Tired at staring at a blank page waiting for inspiration?  Nothing coming out that remotely is creative?   Take a break, and if it at all possible go to some beautiful natural spot, whether it be local gardens, a lake, a beach, hill or mountain. Walk and feed your artist spirit and soul on the sights and sounds of nature.

Watch the ants carry small green leaves over a black patch of dirt. Look at the water gathered in the recess of a leaf, feel the moss on a rock or the rough touch of the bark of a tree.

Nature is so full of sounds, smells and sights to rejoice in, so full of beauty to inspire the artist in you. If you only relax and sink into being in this marvelous universe of endless potential, the ideas begin to flow once again.

Stand still. Take it all in. Let a minute seem like an hour by being so present.  Then walk and let the rhythm of your walking bring with it a new flow and rhythm of creative ideas.

Return then to your desk or easel. Now fill your pages or canvas with the beauty you have witnessed, or take some idea that came to you on your walk and begin writing.

Working too hard at being creative doesn’t work. Take a break in nature and see what comes forth!

Needing a way to help more your imagination flow and to see more clearly how a performance or other arts project will work out. Story boarding works really well not just for the film industry, where it first was developed. It can be adapted for theatre, for novel writing stories, plays and even for designing a creative website to market your art work or productions.

Story boarding, first developed by Walt Disney, is used in the film industry to pre- visualize the scenes of a movie by showing a layout of events as it will be seen through the eyes of a camera. Others have adapted it for different media, such as the design phase of web sites and other interactive projects.

A number of puppetry artists I know use it when designing their shows. I found it very useful when I was working on writing and staging my play “The Sorrowkeeper.”  Since I was adapting it from a short story I had written earlier, it allowed me to translate the story to the stage and visualize the scenes.

Not only did I do drawings of the scenes, I also added words to my story board to convey the atmosphere, and the sounds and the music I  wanted.

In the performance we were integrating ritual, dance, theatre, live music, masks and puppets. Many of the actors had to play multiple roles. Story boarding really helped me see how the different elements of the production would weave together, to visualize the rhythm of the play, and to plan scenes that would work.

So if you are planning a creative project, consider how you might adapt story boarding to the media you are working with, and use it to both plan your production and stimulate your imagination.

Do you know that there are deeps wells of creativity within you?  Are you often or sometimes stumped trying to access them?  Funnily enough, turning outwards and observing the works of other artists, can be one of the best ways to increase your own creativity.

I know our culture is obsessed with art work being innovative and original.  You may fear that studying others’ creative work will limit your own creativity and originality.

Quite the contrary!  The more you can expose yourself to the work of other artists, and the more you can absorb these works deep into your bones, the better for your artistic and creative growth.

It doesn’t mean you copy them. Although even doing that can be very helpful.  That’s how all the old masters learned how to paint.  And even though it’s gone out of fashion to do this in art schools, I think a good case could be made to bring back some of those ways of learning art.

Learning the foundations of your art by modeling the works of others, can teach you all kinds of things that it might take years to learn on your own. It can increase your sensitivity as to the nature of your art form and the possibilities within it.

By learning and reciting the poetry of your favorite poets whether they be T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Rilke, Rumi or some other muse, you absorb deep within you their rhythms and their images. By doing this your own creativity can be kindled, your sense of rhythm attuned, their images sparking in you more images.

Be less afraid of being unoriginal: anything you do will be different from what another does even if you draw exactly the same rose, or sing exactly the same song, or dance the same dance.

You can not only model other artist but use their ideas as a springboard for learning more about your own particular creative voice, or to get ideas for artist projects.

Just look at what they are doing that appeals to you. What don’t you like? This will help inform you about what you want to create.

As well, when you have a special project on your mind, you will be more perceptive than normal, more naturally curious about what they are doing. You may find an idea that you can adapt and use for your work, whether it’s the material they use, a theme they are treating, or the way they handle the medium.

Perhaps a painting by Georgia O’Keefe might inspire you to zero in and magnify part of a flower. Or you could adapt that idea by magnifying a part of the human body such as somebody’s lips and make it fill the whole canvas. Or you might like the colours and hues of a particular painting and use them in a weaving you are doing or a glaze for a ceramic piece.

Or you could take this passage from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

What powerful images even just title evokes!  Does this passage startle you with it’s depiction of spring as the cruelest month?

