3 Things I’m Obsessed With This Week

November 21, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

Obsess Definition

If there’s one  low-brow, pop-culture thing I love (actually, there are so many it’s hard to choose, but . . .), its Bravo TV’s late night, interactive talk show, “Watch What Happens Live,” which comes on Sunday – Thursday at 11:00 pm. It’s wildly entertaining, silly good fun. Definitely not your standard, boring, run-of-the-mill talk show.

How could it be? It’s full of oddball games, celebrities swilling cocktails live on air (and sometimes getting visibly & hilariously inebriated), and show host Andy Cohen’s signature goofiness, all of which I happen to L-O-V-E, love.

There’s this one thing Andy does every night that I tune in for, even I don’t end up watching the rest of the show (girl needs her beauty sleep, dontcha know) called, “Three Things I’m Obsessed with Tonight.”

Inspired by his nightly list, I made my own list of three things I’m obsessed with this week: 

:: This recently released video of Missy Elliott’s new single “WTF (Where They From)” is wildly creative, visually absorbing, and inexplicably mesmerizing. I’ve watched it at least three dozen times in the last two days. (I said obsessed, didn’t I?)

My favorite description of the song comes from Slant Magazine: “’WTF’ pairs Pharrell’s paint-can beats with deep, sinuous 808s, and if the track lacks an obvious hook, it makes up for it with sheer swagger. Of course, Missy doesn’t miss a beat, spitting rhymes like it’s 2005.”

:: This short film (8 minutes long), called “Arctic Swell: Surfing the Ends of the Earth,” about surfing in Antarctica, is a beautifully shot work of art, and demonstrates the lengths people will go to when they’re passionate about something, even if that something is decidedly dangerous.

:: Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. I read it the first time inside a week, then immediately turned back to page one and started reading it all over again. Despite what the New York Times reviewer says (and I love the New York Times, but, c’mon, “magical mumbo jumbo?”), Gilbert’s book is well worth a read if you’re a creative person (and we all are) who struggles to do the creative thing that lights you up because of fear, self-doubt, naysayers or other irritating gremlins.

And there ya have it, three things I’m obsessed with this week.

XO,

Kimberly

P.S. Do you enjoy reading about art, creativity & the creative process, how other creatives get their work done, and other assorted (and sometimes counter-intuitive) stories of inspiration? Then you should probably sign up for Austin Kleon’s newsletter. It’s one of my favorites, and I’m on hundreds of newsletter lists. (I am not making that up.)

Filed Under: Business Inspiration, Essays on Creativity, Commerce & Life Tagged With:

Creativity is a Drug

September 30, 2014 by · 7 Comments

CBD creativity quote

I planned to start this essay by saying that creativity is like oxygen.  But it’s not really like oxygen.  Creativity is not actually necessary to live from a physical standpoint, but it’s hard to imagine a rich and fulfilled life without it.

So I think Cecil has it right. Creativity is like a drug one cannot live without. Once you begin to experience the pleasures of it, you can’t imagine not having it in your life daily.

(In my mind, I’m pronouncing his name Seh-suhl like the character Cecil Terwilliger from The Simpsons, not See-suhl, the way it’s usually pronounced. I feel like that works better here. But I digress.)

Creativity is also like a muscle that must be used daily or it will atrophy. 

I created a “commandments” list a couple of years ago, ala Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project and on it I wrote “do something every day to make myself happy,” which for me more often than not means a creative project of some kind – writing, brainstorming ideas for articles and essays, cooking a fabulous meal, rearranging a corner of my apartment, capturing images with my iPhone, freeform daydreaming, and so on. 

For many months I didn’t practice creativity daily in any real way. This was when I was working a couple of part-time jobs while getting my freelance writing business off the ground.  All my writing at that time was for clients; I didn’t write for myself daily like I do now. Instead I worried daily. Fretted. Felt myself pulled daily further and further into the mesmerizing undertow of living below what my true inspiration called me to do.

I was not happy and fulfilled in my work then. But happiness is a choice, so looking back, I can see that I participated in my unhappiness by buying into the false notion that creative fulfillment is something “over there,” something that has to be put off until all one’s other ducks are gotten in a row. If you know what I mean, and I think you do.

As long as I believed that creative fulfillment was something that was unavailable to me while I was slogging away writing what I didn’t want to write and doing work I didn’t necessarily love to do, then that’s where it would stay – “over there.”

But the truth is, there are ways to assure you get your daily creativity fix, even if it’s in small doses. If you’re a writer, you write. If you’re a photographer, you make beautiful images. If you’re a painter, you paint. And so on.

So I started writing for myself for 30 minutes daily, longer on weekends. Writing that had nothing to do with client work, and nothing to do with blogging for my writing business website or weekly newsletter either. I simply opened up a Word doc in June of 2013 and started “journaling” there daily.  Then later, I began writing in a physical journal again, writing my way through one journal, then another, then another after that.

