Creative Life Sampler

Small Units, Broad Application Whether I'm attempting to recreate a pattern without instructions, resizing a block by enlarging or reducing it's dimensions, or puzzling out my own design, once the overall idea is established, it's best to begin a quilt project with the smallest piece. This little reminder has been posted in my sewing room for years,... and sometimes I still forget the wisdom of its advice. Recently, two encounters reinforced this approach for me.  The first was the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit I wrote about last week. I was struck by a display which explained that the foundation for all of his inventions was the seven mechanisms of "simple machinery": the pulley, wedge, axle, inclined plane, gear, screw and sheave.  If, for instance, Leonardo was commissioned to create a weapon for a patron, he began with the basics and built from there. The commission, - or prompt,- was the genesis for the creative process. The solution to the pr...

da Vinci Exhibit Continued (3 of 4) It is worth noting that as extraordinary as Leonardo was, one might not grasp the magnitude of his accomplishments from a mere perusal of his notebooks. The curators of this exhibit brought his genius to life. Hands-on exhibits were scattered throughout the galleries and the many groups of school children we observed were quite captivated. Perhaps the most impressive part was the fantastic craftsmanship used to make Leonardo's ideas a reality. No doubt hours of patient research, trial and error, and painstaking execution went in to presenting things which, in many cases, had only existed on the pages of the Codex Atlanticus . The scope and breadth of Leonardo's interests and pursuits is truly remarkable. It was amazing to see how deeply he searched to understand the world around him and record his findings. He applied that level of passion to everything he examined. The power of observation, the ability to decipher what he was lear...

Obstacles and Collaborating   (5 of 5) Is there anything that you personally find an obstacle to your creativity? And how do you overcome them?( Launa is quoted in  blue , Bill in  red .) The biggest obstacle to creativity is the thought that you have to create something that is good. It’s a very hard trap to resist. Instead of focusing on your creativity and coming up with an interesting groove, lyric, etc., you end up focusing on “I need to create a really great song that we can learn, put on an album and perform.” That doesn’t work. It’s important to make good decisions about which songs should advance and become full arrangements for a recording, but that’s the tail end of the process. In my case, I need to write a lot of bad songs to get some that will develop into what I hope will be good songs.  I think that’s true no matter what you’re creating. When I was illustrating, I would do lots of little sketches called “thumbnails” before choosing which one...

Individual Expression (4 of 5) So, to you, Miles of Music means...? (Launa is quoted in blue , Bill in red .) Well, great creative environments like Miles to Music enable people to just get started, and then they learn to strengthen whatever they produce, through a process that everyone can apply.   How about your vocations… Launa how has teaching influenced the way you create? Being surrounded by middle school students every day is a great reminder of the value of effort,... and the value of failure. Middle school students — as awkwardly unfinished as they tend to be — go through huge amounts of growth, in part by working hard each day just to stay afloat socially, emotionally, and academically. We tend to throw work at them that they can’t always do easily. That reminds me of how much adults have to learn from children about being confident and soldiering on in the face of uncertainty. Have you ever seen people struggle with the frustration or discouragem...

Lessons from Music Camp  (3 of 5) So you would definitely recommend Miles of Music? (Launa is quoted in blue , Bill in red .) Definitely! Our time at the camp has resulted in an enormous improvement in our songwriting, arranging and performance f or our own band, New Yeller . A big percentage of our songs were started on the island, or improved through the creative proce s s. Eventually all good things come to an end and you have to get back to the everyday life of the “real world.” Is it difficult to sustain that level of creativity when you go home?  We both have full time jobs, and we have been raising two kids for the last 20 years. There are so many priorities in our normal lives that it would be easy to say, “we don’t have time for that.” However, the process of writing, arranging, and performing music with New Yeller is so energizing that we tend to just feel inspired by that.  It sounds like this creative outlet is an important part of your ...

Music on Three Mile Island (2 of 5)  One of the paths on the island. It turned out that, before they brought their family to TMI for summer vacation, Launa and Bill attended  Miles of Music , a camp for musicians of all levels and experience which takes place on the island each June. They write and perform music together and I thought it would be interesting to share our conversation. (To make it easier to follow the give and take, Launa’s contribution is in blue and Bill’s is in red .) Tell me more about Miles of Music… This is a remarkable creative community of Americana and roots musicians who gather for a week once a year.The founders Kristin Andreasson and Laura Cortese partnered with Dinty Child, the off-season manager of Three Mile Island, to come up with this unique experience. It’s an incredible place to generate new songs, to learn new skills, and to let yourself try out new aspects of musicianship. I hear there is a waiting list for the camp, what m...

Summer on an Island  (1 of 5) Picture for a moment a large vintage building with a wrap-around porch nestled in the center of woods on an island in New England. On the porch there are long tables where multiple families, friends and strangers-turned-friends gather for meals in the warmth of their summer vacation. This is an Appalachian Mountain Club family camp on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire called Three Mile Island. And last summer, this is where we got to know Launa Schweizer and Bill Lienhard. Rows of tables set for the next meal. It began simply enough with introductory questions and responses as we passed dishes across the table in the family style sharing of a meal. One thing led to another and we ended up talking about creativity... (For more information on this summer family camp, check out this link:   http://www.3mile.org/ )

A Unique Art Form   I'm always on the lookout for inventive, unique forms of creativity. It is especially meaningful to me when the artist uses recycled or "repurposed" materials. So it was delightful when I stumbled across the work of  Shana Radashaw and Jed Swanson in the gallery section of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center recently.  They use broken musical instruments as their "canvas" and create works of art with vibrant color, intriguing textures (hence the posted admonition not to touch the art work!), lots of pattern, reflective elements, and a highly polished surface. You don't have to be a music lover to appreciate the craftsmanship behind these pieces! I could see an unused instrument with sentimental value, getting a second life through this artistic expression. It is a great example of "upcyclying" or "creative reuse" - transforming "castoff" items from trash to treasure.  Looking for a new...

Creativity and Our "Occupations"   (2 of 2) History is full of the documentation of humanity's creativity. It is not limited to a certain age group, a specific gender, or culture, or any other construct. The desire to design and make something, compose and perform, experiment and invent, speaks to an inherent need to express the quality of creativity... it's a desire we all, more or less, possess. While catching up with a couple of moms recently, I heard about how their sons are doing. In one case, a young college student had taken up pottery and was finding a lot of joy and peace in the creative process of working with clay. He has discovered that this activity brings balance to his day, offsetting the stress he had been experiencing in his rigorous college studies. In the second instance, a mom of two young men in their mid-to-late twenties told of new artistic outlets her sons were pursuing. One son had taken up painting in the after hours of his work as an...

Creativity and Our "Occupations"   (1 of 2) A couple of weeks ago, as we were doing errands in the car we listened to the music of the Russian composer Alexander Borodin. The host of the show mentioned that Borodin had been a chemist, and from the other side of the car my husband said “Of course... the Borodin reaction!” (what a nerd) It got me thinking about this 19 th century scientist/composer. According to Wikipedia, "he regarded medicine and science as his primary occupations", and obviously his work has informed subsequent generations of scientists. But he was also a "prominent" composer and today he may be  more widely  remembered for his music. Borodin clearly loved both pursuits, devoting time and energy to developing a proficiency which allowed him to make significant lasting contributions. If I could interview him today I would ask him how he balanced these interests. I’m curious about how he structured his day and how he accom...