Today's Creativity Wisdom
“The truth is, creative blocks happen. Stopping, starting, frustration, ecstasy, agony, despair, triumph, agitation, pleasure, movement and monumental blockage are all part of the creative experience.” —Chris Zydel
Humor Inspires Writing
Metaphors Inspire Writing
Interview with Artist Angela Cartwright
Rap as Poetry
Crossing Bridges
Where You're From
Nature's Forms in Poetry and Prose
The Power of the Visual
Isolation and Education
Black & White Images Stimulate Creativity
Why Do People Respond to Graphic Images?
Graphic Images Surround Us
Find Inspiration in Claude Monet
Historic Buildings in Community Theater
Writing Prompts: Bird Cage Theatre
Community Theater
Joke Word Search Puzzles
Shifting Perspectives
Combining Photos with Poems
Photo Essays Tell Stories
Connect Seeing with Writing
Photos Trigger Words
Photos as Writing Prompts
Shifting Perspectives
Contrast in Writing Subjects
Combining Photos with Poems
Using Photography to Inspire Writing
Less is More
Every Photograph Tells a Story
Shakti Gawain Interview
Becoming a Creative Channel
Trusting Intuition
Transforming Our World
11 Tips for Surviving a Day Job
Why Talent Isn't Nearly Enough
The Creative Power of Writing
How to Get Your Day Job to Leave YOU
Define Creativity — I Dare You
Are You Highly Creative?
Conventional vs. Creative Intelligence
Creatives: Transform or Perish
F-R-E-E-Writing Tutorial
Note to Beginner Writers
7 Stages of The Creative Process
8 Habits of the Creatively Intelligent
Innovative Wire Sculpture Workshop
Tips for Artists Working at Home
Create Unconventional Art
Paralyzed by Perfectionism
Why Aren't I More Disciplined?
For Highly-Sensitive Creatives
The Four Steps of Creativity
Anne Paris, Angela Cartwright, Roger Housden, Danielle Dulsky, Joy Sikorski, Robert Alan Black, Trick Word Search Puzzles, Hank Kellner, Daily Photo Prompts, Shakti Gawain, Patti Digh, Archetypes: Heroine's Journey, Surviving Your Day Job, Orna Ross, Innovative Wire Sculpture, Muse Aha-phrodite, Muse Albert, Muse Audacity, Muse Bea Silly, Muse Lull, Muse Marge, Muse Song, Shadow Muse, Muse Spills, The Bodyguard, Body Blissmas, Doodling, Violette, Writing from the Deeper Self, SARK, Creative Collage Art, Writing and the Body in Motion, Origami Money Plant, Juicy Journal & Wild Words, INTUITIVE PROCESS PAINTING, Profiles of Creative Empowerment, LEONARDO DAVINCI, Creativity and Children, Take Ten Writing Exercises, Jill Badonsky, Barbara Abercrombie, GUIDED IMAGERY, Insights for Creating, Creative Habits at Work, Natalie Goldberg, SoulCollage, Nine Modern Day Muses, Writing Prompts, Art of the Song, Eric Maisel, CREATIVITY INTERVIEWS, 9 Greek Muses
Standing at Water's Edge
By Anne Paris, PhD
To begin my discussion about the importance of others in supporting the creative process, I would like to present an interview I had with Loren Long, an accomplished artist who has illustrated many books, including Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna, I Dream of Trains by Angela Johnson, a 2004 edition of When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman, and the 2006 redo of the classic The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. I met with Loren at a very comfortable and homey small coffeehouse. He seemed right at home there, casual and easygoing. "Everyone thinks that I am so laid-back and relaxed. But my wife will tell you that I am actually quite intense when it comes to my work."
Creative Careers Interviews
By Chris Dunmire
I'm always intrigued by 'Where are they now?' shows, especially when child stars are profiled in before-and-after segments. We viewers finally get the inside scoop on where the kids we watched growing up on television ended up in life. Sometimes it's on to another show, 'When Child Stars Go Bad', but most kids grow up just like the rest of us do with similar challenges and rewards — they go to school, get married, have children, nurture careers, and pursue that thing called happiness. Angela Cartwright, the dark-haired girl who played Penny Robinson on Lost in Space (the alien-monkey pet-toting teen) is definitely one child star who hasn't gone bad.
Reflect & Write
By Hank Kellner
In act III, scene II of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony delivers his well-known and often-quoted eulogy in honor of the recently murdered Julius Caesar. “Friends, Romans, countrymen,” he implores as he speaks to the crowd gathered at the Forum in Rome. Indeed, Marc Antony must have had many friends among those who listened to him. After all, didn’t he succeed in winning them over and turning them against Brutus? By the way, Mark Antony also was “friends” with Cleopatra. But that’s another story.
