SOURCES

Why is creativity important?

Hey there! Thanks again for being here to read along and create with me in this space, there’s a really exciting creative community happening here on Substack and I’m grateful we get to be a part of it.

Shoutout to paid subscriber Carlie Johanson for this awesome share from the LOOKING chapter (video below). If you feel comfortable, please share any images of your visual journal or assignments in this google drive folder.

Paid subscribers get access to everything here on Creative Connections and Celebrations, including my deep dive into Corita Kent’s Learning by Heart workbook study and more. 

Including our first LIVE Visual Journal Jam next Wednesday, March 27th from 5-6PM More details + how to register at the end, now let’s get to it!

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SOURCES

The same pull I felt last chapter towards doing the assignments in my journal, I feel in this chapter towards finding sources for creativity all around me. Like Charles Eames taught Corita, “to see that there is no line where art stops and life begins” (p. 42).

First, I think of my own creative sources & the gratitude I feel for every coffee on the couch conversation, class, workshop, powder day, article, book, I’ve had in my own creative life. Creative sources are friends, teachers, mentors, strangers - as Corita says, “we are each other’s sources'' (p. 43, 50).  They can also look like nature, the work of artists, and just things you like - for Corita she’d “gather things up first because I like them and then they become sources” (p. 48). This approach in thinking opens up many avenues for you to pull sources for creativity out of your daily life. 

Author and drawer

Austin Kleon

examines and writes about one of my favorite deep dive into sources through his book, Steal Like an Artist. Corita shared similar thoughts about “stealing” and “saluting your sources” - I think she would have really enjoyed reading Kleon’s book and the accompanying drawings.

Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist

Here’s when I like to ask my students, 

How do you find yourself intuitively collecting sources? I like to think of this as what are you into or paying attention too? For me right now, it’s shapes. Big shapes girl over here.

Who are sources in your creative learning? I personally think of M.Csikszentmihalyi as one of my sources of inspiration. I'm so thankful to share his work on Flow with all of you!

Paying attention to how you collect sources and where your sources of learning are happening can help lead you to discovering more sources! It really is a curious dive into what fuels your creativity and something we can practice in our daily lives, as we work to intertwin art and life. 

It’s why I think you should carry a notebook and pen everywhere you go. 

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This week in class, we’re asking -

Why is creativity important?

Asking ourselves about the importance of creativity is a way to direct oneself towards the unique intersection of where art and life connect, creativity can be imagined as the thread weaving the two together. There are many ways a creative person can collect sources from their daily lives. 

Connections to Corita’s approach of “words as sources” - I recently enjoyed listing to the this podcast with poet Mary Oliver about her creative process. Ms. Oliver also kept a journal while walking in nature - where most of her poems were first drafted. 

Don’t Hesitate

BY MARY OLIVER

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

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creative exercise: creative lineage

This one I took out of Austin Kleon’s Steal like an Artist, page 44. In this chapter, Kleon makes the argument to create the art you like - “do the work you want to see done” (p. 48). This means becoming a super fan of the creative work you like. Learn more about your lineage and see what connections you make uniquely being YOU.

timeframe: 10-20 Minutes

materials: visual journal and favorite mark-making items.

steps:

• Start by making a list of sources. Teachers, Friends, Experiences, i.e. you’re brainstorming here so list out as many as possible (5 mins)

• Awesome, you just “gathered” branches of your creative lineage. 

• Create a drawing or visualization of your various branches connecting with you. Everyone’s will look different, I want you to imagine you’re drawing how the sources interact with you. This drawing is a great exercise in reflecting about your sources.

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More fun creative connections to celebrate:

• If you’re not reading/subscribed to Creative Fuel, it’s time to get on it! This special and creative community around

  Anna Brones
  fuels my creative heart - especially this recent THE POWER OF ZINES.

• I really enjoyed (got a little nerd-y) on this lecture on Maslow’s Nature of Creative Inspiration by psychology professor Eric Dodson. 

• My cousin and I are our favorite cultural critics, this advertisement by Molson is absolutely perfect, Molson - See My Name | EN

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WEDNESDAY - MARCH 27th 5-6 PM MST – Join me for a live hour of visual journal exercises and open discussion on Chapters 1-4 from Learning by Heart.

ZOOM LINK HERE!