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Have I lost my creativity?!?
Is it art block or something more sinister? Do you feel, as I do, that there are no ideas swirling in the maelstrom of your mind? No matter how often pinterest is opened, closed or refreshed, nothing ever gets off the ground. Maybe it’s an art supply or materials issue, so you keep adding to cart in hopes of filling that void, but unboxing your “gifts” only brings a flicker of joy, gone too soon. Sketchbooks, canvases, paper lay barren and you don’t have the energy anymore. What happened? You were so full of ideas, bursting at the seams, and now, just a shell. Discarded and empty. This is where…
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Overcome burnout through creation
It’s been a long week, and it feels like there’s no rest in sight. The creative juices aren’t flowing as well as we’d like them to and we are tired, mentally and physically, stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of work, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat. Although that may be manageable in the short term, just like a tiny crack in a structural part, there is a creep, slowly propagating as we apply more load and eventually, that crack becomes bigger and bigger until a final snap brings it to an end. When analogous cracks appear in our life, patching the cracks sounds like a great idea until they start…
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How lovely are the stars before dawn!
I’m not a morning person, at least not by choice. There are times where waking up early before a commute to work is…uncomfortable. It does not fill me joy to leave the safe refuge of the blankets but it must be done. There are some days (or perhaps some nights) however, where there is a sense of stillness and calm that cannot be found in the daylight hours. Soft jazz playing in the background and the comforting darkness clouds the early morning in an ethereal haze, mystical. The greatest joy is the twinkle beyond the curtains, opening up to reveal shining gemstones in the vast night sky. In the morning…
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Thinking outside the gear box – engineers and creativity.
I recently started working full time. It is the first time I’ve ever worked as an “engineer” and I’ve made some interesting revelations. 1) STEM (that is science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has some pretty obvious differences to the Arts. 2) The similarities are quite striking, provided you can dig through all of technical know-how first. Everyone knows the concept of left and right brain functions, the logical and rational versus the creative and emotive. But are they really that different? Look, I’m no expert when it comes to biology or the complex inner workings of the human body but I’ve seen the creative spirit manifest in new and interesting…
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5 Ways to Get Out of a Creative Slump
We’ve all been there. The pieces you’re making feel off somehow, your scraping at the bottom of the inspiration barrel and nothing seems to be working anymore. Well despair no more, for I have found 5 ways to tackle that blocked feeling and get back to your A game! INDULGE – You know that thing that you’ve been meaning to do for fun but never got around to it? Now’s your chance to get around to it! Got an itch for Naruto fan art or a nostalgic pop beat? Go for it! We tend to forget the reason why we became creators in the first place, and sometimes, giving in…
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Is “bad art” really that bad?
I’ve been thinking a great deal about “bad art” lately. It seems in this world of technology, communication and social media, every thing HAS to be perfect. Every Instagram profile has refined works of art and YouTube channels portray amazing time-lapse paintings. What we don’t see is on social media is probably the most important thing aspiring creatives need to see, failure. Sure, you’ll see a clickbait title with the word FAIL plastered across it, but often these videos are made in jest and don’t seem to address the real issue of failure. Even people who show their sketchbooks, have the pages filled with rendered illustrations instead of the chicken…
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Exposure and Experience: 5 tips to be a better creator.
Okay… I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t very good at creative pursuits 5 years ago. I loved painting and dancing but I wasn’t creative. It took me a while, but I feel that I’ve gotten better, not only technically but also in expressing creatively. While these are mostly related to the visual arts, particularly painting, I believe many of these tips can be applied to any expressive or creative art form, be it performing or even technological innovation. Physical Exposure is the KeyPrior to 5 years ago, I had only physically been to a gallery once – to see a Salvador Dali exhibition. Now, I take time out…
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Aquaman, a breath of fresh sea breeze.
Today, I saw Aquaman. It was full of amazing characters and wonderful action scenes but most of all, I saw what I believe to one of the greatest means of creative expression – aesthetics. Man! This movie was so visually appealing! As a great lover and admirer of the sea, it was so refreshing to see(sea haha!) the way the director James Wan envisioned life under the ocean. The film presented a perfect merge of comic book visual accents and vivid, child-like imagination, complete with glowing jellyfish, riding on seahorses, meditating amongst manta rays and the sunken city of Atlantis. There is a certain way the colours and figures move…
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Creativity as a tool for the introvert.
I am a textbook introvert, give me two hours of socialising and I’m knackered. Over the past few months of soul searching, what I’ve realised is that this introversion has often been the underlying catalyst for my ideas and inspirations. Generally, an introvert is one who gains energy by spending time alone and tends to feel tired after a certain amount of socialising. In spending time alone, I often find that my mind is buzzing with ideas and interesting revelations that socialising simply cannot replicate. I believe this harks back to the comfort and emotional freedom introverts have when alone. These “shower thoughts” acts a means for the introvert to…