And that practice is what pulled me out of my creative cul-de-sac. It’s an ongoing project, this trying to make more space in my life daily for unfettered creative practice, and sometimes it takes a back seat to client work, or marketing my business, or those boring but necessary admin tasks one must do each day to keep the wheels on the bus going round and round.

But what I notice is that if I’m not committed to accessing that well daily, the sometimes elusive substance known as creativity will shrivel, or evaporate altogether, and I’ll be staring into the abyss of the “mehs” once again.

What about you? How do you make space in your life for the creative work that fires you up? I’d love to hear how you make your creative practice a priority. Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

 

Filed Under: Essays on Creativity, Commerce & Life, The Daily Creative Tagged With: ,

Book Recommendation: The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau

September 22, 2014 by · 4 Comments

The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau

“Once you’re near the end, there’s no time for bullshit. But what if you decided there’s no time for bullshit – or regrets – far in advance of the end? What if you vow to live life the way you want right now, regardless of what stage of life you’re in?”

Of all the inspiring passages and quest calls in Chris Guillebeau’s recently released book, The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life, the quote above is the one that resonates with me the most.  

The context: Chris tells the story of Kathleen Taylor, who was a hospice bedside counselor for 8 years and loved her work. Frequently asked how she could enjoy her job, Taylor responds, “Because people at the end of their lives are incapable of bullshit . . . when they’re facing the task of wrapping up an entire life, the distractions that usually tempt us away from being honest with ourselves kind of fall off the map.” (I’ve linked up Kathleen Taylor’s TED Talk on this topic at the end of this post under “Additional Resources.”)

It’s a great question, right? What if you vow to live life the way you want right now? What if, what if, what if . . . it’s exactly the question I’ve been asking myself for months now, which is why the book left such an impression on me.

If you’re a seeker, inspired by tales of others’ accomplishments and adventures, and feeling a vague (or pronounced) sense of discontent, The Happiness of Pursuit is for you. If you’re feeling dissatisfied and restless, this book could be exactly the inspiration you need to bust out of the doldrums and find the right quest to help you get your happy back.

When You Sense Discontent, Pay Attention

The Happiness of Pursuit examines the link between questing and long-term happiness, chronicling real-world quests of “normal people doing remarkable things” who have brought meaning and purpose into their lives through their quests.  Chris (we’re not on a first name basis, mind you, but spelling out “Guillebeau” each time I write his name makes me mighty tired), also writes about his own quest to visit every country on Earth (193, I believe) before the age of 35, a task he accomplished.

As I got eleven pages into the book, I started underlining fragments, sentences, and whole passages.

For example:

“If you want to make every day an adventure, all you have to do is prioritize adventure. It has to become more important than routine.”

 “If you want to achieve the unimaginable, you start by imagining it.”

“Courage comes through achievement but also through the attempt.”

“Everyone is busy, yet we all have access to the same amount of time. If you want to prioritize adventure but can’t find the time, something’s got to give.” (This one was like a punch to the gut for me. Note to self: STOP WHINING about not having enough time!)

“Lesson: When you sense discontent, pay attention. The answer isn’t always ‘go for it’ (though it often is), but you shouldn’t neglect the stirring. Properly examined, feelings of unease can lead to a new life of purpose.”

If you’re thinking, “Hey, that all sounds groovy and everything, I would love to experience more adventure and lead a life of purpose, but I can’t quit my job to travel or pursue some far-flung adventure,” I hear you.

But the quests in this book aren’t all of the travel to distant lands variety.  No, many of them were undertaken closer to home, and some, without ever leaving home.

For example, there’s Sasha Martin, a thirty-year-old wife and mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma who decides to shake off the complacency she’s feeling by embracing “culture through cuisine” and cooking a meal from every country in the world.  Yep, every country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, a cooking project that took close to four years.

Then there’s Sandi Wheaton, who worked at General Motors for twelve years before being laid off during the upheaval in the automotive industry. At first, she planned to look for another job, as her other laid-off colleagues were doing, but she started thinking about the toll her corporate career had taken on her – “devoting her best energy to . . . corporate America instead of the adventure that tugged at her heart.” What Sandi really wanted to do was travel Route 66 and document the trip along the way. And for six weeks she did, taking 60,000 photographs, sleeping in campsites each night, and getting up early each day to head back out on the road.

As Sandi says, “I had zero clue how to do it, but I was driven by the desire to avoid looking back years later and calling myself a chickenshit for not using the opportunity for something.”

And there’s Elise Blaha, who upon turning twenty-seven set a goal to create twenty-seven different craft projects using twenty-seven different types of materials.

And Travis Eneix, who committed to practicing tai chi and writing down everything he ate for one thousand days.

