Creativity

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”
Mary Lou Cook

When I saw this on another blog I wondered if this could be applied to life in general. How do we find a new way of doing something? Do we try new methods, read different books, take a different drive back home?

A good proof reader reads a page from the bottom paragraph up. This is simply because it forces the brain to see each paragraph separate from the whole so that the errors are easy to pick out.

This different way, different path forces your mind to see things that your mind has glossed over. I do this with my art by turning the picture upside down. The brain forces the viewer to see things that it did not before. So the glaring color red that is somehow bothering me as “wrong” can be changed with a splash of blue. Experimentation is the lifeblood of creativity. Yet prior experience also comes into play. Do I always need to make that purple? Is it okay to always use bright colors?

I know that risk taking and mistakes in art are a way to find new paths but I also want others to see my vision. To recognize my style, my brand. This is an on going issue with all artists. To keep your work “yours” but also make it fresh and new. A kind of push and pull challenge that keeps me going.

My usual pallet is bright and bold but as you can see from this crazy quilt block I do use subtle colors. I titled the completed quilt French Curves to go with the dusty rose and gray French Provincial color theme. These colors were challenging but also exciting, adding a change of pace but also breaking my own rules. The curves are from the sweeping movement of the pieces placed around the center photo.

Now compare it to this bold and bright block I did to represent the month of July last year. There are some of the same ideas of using color on top of each other. Using the bright blue ribbon on the left on top of the blue background. The blue stitches seem to shimmer on top of the background. Yet there is some of the same subtle use of color with the orange ribbon on the right that then reaches on top of the blue for contrast. As I write this I see that there is a continuous style, the use of light and color along with movement.

These are some of the things that run around inside my head as I am creating. I wonder do you have this too?