#Reverb 14, Day 28

Creativity: What does being creative mean to you?  How do you express your creativity?

I have always regarded myself as a creative person, pretty much centered around the various fine arts, although I learned long ago that I am more of a dabbler than a perfectionist. 

And yet when I was working, I often found new ways to look at old problems or different paths to complete a project or changing up a long-established process to make it easier and more effective. I was often self-directed, especially in the non-profit positions, which usually makes such creativity easier to implement, and I also learned how to be creative with a very small budget. When I worked for the larger corporations I was part of marketing communications, the 'creatives' part of the business, and change wasn't always as easy to do or as accepted by management. 

I learned to work with a group or a committee, but that is not an easy road, especially if personalities are strong. And sometimes I didn't work very well with a group, preferring to be solo or with only one other person. Management doesn't like that much, though.

I think creativity is the ability to see/hear/perceive something in at least a slightly different way and then to express that through whatever means is appropriate to the medium. Being a creative has been a big part of who I am throughout all my life, and I find my greatest satisfaction and joy comes from that ability to see differently -- as well as the same. 

My creative nature shows in what I wear, my jewelry, my shoes, what my house looks like, what I read, what I listen to, what I like to watch and do, even (when possible) in what I like to drive. I like being a little different, a little quirky, although it took years to embrace that. 

I'm not singing or taking photos or painting or sewing right now (all the dabbley stuff): the constant creative outlet in my life has always and continues to be writing, even if it isn't polished and perfected. I write only for me these days: while I love that people enjoy my blog or find wisdom in my writing, what I say is truly from my heart and mind, and not to please an editor or an audience. It is who I am, if you care to read it. 



 

Check 'em out -- little bytes of interest

Bits from the news today:

Awhile back I wrote about print newspapers and their struggle to stay in business. A new poll shows that while my generation and the ones before me value print newspapers, those born after 1977 generally do not. Most say they get all the news they need from their televisions. Scary. Sad.

If you travel via plane, be careful what's in your luggage. Like organic chocolate, rosemary, or natural soaps -- all of which can test positive for illegal drugs with a quickie test. Yeah, you'd be cleared if you were innocent, but it could cost you lots of money and major hassle.

The fat police apparently are trying to regulate what we are allowed to put in our mouths. But when they start messing with chocolate, I think they've gone a bit too far.

A local opportunity to learn about the media industry -- podcasts, video games, and the like -- is coming up soon, and it's free. I just read about it here, and then found lots more info and registration for Playing with Ideas here. Especially if you know a young adult who is fascinated by the possibilities -- or if you need a creative kick-in-the-pants, this is an unbeatable deal right in our own back yard.

And finally, a bit of cheer. This video was filmed in London's Liverpool Street station as part of a commercial for T-Mobile. Big hit for the ad agency! And a lot of fun to watch.

Living creatively

Rain threatens today, and I'm hoping it will come. The grass is thin and browning, already crispy in places. A neighbor's pond already looks like it was mid-summer, not spring, and it will be nothing more than a big mud puddle if we don't get rain (or he doesn't get his windmill going).

But my garden is planted, tomatoes and all, and even though nights are still cool, things seem to be growing well. Our weekend was cooler and easier to work outside -- I spruced up flower pots and cleaned off porches, and it looks much better, although there's still (always) work to be done.

This is Missoula Children's Theatre week here, and those of us on the Tehama County Arts Council are busy helping with the production. It's exciting to watch kids from age 5 to 17 audition on Monday, rehearse all week, and then perform on Saturday. Kids today just don't have the arts opportunities that I did as a child -- at least in rural communities, and I'll bet even in urban areas that such programs are not often found in ordinary public schools.

I got art lessons through our wonderful art museum, drama opportunities both in school and through the parks department, all the books I could read through the county library's bookmobile system which brought them to a nearby park every two weeks, and a terrific school music program that started in fourth grade. Back then, there were not sports leagues for girls -- and I was a bookworm anyway, and decidedly unathletic -- so when my brother would play on Little League teams, I'd bring a book along.

Funny. Even with all the technological advances and vast information we have today, I believe my public education was superior to what is offered in many public schools today -- more than 50 years ago. There's something just wrong about that.