And Tina Roth Eisenberg, who has multiple creative projects going at all times and set out to publish a body of work promoting innovative design.

Then of course there are the more adventurous quests – such as that of sixteen-year-old Laura Dekker who set out to sail around the globe solo, and Nate Damm, who walked across the United States, and Miranda Gibson, who lived in a tree for an entire year to protest illegal logging, and  John Francis, who maintained a vow of silence for 17 years, and Martin Parnell, who ran 250 marathons in a single year, and Adam Warner, who is in the process of fulfilling every goal on his late wife Meghan’s life list, and many others besides who undertook quests of the creative, self-discovery, exploration, activism, and academic variety.

The core message of all the quests documented in the book is this: a quest can bring purpose and meaning to your life.

And in The Happiness of Pursuit, you’ll see inspiring evidence of this in action, many times over. And if you’re like me, you’ll finish the book with your own list of quest ideas. {More on that in a future post.}

I’ll leave you with a short passage from Chapter One, Awakening:

“What if you could study with others who’ve invested years – sometimes decades – in the relentless pursuit of their dreams? That learning opportunity is what this book is about. You’ll sit with people who have pursued big adventures and crafted lives of purpose around something they found deeply meaningful. You’ll hear their stories and lessons. You’ll learn what happened along the way, but more important, you’ll learn why it happened and why it matters.”

As for me, I’m keeping the book on my bedside table as a powerful reminder to prioritize adventure, and live the way I want to right now, sans bullshit.

Additional Resources

Learn more here about The Happiness of Pursuit and Guillebeau’s other books.

Check out Rethinking the Bucket List: Kathleen Taylor at TED here.

And for a jolt of reality from a former palliative care professional on the importance of living your life the way you want to now, read Bronnie Ware’s Top 5 Regrets of the Dying.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: , ,

New York Experience Required

June 2, 2014 by · 2 Comments
photo by kconners

photo by kconners

Nothing could top the magic I felt the day I arrived at New York’s Penn Station from Wilmington, a smallish town on North Carolina’s southeastern coast, to officially begin my New York life. I felt liberated and inspired, intoxicated by the notion that anything was possible now that I was going to be living in this magical city.

It was 1991 and my then boyfriend was getting his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University. I was living in Wilmington, earning my English degree at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. After we did the long-distance relationship thing for a while, the topic of me moving to New York came up. I was already packing mentally 30 seconds into the conversation. Back in the real world a few days later, I dropped all my classes at UNCW, began the process of transferring to Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and starting packing my belongings for real.

Luckily the boyfriend had scored a sweet little apartment on 119th and Amsterdam, in a building with a doorman and a nice restaurant on the top floor called The Terrace, through some impossible magic of Columbia student housing.  With safe shelter out of the way, my first order of business was finding a job to fill the time and my bank account until I was to begin classes a few months later.

I started looking for waitressing work.  For a girl with plenty of restaurant experience who had never had trouble finding a waitressing gig before, this turned out to be surprisingly difficult. I would comb through classified ads in The Village Voice spying ad after ad that said, “New York experience required.”  I was baffled. I had no clue what the difference between waiting tables in a small southern beach community and Manhattan’s restaurant scene was.

After a few weeks of searching, I scored a job in a casual hamburger joint thick in the theater district just off Broadway on 45th between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.  I was both thrilled and terrified to be given this opportunity. Rows of tables lined up neatly along the length of the restaurant, next to the bar, in front of the kitchen, and around the corner and into the next room, as if every millimeter of empty space that couldn’t accommodate a customer was an affront to commerce. Tables were so close together you could reach out a take a sip of the beer your fellow restaurant patron was enjoying at the next table over as easily as eating a French fry off of your very own plate.

10 minutes into my first shift the need for “New York experience” started to sink in.  Navigating the cramped spaces between tables to deliver food and drinks was dicey. I was forever worried that my butt was in the face of some unsuspecting restaurant patron trying to enjoy their burger and curly fries as I delivered a quesadilla to their neighbors at the next table over.  The distance between my ability to do my job properly and invading my customers’ personal space was exceedingly slim.

Maybe this was different from waitressing in the comparatively spacious and slothlike environment of southeastern North Carolina’s beach scene. 

And it wasn’t just the space issues. From restaurant patrons who arrived at 6:45 pm, waited 30 minutes for a table, then ordered a well-done steak, announcing, “we’re in a hurry, we’re trying to make an 8 o’clock show,” to the purse snatchings inside the restaurant, and from the occasional celebrity sitting in your section to orders for things like lime rickeys and egg creams, nearly everything I encountered in my first few weeks on the job called up the phrase, “Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

But I was in hog heaven, as we say in the South. I embraced every experience my new job and city had to offer, assenting to both conveniences and annoyances in equal measure, mentally placing them on my “Proof I’m a Real New Yorker” list. The vague suffocation I felt when I lived in the South began to dissipate.

