This is a Frame Art that I have printed and put in my studio. I really feel that yearning. It's 5.75" x 5.75"
It's also linked on WhipperBerry on their Friday Flair Link Party. 

Maybe being an artist doesn't lend itself to writing a Bucket List. It's kind of depressing and it's limiting. Doesn't leave room to recognize the moment and seize it. But, as I was lusting over some artistic type tools this morning, figuring out how I can manage to get them (oh, and I will get them) I realized that my Bucket List (a wish list of things to do before I die) came in an entirely different form. Mine is a Studio Wish List - a wish list of things to try before I die. So, I have started to create my wish list. I'm dreaming already. 

A Bucket List? No. A Studio Wish List? Yes! Yes! Yes! (Can I use anymore Yeses or exclamation points?) This is the way people must feel about their Bucket Lists, the way I feel about my Studio Wish List. I would give up food for some of these things. Is that sick and wrong? Wait, don't answer that.

Since I am just starting it today, what would you suggest goes on a Studio Wish List? I am so giddy I can't think of them but if you mention one I've probably thought about it before :)

Hope Series • Allegory of Healing

This is a piece that was a long time in the making really. When I saw the photos I had taken it reminded me of the hopelessness people can feel. Specifically, this is one of my daughters and it brought back memories of her life. And while painting it I had lots of time to reflect on our relationship and her life. 

She was born with a congenital anomaly that required surgeries and left her with some difficulties. They were the hardest to deal with during her childhood. And her care required physical pain. At one point, the strain became too much for her little 7 year old soul and she cried, "I wish I could die!" At that moment, I would have given anything to take her pain away. I yearned to do something. But couldn't. It was impossible. 

Searching for something, past her pain and mine, the thing that came to me was comfort and hope. I could give her the power of hope. A perspective past that moment. A view of the source from which strength comes. A balm for her wounded heart. 

I've thought of my own times of hopelessness and what it has been that has given me comfort and hope. Time and again, my greatest help and hope has come from the powers of heaven. This painting is about those critical junctures of life where we choose - hope or hopelessness. 

My daughter isn't 7 anymore. But, whether 7, 17, or 70, at those defining periods, I hope she will look to the windows of heavens, reach out to what is being offered, and have faith in the healing power of hope.

Symbolism
Some of the symbolism I see - 
     • When hopeless the foundation beneath you can feel as though it's deteriorating. Crumbling or melting away
     • We all have vessels that need to be filled
     • Personal revelation flows from heaven to us but we have to be willing and ready to receive it
     • There is no certain time frame to healing and hope will be need time and again
     • There is a healing balm within our reach

What do you see?

These are paintings in progress and aren't finished. I started them a while ago. 

Sometimes I get stuck. It's hard not to judge a painting before it's finished. I shouldn't, but I do.  When something's in the making it's usually not pretty, but it's all you see. (Kinda like kids, but that's another story.) So, I judged, and got very discouraged. I put the bottom one aside and started the top one. I'm 'feeling it' better with this one. 

It's not the models. They are both beautiful! They also happen to be my sisters. 

I think now I've halted because of my paintings skills, or lack thereof. I know some of you are going to go, "oh right, she can't paint, not. I can't draw a stick figure". But from my point of view, I'm still a beginner and don't have everything down, so I hesitate. Paintings are reflective by nature and take time. But, not that reflective. And shouldn't take that much time. 

So, I'm posting - just to get them on my mind again and to maybe see anything or have something come to me.

I'm very excited about the progress of this painting. Except. Except, white takes FOREVER to dry. And I have to wait for it to dry to go on to the next layers. I hate waiting. (Bonus if you know which movie that line comes from.) But, wait I must. And because misery loves company, you have to wait with me. *crickets*

Creativity is about thinking. And I've been thinking about creativity, or the lack thereof, for awhile. I decided to take from my notes THINGS WE CAN DO TO DEVELOP CREATIVITY (from an article, The Creativity Crisis by Po Bronson Ashley Merryman) and put ideas into action with Creative Kickstarts. These are things that can be done, if they are done, to help on the road to being more creative, imaginative, and excited about life.

Here's a website, TheyDrawAndCook.com, that I found (and talked about it in this post). So that the adults don't have all the fun, they have a KIDS DRAW AND COOK section. Your kids, and you, can draw a recipe and use their forum to display the work. 

     • Create problem/solution exercises
     • Emphasize idea generation
     • Fact-finding is a stage in the creative process
     • Practice creative activities to recruit the brains' creative networks and gradually change neurological patterns
     • Apply approach as an everyday process of work or school
     • Recognize and nurture creativity

The thing about becoming a creative thinker is that it requires action. Actually doing something. This might be a little uncomfortable at first. Realize you are maybe working new parts of your brain - strengthening your creativity intelligence.

     • Pick a recipe (family, favorite, or funny one?)
     • How would you lay it out so that someone could follow the recipe?
     • What engaging element would you add to get people's attention?
     • Sketch out several ideas
     • Take one refine it, finish it and submit it 

Even if you don't submit to DrawAndCook.com still do this activity, your brain won't take back the process because you didn't submit on their website.

If you only read one article on creativity in your life then this should be the one. It is interesting, relevant, and gives doable ideas within reach of most of us to build creativity. And clearly there is a need for it.

ARTICLE THE CREATIVITY CRISIS Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman  10 July 2010

Like intelligence tests, Torrance’s test—a 90-minute series of discrete tasks, administered by a psychologist—has been taken by millions worldwide in 50 languages. Yet there is one crucial difference between IQ and CQ scores. With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect—each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling.

Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”  Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
Really you should read the article but here is my bullet list from reading to get you interested.

THINGS WE CAN DO TO DEVELOP CREATIVITY
• Let kids ask questions and give them freedom to find the answers
• Encourage uniqueness, yet provide stability
• Be highly responsive to kids' needs 
• Challenge kids to develop skills
• Hardship can create a need to become more flexible
• Free play - acting out characters (role playing), voicing someone else's point of view
• Paracosms play - fantasies of entire alternative worlds
• Tolerate unconventional answers
• Allow some detours of curiosity
• Create problem/solution exercises
• Recognize and nurture creativity
• Emphasize idea generation
• Use a problem-based learning approach
• Fact-finding is a stage in the creative process
• Deep research is a stage in the creative process
• Solve a problem
• Practice creative activities to recruit the brains' creative networks and gradually change neurological patterns
• Apply approach as an everyday process of work or school
• Process: Fact finding, problem finding, idea finding, solution finding, develop plan, execute plan
• Encourage openness, playfulness

SOME THINGS THAT COME FROM CREATIVITY

• Less despair
• Handles stress better
• Overcomes the bumps in life their way
• More confidence about future
• More confidence in their ability to succeed
• Confidence in ability to come up with alternatives that would aid them despite the problems
• Human ingenuity
• Leadership competency
• Creative solutions
• Original ideas
• Control incoming stimuli to brain, blocking out distraction, increasing concentration

List any additional things you find.

"Business is creative. It's like painting. You start with a blank canvas. You can paint anything - anything - and there, right there is your first problem. For every good painting you might turn out, there are a zillion bad paintings just aching to drip off your brush. Scared? You should be. You start. You pick a colour. The next colour you choose has to work with the first colour. The third colour has to work with the first and the second. The fourth colour... You get the idea. You're committed now. You absolutely cannot stop. You've invested.... People in business who succeed have swallowed their fear and have set out to create something special, something to make a difference to people's lives.... What really matters is what you create." 

Richard Branson of Virgin America, Business Stripped Bare, pg 3