creativity – sara mcguyer

The Making of Things

December 6 Make.
What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Prompt author: Gretchen Rubin)

My work involves making things every day. Email designs. Web banners. Marketing calendars. In my spare time, I try to keep a personal creative project in the works. My latest:

A pair of fingerless mitts with picot edging, knit from an organic cotton/wool blend yarn. Sadly, I’ve already misplaced them after only a couple of wears. I’m hoping they’ll turn up soon.

There are always projects I want to work on, things to make. I spent less time in 2010 on painting than I’d hoped. I started a series of bird paintings two years ago and planned to finally add a peacock, owl and penguin to the collection in 2010. Maybe in 2011?

Since then new ideas for projects have taken root in my mind, so I may never paint another bird. What’s more important to me is to always have a creative endeavor in process, whether it’s writing, music-related or making art.

Balancing projects like knitting, where I create by following a pattern, with projects entirely of my own design seem to flex different areas of the brain. I do firmly believe that these personal creative pursuits both keep me sharp and inspire my work in my day job.

What do you think? Do independent projects inspire you in your day job? Or do you get more benefit from considering them a separate creative outlet?

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This post is a part of #reverb10 by Gwen Bell. Gwen and her team enlisted a group of authors to write prompts for each day in December. Participants can blog, tweet or post photos in reaction to the prompts to reflect on the past year.

What is That Thing Anyway?

December 4 Wonder.
How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Prompt author: Jeffrey Davis)

Long ago, in a high school classroom, I learned a lesson about cultivating wonder. Mr. Hughes, an English teacher with a knack for prodding creativity, presented a strange object to the class. He asked us to guess what this flat block of green-painted wood with two metal scrolls coming out of it could be. To be honest, I don’t even remember what it was, or what I guessed for that matter, and simple identification wasn’t the real point of the exercise anyway.

Several students took turns, each with his or her own idea of uses for it. Mr. Hughes would hold the object in front of them while they guessed. When my turn came I took the object from his hands so I could move it around, examine it from different angles. I pulled the metal scrolls apart, and upon letting them go they made a clanging sound.

“Exactly!” he said. He didn’t just want us to look at the object. He wanted us to explore it by engaging all of our senses. It took more time and effort to investigate further and taking it from his hands hadn’t been part of the instructions. But new possibilities were suddenly unlocked. Movement and sound weren’t part of the equation when merely looking at the object. I’m sure he had no idea how much this small moment shaped my thinking.

The brain is wired to make quick observations. Rely on only one sense, and you’ll likely follow the fast and easy path your mind creates for you. Consider the McGurk effect, when what you see can override what you hear. How easy is it to accept what we see and move on, when our own brain will play tricks on us to keep the world orderly?

Openness and patience to wonder and discovery. That’s the key to my world view. This way of operating can be quite infuriating to type A personalities. I might seem pokey or scattered to someone more interested in the direct path. There’s method in this madness, though. And a whole world out there to mull over.

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A Less Intact Box

Scientists at the Karolinska Institutet, one of Europe’s largest medical universities, have managed to show that the ability to form divergent thought and find many different solutions to a problem is similar in healthy, highly creative people and in people with schizophrenia.

“Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” says associate professor Dr. Fredrik Ullén about his new findings.

The research used divergent psychological tests and looked at dopamine D2 receptors and the flow of information from the thalamus of the brain. See the full article for more science-y goodness.

Perhaps the two little characters from the other day were onto something when they said there was no box?

Discovered via DoseNation.
Image credit: Aaron Michels