I noticed New York’s peculiarities everywhere: the way the city would empty out in the summer, its residents fleeing the trapped heat and humidity to escape to the Hamptons and other beachy enclaves.  The frequent celebrity sightings, whose frequency made them ordinary. The constant barrage of people asking for money.  The ever present noise of sirens and car horns at all times of the day and night.  Getting shat on by a pigeon as you made your way across 45th street just after crossing Broadway.  (Yes, it happened to me.)

With every new first I felt my hayseed sheen begin to wear off – my first book party in a big fancy apartment on Central Park West, where clumps of minor literary celebs and starving writers from the Columbia MFA program stood around chatting about Lewis Lapham’s latest editorial in Harper’s Magazine, my first celebrity sighting (Paul Schaffer, David Letterman’s musical director) in front of Coliseum Books on 57th and Broadway, the first time I got yelled at by a homeless person I chose not to help that day, the first time I stopped being offended by the admonition of “Next!” and the absence of eye contact in line at the bank.

Like an onion, layer after layer of Southerness peeled away with each passing day.

The day I felt fully transformed into a New Yorker came one glorious spring afternoon as I was leaving the restaurant on my way to everyone’s favorite ubiquitous New York drugstore, Duane Reade. Walking across 45th Street, I spotted a crowd gathered in front of a youth hostel, where several people stood silently hovering around something on the ground, their hands clasped over their mouths, eyes wide. I didn’t want to linger, but I could tell from the shocked energy that hung in the air something bad had happened, and I was curious.

Turns out, a young man had jumped or fallen out of the window of a nearby building, landing on the sidewalk in front of the hostel.

What I remember most clearly all these years later is this young man’s enthusiastically curly red hair, springing from his scalp vibrant and alive, juxtaposed with his body, which clearly wasn’t. 

After a few brief moments of this shared experience with my fellow New Yorkers, the crowd began to disperse, collectively making its way on with the rest of the afternoon. As I walked away, I made a mental note of what I needed to buy at the drugstore.

Filed Under: Essays on Creativity, Commerce & Life Tagged With: ,

10 Inspiring Business & Marketing Resources for Creative Business Builders

February 12, 2014 by · 16 Comments

One thing I’ve noticed since I switched my business focus from writing solely for corporate clients to adding independent creatives and small creative businesses to the mix is the number of people who email me saying there aren’t enough business, marketing and other resources online specifically geared to creative entrepreneurs.

And while I can’t know the entire Internet (even though I do spend over 10 hours every day swimming in it – ha!), I agree that when it comes to creatives who want to promote and market authentically, there seem to be fewer resources available than for other kinds of business builders.

So I compiled a list of go-to resources I know about, either through positive word-of-mouth, or because I visit them regularly myself for information, advice, and inspiration.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list by any stretch of the imagination, only a few places to get you started, so if you know of others not listed here, please drop ‘em in the comments at the end of the post!

The Abundant Artist: Dispelling the Starving Artist Myth

All kinds of artists will find this site useful. While there is plenty of content geared toward helping visual and fine artists market their work, the advice and tips here would work well for most any kind of creative trying to market authentically and create a robust presence online. As Cory, site owner, says about the site, “This is a web site not only about selling art, but about dispelling the starving artist myth.”

The articles, videos and podcasts on the site cover a multitude of topics, including how to build a better artist website, how to sell your art online, how to market effectively with social media, and other business-building topics geared toward artists.

Sample blog articles: How I Made $50,000 Selling Art on Facebook; Newsletters: So Easy, An Artist Can Do It; Personal Branding for Artists; The Artist Website Checklist; How to Create an Art Blog That Makes Art Collectors Swoon; How to Create Raving Fans by Telling the Story of Your Art, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for Cory’s email list and receive a 10 week email course called “Learn to Sell More Art Now,” as well as other useful content to help you grow your business.

Other notes: I love Cory’s tone, voice, and sense of humor. You’ll be entertained, and learn tons about art marketing at the same time.

Artsy Shark: Inspiring Artists to Build Better Businesses

The articles on this site cover how to launch and grow a successful art or craft business. Specific topics include the business of art, marketing, selling your work, inspiration, art licensing and art publishing, and more.

Run by Carolyn Edlund, Executive Director of the Arts Business Institute, Artsy Shark publishes articles on featured artists, giving them publicity and linking to the artist’s website, which allows artists to make sales of their work. Artists are chosen several times a year through a competitive juried submission process. 

Sample blog articles: Artist Website Strategies: Improve Your Home Page; Crafting Potent Press Releases That Get You Ink; How to Create an Artist Email Newsletter That Works; 8 Ways to Improve Your Online Portfolio; Effective Art Marketing is Not About You, etc.

