“Pay no attention to what the critics say… Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!”
Jean Sibelius

Oh, and his music is pretty good as well, see what forgetting about the critics can do!

Now this is a piece of creative work, to enjoy and also be inspired by.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

A great post over at Write to Done by Mary Jaksch of GoodlifeZen on generating ideas for writing. Follow the link below for some wonderful tips and ideas.

Zen Power Writing: 15 Tips on How to Generate Ideas and Write with Ease | Write to Done

You have a treat today. Normally I try and find a quote to give you some creative inspiration but today you can have a video and it is a great one. I’d like to thank MissV for sharing with me and now I share it with you. This is how we should feel about anything we create and share. Enjoy.

One of the dangers of living in a highly productive, creative environment is that we can easily neglect one of the most important parts. If you suffer from burn out, or times of creative drought, one of the possible causes is that you have neglected your dreamtime.

Finding time to dream is important. We’re not talking about sleep here either. This is primarily the time to down creative tools and let your mind wander. And this isn’t about sitting down with a blank piece of paper, planning the next stage of your creative master plan. Dreamtime is about space and connection, perhaps even a little spiritual. But it needs to be taken seriously and this is where many of us fail. We don’t see it as important, we squeeze it from our schedule (if it was ever there) and then wonder why we are becoming less effective creatives.

So what exactly is dreamtime? Well first and foremost it needs to be an integral part of a creative lifestyle, we’re not talking huge amounts of time, we’re not even talking every day. But it should be seen as something regular. Dreamtime isn’t wasting or dead time, it is essential for your creative life.

Dreamtime isn’t the same for everybody either, what works for one may not work for the other. Here are a few ideas and thoughts that may be of use to you. They are not structured and I’m sure you can find variations on the theme. This is all about scheduling the time and then finding what works for you:

• walk barefoot in the damp grass while breathing in the air
• watch a film in a foreign language, without the subtitles on
• read a religious book, from another belief system to your own
• listen to music from a musical genre that is not your preferred
• go for a walk or journey without your capture device
• cook a meal with no predefined recipe

These are only vague ideas, but you should be getting some thoughts of your own by now. For now, it is time to dream…

What’s the use of a good quotation if you can’t change it?

Doctor Who

Take something that inspires you and run with it, develop it, let it grow, then set it free.

I must admit that I have been struggling recently in the creative arena, and the posts here have been few and far between because of that… well okay I have also been extremely busy with the day job, but that is no excuse. Still it got me thinking about what you can do when the ‘muse’ has gone away, when the creative ideas just don’t seem to flow. (You’ll find this is a recurring theme here and I’ll return to it quite often).

So here are five quick ways to rediscover your muse if she’s gone away:

• Open your eyes – It is very easy to crawl into our own creative ghetto and just keep putting out. But that eventually leads to creative burnout. Find others who use a similar creative genre and look at what they are doing, immerse yourself in their creativity for a while.
• See the ‘real’ world – Nature is organic and as such can provide us with limitless inspiration. It isn’t bound by our human ideas and so reaches beyond what we can imagine. Tap into that creativity by taking a look at what is beyond the concrete. It also gives you any excuse to get out of the studio!
• Close your eyes – Sometimes you simply need to down tools for a while. Simply close your eyes and get away from the paper, paint, materials or music, and relax. It is surprising how often the muse will return when you stop looking.
• Make a list – The brain fills up quite quickly with a lot of junk to distracts us. One of the best tried and tested methods of helping the poor brain during these times is making lists. Even if you don’t do anything with them, just getting it out of your head helps a lot, and gives space for the muse to move back in.
• Fall in love – Find your soul mate, spark up the relationship and voila. Okay, that is easier said than done, but what you are looking for here are strong emotions. Emotional energy has a big impact on creativity, so if your creative levels are down, perhaps you need to hold an emotional audit.

I’d love to hear any other ideas you may have to woo the muse back into your life, so please add them to the comments.

In memory of George Carlin who died yesterday 22nd June 2008 I thought we’d have a quote that could be used to inspire us all. George said,

‘I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.’

I’d like to add that the same is true of any creative activity. Find the line and cross it, creativity is all about going beyond, doing what hasn’t been done before. So find the line and cross it deliberately today, in memory of George.

Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies – CNN.com

You too can achieve your creative goals through those three steps and if you keep those steps in mind you’ll be amazed at what you can create:

• Preparation – prepare everything you may need, both during your creative journey and before you even start, e.g. resources, templates, time.
• Inspiration – the enigmatic spark that is fanned into the creative flame. Seek out inspirational tinder for you fire, e.g. images, sounds, space.
• Perspiration – nothing is free (well almost) and creativity will take effort on your part, so be aware that you’ll need to sweat a little to create.

Now what creative mountain are you going to climb today?

Take a look at the vid of this amazing book. I have linked to the guys who brought it to my attention rather than directly to youtube.

Best pop out book ever « ebin