The 2Peas blogging prompt for Tuesday is "write about what inspires you". For me, it's not about finding inspiration, the challenge is slowing it down to capture it. There are so many possibilities...so many "great ideas" just waiting to be used, sometimes my biggest challenge is just picking one and seeing it thru to completion. I've often thought perhaps there's a condition called "creative ADD" and maybe I have it. I have the attention span of a knat--as evidenced by the stacks of started but unfinished layouts in my space. I get a little thrill (or maybe a big thrill) out of something crafty, creative or new going on with one of my pages but when the thrill is gone, I'm over it.
I find inspiration everywhere. (Don't groan.) Graphic stuff speaks to me. Lyrics--I see pages about song lyrics all the time. Catchy phrases, phrases with more than one meaning, phrases with spin, a great photo idea, advertisements, slogans, objects, conversations, the lines in furniture or clothing, postage stamps...if it ever again snows in Middle Tenessee, I have a great layout already planned for the snow photos and those great snowflake postage stamps that the USPS put out this Christmas...just waiting on snow. It's all out there...waiting to be scrapbooked or journaled...if I could just calm down the inspiration a bit. Slow it down and capture it.
Oh yeah. One more thing...yummy ribbon. That gets me going too. :)
I think too many people chase an allegedly-illusive muse called *inspiration* without stopping to look around and be inspired by what is already there. Must we always be on a constant search for the next great idea or as Vince Gill puts it--"Everybody's Waiting on the Next Big Thing"! Stop looking and let it find you. Play until it strikes you *upsidethahead* as my best friend in high school used to say.
And my other complaint on this topic is that too many times I hear scrappers say "I'm not creative. I'm no ____." (insert name of *it girl* scrapper of the moment.) This really bugs me. I just wanna say "Of course you aren't creative...not with that negative attitude." and "Nobody is asking you to be ___, the it girl scrapper of the moment. Be yourself."
Creativity is not something you set out to do. It just is. Creativity does not always involve genius. It doesn't have to live on the cutting edge. I see creativity as being all about building a bridge between souls. When I look at someone elses work and see a creative piece, it's because there's some part of it that speaks to me--something in it that I can relate to or enjoy. Sometimes that bridge is built of something new and exciting. Sometimes it's just familiar and vital.
"Creative" is an attitude.
And in some cases it's just about perception. When I read Creating Keepsakes, I expect to be wowed by the creativity, probably because I have been wowed by what I have read and seen in all the other issues. I have been trained to look for the WOW eye candy so I generally know I can depend on CK to put out more eye candy. Being published by CK is a big deal because it's commonly known that they are the pacesetters in the industry. So perhaps my perception of CK ups the wow-value of a layout that--if it simply appeared on 2Peas or a blog somewhere--wouldn't really wow me at all.
Creativity is perception. Hmm. Maybe there's more to this than I first thought. So, tell me, what sets your creativity ablaze?
1 comment:
LOL, I have a short attention span, too. It's like--seen it, done it, what's next?
I used to get frustrated with my students, back when I taught SB classes, who would always poor-mouth themselves and their abilities. And that was before the era of Ali and Donna and Cathy Z., who really seem to me to put out way too much to try and live up to.
I totally agree that creativity just is. I also feel you have to nurture it, and that can mean making time or slowing down to think or just daydreaming--not attributes that are highly valued in our society right now.
Loved what you wrote--all of it!
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