Red Lemon Club: refreshing insights into building influence, for creatives

Red Lemon Club features articles and other resources for helping creatives build their influence and land quality clients. The site is a place to “get inspired, absorb, learn and share insight on being influential, standing out, and building an engaged audience to your creative work.”

Sample blog articles: 7 Simple Acts of Daily Self-Discipline That Will Make You a Better Artist/Ninja; 50 Self-Promotion Tips for Creatives; 21 Ways to Add Magic to Your Brand and Stand Out; What Problems Are You Solving? How Great Artists Think Like Entrepreneurs; 11 Things Most Other People Never Do That You Can Do to Win Amazing Clients, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for the Red Lemon email list and receive the e-book, 9 Things You Absolutely Must Do to Land Quality Clients, plus weekly tips you won’t find on the blog.

Skinny Artist: Create, Connect, Inspire, & Live Your Art!

The Skinny Artist site delves into “the unique opportunities and challenges we face as creative artists in this brave new world of blogs, social media, and marketing our creative work online to a worldwide audience.” Specific topics include marketing myths, online marketing, inspiration, featured artists, artist life, and creative productivity.

 Sample blog articles: 5 Ways to Market Your Art in Your Community; 5 Fears That Can Destroy an Artist; Is Etsy Dying?; The Great Artist Statement Hoax; How to Take Charge of Your Creative Goals; Stare, Share, Steal, and be Willing to Look Stupid, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for the email list and receive the Skinny School series, “How the @#$&! do I Get More Traffic to my Website?!” plus how-to tutorials, artist marketing tips, and other resources.

Other notes: I absolutely love this site’s irreverent and funny tone.

Fresh Rag: The No BS, Straight Talk Approach to Earning More From Your Creative Pursuits

Fresh Rag is for artists, designers, crafters and other independent, creative entrepreneurs who want to  build their business and make more sales.

Sample blog articles: Calling Yourself Out on Your Own Bullshit; How to Eliminate the Starving Artist Syndrome from the Ground Up; Your Excuses About Etsy’s Changes Are Holding You Back; The 100%, Sure-Fire Way to Sound Like a Self-Absorbed Artist ; I Serve Those That Serve Creativity, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for the email list and receive free updates with tools, tips and tricks for taking your creative career to the next level. Topics include converting lookers into buyers, building a loyal following, and making more money without killing yourself.

Living a Creative Life with Melissa Dinwiddie

The aim of this site is to offer insights and inspiration to help you live a fully creative life. The goal: “to get you sparked, stoked and creating!” As Melissa says, she wants to see everyone on the planet using their creative gifts.

Sample blog articles: Failure, Progress & the Great Experiments of 2013; Secrets of Living a Big, Bold Creative Life; What to Do When You’re Caught in a Shame Spiral; Case Study: Dealing with Criticism; My Big Secret for Getting Creating (Almost) Every Day, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for the newsletter and receive a printable poster, 10 Keys to Creative Flow, plus regular email inspiration, first dibs and special offers when Melissa has new stuff to share.

Other notes: I love Melissa’s warm, friendly and encouraging tone. Oh, and there’s the stark honesty about her successes and her failures, which is refreshing. She’s a creative who gets creatives – get ready to feel understood and supported as a creative soul.

Creative Freelancer Blog

Geared to creative freelance professionals – freelance designers, illustrators, writers, photographers and other creatives – Creative Freelancer Blog provides business and marketing advice and inspiration.  

I’ll be honest, even though I visit this site regularly, it kind of drives me crazy because there’s so much going on and it doesn’t seem that well-organized. When you land on the blog it’s a giant mish-mash with a long scrolling list of articles, with no apparent topic categories. Maddening. That said, there’s a wealth of fantastic information for creative freelancers, and the content is well worth reading if you have the time and the patience to dig through the seeming randomness.

Sample blog articles: The Photographer’s Guide to Photo Contests; Work, Life, and You: Are You Staying Sane?; Top 3 Social Media Platforms for Designers & Creative Pros; When They Ask You to Work for Free, Say This; Turn More Prospects into Paying Clients; 12 Stark Differences Between Freelancing and 9-5; Why You Should Say “No” to Clients and Become a Specialist; Retainers Get You Off the Rollercoaster, etc.

Free resources available: Signing up for the email list will allow you to download job-search strategies, interview techniques, and portfolio and résumé tips to help you land the right creative position.

The Unmistakable Creative Podcast: Candid Conversations with Creative Entrepreneurs and Insanely Interesting People

This is hands-down one of my favorite places to visit online for creative inspiration. There are over 400 inspiring interviews here with every kind of creative entrepreneur you can imagine, spanning every kind of background. As the graphic on the site’s About page says, podcast guests include best-selling authors, world-famous cartoonists, ex-cons, graffiti artists, happiness researchers, peak performance psychologists, and more. This is not your usual business podcast, in a good way. A very good way.

