Entries from: August 2010
Can’t start a fire without a Spark…
August 3rd, 2010, Comments (17)
I woke up with that line in my head, part of a Bruce Springsteen song. How true! And what a fitting way to start the month of Fire, talking about what sparks our imagination, what fires us up creatively, the ways small and large that we move from idea to creation.
Just the way that I woke up with this song in my head is a good example of where my ideas come from. The hypnagogic state, that fuzzy land between sleep and being awake, where the mind is more open and ideas often come fast and furious. I love to keep some paper and pens on my nightstand so that I can jot them down while half asleep, because sometimes I will remember the ideas and other times, they slip away as I'm waking up.
Bits of song, dream images, short phrases, little bits of shadow, and memory will often be the spark behind an idea that leads to a creation. A spark is just the starting point. It won't always develop the way it first began, just like a fire won't always spread the way you expect. I like that bit of surprise that happens as an idea transitions from spark to form. But it's also just interesting to see where ideas come from. Sometimes the most unexpected places, like the shape of a leaf or the color combination on a billboard. And sometimes ideas seem to come out of nowhere.
Where do your sparks of inspiration come from?
Pay special attention this month, catch them as they come like the girl in "Catching Stars" above, and see which sparks become full fires!
Creative Every Day Check-In: August 2 – 8
August 2nd, 2010, Comments (26)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign up for the 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 8/2/10 - 8/8/10.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) or flickr image during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! If you're unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, there's a growing Twitter list of CED participants and you can use the hashtag #CED2010 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for August is the element of Fire. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month and you can feel free to use it to inspire your creations, follow your own muse, or do some combination. You can find out more about this month's theme and some prompts to get you started with August's theme here.
Happy Creating!
The most tangible of all visible mysteries – fire. Leigh Hunt
