Creativity Roadblocks 1. our thoughts

 Who are you? Who, who who who?   ( from The Who) 


In my lectures on creativity I ask what roadblocks must be overcome to live a more creative life. The answers are usually the following:  work and family obligations, space or lack of it, lack of organization, injuries and illness, lack of skills, perfectionism,  lack of ideas, unable to narrow choices, and others. I'll discuss ways around these in the next few weeks.
(For a fun hour, sign me up to come to your group and lead you in creativity exercises DETAILS HERE)

 The worst  roadblock in my opinion, is telling yourself, saying the words,  you are not creative.

 It's my belief that we won't be creative as long as we believe we are not creative. Creativity  is a survival technique for life.

Do your thoughts get in your way? 

Self-limits might come from long-ago comments made by others. They become hard wired in our brains until we believe that's who we are.Surely we can throw away limiting thoughts like we do with any other rubbish. 

Personally, I am trying to quiet the inner critic in my brain, the one who says I am unable to understand the blankety-blank computer, and replace those thoughts with, "it may be a nuisance but I can learn to use the computer to suit my needs" There are a lot of creative uses for computers, after all. I can do it!

Imagine if everyone fired their inner critics, gave themselves permission to play and make mistakes, and were brave enough to be truly original!   I want to be a part of that world.

Allowing yourself to be creative is nothing new to the people reading this blog, but you know others who need to be encouraged, don't you? 

I'd love to hear not only what gets in your way but ways you've overcome blocks to your own creativity.
Hope you are making something original today.  LeeAnna

laugh out loud

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/justcapshunz/share/7823043584

 check out other funny, just plain silly posts including the tap dancing cows and dogs on trampolines at CLICK HERE

another reason to explore connections, video

If this video doesn't load, try this link to youtube    creativity video

I think this is very interesting and imaginative way to discuss where ideas come from. 
It also speaks to my concept of connection and the increasing need for it in today's world.  As I approach the launch of my connection project quilts, (READ MORE HERE)  I am hearing the catch phrase used more often  from other thinkers around the world, repeating my views on connection. Serendipity?     LeeAnna

In progress--beading

beading on fabric

My new beading group meets today and once again I'm in the position of deciding what to work on when I don't know what I even want to work on. Ever feel like that?
I want to learn how to make beaded jewelry, I LOVE beaded jewelry but the field is so large and there is so much to try and it's like going into the biggest ever bakery and wanting one of each! A person just can't digest it all.

I know, I know, just choose one thing to try and start. Well, that's easier said than done when you have the ENFP personality type  (one description) ( Seek it here) and hate to limit yourself even in fun endeavors.

We are overstimulated around this household between DH's dissertation for his doctorate and my learning all the computer stuff (just as hard for me as electrical engineering!) so the thought of starting on the whole world of jewelry making  is at once exciting and daunting.
I have done peyote stitch, made earrings and other forms of jewelry, tried torch work with glass, made a beaded bracelet watch, and a few other items. I want to learn much much more. But...
For today, just for today, I'm going to limit myself to beading something I understand. Fabric. I teach a class in 12 ways to add beads to fabric/quilts  (check out this page) so I could see what others are making while staying closer to my comfort zone. I usually skate along the edge of comfort so maybe it's okay to just be comfortable today as I'm still getting to know these people.
So the question for today is, do you usually stay closer to your comfort zone even in crafting or do you leap right in to new things? Feel free to answer here or email me.
LeeAnna
check back soon for Monday Creativity Posts to begin

Art that tells about a person

"A few of my favorite things" (c) LAPaylor 2013

 When I learned foundation paper piecing a long time ago, I loved it immediately. Now I draw my own patterns but back then, I collected patterns that meant something to me and made a little original quilt with them. At the time I didn't have much experience or confidence in doing original quilts so this was a challenge.

Then as now I had a vision of the finished work in my head, so just kept building it. The symbols on it for me are stars,hearts, trees, houses, dogs, angels and flowers. Then over the years, since this hangs in the studio,
I hang things from it that I find along life's path like the flamingo keychain, the moon, a mermaid ornament, a birthday angel pin given by a friend, a candle from my 50th birthday cake, a beaded star made with family at Christmas one year, etc.