Sample podcasts: How to Escape a Life of Mediocrity with Melissa Leon; Idea Execution and the Creative Process with Jocelyn Glei; Creating a Profitable Expression of Your Art with Alex Franzen; Unleash Your Creative Genius with Erik Wahl; How to Master the Craft of Writing with Dani Shapiro; The Importance of Developing Your Own Belief Systems; Redefining Ambition with Amber Rae, etc.

Free resources available: Sign up for the email list and receive notice of the latest podcasts, plus (as of this writing), a weekly email delivered on Sunday designed to make you think about your creative path. Inspiring, thoughtful and honest, this is of my favorite Sunday reads.

Scoutie Girl: Creative Life with Character

Scoutie Girl is a daily digital lifestyle magazine that features stories, philosophies, and innovative ideas about creative living & becoming a more creative individual; offers creative visual inspiration and motivation to the handmade community. Written by a team of creative thinkers and designers, the site seeks to help you become inspired and informed.

This is a site I have to admit I haven’t spent a ton of time on, but others I know have recommended it. There’s a nice resource page on the site with a pretty robust list of other sites that will help the creative person “live a creative, fulfilled life” as well.

Sample blog articles: Tap into Creativity by Letting Go; Just Do the Work; Never Too Late to Bloom; Why Planning Isn’t Always the Answer; Oh, That Inner Critic; Chasing the Light: The Search for Creative Balance, etc.

99u: Insights on Making Ideas Happen

I visit this site at least once or twice a week to see what’s new. 99U’s mission is “to share pragmatic insights on how to push bold ideas forward . . . and ‘demystify the creative process.’” The philosophy here is that creatives often focus more on idea generation than idea execution, and the action-oriented insights found on this site – in the form of interviews, articles, videos, and blog posts – aim to change that. You’ll find loads of actionable tips here for getting the ideas out of your moleskin and into reality.

Sample blog articles: 10 Creative Rituals You Should Steal; The 5 Most Dangerous Creativity Killers; The Case Against “Do What You Love”; How Your Friends Affect Your Creative Work; Talent is Persistence: What It Takes to Be an Independent Creative; Beat Procrastination by Adding Rewards to Your Day; Don’t Get Screwed: The Contract Provisions Every Creative Needs to Know; 7 Habits of Incredibly Happy People, etc.,

And there you have it, a short list of online resources for creative inspiration, education, and biz & marketing advice.

If you know of other practical and effective resources for creatives not listed here, please drop ‘em in the comments below, you’ll be helping us all out! : )

[Sign up for free weekly updates and get instant access to the CREATIVE REBEL GUIDE TO WRITING A CLIENT-ATTRACTING ABOUT PAGE, plus copywriting & web marketing tips and other goodies for creative freelancers & biz owners that I only share with my subscribers, delivered straight to your inbox each Tuesday.]  

Filed Under: Business Inspiration, Resources Tagged With: ,

Creative Rebel Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: Sometimes Madness is Wisdom

December 9, 2013 by · 15 Comments

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

“All I want to be is very young always and very irresponsible and to feel that my life is my own – to live and be happy and die in my own way to please myself.”   ~ Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.

What springs to mind when you hear that name?  Jazz Age Flapper? Imbiber of champagne?  World traveler and partier extraordinaire? Famous novelist’s wife?  Mental health-challenged?

What about painter, poet, dancer, writer and rebel?

In case you’re wondering, “Well, who the heck is Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald anyway?,” she was the wife of celebrated novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, but more importantly, a deeply committed creative in her own right.

As an English major back in the aughts, I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby like most other self-respecting beret-wearing, clove-cigarette-smoking, faux hipsters of the day, but it was Zelda I always had a deep fascination with. I knew she was a creative and did some writing, but until recently, I never knew she painted and danced as well.

What brought lovely Zelda to mind for me again recently was a local exhibit at the Cameron Art Museum here in Wilmington. My buddy Carolyn and I decided to have brunch at the museum café for the $5 mimosas (priorities, people), and since there was a current exhibit of Zelda’s paintings up, we lingered and made our way through the gallery after indulging in bacon and booze.

(Note to self:  museum guards are completely humorless.  Sheesh! Story for another day.)

Since I was about to begin a new series of creative rebel profiles here on the blog, I thought Zelda was a fitting subject for the very first.

The exhibit, called “Sometimes Madness is Wisdom: The Art of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald,” featured 32 framed artworks created from 1927 through the late 1940s.  Interestingly, the title of the show was one she herself gave to an exhibition of her work at the Cary Ross Gallery in New York City in 1934.  

