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Creatively Stuck? Give Yourself an Assignment!

February 29, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

02/20/2016

(Pic #1) Weathered wall “grab shot.” Santa Barbara, California. Photo by Josh Kaplan.

Guest post by Josh Kaplan

Last weekend I went to Santa Barbara to have breakfast with my closest friend. Naturally I took my photo gear along, because I love to shoot in SB — it never fails to inspire the muse. Well, almost never. After breakfast, I wandered around the streets looking for colors or shapes or anything that might grab my attention.

Nothing. I just wasn’t feeling it. I took a little drive over to Samy’s camera (or as photographers call it, the holy land). Surely all the gadgets, and glass, and lights and filters would get the juices going. Nada. I was just in a total creative funk.

SB red door JK cropped copy

(Pic #2) Samy’s Camera loading dock.

02/20/2016

(Pic #3) Delightful decay.

Blue door SB crpd copy

(Pic #4) Perfect imperfection.

Readers of this blog may remember a post Lonnie did about the wonderful country/singer songwriter Deana Carter, and her sure fire fix for writers’ block. If she’s writing with someone, and it’s going nowhere, she will say “Have some whiskey, go for a walk…whatever you need to do to clear your head for a minute. When you come back, we’re gonna write a song in 15 minutes. Good, bad or indifferent, 15 minutes from now we’re gonna have a tune.”

So I decided to adapt that to my situation. I gave myself 10 minutes to shoot, and I had to come up with at least 5 images…. AND… it all  had to all happen in the area bordered by the Samy’s camera parking lot.
None of the images I captured are award-winning, but forcing myself to just start shooting got me through the doldrums. Whether it was that beautiful blue doorway, or the bright red of Samy’s loading dock door, or the funky oxidized trash can cover, suddenly it was all interesting to me again, and I’ve been shooting with joy ever since.
green rust SB copy

(Pic #5) Pure trash. Sweet art.

02/27/2016

(Pic #6) Yes, those are cow skulls on Lonnie’s butt.

Filed Under: Creative Zone Tagged With: creative impasse, creativity tips, finding your muse, getting unstuck, jumpstart your creative side, making art, photography

The 10-Minute Task

April 21, 2010 by Lonnie Lardner

Committing to daily creativity.

Exploring color--10 minutes at a time

For nearly the last decade, I’ve conducted dozens of radical workshops on creative thinking for corporate executives.  My company is called “Creative Voltage” and we use abstract art as a learning tool. My clients include a sweet list of Fortune 500 standouts, and media giants. I also hold private experiential seminars for a number of prominent CEOs with a passion for art.

In my sessions, I encourage those top tier business minds to find time to create something–every day. It doesn’t matter what they produce—because these exercises are always about the creative process—not product. I can’t emphasize that enough.

It’s always a daunting task to step way outside one’s comfort zone—but in the end—the journey is always worth it. The only way to stimulate the right brain, from my experience, is to engage the right brain. And though I’ve taught hundreds of people how to do it, I still struggle with finding time to consistently ambien create my own art.

To celebrate the launching of my blog, I’m therefore committing to a daily 10-minute task–my own internal “creative zone.” At the start of each day, or the end of each night, I sit down at my art table and paint, or draw–just like I did when I was a kid—with no boundaries, no expectations, no judgment. Whether I ultimately like what I’ve created is immaterial.  I’m making art.



I encourage you to try this with me. Let me know how it feels. Let me know if it jumpstarts your creative process.  I’ll be posting some of these “abstractions” for you to peruse. Here are a few from my first week. I used my favorite Caran D’Ache water-soluble “Neocolor” crayons. I drew with my left hand though I’m a righty. I like the way it seems to naturally “disconnect” the work from my otherwise judgmental brain.

Give yourself 10-minutes. See what happens. Send me your scribbles. I used an iphone–it’s an easy upload.


Filed Under: Creative Zone Tagged With: 10-minute task, 10-minutes a day, committing to daily creativity, feeding your soul, jump into your creative zone, jumpstart your creative side, stimulate your right brain, stimulating creativity

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