Children are hungry for expression -- for creativity -- for knowledge. They soak up information and ask questions (if they're allowed). Even the most awkward child will draw with crayons or chalks or paints (until they're told they have no talent). They'll sing and dance, even TV jingles if they have no other music sources (until they're criticized for making too much noise or breaking something). They'll play make-believe under tables, in boxes or hidey-holes under trees and shrubs, and pretend to be princesses or soldiers or kings or athletes or cowboys (until they're told it's silly and they shouldn't do it).

And then we spend the rest of our lives trying to regain that stifled creativity, don't we.

If you have a child in your life, encourage them to play creatively, to create, to perform. Take them to see the MCT performance at the State Theatre this weekend. Talk about books and music and art. Sometimes it's the only thing that still make sense in this world.

Stringing words together

I've been writing pretty much all day -- it has been really fun, too.

Until the last four years when we moved to Red Bluff and began to sell real estate, I'd made a living writing and editing and marketing for various sectors -- nonprofit, public, corporate, church. I wrote marketing brochures, direct mail pieces, product instruction booklets, news releases, radio and video scripts, newsletters... even phone scripts and speeches. I named products. I came up with cutesy tag lines and slogans. Wrote packaging copy.

I can write about anything, pretty much any way.

So I've been working on policies and procedures for the new Real Estate Digest that our REALTOR association is about to publish, and I'm also the editor, so I wrote and polished the first editorial copy for the publication, which hopefully will be distributed around Round Up in a few weeks.

I love the whole writing process: consulting with whoever is requesting it (that could be a product manager, a division, a department, or a client), figuring out what format and style and tone will best deliver the message, perhaps working with a graphics department or simply creating design myself to enhance delivery, and then cogitating.

When I'm working on most projects, I often will do the research and then let it perk for a few days. It appears in my dreams. I talk parts of it through when I'm driving or gardening or cleaning. And finally I'll sit at the computer and most of the time the piece flows from my brain to my fingers without a lot of angst and contemplation because I've organized it and plotted it in my head.

I love finding just exactly the right word to express a feeling or a concept or an action. I use Merriam-Webster's online dictionary a lot -- just as I used to use the paper version. I still have some great reference books that jog creative thought, too.

Even in real estate I've done a good bit of writing -- our Web site, for instance, and weekly ads in both print and online publications. Direct marketing pieces, postcards (design too), and the mostly-monthly newsletter we do for the Chamber of Commerce's Good Morning Red Bluff meeting. (Plus lots of Arts Council newsletters and columns.) It's always a challenge to get inside the head of whoever my audience is and try to find just the right approach.

And then there's this blog -- a completely different kind of writing, one that is just fun, often therapeutic, and solely for me. It's made me think more seriously about writing a book, something I've always thought I'd do eventually. It may be that 'eventually' is turning into 'now.'

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. ~James Michener

Celebrating art

Our little town was a showcase for art yesterday and today -- sponsored by the arts organization in which I am involved -- and from all observations and reports, it was "fabulous." We had more than 100 artists involved in 23 venues, and a small group of resilient volunteers who worked like mules to make it happen. And *I* was one of the exhibiting artists! Our photo club's works were displayed on the walk, and it was exhilarating to see my photos up on that wall.

Creativity, in whatever form, feeds the soul and the heart. It expands the mind and keeps us sharp and *alive.* One of our older artists was demonstrating pencil drawing, a medium she has only recently learned after painting in oils for many years. And what incredible detail she'd pulled out of a simple set of colored pencils! Another long-time artist and talented photographer exhibited a photo she'd enhanced after attending a workshop on Photoshop Elements and learning about layers. It was her creative soul that saw the vision, but I loved that she had just learned the technique from one of our photo club workshops.

Creativity encourages us to find unique elements in ordinary objects or supplies. Cooking, for instance, can be such a creative art form, and yet most ingredients are readily available in most groceries. It's how you blend them, how you shape them, that makes the end result a creative work of art.

In that respect, I guess each of us is a creative work of art, with ourselves the artists. Out of ordinary humanity, we become unique individuals, shaped by circumstance and our reactions to joy, sorrow, pain, trouble, pleasure, etc. Our inherent gifts help determine the results, of course, but as with any artistic endeavor, it is the vision that drives the creation. And as the potter can throw the clay back onto the wheel to be reshaped or the artist gessoes over a canvas to begin again, so can we smooth out our lumps, wash out our false starts, and reform, re-create who we are into who we want to become.