Flexing Your Creative Muscles

One of the things that I learned early on when I started my art classes (about 8 years ago) was the importance of a sketchbook journal. In almost every class, the teacher would request that you do a journal of some sort. It was part of our grade for Art 2-D (2 dimensional design). My teacher wanted us to write and draw for our journal entries. Why? Because the part of your brain that you need to 'turn on' for doing art is the right hemisphere of your brain; that's the creative part. The writing activity helps to get that process engaged. I have a handful (more than I would care to admit) of hardbound journal books that I've started and have abandoned. The writing was forced. Most of all, it turned into a recitation of the day's events. It didn't do a thing for getting my creative juices going. Then, thanks to my friend, Raine (she has a site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainek/) who told me about blogs and sent me a link to one of hers, I was INTRIGUED (is that how you spell that word? it looks wrong here). That was back in March '06. So, I gave it a try here at Blogger. Heck, it was free and it was simple enough for a novice like myself to figure out. Now, I find that I do about 2 journal entries (or, blogs as they refer to these here in blogland) per week. I often do not have a game plan for what I'm going to write, but wing it as I go. It usually starts with the image, though. I have created a file of images to choose from (and keep adding to them) and, just like you go to the refrigerator hoping to find something enticing to eat, I go to my folder of images. I pick something, and usually the writing just seems to fall into place. So, these blogs are like going to the gym for me in regards to excercising my creative muscles. I love the workout and look forward to it. Hence, you see in the image posted here, the reference to flexing your creative muscles. This collage was part of a round robin with our Albuquerque ATC group; each person had to create a 4"x4" (double sided) page. I think we each made about 12-15 pages of the same thing. Then, the co-ordinator of the project collects all the pages and collates them into 12-15 books. One for each of the participants. The idea for this book was to do a self-portrait. I have another page, but perhaps will post that one at a later date. These are called "Phat Books". Google it. I never heard of them until this past July and did a Google search and was surprised at how widespread it was! Soooo much to do...so little time. But, what fun trying, huh? : ) BTW, two of my most favorite books for when I just want to write for the sake of writing are: "Writing for Your Life" by Deena Metzger (thanks to Juliana Coles for turning me on to this book) and "Inner Outings" by Charlene Geiss and Claudia Jessup. Both of them available at Amazon or probably your favorite bookstore.