Zelda, You Rebel, You

After the taking in the exhibit I had to know more about Zelda, and the deeper I fell down the research rabbit hole, the more I fell in love with her.   

According to one source, “even as a child, her audacious behavior was the subject of Montgomery gossip.” Love that!  (I would have liked to have had that said about me – “even as a child, Kimberly’s audacious behavior was the subject of Memphis gossip,” but alas, as a child in Memphis, I was doing things like going to church with my grandparents on Sundays, and otherwise behaving like a proper southern youngster.  Yawn.  But I digress.)

As a teenager, Zelda actively flaunted the conventions of the day, drinking, smoking and hanging out with boys.  And this was in the early 1920’s, mind you.  She also loved and excelled at dance as a young girl, so the creative bug took hold early on.

Creators Gotta Create, Even When Madness Creeps In

After the success of her husband’s first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), Zelda and Scott became instant celebrities, partying and drinking their way around the globe and hobnobbing with literary luminaries like Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and other well-known writers, poets, artists and professional drinkers.

According to various sources, their marriage was a “tangle of jealousy, resentment and acrimony.”  Scott drank to excess; Zelda also enjoyed the drink, but didn’t slide down the slippery slope of heavy recreational drinking into alcoholism, as her husband did.

She kept a diary, which her hubs was inspired enough by to use passages from in his novels This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and the Damned.  She also collaborated with the Mister on several short stories and articles, and wrote a few short stories and articles of her own. 

All the while fighting the demons of madness that kept her in and out of clinics, sanitoriums, and other mental health facilities throughout her adult life.   (Ok, so “demons of madness” may be a little melodramatic, but she was hospitalized multiple times for mental health issues.  Plus, what with all this reading of Scott and Zelda’s prose while researching for this post, the phrase felt appropriate.)

While she and Scott were living in Paris in 1925, she began ballet lessons, and became obsessed with the idea of becoming a ballerina, training for up to 8 hours a day.  Around 1932, while being treated at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in Baltimore, she wrote an autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, in which she spilled the beans about her marriage to Scott, her obsession with ballet, and her nervous breakdowns.  In 1934, she began painting, working in oils, pastels, and watercolors, using dancers as a recurring theme.

This idea of needing multiple creative outlets is something I’ve noticed about many creatives I’ve known over the years – one creative outlet usually isn’t enough.  Writers paint, painters write, dancers are poets, poets are playwrights.  And so on.

As Long as I’m in the Mental Ward, I Think I’ll Write a Novel

And think about this for a minute – Zelda’s need to create was so powerful that she wrote a novel while in a psychiatric clinic.  Sure, maybe there’s a lot of uninterrupted down time to write in that situation, something every writer I know fervently craves, but she was being treated for mental illness. A wee distraction if you ask me.

In 1936, she entered the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina where she painted extensively and worked on a second novel. Tragically, she died in a fire at the hospital in 1948. Her husband had descended ever deeper into alcoholism, dying in 1940 of a heart attack. 

I cannot tell a lie: I find Zelda wildly inspiring. Because despite globe-trotting across New York, Paris, Alabama and other locales the whole of her life (she’s lived in more places than even I have, and that’s saying something), mental health challenges and hospital stays, and a tumultuous marriage to an alcoholic and fellow creative, Zelda never stopped expressing her creativity.   

Something to aspire to.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Zelda quotes (and believe me, it was hard to choose) . . .

“And only weaklings…who lack courage and the power to feel they’re right when the whole world says they’re wrong, ever lose.”

What about you? What painter, poet, artist or writer from the past has mesmerized and inspired you, and why? Let me know in the comments!

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{The Daily Creative} On Being a Creative Sponge

August 24, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

CAM Interior

{The Daily Creative is a regular-ish series of blog posts that explore finding creative inspiration in the everyday.}

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out. – Dee Hock 

I have to agree this is true.

I mean, think about it – how often have you been inspired by something another creative you admire is doing/has done?  So much so that you had to race right into your moleskin or notes app after you saw/read/watched the thing to scribble down a few thoughts for something of your own you would create?  

Pretty often, right?

As creatives, our problem seldom seems to be a lack of ideas, but rather the gap between having the idea and executing it.

And if you’re like me, I’m guessing a lot of that has to do with some old thoughts that are stuck in your noggin.

Thoughts like:

  • I could never do this as well as _________ does, so you know what, never mind. 
  • They’ll think I’m weird.
  • It’s already been done.
  • Come to think of it, I really don’t have time for another creative project.

When I have thoughts like these I know they’re coming from fear of rejection, resistance, or my inner critic. 

However.

When I immerse myself in the creative work of others, especially in a museum or art gallery setting for example, I believe anything is possible.  And I’ll likely make some notes right then and there on my iPhone for something I want to explore in my own work.  It’s only when I review those notes later at home and try to begin the new project that resistance, fear or criticism creep in.