I have a little connection story about this quilt. A woman saw it at our quilt show and contacted me because it was so free and different from all the others, and I quilted it with abandon of rules, and she wanted to meet me. How Fun! That started a 15 year friendship with my friend Mary click here for her blog

This is a picture from the Smithsonian collection of Egyptian art of little symbolic pieces people wore around their necks. This is the same thing in a way...
it told others what was important to a person.









I believe showing original work is sometimes scary to people because it is so personal. It's a view into who they are, and if it's rejected or judged harshly, it feels very personal. Artists, including writers, singers, dancers, and anyone creating original work have to overcome the fear of judgement to share their light with others. They have to have enough confidence to withstand the critique of the masses.
We do that often because we are driven to make the work, and show the work because we want to connect with others.

I'm thinking about judgement today because I got my two entries home from PNQE with the judges comment sheets.click here Among the really nice compliments, was a comment about making sure my points were not cut off in piecing. I looked v-e-r-y closely and can't see any cut off points anywhere on the piece... I don't know.

Anyway, do you have trouble showing your work to others? Is is because of possible judgement?  Are you one of those hardy souls so confident you don't care what other people think? Come sit next to me....
LeeAnna

ContraStock 3

Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom

This is the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo park, Washington DC. This is our favorite place to dance and a good enough reason not to move away from the area!
 Read About the Park Here  My husband and I met over 20 years ago at a contra dance in Fl and to this day, I believe men who dance are among the most fun and steadfast men in America! I know! If you want to meet a good man, head for a contra dance where you'll be hugged many times over the course of an evening.
Back to the current dance. This...is...ContraStock, a once a year 10-hour event that draws dancers from around the country.

This is about a third of the people on dinner break. They had a massive pot luck and visited with other dance enthusiasts and friends while fueling themselves for the next round of fun.

The carousel is peeking out in the background, and was running through dinner with that tinny caliope music we all remember from childhood. 

The lovely art deco buildings create an atmosphere, and would you look at that sky! It stormed the day before but the dance goddess was with us and it cleared out leaving behind mild cool weather so we didn't perish while swirling around like excited tops on the dance floor.

The picture is blurry because I have a barbie camera but also because the people never stand still, so they look blurry. This is the inside of the ballroom, which is gorgeous and has a sprung wood floor. The dance was so crowded, not at all like this end of the night pic where they have room, that many of us got run over. Just the way it is.

It's all fun and games til someone gets hurt, then it's a sport.



This is the open air bumper car pavilion where we usually dance on Sunday nights with a cooler breeze and fairy lights twinkling.





Even at a dance I managed to find another art quilter to talk to about creativity. It's hard not to be creatively stimulated by the beautiful surroundings and there are artists in residence here with yurts to hold classes and workshops. There was a drawing class going on in one yurt, and I longed to peek in and see what people were learning. The pottery yurt was cooking late too.
 
This morning we are walking around carefully, as contra dance is lots of fun as well as a good workout. Our feet are sore from 6 hours on them, our arms sore from holding so many others, our necks sore from twirling but our spirits are soaring from the companionship. If you have never done Contra go see what you are missing.  Come and go with us! LeeAnna

Book Festival 2013

 Oh! The Library of Congress National Book Festival was better than ever! Despite the afternoon rain, it was a wonderful day.

 So many people who love reading, all in one place!
So many fascinating authors and their stories!

The mall (the center green in DC) in DC was a wash of orange between free tote bags and Volunteer shirts, it was so colorful.

 This is an exhibit in the L of Congress tent, and we could write names of books that we feel changed the world. The fact is, books CAN change the world, and I just had to write in one, even though I agreed with the others. Gotta play along in life!

 This is a bit of the free treasure we took away. Thanks to LA for the mardi gras beads.  The real treasure was the incredible words and concepts offered in free talks by the authors.  I learned so much, and laughed much more than I expected.

The dessert for the day.
Hoda Kotb was charming, funny, entertaining, informative and most of all Real.

Authors take questions after their speeches, and Hoda had to contend with someone who appeared to be functioning in an alternate universe... and she did it with grace. We all realized early on that here was trouble, and it took security a long time to decide to approach the man.
I took many pictures, and would love to share them all but you get the idea.
One common theme among the enlightened speakers was the one dearest to my heart. "Connections"
Brad Meltzer, who was hysterically funny, shared some of his connection stories, as did Thomas Keneally.
It's about time to open my conncection project page. When the first quilt goes out, I will open the page to your connection stories, and we can all start to form a universal connection to each other.
Til, then, keep reading. LeeAnna