New print/illustration. When I have been sitting down with a pen and paper lately, all I want to draw are plants and vessels. Things that grow, and things that hold water for things to grow. I've been drawn to
sea foam greens
warm earth yellows
rusty reds
light mint
deep navy
calming grey
I love these colours and I love when I see them as I go about my day.
It is so awesome to be able to create something, and just be completely swept up in drawing, or playing music, or constructing with your hands, or writing just for the sake of it. I think it is one of the best feelings there is, when you forget about time and your incessant thoughts take a backseat and you are just completely focused and there.
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On that note, there is a great article here on creativity and its importance in shaping a rich, whole life.
I read it in the paper on Sunday and it kind of jolted something in me, reminding me again of just how much I love being creative in any way, and how it's something I'd like to make more time for. The article is basically about how in the act of creating we get to know ourselves better.
It's funny how a lot of people seem to think that they're "not creative types" and how the idea of creativity has become pigeonholed as a purely visual/art-based process. But it's not so limited.
I think anything you do that engages you fully, that you put something of yourself into and makes time sort of cease to matter, is something creative.
I know of one writer* who describes it as more of a state of being (which he calls flow) rather than a type of activity and I think that's telling. One way you can tell you are in a creative state like this is when the end product isn't really the point, because the process is so consuming and enjoyable in itself. So that could be anything really- from tinkering around under the hood of a car, to arranging flowers. The content is different but the state of creativity is the same. And it's such a wonderful thing.
* The very-hard-to-say Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, who also gave a really interesting TED Talk on creativity which is well worth listening to.
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