Tag: encouragement

Is Creativity a Solitary Sport?

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 16 Comments

With the start of the “New Year” (you know how I think — that the New Year starts every day you wake up, but still ….) I started thinking about 2023 and the creativity it will bring. MUST bring. New ideas, new inspirations, new directions.
Today I met one of my besties for breakfast. I always love seeing her, being with her, sharing with her. She’s at the point in her life where kids and her job take up all her time, which is pretty normal for this point in life.
On the other hand, I found myself pouring out some of my new ideas for Angel Tears, my blogs, and other artsy things I may or may not do during 2023. She offered to help me take photographs of my crafts so I can move into the Millennium and onto Etsy.
And I wondered.
Is creativity a solo trip?
Yes, you have to do the work; you have to do the research and the buying of equipment and you have to find the time and you have to stick with it.
You you you.
But isn’t it much more fun when you can share your excitement with others?
I used to belong to a Wisconsin writer’s group. I loved the energy shared by all the writers when we got together for conferences. It was palpable. Encouraging. I met great people there, and have kept one of them for my writing buddy bestie.
Your solitary excitement is important. Vital. But it’s awfully nice to have someone else encourage you, too.
I have another bestie I’ve been encouraging to write a book about a personal story that would knock the socks off of most readers. Another young bestie of mine, a high school graduate this year, wants to start blogging, and I’m there with her, giving her ideas, pointers, and encouragement. Two of my besties have a room they want to turn into their Creativity Shed. She Shed. I’m right there talking colors and shelving and places to sell their wares should they want to.
I get so excited about everyone else’s artistic dreams. I can’t help it.
Which is why I’m always asking about yours. I love to watch how you put together collages and knit sweaters and draw characters with big wide eyes and haircuts that match your personal hair style.
Have a friend teetering on the edge of entering the Arts? Encourage them. Fuss over them. Don’t worry if they don’t reciprocate your enthusiasm.
Art in any form starts with you. Ends with you.
But all that creativity and good vibes in the middle is good for everyone!

A Star is Form(ed)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 6 Comments

pastaI love watching  people “livin’ the dream.” Watching the Food Network’s last Food Network Star, that was a popular phrase shared by the contestants and mentors as well. And really — doing what you love doing, walking the hallowed halls of Food Network, past the gods and goddesses of cuisine, travelling to places like Caesar’s Palace and restaurants that offer $1,000 ice cream sundaes — how can you not be living someone’s dream?

Television is truly a dream all its own. I watched season 6 of Face Off, and one of the episodes sent the contestants to Japan. To Japan! Just to give the prosthetic makeup artists a little bit of inspiration?  They can inspire me like that any time they want.

Or Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen. Most of those contestants are animals from the start, but when they win challenges they do things like go sailing or have champagne lunch on the beach or, for the final competitors, a night in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. With a view!

I know I sound like I’m jealous — and I am. I know there are only a few that can rise to the top, creamy white and perfect. Some of it is luck, some of it talent, but a lot of it is throwing hangups and insecurities to the wind and just going for it. It’s using that innate talent that we all have and doing something with it, not being afraid to put it out there; not being afraid to fail.

I think I’ve always been afraid to put it out there because I’ve always been afraid to fail.

Our parents raise us as well as they can. Their hangups, their ignorance, seep into our growth whether we want it to or not. But their confidence, their dreams, their positive reinforcement seep into our growth as well. Cheering us on at soccer games, sitting and listening to us in choir concerts, marveling at our crayon drawings, all help us feel better about ourselves.

This is where our power as an adult comes from. Where it can be used for good or for evil.

I have always been what I consider a “nice  girl.” I was picked on through middle school, but I got passed it and moved along through boyfriends and job. Married and had kids. During my lonely days I kept a journal. I wrote stories. I aged. I role played, which was impromptu writing. I kept more journals. More stories. Poetry. More writing. My parents were good to me, but they never really encouraged me to follow my dream.  Maybe I should have gone to college and been an English or Writing major. But they didn’t have the money and I didn’t have the focus. To be honest, I don’t think a lot of us did that back then.

There are always a lot of winners and losers in the world. Only one person can become a Master Chef. Only one person can be the owner of the fanciest restaurant in San Francisco or Accountant of the Year.

But there are a lot of wonderful, brilliant, fun people at number two. Or three. Or seventeen. After we get over our jealousy of what others “get” (which…come on…we all feel…at least initially), we can can celebrate our love of our craft no matter where we are. We can encourage our kids and grandkids to go for what they want. What’s the worst that can happen? They don’t become number one? So what?

Parents have the power to make that okay, too.

That doesn’t mean we don’t teach our kids and grandkids to compete. The working world is still a working world, and you rarely get ahead by being cute or dressing like Beverly Hills. Most successful people know what they can and cannot do, and go after what they can do.  They work hard, play hard, and love hard, so when failure comes their way they have other outlets waiting for them.

I still would love to be one of the portraits hanging down the Food Network Studio Hallway, but my cooking skills would never stand up against those with more experience. No matter — I know a couple of kids who love to cook. Why not encourage them along the way? Encourage them to have fun while they hone their skills? For that matter, why not say something positive about someone’s poem or drawing or how well they hit a baseball? What have you got to lose?

I’m still working on putting myself out there creative-wise. What have I got to lose? Besides — I still have time to push J.K. Rowling off her throne and take her publishing crown.

Even if it is too small for this swollen head…