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Creative Role Models: Amanda Palmer

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Creative Role Models: Amanda Palmer

A musician that got her start performing in the punk-cabaret band the Dresden Dolls and is still touring. She became famous outside of her music circles when she launched a very successful (well over $1 million) Kickstarter campaign to fund her album and tour. Some people thought it was great that she was ditching the label model and connecting directly with her fans, some people thought she was misusing the platform and didn't deserve to get so much money. She has since done a TedTalk and written a book, both called The Art of Asking, about how and why she decided to take such a drastically different approach. She is married to fantasy writer, Neil Gaiman - another one of my creative role models.

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Positive psychology & creativity

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Positive psychology & creativity

In the course and in her book, Positivity, Barbara Fredrickson explains her theory of why humans have evolved with positive emotions, which she calls the 'Broaden and Build' theory. According to the theory, negative emotions prepare us for one specific action. Fear prepares us to run or to fight while anger prepares us to confront someone. Negative emotions narrow our fields of view to deal with the problem at hand, but positive emotions do the opposite. Positive emotions help us broaden our awareness and build resources for the future.

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Curiosity: Overcoming fear and finding inspiration

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Curiosity: Overcoming fear and finding inspiration

With everything we do, we're either moving toward what we are interested in or away from what we are afraid of. If you've spend your life moving away from the things that scare you, you might not find the world to be a very interesting place. It might seem bland and uninspiring and you probably blame your circumstances for not offering up anything more exciting. If you look at a river and think, "So what? What's one more river?" you might need to work on cultivating your curiosity.

15 Things I learned in theatre school about creativity

15 Things I learned in theatre school about creativity

A lot of people I know who got Bachelors of Arts were kicking themselves after they graduated because they didn't get a more "useful" degree. I didn't have that problem - I knew that studying drama wouldn't put me on a fast track to mega-success, but it was what I most wanted to do. I had always planned on going to university (all learning, all the time? You couldn't keep me away if you tried). And drama was what I was most passionate about at the time. Afterwards I decided not to pursue work in theatre and there are times when I wonder if I wasted those 4 (okay 5) years.

Where to start when you don't know where to start

Where to start when you don't know where to start

So. You want to work on being more creative everyday. You want to establish a creative practice, you want to jump in on those projects you've been dreaming about. But you have no idea where to start. Should you take a class? Should you start a 30-day challenge? Should you ask your friend for help? Should you just start messing around and see what happens? The choices spin around in your mind and, day after day, you do nothing. It's too hard.Starting is the hardest part of any project or practice. And when there is no clear starting point, it's even harder. Here are some ideas on identifying what exactly is making it so hard to get started, and what to do about it.

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Books books books! What I've been reading in March

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Books books books! What I've been reading in March

I decided to start a regular "what I'm reading" list because I always love hearing about what other people are reading. It often gives a lot of insight into why they think the way they do and where their ideas come from. So I figured at least someone will find this interesting. Here are the books that I have actually finished in the last few months.

Creative Role Models: Lisa Congdon

Creative Role Models: Lisa Congdon

She's a successful artist and illustrator based in San Francisco (thought she's been mentioning moving to Portland), and I've been following her blog and her Instagram. According to her website, she does commissions for all kinds of big name companies like Martha Stewart and MoMA. She has also written some books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artistand teaches courses on Creative Bug and Creative Live.

Learning to Embrace Imperfection

Learning to Embrace Imperfection

Yesterday I came across Lisa Congdon's Doodling Manifesto. In it she talks about the importance of making a mark just for its own sake, and how every creative thing we do - no matter how messy or imperfect - is important. It gets us closer to who we are and to who we want to be. This struck me as a really important point. To be creative, we must learn to be imperfect. And not just imperfect: we must learn to make awful, terrible, ugly work just for the sake of making something. The more we make, the better we get.

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Stop Tolerating Winter and Start Loving It

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Stop Tolerating Winter and Start Loving It

I have relatives that live in California and every time I talk to them they try to convince me to come live there. The main draw, in their eyes, is the perpetually mild weather. Who wouldn't want to live in a place that's sunny with an average of 20°C all year long? I wouldn't. I live in a city that spends almost half the year under snow. And I love it.