finding creative motivation :: bucket list of creative stimulation exercises {step 3}

image from ikea

let me first start off by saying that this step, quite honestly, is whatever floats your boat. but i do encourage you to test out almost all of my suggestions because you never know what will get those creative juices a flowin'...

i find that i have some go-tos stashed away in my back pocket for when i desperately need some creativity: tea and incense, artful movies, listening to bjork...just to name a few. i have provided a list to help you find something that works for you. Now, if something works once, it may not work right away again but keep it in your back pocket for future use.

start off by trying the ones that most intrigue you but try to be open to all of the suggestions. after all, you just never know! i've found myself in the most seemingly uninteresting situations and have been surprisingly stimulated. see?! you just never know!

so hopefully you have some idea of what it feels like to be creatively stimulated or have an imaginative breakthrough or have a 'lightbulb' moment. if not, i can only describe it as a sudden bolt of excitement and flow of ideas -- total breakthrough in my opinion. it's beautiful and glorious. be sure to always keep a little journal {can be a small pad of paper or post-its} or sketchbook with you wherever you go. you'll want to write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind.

DO NOT CENSOR YOUR IDEAS

there is no such thing as a stupid or useless idea. learn to embrace them...all of them. they may not seem as stupid or useless at a later date. they might even seem brilliant by then! honestly, it happens! i speak from experience. but try to be positive towards your flow of free-wheelin' ideas. this practice will only encourage a more free-flowing, steady stream of ideas.

i also like to do this thing called 'piggybacking.' when an idea will come to me, i let it work itself out. then, i try to elaborate and build on what i've already developed. possibly thinking about what i've come up with and translating it into different mediums.

okay! so here we go! remember to have fun and channel your little 6 year-old self - full of energy and a thirst for exploration. now, get to gettin'!

BUCKET LIST OF CREATIVE STIMULATION EXERCISES::

• go to world market and pick out some beautiful, exotic incense or even candles if you'd prefer. place them around your house or workspace and let the foreign aromas stimulate your senses and imagination.
• drink tea! stash has so many deliciously stimulating blends. some of my favorite go-to flavors are chai green tea and moroccan mint tea. test them out and even pick up a crazy creative mug to drink them from.
• go to the library and look through sections you've never been through before. see what kind of things catch your eye. indulge your curiosity.
• take a roadtrip to somewhere you've never been.
• take the long route home
• watch the movie yes man and get inspired to start saying yes to things - you never know what you may open yourself up to
• take a picnic to a not-so-typical setting
• walk in a park
• watch masterpiece theater classics
• listen to really experimental music and even if you don't like what you are hearing, think about certain elements of the composition that you can definitely appreciate as a fellow artist. you can youtube their music for free to see if it's something you can get into. just sit with your eyes shut and listen to the music...while you're doing so let your creative mind wander wherever.
• Bjork {eclectic}
• CocoRosie {freak folk}
• Sneaker Pimps {trip-hop}
• The Good, The Bad & The Queen {song cycle also a mystery play about london}
• Journey to the West {soundtrack to chinese musical composed by damon albarn of gorillaz}
• Justice - A Cross the Universe live {opera-disco elctronica}
• google more!!
• watch visually interesting or imaginative films
• moulin rouge
• children of men
• hellboy 2
• moonrise kingdom
• romeo and juliet {baz luhrman version}
• coffee and cigarettes
• sin city
• i'm not there
• amelie
• metropolis
• persepolis
• a little princess 
• what dreams may come
• blade runner
• memento
• check out this imdb list that has some other great picks!
• watch old movies - you'll allow your mind to journey to a different time
• charade {thriller with cary grant and audrey hepburn}
• bringing up baby {comedy with cary grant and katharine hepburn}
• the paleface {comedy with bob hope and jane russell}
• metropolis {again! one of the first and arguably best science fiction films}
• the man who knew too much {doris day, jimmy stewart by hitchcock}
• gidget {sandra dee}
• on the waterfront {marlon brando - i coulda been a contender - epic!}
• this list has some really old experimental and sometimes heavy films. i can't speak for all of them but it's a really good list.
• challenge yourself to sketch out your ideas -- even if you think you suck at drawing -- don't let that inner voice hold you back
• visit museums. always be open to learning - keep your mind open and free.
• study science and history
• read conspiracy theories or articles about secret societies...it truly allows you to become imaginative.  teach your mind to be open to seemingly impossible or unexplainable things. it will open you up to a new creative process. to start: 
• loch ness monster 
• bermuda triangle 
• illuminati 
• the philadephia experiment
• giant squid
• roswell
• find more! 
• study ancient cultures and their artifacts. this has always provided me with endless inspiration
• visit antique stores. seek out odd and interesting items that allow you to learn about the past. some of my most interesting finds have been mourning jewelry and odd fellows' items with their symbols engraved
• do an activity a child would do: finger paint, fly a kite, play catch, visit a zoo, play dress up. it will allow you to see the world in another way. it will also give you a sense of excitement about, well, everything.
• go to a comic book store and browse through the indie section. get lost in the art, stories and uniqueness of it all.
• go see a play, opera, concert or some kind of live performance art.
• read/watch fantasy - it will teach your brain to step out of the unexpected.

to check out the previous steps in this finding creative motivation after a breakup series, follow the links below::

step one
step two

censor negativity not ideas

feel free to save to your desktop or print out and hang. for personal use only though.

hello everyone!
sorry i have been mia lately but i have had quite the hiccup in moving and am now in the process of looking for a new place. but i really wanted to share this with you.

