Creativity begets creativity

As January rolled in, I promised myself to try and do one creative thing a day, no matter how small.  One day all I managed to do was glue a funny caption onto a photograph, but it still counted as progress in the collaborative art journal I was dragging my feet on.

With this goal in mind, I enrolled in Randel Plowman's 30-Day Creativity Workshop.  I knew I might need a little extrinsic motivation to gain some traction.  And of course it's working.  This first week of class involved a simple paper quilt exercise:

I'd pulled out several dozen magazine pages and cut the quilt shapes from the whole stack, not really knowing which pieces would catch my attention.  With the project completed, I had a huge pile of magazine scraps leftover.

I found myself feverishly gluing them into pleasing formations in a sketch book.

 

 They are quick and loose and don't mean anything, but I am flexing a neglected muscle and it feels good.

Life is busy and full right now, and coupled with the dark cold weather I am mostly inclined to lay on the couch under a fuzzy blanket.  Pushing myself to do that one small thing a day has re-ignited my interest, and motivated me to spend longer weekend hours in my art room.

And so collages are being made, postcards are being painted, new and old things are being mailed, and there is a growing body of evidence that momentum is building.