Books & Printables
By Chris Dunmire
Did you know memory-boosting exercises help improve brain function and positively impact your creative ability as you age? That's why so many sage people are addicted to puzzles like word searches and Sudoku! Here's a playful way to exercise your memory and boost your brainpower: Engage with my Tree-mendous Memory! papercraft and game.
Reflect & Write
By Hank Kellner
One good way to inspire students to create written compositions is to discuss several works that are related by such themes as happiness, love, beauty, and others. For example, the poem-photo combinations that follow are based on the theme of humor. One possible activity is to divide a class or other group into several smaller groups and distribute photocopies of a few different pages from the book Reflect and Write to each group. Direct the participants to exchange ideas about the themes of the poems, and have them develop a list. Next, ask the participants to develop their own works based on the themes they have cited. As a follow-up activity, participants may share their creations with others by reading them aloud.
Reflect & Write
By Hank Kellner
Under construction from 1933 to 1937, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in the world. In fact, it’s been declared a modern Wonder of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Not all bridges, however, are majestic enough to earn such praise. But even the humblest bridge can help to trigger ideas that inspire either poetry or prose.
Writing from the Deeper Self
By Naomi Rose
There is a new and trumpeted concept about writing a book that has been gaining popularity in our commercially based time. And that is that one should not even begin writing a book until one already knows the intended market (the niche of people who will read it). There is even, among marketers, an exhortation to write the book's back-cover copy before writing the actual book, so that a direct bull's-eye hit with the intended market will take place. But trying to learn how to write a book from marketers is like looking to toy manufacturers to learn how to raise your child. (a) They have a special interest to promote, and (b) what do they actually know about raising children? If they really understood the profundity and delicacy of caring for and cultivating a human being, would they be using children to make money?
Rock Painting Tutorial
By Ernestina Gallina
Could anyone resist to these funny lovebugs? They make a beautiful gift and are a statement of love. Choose the model and color combination you wish from the photos to guide you through each step. Choose smooth rocks that through the years have been gently smoothed and molded into the shape of a small ball.
Inspirational Muses
We journey through space and time to ancient Sumer to visit Ninsaba, the mysterious Goddess of Creativity, Education, Fate, and Agriculture. The original Queen of Multi-Tasking, Ninsaba is known for her talents as an oracle and interpreter of dreams; she also brought science, architecture, reading, and writing to her people. I invite you to join me in my Time Machine for a quick trip to the past. Hold on, it's a bumpy ride! Her dark hands toss out glittering jewels and keys to the old mysteries. She stands at the garden-gate, beckoning. Will you answer her challenge, traveler, and wander there awhile, along the winding paths?
Reflect & Write
By Hank Kellner
Rap is a form of poetry in which the words are spoken to the accompaniment of a set rhythm or beat. Some people like rap; others most emphatically do not. Be that as it may, most students are familiar with it as a form of poetry in which the words are spoken to the accompaniment of a set rhythm or beat. During the 18th Century the word rap meant “to say.” In the 1960s it evolved into the African American dialect as “to converse.” Finally, it evolved into its present meaning.ineers. Not all bridges, however, are majestic enough to earn such praise. But even the humblest bridge can help to trigger ideas that inspire either poetry or prose.
Author Interviews
By New World Library
For more than 25 years I've been looking at the realities of the creative life and the make-up of the creative person in books like Fearless Creating, Creativity for Life, Coaching the Artist Within, and lots of others. A certain theme or idea began to emerge: that creative people are people who stand in relation to life in a certain way — they see themselves as active meaning-makers rather than as passive folks with no stake in the world and no inner potential to realize. This orientation makes meaning a certain kind of problem for them — if, in their own estimation, they aren't making sufficient meaning, they get down. I began to see that this "simple" dynamic helped explain why so many creative people — I would say all of us at one time or another time — get the blues.
Profiles of Creative Empowerment
By Diana Rivera
Since I was in middle school, I have had a very synergistic relationship with vintage shops, garage sales and sidewalk peddler products. Not sure how it could be that one day I'd be imagining some ambiguous silk chinese cocktail dress, and then I'd get an instinct to go to the Goodwill (a salvation army style thrift shop), and all of a sudden, it would be there. The one I had imagined. Besides no one, I am the only person that has such a rare existence with a thrift shop. It's clearly a conversation with destiny: Goodwill represents a space where my imagination materializes.