other kit parts about the house in various piles and get slightly short with my family over the silliest things.  Then I go away to teach and they miss me, so they are glad when I come home again.

This year, I am at least more away of trying to live Creatively and adapt to changing situations.  My dad is coming for a visit all the way from Tulsa, but called this morning to say they’d run into more traffic than they anticipated on the drive past New York City.  So, they will be here tomorrow instead of tonight.  I’d planned the turkey meal for Monday just in case...

I got our table ready anyway, since this is the Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada.  Guess what colours I used to fill the two bowls around the candles?  Oranges, yellows and browns.  I even found a package of little plastic acorn shapes in those 3 colours on sale at Michael's for 70% off.

This year, I am actually thankful for the colour Orange... among many other things.

INHALE: It is easy to get busy in our crazy, hectic world.  Finding time for yourself to follow a path like this can be REALLY tricky!  But there are always lots of moments to think that I considered a “waste” before; in lines, waiting for someone, standing in the shower, drifting off to sleep, stirring a pot on the stove... all moments to THINK about creative challenges or possibilities.  Instead of overlooking those tiny moments, gather them up like grains of sand.   You just might be surprised at how fast they can add up to a sand castle!

EXHALE:  Find a bowl to use as a centerpiece and fill it will things in the colour or colours that you were wrestling with.  You can use bits of fabric, yarn, paper or anything that grabs your fancy, as long as it includes the colours you feel most challenged about.  Take a picture of the bowl.  Live with it on your table for a few days and see if you don’t become rather fond of how it looks.  You may actually miss the centerpiece when you finally change it.