Old thoughts, indeed.

What do you think?  Do you have recurring “old thoughts” that get in the way of creating as much as you’d like to?  Thoughts that stop you from doing something you were excited to do until it was time to actually get to work? I’d love to hear your insights in the comments! 

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{The Daily Creative} Where Creative Inspiration Lurks: Escape

July 25, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

{The Daily Creative is a regular-ish series of blog posts that explore finding creative inspiration in the everyday.}

One of the methods I find most effective for getting the creative juices flowing again is to get the hell out of Dodge. Or in my case, Wilmington, NC.

So I did that recently.  I met up with a good buddy in Tybee Island, GA for a few days of sun, fun, fried seafood, boatloads of stimulating conversation, and Happy Hour on the patio every day at 5:00 p.m. (I think that last bit was my favorite.)

And boy, did I ever need this trip.

You know those inflatable figures you see on the side of the road that dance around in the wind, trying to call attention to some small business with their goofy herky-jerky movements?  And how if they’re not inflated properly or the wind isn’t cooperating that day, they kind of bob around listlessly?

That’s a little bit like what I was feeling like.

But my Tybee trip changed that.

beach at Tybee Island, Georgia

beach at Tybee Island, Georgia

Because how liberating is it to be able to plan your days based simply on what you most feel like doing that day – or what you most decidedly do not feel like doing?  Like, say, dressing up in your monkey suit and showing up at a building to sit in front of a computer all day and have someone else – I’ve heard they’re called “bosses” – dictate what you do for the next 8 – 10 hours.  {Shivers.}

That’s the beauty of getting away.  Your days are your own to do with whatever you please.  And that kind of freedom breeds creative inspiration, which ideally carries over into your everyday life once you return home.  It’s as if something has been shaken and stirred – you can’t quite put your finger on it, but something is different.

The creative doors are blown off, and the ideas start knocking around in your head so fast and furious you write them down hourly in the Moleskin you carry with you everywhere you go, or in that tattered notebook in the bottom of your purse, or in Notes app on your iPhone.

I’m reminded of a passage about a character named Lily from Virginia Woolf’s novel To The Lighthouse:

Certainly she was losing consciousness of outer things. And as she lost consciousness of outer things … her mind kept throwing up from its depths, scenes, and names, and sayings, and memories and ideas, like a fountain spurting.

That’s been my reality since I got back from Tybee.  Fingers crossed the ideas and inspiration keep on a comin.’

What about you?  How does getting out of town for a few days, or at least away from your normal surroundings, affect your creative output?  And how do you keep that good creative vibe going once you return to your daily life?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about your experience with this in the comments below, so go on and share.  You know you want to.  : )

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{The Daily Creative} Notes on Liberating Yourself from Creative Deadlock

July 15, 2013 by · 51 Comments

The Daily Creative_#1

{The Daily Creative is a regular-ish series of blog posts that explore finding creative inspiration in the everyday.}

Lately I’ve been walking around in a creative funk.  Cranking out the work for clients, but letting my own creative projects and interests fall by the too busy, too stressed, too responsible, too insert-your-affliction-of-choice-here wayside.

It’s creative malaise; I’m feeling uninspired.

Is it just me who suffers from this malady, or does the same thing happen to you?

If you’re a creative who makes a living providing creative services to others, do you become so uber-focused on client projects that your creative capital is spent by the time you’re ready to let your freak flag fly on your own projects?

For me those projects are photography and non-client-related writing.  But lately, not so much.

So I’ve been thinking about what it would take to liberate myself from this impasse and get my creative mojo back.  And I think I’ve found the answer:

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London

The answer is finding creative inspiration in the everyday.  In the circadian rhythm of “normal” days. In the mundane, even. Because creativity is everywhere, sometimes you just have to remove the veil from your eyes to see it.

So my promise to myself is to actively seek out creative inspiration in my immediate surroundings, daily. In what I read, what I see, and what I experience.  And to find it in the far off yonder too.  I’ll look for it with a vengeance.  I’ll peek around corners for it. I’ll disappear down long hallways trying to find it. I’ll meditate on it.  I’ll ask the gods to visit it upon me.

And I’ll chronicle it here, in this new category on the blog called “The Daily Creative.”

I have no idea what this will end up looking like, could be boring as hell or wildly exciting, who knows?  But I won’t judge it, I’ll just be the conduit for whatever shows up and let it look like it wants to.

And you?

To all you creatives out there spinning your web of mad genius for clients during the day and finding the inspiration and the time for your own projects at night and on weekends (or wherever and whenever you find it), please weigh in here. Share your daily rituals, tips for staying in the creative flow, where and how you find inspiration, and especially, how you make the commitment to practicing your creative craft daily, even when there’s no one to invoice for it.

Please share in the comments below!

 

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