You could write another poem on  based on your experience of being in a very empty desolate, emotional waste land. You could create a dance on that theme, or  a sculpture of found objects, or a collage of “Memory and Desire” or a photograph of a land laid to waste by war, or drought.

The possibilities are endless.

Take a piece of paper out now, and take two minutes to jot down some ideas of what different art works or projects that you could do on the theme of waste land. And then turn it around and write down some notes on what you could create based on the opposite theme “land of milk and honey.”

I love Mexico and Mexican culture. One of the things I love most is the Mexican’s use of colour.

They love  bright colours, and use them liberally in decorating their houses.

In Xalapa, Veracruz,  the vibrant colours of the houses  bring  to life even the poorest neighbourhoods.  Bright oranges, sunshine yellow, cobalt blues, turquoise, pea greens- even the dull standard block homes built for government workers are transformed by each owner’s sense of colours.

These dazzling displays of unabashed, definitely not shy pastels,  warm my eyes,  and inspire my artist’s soul.

I  think I am going to be a little less serious with this blogging thing, and listen less to the voices of how it should be.
Damn it, I’d like to have some fun, rant a little and stop trying to be so damn practical.

So in the next few days, I am going to drop all my rules, and do what I do in my art, which is step out on the ledge and jump.

Hey, okay so it might not be so great, and I might break some literary bones, but
on the other hand it  will be more fun and adrenalin producing.

And yeah I love adrenalin rushes! Yippee!

And maybe it will be a breath of fresh air, and bring me something new.
And hell if it doesn’t work I could always  go back to the trusted and true.
Gosh that does sound a boring thing to do!
So watch as I play, and throw the rules out.
Yes and I may be a little self indulgent and not speak to you.
But then try another day, and maybe something will spout
My god I am sounding like Dr. Seuss
Oh dear, oh dear, what I have let loose!

Have you ever watched “The Iron Chef”. I was just watching it tonight with my 12 year old son and was struck by how the methods they use, can be adapted to fire up your creativity.

For those who have not seen the show, it involves top chefs competing to produce the most tasty, visually exciting and creative dishes in under an hour.

They have on hand top notch cooking equipment, and top quality ingredients. At the beginning of the show, they are given one surprise ingredient which they must incorporate in a central way in their menu.

What they create in an hour is truly astounding. The surprise ingredient forces them to improvise, and the short amount of time, allows them little time to think and plan. They must rely on their right brain to come up with inspiration, and their left brain to very quickly plan. The element of competition adds to the excitement and creative impetus.

So how can this help you creatively?  When you are doing a creative project, whether it be creating a sculpture, writing a poem or book, or doing a drawing, see if you can incorporate some of the elements of “The Iron Chef. Put a crazy deadline so that you are doing it so quickly that your left brain can’t get in the way and  over analyze.  Introduce a surprise ingredient. For example, go to any page of a favorite poetry book and take the first quote you see.  Use it as a central ingredient or theme for your work.

Or bring some friends together and see what is each is able to create in 5 minutes, 10 minutes or an hour.  Or enter one of these competitions where authors or other artists create a literary or visual arts project in an evening or a weekend. So you might not win, but it will get your creative juices racing, and get you out having fun with other artists.

Do you have a hard time getting down to writing your blog, even though you may enjoy it? Does life somehow get in the way?

It certainly has for me. I started the New Year super motivated and wrote a whole
load of blogs. Then I had to move house, and I had lots of other projects to work on including my book on creativity.

My blog got sorely forgotten. I abandoned it, forgot it, left it unattended, thinking every week, “Got to get back to my blog.”  Every week there was a new excuse.

Well I had one for this week. But I am putting it aside. I am joining the 30 day blogging challenge organized by Jeanette Cates. I am doing it with a good friend, so that adds to my motivation. Apparently there’s already over a hundred people registered.

Want to join me on this venture. It’s free. Go to:

http://JeanetteCates.com/blog-challenge

Then come back here and tell me you’ve signed up.

Hey and if you get blocked about doing the writing check out my blog series  “Creative Flow: A Writer’s 7 Secrets to Stop Hating Writing and Begin To have Fun”

My creative juices are up.   I am enjoying writing like I’ve never enjoyed it before.  This is not just  a one day phenomenon.  It happens almost every time I put pen to paper.

This wasn’t always the case. I used to find writing excruciating. I remember many times during my first years at university, when I would lie on my bed either depressed or in tears about an essay I had to do. I loved the research but hated the writing.

