“The muse is something that's outside of yourself, which provides inspiration and helps you get your creative work done.” – Linda Dessau, “Connect with Your Muse”

IN THIS ISSUE

• July 2005 Journal
• What's New @ the CP
• Q & A

JULY 2005 JOURNAL by Chris Dunmire

What’s Up Doc?
Do you know what a caret is? It’s that wedge-shaped symbol (^) usually found above the 6 on your keyboard. You may see carret’s popping up in your other e-mail newsletters to break up words that commonly trigger e-mail sp^am filters. Don’t be alarmed if you start seeing carets growing around the Creativity Portal newsletter too. We’d hate to have our newsletter wrongly trapped along with a bunch of rabbits. Besides, everyone needs more veggies.

An Exercise to Stimulate Your Creativity
Two weeks ago I attended a workshop designed to "Stimulate Creative Thinking." Part of the presentation included information from the book "How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day" by Michael J. Gelb.

I'm still in the absorption stages from this workshop, but wanted to share this very cool opening exercise our group was encouraged to do. …

Remember what Chronic Creativity is?
In May’s newsletter we wrapped up Angela Mack’s inspiring Chronic Creativity article series. In case you’ve missed it, you can read the entire collection by clicking the above link.

I’m happy to announce that Angela just released an instrumental CD titled “Momentum” that will get your creative juices flowing! If you enjoy artists such as Yanni, Tran Siberian Orchestra, or Manheim Steamroller, you simply must go download and listen to a few of Momentum’s songs from Angela’s Web site. Track #1 (Momentum) is my favorite, and has been my theme song all week!

Chris Dunmire
Publisher, Creativity Portal

WHAT’S NEW @ THE CP

Creative Independence Day Fun
For some of us, the Fourth of July holiday needn’t be all about pretty pyrotechnics and war-mimicking thunder. It’s a great time to reflect on our fre^edoms and enjoy summertime barbeques, family, and togetherness. It also presents many opportunities to express ourselves through bold colors, celebratory projects, and party favor fun!

Connect with Your Inner Artist
By Linda Dessau
In the "Roadblocks to Creativity" e-course, we look at the 7 most common things that block our creative expression. So, if we're "blocked" when we're facing those things, what are we like when we're fr^ee of them? Well, certainly we're connected to our "Inner Artist".

Keeping YOU and ME in the Loop!
An assortment of graphic and Web site design articles by Todd Bertsch featuring design perspectives, Web guidelines, and search engine optimization tips.

Unlocking Your Imagination
By Arthur Levine
In order to unlock our imaginations and realize the promise that each of us has to do more with our lives, we have to strip away years of inhibitions that have kept us from fulfilling our dreams.

Connect with Your Muse
By Linda Dessau
The muse is something that's outside of yourself, which provides inspiration and helps you get your creative work done. To have a connection with your muse you need to be tuned in to your inner voices. This is because a muse (even in the form of a coach) will not dictate, "Draw it this way", "Use this word", or "Here's the winning chord progression".

Q & A – HELP ALONG THE WAY

Making 4th of July Parade Flags
Q: We're planning on attending our town's annual Independence Day parade and want to make our own novelty flags for the occasion. Do you have any ideas on how we can do this?

A. Of course we do! You'll find the answer on our Independence Day resource page, specifically in the Free Projects and Resources section.