lately, i have been trying to be more mindful in hopes to keep up my positivity and creativity. i've noticed that it is so easy to be negative about things; it's even easier to let people say negative things about your ideas. this is the worst part because it literally kills off your idea and will stifle your creativity if you let it.

never censor your ideas.  
explore them.


so today...and well, uhhh, forever, censor negativity and not your ideas.


have a happy tuesday!

billie holiday :: inspiration in unexpected places

i remember googling images of billie holiday early one morning while i was on the train. i have always loved her music and her style. but i must have been listening to one of my favorite songs entitled billie holiday by miike snow. it's funny how inspiration seems to be one unending stream of correlations sometimes. here's a picture i found of her and i spruced it up with some color. the flowers in her hair was her signature look. boy was she ever magnetic performing with her amazing voice and looking like that. it was probably magical. how i wish i could have been there.

so i have been editing a creative film short for you - for what seems like days now! i was meaning to have it go along with my finding creative motivation after a breakup series. hopefully, i will have it ready to share with you tomorrow - fingers-crossed!

but here is a little creativity tip for you::
miike snow and billie holiday are at first glance unrelated but when you are listening to music, your mind can take you to other places. let it. and be inspired by it. i like to let my mind wander and then i will usually end up googling things to find out more. usually it will end up in me finding some fixation i'm inspired by. then i will usually email myself with just a subject line - no body - about something that inspired me so i can bookmark it and go back to my folder full of inspiration at any time. sometimes when i go back through these emails, i will find a different way to be inspired by a particular subject. it's really fun.

you can even use pinterest now but i feel like i get sort of mindless with my pinning.

what inspires you?

mr. creative :: ridley scott's storyboards

storyboards by ridley scott for the films alien and blade runner.

can i just say that i am so psyched to see prometheus tonight?!

i am not much of a chick flick girl; i basically live for action and fantasy! {as well as the occasional indie and old movie flick} i also absolutely love any movie that looks inspiring. i studied cinematography while at school so when i see shots that inspire me...i'm pretty much sold on the movie. well, this was the case with prometheus.

the other day a thought popped into my head :: just how many films has ridley scott done?! seemed like a million to me - so i imdb'd it of course. as i read more about him as a director, i gained so much respect for his work. did you know that he actually studied graphic design? not only that, but he likes to do his own storyboards - which is really unusual for a director. for the film alien, he earned the film a much larger budget just because his storyboards were so beautifully intricate. as you can tell from the images above.

aren't they amazing?! i love finding these well-rounded, passionate creatives. it makes me feel less foreign in my field. whenever i get down on myself about not having a defined focus in my art, i like to think of these types of successful people.

so my advice is to ::
dabble fearlessly in anything that intrigues you.
& NEVER FEEL GUILTY ABOUT DOING SO...
you never know what you will find that sparks that creative fire inside you.

beam me up, scotty.

if you would have seen the originals from this shoot you might be quite surprised at the stark contrast in style. i took these shots with my tripod and self-timer {apparently the canon i splurged on does not have the inner-workings to accommodate a remote -- epic fail.} on a beautiful, sunny morning. there were lovely trees in the shot. but it wasn't quite the mood i was going for. i tried to make the design and layout pay homage to a 60's b-movie space flick. i totally took my world out of the shot and created a new one that reflected what i had imagined in my head that day.

it was two mornings before the nato summit {i live in chicago} and my work gave us the day off because of safety concerns. i work about three blocks from the willis {sears} tower. there was a no-fly zone above most of chicagoland and at one point marine one came through along with a constant stream of military planes. there was this underlying tension throughout the city. parts of it became a ghost town. it was so eerie.

while i was on the balcony taking these shots, jets kept passing by. i am a huge aviary nerd so i kept staring up at them and missing my self-timed shots. so i decided to go with that. in my mind i started to really absorb the scene around me - imagining this 'war of the worlds' scenario. aliens, robots, spaceships, colonization of the human race - i totally ran with it. i love playing pretend. i think it is such a wonderful exercise to help you get your inner-creative out of it's shell.

remember when you were little? you used to imagine wild and crazy landscapes and scenarios with other little friends. you used to become completely absorbed in alternate realities on a daily basis. that's what you need to let your mind practice. not on a daily basis of course because you may start slipping...haha! but once a week just let it all go. it can be so much fun if you let it.

i can honestly remember the day when playing pretend didn't feel real anymore. it was a very sad day. i felt like i 'grew up' in that moment.

but that's the thing ::
growing up doesn't mean you have to give up dreams, 
or stop trying outrageous things 
or start taking yourself sooo seriously. 

so this weekend, challenge yourself :: play pretend!
1. absorb what's going on around you 
2. let it inspire your thoughts and daydreams 
3. then, let it take over 
4. begin to act out a scenario 
5. document it somehow so that you can look back on it 
6. maybe edit it to reflect what you were imagining 


***you don't have to edit it digitally either. you could collage yourself into a setting or even make a diorama! go wild! go nuts with it!

it makes me smile just looking at my poses and emotions knowing that i was playing pretend in that very moment. what will you pretend?

use your imagination

whenever i am feeling a bit lackluster on the idea front, i like to look back on inspirational images i've saved. this shoot with steve aoki, from zink magazine, always seems to inspire me. this photo shoot is so creative and reminds me to use my imagination. i find that channeling myself when i was little, and would imagine the most bizarre things, seems to let my creative brain run wild and free.

exercise that mind::
take something standard-issued, 
like a photo shoot of someone. 
now distort it in your mind.
let it shape and shift into something:: 
weird. unorthodox. amazing.
uniqueness is key.

you can't go wrong and you'll feel so stimulated.