Later I worked as a journalist and editor, and even wrote and published a book.  But most of the time I found the writing process painful.

So I decided to stop until I could find a way to make it fun. I quit my journalist job. I wrote very little for years.

Then I started doing daily pages  as suggested by Julia Cameron’s in “The Artist Way”. I did this on a regular if not daily basis, for several years. Later, I took a few courses in creative writing.

I began to learn how to write without my inner critic having the upper hand.  My writing started to free up, and when I worked in groups where we wrote together, other participants often expressed amazement at how quickly and freely I wrote.  My writing became fresher and more fluid.

Finally after all these years, my efforts to free up the writing process have paid off.  Whenever I write now it’s fun and motivating.

To help you love the writing process too, I’ll be blogging about my experiences in making writing a pleasurable process.  Look out in the next few days as I sum up up the strategies that have worked best. It took years for me to learn this stuff. It doesn’t have to be that way for you!

So here’s the first tip and probably the most important. Write your first draft of anything as fast as you can without editing it at all.  I know its hard but do your best not to judge the quality of what you are writing. It may seem like drivel and like utter nonsense . You may be repeating yourself. But just go on writing. Then leave it for a day or two.  Believe me you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you come back.

You may have heard this tip before. It is deceptively simple, but it works. Look out for my next blog posts where I’ll share more of the ways I’ve found to make writing a pleasure not a pain.

1. Green Arts Barns Project in Toronto, was organized and built to provide eco- friendly living and studio space for artists, programming and facilities for community art and environmental education, and a central market place where artists and local and organic farmers can sell their produce. It’s a wonderful experience going to the Saturday market, being able to meet with one’s neighbours and share conversation, having a chance to buy fresh organic food , and being able at the same time to visit artists galleries and work spaces.
2. The efforts of musicians like Bono and U2 who held huge worldwide music concerts to raise money and consciousness around global climate change shows how artists can use their talents to foster change.
3. Artists, over the years, have broken the silence and taboos around AIDS, they’ve written plays, produced films, and created paintings and sculptures to bring home the human suffering and issues raised.
4. Patch Adams, a wonderful doctor, clown and social activist, has devoted over 30 years to changing the health care system. He brings a prescription of creativity, humor and joy to healing ourselves and the planet.
5. Thich Nhat Hanh, Budhist Monk, Zen master, and founder of  France’s Plum Village  meditation community is the  author of more than one hundred books of poetry, fiction and philosophy. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  He combines his artistic and creative talents, with spiritual practice and and  activism around issues of global peace.

So let’s look at ways we can be inspired by such examples and create our own unique blends of arts, activism and spirituality.

All of us are taught as we grow up our family and society’s ideas of success.  Few of us, have  the natural talents and personality traits that fit in well with all of what we’re taught.

Mostly, there’s some aspect of our being that doesn’t fit in to these beliefs and concepts of success.  And for some of us creative, modern renaissance types, the way we are just doesn’t mesh with the norm. We’ve been taught to think of ourselves as “flaky” because we have so many passions and interests and can’t seem to settle down.

The problem is we keep playing at a futile game, trying to please our family and our society, trying to adapt ourselves, and never feeling comfortable in our own skin.

If you are fed up with trying to fit in, here are three tips for creating success on one’s own terms:

1. Create a new mold. Whether you are 26 or 86, stop blaming yourself for not fitting in!  There are in fact an unlimited number of ways in which you can design life to suit your particular talents and personality make-up. You simply haven’t been shown what they are.Most people have never gotten clear about who they are and what their nature is. Or they’ve been trained for so many years to deny or ignore it that they can’t see it anymore. So, the first step is to rediscover and accept who you are.
2. Model creative people who have led successful and fulfilling multifaceted lives. Instead of seeing all the examples of people who seem to be perfectly satisfied with one career and passion, search for role models who have led lives with the variety and excitement you secretly yearn for.
3. Keep experimenting. Some ideas from your creative mentors may work for you. Others may not. Have the courage to use, adapt or discard what doesn’t fit. It takes awhile to figure out what works best.

   Get past the “shoulds” and then you can see the key things to focus on for the moment as well as what can be left for another time, or dropped entirely.  Lifestyle design changes over time, and is constantly adapted to what life brings you, as well as what you plan for.

How have you been limiting yourself by trying to fit in?  Which of these ideas can you use right away to create success on your own terms?  Go ahead and think of one step you can take today, to get you more aligned with your authentic self.