Unleash your creative superpowers!
Join me in ushering in 2025 with intention. Not a list of pointless resolutions we won’t keep for a week, but a commitment to approach everything in a fresh new way. Allow your artist within to find its way out. A minor shift in thought — that can lead to radical results. You may surprise yourself. Just imagine.
“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” — Bruce Garrabrandt, artist
Wishing you a spectacular year ahead!
(Pic #1) As I make a total mess poolside at a tony Santa Barbara resort, server / musician “Ian” stops by to investigate the scene of the crime.
(Pic #2) A few last strokes with Sennelier oil sticks. Exploring use of my left hand. Awkward but exciting.
I recently committed to keeping art supplies with me wherever I go. It’s been one of the most effective means of producing creative work. I keep a sort of “lunchbox” filled with little goodies from my local art store. Basics: tubes of acrylic paint, Sennelier oil sticks, graphite pencils with sharp points, newspaper (for ripping collage pieces as well as a way to protect the table you are working on), illustration board, colored paper, glue sticks.) These little treasures provide me with instant opportunities to paint, color or play with paper. Whether I’m waiting for my ride to emerge from the foamy poodle brushes at the car wash, or I’m staring resentfully at the blank walls of the DMV – I’m armed.
A few weeks ago, Josh and I headed north for a couple of days in the sun at a seaside hair loss resort in Santa Barbara. At first I felt guilty, but then I realized I get to take my office outside. I got to create my own ersatz art studio amidst some of the most inspiring scenery on the planet. All I needed was a table, which poolside server Ian (and his “man bun”) gladly shifted my way. (Pic #1)
(Pic #3) Notice nature’s patterns and play with them.
Real productivity doesn’t mean you have to bury yourself in your routine. It means finding new ways to produce – and new places to do it. For me, just being surrounded by fresh colors and quirky shapes is enough. Try exploring what surrounds you; find patterns in nature (Pic #3) or crazy color combinations in some lady’s muumuu. Play with those ideas and see what takes form.
A change in scenery can change your view — and the quality of your work. You will find yourself noticing things you passed by before, and that new habit will expand your visual vocabulary. Then, each time you paint, write, or make music, you will create something deeper, richer, and uniquely yours.
Country star Deana Carter performing on Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.” Carter says, “Time it!” (Photo by Josh Kaplan)
It’s is the scourge of the creative mind. That terrible moment when you realize nothing is happening, the juices aren’t flowing, the mojo has taken a hike. It happens to all of us, authors and journalists, painters and sculptors, musicians and songwriters. The problem is, the feeling that “it just isn’t happening” can easily move from symptom, to cause.
It’s so simple to use it as an excuse to put down the brush, turn off the computer, or stick the guitar back on the stand. Country music star Deana Carter knows all about it. She grew up in a musical family. Her dad, Fred Carter, Jr. was one of the great session guitarists of his generation. That awesome opening riff of Simon and Garfunkle’s “The Boxer” is Fred’s work. So long before Deana’s hit records, or her Grammy nominations, she was well versed in the artistic temperament. But because her dad was a musical “gun for hire” she probably also learned that you have to deliver, whether you are “feeling it” or not.
Deana just came back from a trip to Nashville, to co-write some tunes with some writers she had never worked with. “It can be a little like a blind date, you can go into it with no expectations, and see if there is a connection. And there is this paxil great disappointment if you don’t come out of it with a song.” So Deana says she came up with this little trick: “If it’s not happening,” she says, “I’ll say, “grab a cup of coffee, grab a shot of Jack Daniels, walk around the block, whatever you do to clear your head.” I’m setting a timer for 15 minutes, and when that time is up, we’re gonna have a song. Good, bad, or otherwise. We’re gonna have a song.”
It is really one of the smartest ideas I have heard in a long time. By putting the focus on the deadline, and not the art, you can cruise right over those psychological speed bumps we all put in the path of our own creativity. You may not get the song you want, nor the painting, nor the next chapter of your novel, but you will have conquered one of the most insidious enemies the creative spirit can face: fear masquerading as inertia. It can take weeks, or months, or years to break through.
Or it can take 15 minutes.
Try it. If it works, then say a little thanks to the super talent who co-wrote that super clever, explosive country hit, “Did I Shave My Legs for This?”
